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Ulrike Seminati is a communication executive, coach and author who empowers her clients to lead authentically and with charisma. Prior to starting her own company in 2019, she worked in corporate communications for over 20 years in the auto, life science and pharma industry. She designed award-winning global engagement programs and successfully implemented numerous leadership, change and corporate culture initiatives. However, she often felt that the benefit was not as sustainable as it could have been.
Today, she combines some of the most effective self-development techniques with her own experience to give leaders tools to communicate with charisma, lead with authenticity and arrive in a zone of lasting high performance and happiness.
A Long and almost despair journey
Ulrike has been working in the corporate world for 23 years, and has worked a lot to develop leadership, which has a lot to do with communication. Each and every time she realized in all these years that most leaders really struggle with communication. For them, communications is an annoying piece of their daily job. And despite she was was also managing and organizing leadership trainings around enhancing communication skills, shaping their message, it just did’t seem to work.
So three years ago she decided she had to do something about it. Ulrike stepped out of the corporate world and shaped her own business with personal development techniques and coaching techniques.
The goal was that people actually change their inner game and realize who they truly are, what kind of leader they are and based on that develop their own and better way of communication.
Impactful Communication. What is that?
When talking about communicating with impact, it takes more than acquiring solid communication and presentation skills, wich of course are basic, but it also takes charisma. That is what Ulrike calls communication “from the inside out.”
To become inspiring and charismatic leaders that take people on their journey because they speak from their innermost convictions, embrace who they really are, and thus stand in their full power.
Being a leader with Impact
A leader has to hold the team together and needs to be able to convey a certain presence, a certain motivation, a certain emotion. And to do this, the leader has to be very clear around the goals of the team, their priorities.
For this in our actual context a leader needs to be able to communicate with people in a way that can really be inclusive with those who are on a screen and with those who are sitting in the same room.
This is going to be a challenge because that is far more difficult having them split between physical presence and online presence.
How to achieve impactful communications
There are three main points you can develop to become an impactful leader:
Authenticity vs Perfection. The business world is full of perfectionism. Do a perfect job, bring excellence, no mistakes, etc. But people is not perfect. So this point is about self-awareness. You need to understand what inner voice you have. Understand your own paradigm and go beyond it to truly reach your listeners.
Listening. Impactful communication is not about sending your message. It’s about first of all, receiving a message. You need to be interested to be interesting. Learn to really understanding what the other is saying and a simple way is by asking if you understood it right (rephrasing).
Doing vs being. This one is about being clear of how you feel and who you are instead of being orientated around the doing. Is very related with being authentic in order to discover your own way to spread your message and to inspire and motivate. The goal is that people can truly connect with you.
Related: Dress up your Confidence
Favorite quotation
“Reach out for the moon because if you miss it, you will land with the stars.”
Recommended book
Become the Real Deal: The Proven Path to Influence and Executive Presence by Connie Dieken
Routine to Shine
Ulrike recommends “Paraphrase what you hear” as an exercise. When somebody says something, you repeat “What I heard from you is …” and then you say what you heard.
The best oportunities are when somebody has a complex sentence, you rephrase it “What I heard from you is …” and then you will see how the conversation goes. This will make a change and it’s very simple.
In case you are in a grupal conversation it’s recommended to try this only with one person or you may lose the track of what you hear.
Links
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