Communication training for high-performing organisations.

We spend most of our working lives writing and speaking, yet so little thought is given to how we should do either.

Our Communicating for Results coaching is a one- or two-day course designed for managers wanting to hone their core written and verbal communication skills. We can show you how to quickly construct punchy written content, upon which senior executives and other stakeholders can make rapid decisions. And seamlessly translate that content into persuasive and memorable verbal communication. The course is highly experiential, focusing on ‘doing’ from the start. Delegates leave with instantly useable toolkits increasing their visibility at work, and techniques to help their audiences hear them.

Case study

One national infrastructure provider, where we’ve worked with more than 2000 managers, commented recently: ‘Communicating for Results with Laughton Scott continues to generate the best feedback of all of our extensive leadership offerings. Relevant, inspiring, insightful & educational, Communicating for Results equips our managers to become genuine leaders’.

While the raw material of corporate presentations can certainly be dry, we can help you engage your audience on an emotional level, and create an unforgettable core message.

To get the best out of your team, we assess your goals, along with each member’s presenting experience and skill level. We then develop both the style and substance of your presentation, identifying the techniques and content to best achieve your goals.

Research shows that 85% of business people build stronger, more meaningful business relationships in person.

However, for many people networking is not only very difficult, it is also dreaded.

Our coaching focuses on both our perceptions and attitudes to networking, followed by learning essential skills that will help us to connect with people effortlessly and productively in any situation. We use practical exercises and simulations as well as teaching fundamentals so that delegates leave brimming with innovative, practical tips and a newfound enthusiasm for networking.

Case study

We provide regular networking sessions for a large commercial business that relies heavily on its people bringing in new client leads. At the start of every session, we ask delegates by a show of hands if they enjoy networking. Only about one in fifteen people raise their hands. By the end of each session, the apprehension and fear have dissolved, and the participants all show a transformative change in how empowered they feel and how eager they are to apply these skills in the real world.

Fear of public speaking is a natural phobia.

The good news is that anyone can overcome nerves and master the art of public speaking: a skill that is empowering and valuable to almost every profession, social status or stage in life.

In just a day, you can transform your confidence and your performance. In our sessions we film you speaking and play it back to you. This can be a tough experience for many, but an enlightening one. It is an unparalleled tool allowing you to see yourself how others see you and assess your own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to public speaking. Delegates come out of the session with the right confidence, fluency and personal warmth that best represents themselves and their business.

If you have regular contact with clients, then meeting skills become more critical. Clients are the lifeblood of your business and need nurturing at every contact. We often see people taking a functional approach to client meetings.

In our highly experiential training, we work with you developing a strategy and the interpersonal skills essential for successful client meetings. We break this down into a step-by-step formula that participants can simply follow with plenty of practice on the day. Participants leave achieving a significant transformation which they can easily and consistently replicate back at the office.

Case study

A leading professional services firm found that their senior partners were technically brilliant in meetings but were falling short of the mark regarding managing the meeting process and cultivating close client relationships.

We ran a programme of successful meetings coaching, tailored for this specific audience, putting them through their paces with practical exercises and scenarios. In a short space of time, huge improvements were made, and partners have reported back feeling more confident and able to manage meetings successfully.

When you’re pitching for business, a minute might be worth millions. So we coach your pitch team with a simple aim – making sure that you win.

You can involve us from the very start of the process, or we can sit in on rehearsals to give constructive feedback on your ideas. Because winning a pitch is as much about style as content, we also help you select the right employees, and radically improve their presenting skills to create a confident, likeable, dynamic and engaging pitch team. We make sure that the pitch is correctly structured and paced, and that visual aids are neither over-used nor superfluous.

The cost of poor negotiation skills to the UK economy is estimated to be somewhere in the tens of billions every year.

Through practical exercises and role-play simulations, our training teaches delegates about planning and structuring negotiations, managing conflict and dealing with emotion among other things. But chiefly, delegates learn to use their knowledge and innate strengths to create value, not just meet their counterparts halfway and then claim they have achieved the maximum value.

Working with world-renowned negotiation expert Tim Cullen, and based on his highly acclaimed Oxford Programme on Negotiation at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University, you’ll learn techniques needed to reach advantageous agreements and recognise the value in fully understanding the motives and goals of counterparties.

Many teams fail to achieve their full potential, but it’s not usually for want of capable and experienced individuals. A collective lack of direction, motivation, leadership, values and, above all, trust can undermine a group of otherwise talented personalities.

We work with team leaders and entire teams. We help them to set values and vision and identify the unique skills within the group. We help them develop consistent behaviours that encourage respect, listening and support to build trust and get them to communicate authentically and honestly. Furthermore, we encourage teams to live and share their behaviours outside their immediate group so benefiting the broader company culture.

Effective press appearances are an essential spoke in the communications wheel, because they’re usually called for at times of crisis – or at least during critical turning points in the life of your business. The example of BP’s Tony Hayward, who famously told a reporter “I’d like my life back” after 11 of his employees had lost theirs, amply demonstrates the pitfalls of poor preparation and media mismanagement. We teach you the skills to broadcast a coherent, gaffe-free message to the public.

We’ll show you how to prepare for and take control of interviews, and how to handle awkward questions – you’ll take part in practice sessions with experienced journalists. You’ll learn how to distil your message into the sound bites a fast-moving news media demands.

Think of a top professional sportsman like Roger Federer. Have you ever considered how they became a number one? Is it because they were blessed with a phenomenal talent? Or is it also thanks to the person who pushed them to be the best, and provided the training and advice to improve their performance, the sports coach? Well, for business executives it’s not a sports coach, it’s a business mentor.

We may suggest advice, but we won’t try to fix your problems. We will discuss your business with you, and offer you alternative perspectives. It’s about empowering you to make your own decisions, it’s not about making them for you.

