HR Delve: Make Your Mark, an Executive Presence Workshop - in conversation with Susan Room

Key Takeaways from the event:

The Importance of empowering presence:  

The session began with Susan sharing her background and journey to becoming a successful business voice coach. She highlighted her experience of being one of the only women in the boardroom, her perception of the dis-ease within corporate life and the desire to change this. Susan explained her ‘make your mark’ methodology which encompasses the belief that having a confident, clear mindset and good body language can have a tangible and positive impact on your overall presence.  

Strategise your personal growth:  

Susan then opened the discussion to the audience and asked when people had last worked on their mindset and if so, the tips and tricks they can share to get on top of personal growth. There were a range of answers from journaling and mindfulness apps to physical exercise and chatting with friends. Susan offered her own advice of taking note of what your so-called inner critic is saying, recognise that to criticise is the human condition, and distance oneself from the negative comments. She also highlighted that by identifying what triggers us to have these thoughts, we can anticipate them and thus handle them in a healthy and effective way.  

Master your body language and vocal presence:  

The importance of managing tension through breathing techniques was underlined for achieving voice control and therefore conveying a composed and professional executive presence. Susan encouraged the audience to become familiar with where they might hold tension in order to work to release it. She noted ‘people with presence own their space and time’, suggesting that to know one’s own voice, one should check perceptions on unhealthy voice habits. By focusing on projecting a warm, but strong voice, you can achieve an aura of power and authority.  

Challenge the inner critic and embrace the inner coach:  

One of the main focuses of Susan’s workshop was the idea of the inner critic clouding one’s perspective and confidence. She stressed that by taking the time to understand your own voice, know your own boundaries and having a defined set of values, one can use the primary tool (the human voice) to silence the inner critic and instead give voice to the inner coach. As one attendee pointed out, HR professionals are often the doctors of corporate life and therefore inexperienced in taking their own advice and they should be looking at themselves as the role model with the right words and tone of voice. 

Find your authentic expression:  

Coupled with working on your own brand is finding your authentic voice and Susan spoke about opening up your vocal variety through speed, pitch, intonation, loudness and tone in order to sincerely connect with yourself and others. The room then opened up for questions and comments and some spoke of their own challenges, for example finding the correct and most sensitive way of speaking with and coaching neurodivergent people. 

Thank you to Susan Room for delivering such an engaging workshop which inspired an interesting discussion and looked into how using one’s voice can elevate executive presence. Another huge thank you to our and to our HR Delve community for attending and participating on this thought-provoking topic.