105. Voice for Facilitation

If you run meetings or workshops or training - your voice is the tool of the trade! In this episode I chat to experienced international self-titled facili-trainer Leanne Hughes about how to take care of your voice, control anxiety when things go wrong and create magical, memorable experiences for people and their companies (forget boring corporate workshops!)

Transcript

Welcome back to That Voice Podcast. My guest today is a very talented facilitator and look, that's an understatement. Her name is Leanne Hughes. Leanne is against the boring corporate workshop and she really inspired me to up my workshop game and try to create an experience people will really remember and feel. If you have a team and you'd like me to come in and inspire them to use their voice and speak with confidence, there's a form on my website. I'll link to it in the show notes and all my workshops are 100% bespoke. So I always create something perfect for your team. And yes, you'll see some of Leanne's tips in action. So in today's episode, we talk about the importance of being confident in your voice for facilitation and all its variations. You know, you might not think of yourself as a facilitator. It is a tongue twister— facilitator, but chances are you do some facilitating in your life. And Leanne shares lots of practical tips to have confidence to make your next workshop or team meeting or conversation more memorable. And I'm proud to call this amazing woman, my friend. Let's jump in!

Sally:

Leanne Hughes. Welcome to That Voice Podcast. So great to have you here!

Leanne:

Sally, I love talking to you. I'm so happy we get to record this as well, so I can listen back.

Sally:

Yeah, amazing. So as an introduction, let us know the magical work that you do.

Leanne:

Oh gosh. Magical. Actually, to be honest, I love that word magical. I love bringing magic into the workplace and into workplace experiences, whether it's workshops or just driving a magical type of culture where people have fun, but get results. I think the word magic, that's quite attractive. Something I'm working on at the moment, Sally is something called charismatic change. So creating a movement that is like effortless, but that lasts. So, yeah, I mean, as you know, we go on many walks together and depends on the day of the week where I tell you, you know what I'm up to, but at the moment that's, that's what I'm doing.

Sally:

Charismatic change. I love that. I just finished reading a book called the Charisma Myth.

Leanne:

Charisma, for me, yeah. It's all about you want to be like attracted, you're attracted to the idea or the initiative as opposed to most companies that sort of push things down and go look now change. I think it's, we gotta work around the opposite. So I'd love to hear your debrief of that book.

Sally:

Yeah. It's highly recommended. So you work with a lot of, I guess, what you'd call corporate facilitators. And do you find that there is a real tendency to be stuck in what it means to be a corporate facilitator and what corporate workshops mean?

Leanne:

Yeah. Well, I mean, I hosted podcast called First Time Facilitator. It just sort of ended it around 200 episodes. And when I already talked to guests on that show, I also sort of asked them, you know, “What was your career path? Did you set out trying to be a facilitator?” and no one answers that. Like no one resonates with that term at all? No one wakes up as a six year old going, "When I grow up, I wanna be a facilitator!" But they're usually attracted to sharing that they love like knowledge and growth. They like helping groups perform and hear voices in the room. Yeah. I think that's what it's all about. And I think the word facilitator unfortunately, can be pretty, it's not very inclusive cuz people don't recognize it's actually rather than a role, it's a skill. And we can talk more about that.

Sally:

I love that. Well, first of all, it's pretty hard to say. I'm a speech coach and facilitator. I was practicing that before I got on today's podcast! Facilitator, facilitator, facilitator. It's a bit of a tongue twister. But you know, I'd love to dive into that now. If somebody's listening, going well, I'm not even a facilitator at all. Let's broaden it out. What does it actually mean to facilitate? I love that term. That it's not a role. It's a skill.

Leanne:

Yeah. It's a verb. You know, if we being semantic about it, I'd say, I'd say it's more of a verb. Because at any time that I'm in a conversation with two or more people, I feel like I'm using some of my facilitation skills. So the ability to listen, the ability to pay attention to where the conversation is going. And it really depends on the range of facilitation, cuz there's kind of like a spectrum here. On one end, there's facilitating on the other end there's training. And I guess if I was to really be quite specific around what I do, feel like I'm a bit of a "facilitrainer" because I come in I'm sharing ideas. So for example, when I first left corporate in 2019, I was running a lot of frontline leadership courses and rather than going in and explaining leadership, I mean I was working with people in India that had run multimillion dollar construction projects. Who was I to teach them about leadership?