We will help you define your business strategy and develop an organisational structure that will ensure high performance and the results you want.

Every organisation is full of hidden speakers with unrivalled experience and a wealth of personal stories and anecdotes that could be hugely motivational. The challenge is identifying those individuals and giving them the skills to stand in front of large audiences and inspire them.

This one-day course is designed to do just that. We start by developing the delegates’ self-confidence and personal impact. We get them to share powerful personal stories, steering them away from formal and technical day-to-day work content. We look at relevance, making sure that everything they say is insightful and persuasive. With the use of the story wheel, a structure that steers them away from bullet-pointed lists, we help them create compelling narratives that not only engage the audience on an emotional level but have a clear, logical structure and message.

Case study

We worked with one delegate, Andrew, who had been asked to talk at a talent pool programme event for graduates about his hearing disability. Although he never let his disability hold him back, he was extremely nervous about public speaking.

We helped structure and deliver his speech and encouraged him to talk about his personal story. Such was the impact of that speech, Andrew was asked to speak at the annual finance conference to tell his personal story and the importance of diversity within the organisation in front of 300 people.

It’s become harder to get it right, but great business speakers have always been rare. This is because most speakers fall into the same trap: they talk too much about what they know, creating content that is too technical, too specific and not focused on the benefits to their audience.

There is a vital truth that all speakers should never forget: the vast majority of your audience will be pushed to remember more than one thing you have said 24 hours after your speech. The good news is that social media will probably latch onto your core message – but only if it is crystal clear. We help define that message; determine the outcome the speaker wants from the audience, and to engineer the speech to meet your goal and your audience’s interest.

You’ve seen the new young champion struggling through that first TV interview – raw, nervous, inarticulate, maybe chippy and aggressive too. But media training is only one of the soft-skill programmes necessary for rounding out the talents of a star performer of the field and track.

See how we make it happen, through careful scrutiny of your strengths and weaknesses as a presenter and a self-presenter. Editing your speech and manner, to engage emotionally with all groups. Using role-play and video to polish your performance, like a good actor. So, as your career diversifies, you can market yourself to the world with confidence and conviction.

Bad presentations waste time and opportunity; they are also avoidable.

This one-day course is designed to get the best out of teams and individuals. We assess your goals, along with each member’s presenting experience and skill level. We develop both the style and substance of your presentation, identifying the techniques and content to best achieve those goals.

Case study

A leading international consultancy, worried by an exodus of its brightest young talent, approached us for help. It realised it was asking its people to run before they could walk. Presenting at client briefing sessions, delivering updates at key meetings – are skills that need careful nurturing. Without proper training, these tasks were making graduates and junior executives anxious, and they were leaving the business because they simply couldn’t face presenting.

We tailored a programme of training for 300 delegates that not only enhanced their impact in presentations but also gave them a simple toolkit to construct powerful, story-based content that they could execute in five minutes. The feedback continues to be excellent, and nobody is leaving. Team confidence has rocketed while managers have also been impressed by their team’s persuasive content.

It is hugely frustrating deciphering content that can be expressed more simply and succinctly.

Our approach to business writing helps you, the writer, create objectives from which you can sculpt and prioritise your core messages while defining the right tone and style for your audience.

Case study

The CFO at one of our client organisations felt exasperated by the length and complexity of reports he was receiving.

We tailored a training course to provide delegates with the skills necessary to write punchy written content, upon which senior executives can make quick decisions. The results were spectacular. One senior manager having been on the course said that his reports used to be more than 15 pages long and always challenged; now they are no longer than three pages and always get approved.

People are often asked to deliver training because of their technical expertise in a particular area, but successfully training colleagues demands much more than that.

The coaching will show trainers how to design an effective and dynamic session, manage logistics, hone their delivery style, keep the group engaged and manage challenging dynamics – among other things.

Case study

A client in the transport industry asked us to deliver a series of Train the Trainer programmes for its in-house coaches who had many years’ experience giving technical skills training. While their technical knowledge was excellent, their core communication just wasn’t engaging colleagues. Despite being met with initial resistance from the in-house trainers, they quickly came on board and were keen to improve their training skills. They made significant improvements, and this is continuing to make a positive impact on the organisation’s programme of upskilling its employees.

Leaders often lack interpersonal skills that influence and persuade and lack an assertiveness that propels teams with direction and purpose.

The communication for leaders coaching is a one-day course designed for managers wanting to develop core communication skills. Delegates gain a clearer sense of how they come across under pressure, increasing their physical and vocal energy. Through experiential learning simulation, participants build their assertiveness while managing both challenging conversations and personality types.

Case study

A large UK bank wanted their area business managers to communicate more effectively both at external events – to help generate more clients – and internally with their teams – to help motivate them and to shape and deliver their strategic vision. We initially ran 5 sessions; the feedback was so positive the course has been rolled out to a further 150 managers as part of an accelerated leadership programme.

Warren Buffett’s famous warning that “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it” grows in significance as the years go by. Multiple and ‘always-on’ media channels mixed with increasing risks such as cybercrime and greater corporate transparency put the emphasis not on ‘if’ there is a reputation crisis, but ‘when’.

Our two-day workshop equips communication teams and business leaders with the right personal skills and organisational tools to prepare for and react to crises. We create a variety of scenarios with our delegates and look at: the chains of command, messaging, how to control external and internal communication channels, when to comment and correct spokesperson deployment.

Using these scenarios, we examine the roles of leaders in a crisis and work to enhance their capabilities as spokespeople. Filming our delegates interviewed under pressure we ensure they come out of the coaching with improved self-confidence, personal impact and leadership qualities critical to managing a crisis.

We also look at the three major issues determining an organisation’s exposure to reputational risk and examine how they can be mitigated.