Legrand - Women Learning to Take Up Space

Desiree Webster is a Marketing Communications Manager at Legrand, a global electrical infrastructure company. She brought me in to address the challenges facing women executives there: nervousness speaking in front of groups, lack of not employing confident body language, and how best to deal with interruptions while speaking.

At Legrand, I used an exercise from my years as an actor. Whenever I would play the character of a king, I had to take on the physical attributes because taking up space was a big part of that character. In the workshop, I asked the women to extend their hands out, walk around the room and repeat in a declarative voice, “This is my space!” as if they were indeed the King, Queen, or CEO.

On the surface this seems a bit ridiculous, but the actual practice of taking up space confidently is fundamental to building a sense of authority.

Many of the women at Legrand approached me afterwards and talked of how the training, and this physical exercise helped them bypass their self- doubts and transform them not only into feeling more confident, but more visible and powerful in their roles.

If you’re interested in helping everyone in your organization reach their fullest “rock star” potential, contact me to design a program geared to the specific needs and criteria of your participants. To start, please review our Workshops and Seminars. I look forward to hearing from you!