Leanne:

So the approach that I took was more sharing models, but facilitating group conversations where people felt like they could relate to the content, share their stories and their expertise. And that really relies on this trust that the group has the knowledge. And a lot of where I'm sort of, when I look at learning nowadays, I'm in a mastermind at the moment, I'm getting a lot of growth out of it because we are sharing stories, reflecting on ideas, but no one's actually there teaching content. So I think that's probably for your listeners to think about is, okay. Am I a subject matter expert running training? How can I then do this in a way which builds on the expertise that I've got in the room? And I think you'd find then you actually, it's actually a form of like lazy facilitation. And that really helped me grow as a facilitator when I didn't think that it all had to be on me. But the recognition that yeah, two or more people, you are essentially facilitating a conversation. You're bringing in the voices. And I know Sally's what you talk about a lot is, the importance of sharing your voice and as our role as facilitators, it's helping people feel comfortable to share their voice in a group setting.

Sally:

Oh, you're so right. I really fall and maybe still do a little bit into that trap of being the trainer. Like I love getting up in front of the room being like, "Ah, just do this and do that and do this!" And I feel like sometimes I'm a little performing monkey.

Leanne:

That's fine. That's fine, Like the context dictates what your role should be. Sometimes, I'm the same.

Sally:

You are so right. The most effective workshops and I've been doing it for a while now, so I've really gotten into it, is when you can just create that environment where every person can stand up and talk where every person can share what their mindset blocks are. And I've found that through the feedback. When you have feedback saying "Sally created an environment or everybody felt able", Like that's the goal. And I that's been a real shift that I've gone through as well from teaching to holding space.

Leanne:

And I think I fell through sort of a similar trap back in 2012 when I was running my first-ever workshop. And Sally, you should have seen my run sheet. It was like from 10:11 to 10:12, like share this slide and talk to these points. Like, no wonder I was so nervous. I mean who's to remember that, it was very stilted, very orchestrated, it wasn't natural. But we all go through that learning curve. And nowadays I think my goal is when I'm in a room is that I can leave it. Like I can leave for five minutes. I come back and there's even more energy and power in the conversation. And it's hard to get people to come back to talk again. Like that's when I know, I know my job is being done.

Sally:

Oh, I love that. And you've worked with some of the biggest companies in the world. You've done some really exciting facilitation work. In that time. Have you felt the pressure on your voice?

Leanne:

Yes. Oh, particularly when traveling. And that's why I decided to sign up to your Six Week Makeover a couple of years ago, Sally, was because well even when we had this whole COVID hit and I was just on back to back webinars and it's usually when there's an extended period of time that I have to be up in front of a room with these workshops that you were talking about. These are five-day workshops. Some days I'm delivering I think there was one, seven or eight days in a row, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. You know, during the breaks, you kind of wanna just have a cup of tea and relax, but people are coming up to you and you're having to engage as well. It's in terms of the physicality it's quite high. And what I didn't recognize, I thought the voice was just something I wasn't really thinking about it.

Leanne:

I just thought, "Oh yep. Focus on my content, creating the energy." But after, you know, day two or day three, it's scratchy, it's hoarse. It's your number one tool of communication when you're delivering a workshop. So yeah, I think for me it was like getting the voice to last. I went to Hong Kong in 2019 and I really had to slow down. So if you're listening to this podcast, you can detect the speed of my voice with my accent, with particularly with participants that had English as a second language. I really need to slow down and took a lot of work. I can slow down when I focus on it. But my default is like, I speak at 1.5 times, anyone else in terms of pace.

