The Confident Leader Retreat
Have the presence for presentations, media, meetings and difficult situations.
Feel and be more confident, open and authentic, knowing the hidden secrets to your body and voice.
Are you a CEO, Executive or Senior Leader and find yourself thinking:
- “I can’t think”: feeling under pressure when all eyes are on you can mean that you’re trying to talk and think at the same time. Talking takes priority, and it can feel like you go blank and are clutching for any idea to help get through it.
- “I’m waffling and can’t stop”: When presenting, your voice can seem to take on a mind of its own. Your mind can feel like it’s just going around and around in circles, and you can see you’re not getting your point across succinctly and losing your audience’s attention.
- “I can’t get my voice heard”: When attending meetings, you feel like you’re the last to be heard. You don’t want to dominate the room, but you do have a message to get through and yet can’t seem to find it amongst the noise in the group.
- “I’ve lost my confidence”: Not being able to communicate and get your message through can be exhausting. Over time you realise you’re losing influence and, therefore, confidence.
- "No time to prepare“: Sometimes, you’re put on the spot and have to think on your feet. Getting your mind and voice to work in sync to get a message across under pressure can be a challenge that if it doesn’t go well, not only do you lose influence, but you feel like you lose credibility.
- “I could lose my job”: If I can’t influence, I can’t get results. This ultimately means that my KPI’s aren’t met.
- “Maybe I’m just not cut out for the position”: There’s so much communication involved in this role. As much as I know I can do the technical aspects; perhaps I’ve bitten off more than I can chew and am just not able to do the job.
If any of these sound like you, it’s time to elevate your Leadership Presence, Confidence and Influence.
We’re in a Crisis of Leadership
In the last 3 years, C-Suite Leaders have been under more pressure than ever. With the constant changes in how people work, including working from home, keeping people engaged at work means building trust and connection with them. In fact, according to Forbes Magazine, at any one time, 70% of people are disengaged at work.
Combined with the overwhelm of information and misinformation, business leaders have the constant challenge of redirecting the narrative. For community leaders and politicians, trust has eroded since 2020. In fact, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, in some countries, CEO credibility and trust is at an all-time low, including Japan (18 per cent) and France (22 per cent), making the challenge for CEO leaders even more acute as they try to address today’s problems.
As a result, teams, organisations and communities are looking for leaders to lead the way. With around 75% of people having “glossophobia”, a fear of public speaking, one of the biggest challenges for those leaders is to have the confidence to do this publicly and communicate with excellence.
The Confident Leader Journey
Level 1: Collapser
When a collapser speaks, they tend to allow their words to trail off and not finish sentences. Their voice loses its volume and pitch and often lose making their point. As a result, their audience loses connection and confidence in them as they often have to pick up the rest of the conversation. Most collapser’s aren’t aware that this is what is holding their communication back, and their confidence is deteriorating, so it’s about making them aware that this is happening and making a decision if they want it to change.
Level 2: Struggler
The struggler will often keep their volume and pitch low in their voice. They’re often afraid of saying the wrong thing and hoping that if they speak quietly enough, no one will notice. The irony is that it stands out more than ever for the wrong reasons. Once they have the right advice and steps in place, the next focus for them is to practice.
Level 3: Amateur
The amateur often has some variety in their ability to perform but aren’t using their body and voice intentionally or in a way that aligns with their message and audience. The next focus for them is to have pressure applied to them so they have the opportunity to use the skills in different contexts and so they can see the impact of their mind, body and voice on the audience and get their message through. The key insight for the amateur is that they don’t know what they don’t know. They think they’re good, but they still have some way to go.
Level 4: Intern
The intern often has the ability to use a broad range of skills to get their message across, but they haven’t had enough experience to use it all to improve. Their eyes are wider open; they’re like sponges and very keen to learn. At this level, it is about observing the master, operating from high to low pressure to see them in action and applying in practice themselves. Once they have achieved this level of skill, they are about 80% of the way on their journey to increasing their confidence.
Level 5: Professional
The professional is typically well versed in the skills to grow their confidence. They’re getting away with it every time, but they actually feel not as confident as they could. The only issue for them is that some situations can cause them to lose their self-belief, but the audience won’t know. They might be listening to the wrong people or beating themselves up a little too much when they are in face really effective communicators. At this level of their journey, they are at around 90% of the level of confidence. They just need reassurance that they’re on the right track. Things like going red, legs shaking and pitch variations and other irrelevant things may be putting them off, but in fact, the audience isn’t noticing them at all.
Level 6: Master
The master is focused on being exceptional. They know that you never achieve perfection, but they can keep learning to help them stay sharp and focus on continuous improvement to be the best communicator they can be. They surround themselves with masters of their craft, thrive on the challenge of communicating well and will even begin teaching other leaders to be more effective in their communication. Ah, Grasshopper!
Body: Whilst most think the voice drives what we say, it’s actually our body that has the greatest influence, first and foremost. Our body is driven by our emotions which are driven by our thinking. Once the body is clear on its job, the rest becomes easier!
Voice: Our voice’s range, tone, pitch and volume can tell an audience so many things that can either enforce or deplete a message. Identifying the right voice for your communication can completely change the audience’s perspective of you and your message.