Sally:

Oh, I hear you. That's something that I've had to work on as well. And also Australian colloquialisms. I had a heart attack recently, because mom was like, "I listen to your podcasts, honey. It's speaking far too fast and I've always had this. My speech and drama teacher would always say, "Slow down, take your pauses." So I'm like, "Oh gosh, mom, I've been working on making this easy to understand." Anyway, of course it worked out. She'd actually accidentally hit the two times button. So she was listening to it on two times speed. I'm like, "Oh good. Not me." But yeah, I love that. So what, what did you do when on day two of the workshop, your voice is going on, you everyone's coming up to, in the breaks. How did you look after it?

Leanne:

Oh gosh. Well, I wish I had learned from you then, but I was taking so rather than preventative strategies, which is what you talk about in terms of controlling your breath. You can't really pick that up when you need it. You need. That's the insurance policy I can use now. But so what was I doing? I was just looking at all the hacks, really Sally. I was, you know, water, I wasn't drinking dairy in the morning. I knew that was was sort of constricting the throat. I actually had to force myself to talk less, which actually created more of a facilitated experience. I relied on visuals, activities a lot more. And the good thing about Asia as well. I don't, this is quite rare. Australia is to walk into a hotel function room and they have a microphone and speakers. In Asia and India that's supplied as part of it. So you have a speaker, you've got a microphone and I definitely relied on those.

Sally:

Yeah. That's so helpful. I'd always encourage people to use a microphone if it's offered. There's often a fear around microphones. You'll see on panels. People get offered the microphone and be like, "Oh no, no, no, I don't need it." If it's offered, take it. Because the number one thing is being able to be heard. And it's much gentler on the voice as well. And you can use a lot more vocal variation. Like if you're in front of a room with no microphone, you find you just you in projection mode, but with a microphone, you can really bring it back down. So yeah, love that, Leanne. And this is a chance to remind everybody to take a microphone if it's offered. Oh, I love that. And what about the controlling nerves? I know you've done some high stakes facilitation. How do you go walking to that room? Like the boss you are and just claim that space when you're feeling like, "Whoa, there's some big wigs around you"

Leanne:

Oh, it still comes back to haunt me. There was actually a gig I did two years ago and hilariously, cause I've got an Apple Watch. I was sitting on a panel and it was about to start. And my Apple Watch signal that my heart rate was racing, but I was stationary. And it was like a heart, like, you know, that signal you get when your heart is pumping so fast. So that happened and I was like, come on, like, "Come on, Leanne!" Like "Get it together!" So I self-talk, I think is important. What you're actually telling yourself. I know you mention a lot is reframing it from being nervous, to being excited. I find that very helpful. XXXX James, I think I shared this quote with you on one of our walks, but the thing that really shifted for me is, well, what is my purpose?

Leanne:

And what I love to know is that people in that workshop, they all wanna have a great experience. No one wants me to be a XXXX I've got that support, but also my role is to get them to have a great experience. So I just put my focus on them. And the quote is, "When you stand in service, you can't be nervous." And that really just gets me out of my ego and all it all about, you know, being about me. And I think that's why sometimes I find it more comfortable taking that facilitative approach because I'm moving the spotlight away from me and shining it on them. So that really helps the nerves.

Sally:

When you stand in service, you can't be nervous. How have I never heard that? That is absolute gold! And so true. It's not everyone looking at you, it's you looking at everybody? Oh, I love that. And you work with lots of facilitators. You've got a great Facebook page with hundreds of facilitators there, and you've worked with them over the years, through your course as well. Leanne's got a fantastic course called Booked out Facilitator. So if you're wanting to book five workshops for everyone, then get on it. With all of your students, or clients, or friends, what do you see when it comes to blocks around that confidence and voice piece?

Leanne:

I think it starts with the internal dialogue. So some of the questions I see are, are questions related to like, how can I do this? But it's more sort of prefaced. Like I don't think that I could, so how do you? So what I find really interesting is the preface before the question, like, I don't think I can run a creative workshop. Like how do you do it? And so again, back to mindset, which then impacts behavior, you've spoken about this so much. So I think the block is, "Who am I?" And the block that I had as well, "Who am I to be in front of a room delivering this?" And I had that, the reason I started my Podcast was in 2017, I was flown to Canada to run a workshop. It was the first leadership workshop I'd ever run for this company, 30 male mining supervisors in the room.