Structure: Whilst it might look like the best speakers wing it, they actually don’t. They have a process and plan that serves them no matter whether they have seconds, minutes, hours, days or years to prepare for their presentation. The more structured they have, the more confidence they exude.
This program is ideal for you if:
- Motivated C-suite Executives who are prepared to invest in communication and looking for their edge
- Have a change need, for example, you have to suddenly go overseas to present, do media interviews, handle disgruntled shareholders or being nice to staff when not accustomed to doing it
- You are looking to show greater empathy in how you communicate and create a deeper connection with your audience
This program is not ideal for you if you:
- Are not open to change
- Don’t want to do the practice
- Are not prepared for feedback
You’ll walk away from the Confident Leader Retreat with:
- Skills, techniques and understanding of your body, voice and structure to create powerful influence as a leader
- Confidence to answer questions, get your message across and think on your feet
- Handle high-pressure media interviews, press conferences, town halls, shareholder meetings and difficult conversations
- Crisis Management presentations where you have to deliver under difficult circumstances and relentless pressure
The Retreat
In this 3-day and 2-night retreat, Dr Mahler offers theory and interaction-based around winning the hearts and minds of those around you with the following outcomes:
- Development of a diagnosis: Analysis of individual body, mind and voice patterns to instigate a program for ongoing long-term presence and influence improvement
- Understanding of the psychology of performance and audience engagement
- Unravelling the psychology of difficult situations
- Building the skills of body and voice that underpin interpersonal engagement
- Discovering processes for handling various leadership opportunities, including presentation, media, emotional face-to-face engagements
- Obtaining ‘Practice’ feedback
This retreat provides an outstanding executive development opportunity tailored for an intimate group who wishes to experience transformational growth. Numbers are strictly limited to allow for individual attention.
Retreat Sessions Include:
Managing Self & Others
- Diagnose your habitual patterns of engagement
- Take back control and build confidence
- Build a process of mind, body and voice that will work for you in all face to face engagements
Improving presentation skills for high stake engagement
- Concentrate on what is within your control and range of influence
- Learn a well-researched structure to allow for immediate success
- Present any content with originality and creativity
Build your stories
- Build a unique template for ongoing personal application
- Enhancing your ability to handle emotional/difficult questions
- Recognise your current response patterns
- Learn new processes for effective engagement for difficulty and feedback
- Analyse paralinguistics and nonverbal patterns that remove the flame from emotionally charged interactions
Media presentation & presence
- Build a process of preparation under stress
- Understand what fascinates audiences
- Have a process for delivering powerful messages
Managing performance anxiety
- Diagnose your level of anxiety
- Take back control
- Build a process of mind, body and voice that will work for you in all public appearances
Your Package Includes:
Small group engagement over 3 days
Retreat facilitated in the beautiful Gold Coast Imperial Hotel
Share your ideas, collaborate with like-minded business associates, and receive direct feedback
Learn and practice new skills and frameworks
Have a change experience on how you present
Delicious catering over the three days
Workbook and materials supporting workshop sessions
A copy of Louise’s book ‘Resonate’
Pre retreat and post retreat 1:1 discussion
Bonus 12 months access to “The Mahler Method”, Louise’s entire curriculum of over 100 online resources and tools (valued at $5000)
Date: Wednesday – Friday
17th-19th of April 2023
Imperial Hotel (previously Versace Hotel) Gold Coast
Early Bird $6500 +GST this rate will change to $8000+GST in March 2024
Testimonials
About Dr Louise Mahler
A rare breed as one of the world’s leading keynote speakers, Dr. Louise Mahler has been voted in the top experts in both Body Language and Communication globally. Highly qualified with multiple degrees and masters, Louise has a PhD in Business, focusing on Leadership Communication, and in 2023 was awarded the title of Adjunct Professor.
Obsessed with creating exceptional human connection, Louise helps leaders and teams to elevate their body language, voice and divulges the algorithms of engagement in highstakes engagement.
While her tools and techniques are useful, practical and highly relevant, she is best known on-stage and in the media for her in-themoment, deeply insightful analysis and hilarious impersonations of world leaders. Her skills in translating and articulating how leaders communicate creates a powerful world-class, incredibly engaging and interactive experience that delegates often say is “life-changing”.
Louise is a highly sought-after media figure and commentator. From analysing politicians during the federal election such as Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese to the royals such as Prince Harry and Meghan, her recent analysis of the Johnny Depp and Amber Herd trial attracted over 2 million views on YouTube, She is regularly interviewed on Sunrise, The Today Show, SBS, the ABC, and radio stations across Australia.
Louise also makes regular appearances on highly ranked prime-time TV with Hughesy We Have a Problem. Quoted in USA and British media, she is a weekly contributor to digital and print news throughout Australia. She recorded 36 videos for the Australian Financial Review and was chosen by IBM as a key creative source worldwide. She is the host of her own podcast POP: Perspectives on Performance featuring stories, tools and techniques of all performing arts and
their applicability to leadership.
Presence & Influence
Be heard in hostile environments
Telephone: 1300 097 616
Email: info@louisemahler.com.au
Interested in booking Louise for an event or enquiring about booking one of Louise’s programs?
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