Leanne:

I'm jetlagged. I have no idea what I'm doing. Like, oh gosh, it was really tough. And so the block for me was what kind of really got in my way of delivering good experience. And I got through it and got some good feedback, but I could have done a lot better was, I'm not a minor like, who am I? It was that, who am I to be doing this? And I think I've moved the role of expertise from, instead of being like the subject matter expert. It's, "I'm an expert in the group process. I'm the expert in creating exceptional group conversations and getting results for people." And that's where I move it to. So I think the block is, what we spoke about earlier is we think that we're the teacher, and as a result, we have to know everything. As opposed to guess what, I don't know everything, and that's fine, but we have what we need in this room. And let's share that.

Sally:

Yeah. I love that. I really XXXX into that when I was a spokesperson for urban utilities, so water and sewage company. And of course, as a spokesperson, when I'm speaking about a burst water main or something like that, or a big water project, I am not the lead engineer on the project. I'm not the subject matter expert in how it all works, but I'm the expert in how to get that message across to the media. The expert in how to turn this amazing technical information into something really exciting for the 6:00 PM news. Like that. That's the skillset. And that's what I also teach in media training that the speaking to the media is the skillset in itself.

Leanne:

Yes.

Sally:

Yeah. I really, really like that. So for anyone listening, who is leading a meeting or facilitating, you'd be able to relate to this often the subject matter experts are the worst at doing that.

Leanne:

Yeah. And that's it. And that's why people are so bored. I mean, cause usually when you get an SME you'll see a PowerPoint you just be lectured to and you don't have a chance to share your opinion. And so that's the beauty of this approach. It's quite refreshing and relaxing. And also just one more block Sally wanted to talk about, cause it's a big one that you probably see posted every couple of weeks on the flip chart. It's just dealing with the unpredictability, the unpredictability of a workshop. So the second you get people having a conversation or engaging, there's every opportunity for things to not go the way that you intended. And I think that's probably the biggest fear as well is like, well, "What if it goes this way? How do I bring it back on track? How do I not lose the atmosphere? What do I do next?"

Sally:

What's been the most unpredictable thing that's ever happened in a workshop with you?

Leanne:

Oh, it was back in that Canadian experience where one of the supervisors just refused to participate in an activity and he was quite influential. So we basically had three people, it was a run a pre-start talk. So we taught them how to, you know, create the materials and, and jump up. And he just wasn't comfortable. So he didn't, he's like, and so, you know, folded arms, "I'm not doing it!" And I couldn't get him up. So I wasn't going to argue with him in front of everyone. So I moved to the next person. I said, oh, would you like to come up? And he said, "No." Right? So it was quickly like derailing, but in the space of 30 seconds, it had gone from participation to like, "What do I do now?" And so that was probably the biggest, that's why I saw the Podcast.

Leanne:

Cause I got back to Australia and I rang up all my facilitator friends and said, "What would you have done?" Got a lot of good advice. The lucky thing that I'd done. And again, talking about preventative action was beginning of the workshop, talked about, you know, getting uncomfortable and how we learned and all that sort of stuff. And it was on a flip chart and luckily I could refer back to that. And then I got someone to jump up and then, you know, we brought it back up again. So that behavior element piece, yeah, that was really tough. It was unpredictable. It, you, the mood shifted so dramatically. My stomach was outta my mouth.

Sally:

Yeah. I can imagine. I I'm kind of used to that because public speaking workshops, people, usually. Well, I try to kind of say there's no public speaking, cuz if I do at the start that Chan people disappear during the lunch break. So I need to kinda create, create that. It's not like that. I create a very, very warm environment where everybody, everybody does get up. I've never had the situation. Oh no, I have, I have had a couple of situations where people haven't got up, but I think the you'd agree with me here. When stuff goes wrong, that immediate reaction, like your body temperature can rise and you feel the kind of hairs on your arm and you can go, oh. Like this is not what I expected.

Leanne:

Yes.

Sally:

Yeah. And that's why I try similar to you not to get too tied to the run sheet or too tied to the slides. And often I'll like take a seat at the table with people and well, the good thing at what I do as well with voice production is I can always throw a breathing exercise in. So it's kinda like my go to, if everything goes bad. I'm like, "Well, I need to hella breathe. So let's all breathe together." Right? Into the diaphragm. Nice. Slow breath out. So it's as helpful for me as it is for everybody else. But yeah, it's about being, I hate that word, agile. It's such a buzzword, isn't it? But it really is about being able to be responsive. I think with facilitation, if you are like to be in control of everything, it's never gonna work, is it?

Leanne:

No. And that's the difference between, like a question I ask myself is, you know, "When are you not a first time facilitator? Like when do you graduate onto something else?" My personal definition is you actually feel comfortable in the amiguity and you thrive on the ambiguity. I think that is it as opposed to I'm in control and everything else. And like you Sal, I've had situations where yeah, the heart rates up, I've had groups where they were talking about things. They felt it was at a surface level. They wanted to get like deeper. And so I had nothing in the gender-related to that, but we just, you know, got the chairs and circles and talked it through. And I'll have to grab one of your breathing exercises. I think that's the perfect intervention actually to change the mood within the room is by doing that. But also back to being a lazy facilitator is saying the responsibility isn't on me to solve this for you as a group. How can we work through this? And so having a couple of processes in the background or in your back pocket is helpful as well.

Sally:

Yeah. Being comfortable in the ambiguity, Leanne, you're coming out with so many great one liners. I love this. And I think that would be true for any type of speaking. You know, it's true for whether you're doing webinars. You know, the tech always goes wrong or any kind of public speaking where something could happen in the audience or could have a wardrobe malfunction or really anything. So a technique I like to use is rather than fear the what ifs, "What if they don't get up and talk? What if they're a really hostile, what if my shirt comes undone?" You know, rather than in the, the What ifs you prepare for the When I's. So it's kind of like, it's that real proactive. Okay. When nobody gets up to speak, we're going to go to this exercise. When my voice starts going on me, I'm gonna go to this video when you know, and so you, you become really in control of you're doing when you go into it.

Leanne:

Yeah. And that's it. And the more experience you get, unfortunately, you don't develop all these When's because you don't know when's of like what can possibly happen. And then you're like start collecting, "Okay, this could happen or this could happen. And then you think, okay, well the next time I've got it."

Sally:

Yeah. Amazing! So what would be your top tips to making a boring corporate workshop more of a memorable experience?

Leanne:

Probably my go-to for doing that Sal is I'll actually do is something called a reversing assumptions activity on myself and the situation. So what I typically do tend to do is map out a workshop and the old, like the traditional way of running a workshop which is people come in, they sit down, they face a PowerPoint, the facilitator comes up, does housekeeping, you know, like, that's the old school way of doing it. And that's what people expect. So the good news for anyone listening is that the brand of workshops is not very strong. People are still being hit by workshops that don't teach 'em anything, aren't very valuable, perceive as a waste of time. So that's a good thing. Then what I do is I map all of that out, like the whole experience for workshop. And then I see what can I flip or do differently?

Leanne:

Sometimes I'll start a workshop before it's actually started. Right? So when the second someone comes in, that's the start. Or the video I send the day before is setting the tone for what this is all about. So creating sort of a bit of anticipation certainty around it, having activities that kick off while people are filtering through, making sure the coffee's good. Just like just trying to map and find out areas of where we can switch it around. Then to keep the attention going over like a day it's using different mediums. So not relying on all flip charts or all PowerPoint, but mixing it up. You said before Sal, you use breathing activities, then you will show a video. Then you might have a slide or a flip chart or an activity, and it's sequencing it through the day. So that nothing becomes too predictable. And that's how I tend to run it. And it's pretty simple. It's a good structure, but I can use it for any type of workshop, that kind of framework.

Sally:

Yeah, love it. I Patrick, my boyfriend got me these adventure cards for my birthday. It was just like a deck with all different adventures that you could do. And I'm like, yes, this is workshop gold. So now I have them all on a table, not for every workshop, but I've used it a couple times. And when somebody walks in, I say, "Okay, I'd love you to grab a card of something you've done. And then something you'd like to do." And it's been a really great way to get the conversation started and then use as an icebreaker. So rather than the whole, "Oh, just introduce yourself." I'm like, "All right, let us know what what's the activity you've done. And then what's the one you'd like to do." And that's just came because of a little novelty gift that I got for my birthday. So I really love that. And Leanne, you've taught me that to really think outside the box to start preparing something and go, "Oh, actually, how can I do this differently? What can I try?" So it's fun. And you're like me, like I get bored if I'm delivering the same stuff anyway, every time it keeps it interesting for you.

Leanne:

Yeah. There's some facilitators that love just honing what they do. But I, and we probably could because we're not getting the same people at all about different workshops, but I'm like you. I just wanna keep getting better, improving, trying things that are different, seeing what occurs as a result. And I find actually social media's quite good. You talked about the card game, but anytime I see a question on Facebook or LinkedIn, that gets a good response and good engagement, I think, "Ooh, that'd be a good question to break the ice with the group." So I'm always sort of on the lookout for ideas in the real world, which then can be brought into the workshop environment.

Sally:

Love that. Was there anything else you wanted to add?

Leanne:

No. Anyone that's listening to the show, I think first of all, good on you because Sally is an awesome person to take advice from what it comes to presenting and building your presence. I think if you are interested in building your facilitation skills or being in front of groups and working on those group dynamics, just remember that to shift the focus from yourself and to the purpose of what the group is after. And it's not all about the skills and the knowledge, it's about creating an experience. So I think that's where we get the memorability and then can book out more workshops as a result.

Sally:

Fantastic. And to create that experience, you've gotta bring the tools of the trade to the table. And one of the biggest tools is your voice. So I know you've done My Six Week Voice Makeover. How did you find it? And what would you say to anybody thinking about doing it?

Leanne:

So Sal when I did it, there were probably two reasons. One was I needed to get better at using my voice. And as I said, making it last. Also, I host a podcast so I found your tools around projection and deep breathing very helpful. The second reason is to see the way that you deliver and think about what can I borrow from what Sally's doing to make my workshops and presentations unforgettable as well. And it doesn't feel like a course, Sal, it just feels like this. I don't like Netflix show that you think, but I'm actually learning from this too. It's fun. It's not laboursome at all. It's like joyful kind of effortless learning. So that's what I took away from that is, you can make training what we spoke about before really quite fun and effortless. And the activities that you delivered through the program as well are also relevant. So keep it up!

Sally:

Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. So if anybody listening, I don't have any slides. So when I do the live master classes, it's just half an hour straight to camera. And the reason I do that is because I'm trying to demonstrate a lot of the techniques that we are learning in the course, and to show that that it's really about that connection that you can make. So that's amazing. Oh, and Leanne, can people get in touch with you?

Leanne:

Yeah, sure. So LinkedIn is great. Sally and I connected on LinkedIn. Website is leannehughes.com. And if you want more facilitation tips, you can listen to my podcast. It's at firsttimefacilitator.com.

Sally:

Amazing Leanne, thank you so much for coming on the show!

Leanne:

Sal, love chatting to you. Thank you.

Sally:

Leanne is just amazing. Isn't she? And of course, I'd encourage you to connect with her. If you'd like to join My Six Week Voice Makeover and learn my step by step process to make an impact every time you speak and get a little bit of a Netflix show, as Leanne mentioned, then get on the wait list. I'll link to it. In the show notes. We start Feb 27th with our welcome party. I will also link to a free video training I've put together to outline Three ways you're sabotaging your speaking - without even realising! Because of course, before you learn what to do, you want to be aware of what not to do. It's only eight minutes out of your day. It's well worth a watch. In those eight minutes, you could learn something that will completely change the game for your speaking confidence. So check it out. Have a fabulous, fabulous day! Sending good vibes to you all. And I'll be back on the podcast waves next week. Bye!

Sally Prosser