Communications Skills Training!

The main slide of our 1-minute presentation (Screen captures c/o The Daily Beast)

I'm seriously amazed at the quality of lecturers we have here at IE. In the previous weeks, I've had a professional basketball star teach us about teamwork, an ex-Marines-turned-Olympic-medalist-turned-corporate-professional-turned-Harvard professor (whose professional life is the most re-printed Harvard Business Review case on record) teach us about living a positive life, and an inspiring and accomplished mountain climber to teach us about reaching our goals.

These past two days, I took this class on Communications Skills... and who better to teach us than someone from CNN! Seriously~ CNN!

Lola Martinez was the weather anchor at CNN's office
in Atlanta, Georgia (Photo c/o cnnfans.org)

My professor for this course is Lola Martinez, who is an excellent, excellent communicator. In addition to her job at CNN, she also trains CEOs on how to communicate publicly (imagine how much she's paid just to personally coach them!).

She really practices every single thing she preaches and I find myself really glued to her lectures. She knows how to engage her audiences and keep the entire session interesting...non stop. Her presentation slides are beautifully crafted, neat and simple. I especially appreciate as well all these tips, tricks and techniques (which they practice at CNN) she shared with us.

In class we were taught how body language plays a crucial role in communicating. And it's quite cool that during these sessions, she asks for volunteers. And... well, imagine getting feedback from a pro! I actually volunteered together with another classmate. We were both asked to try to convince our classmates to watch a certain movie (we weren't allowed to say what movie it was). I received good feedback on my mini "performance". How validating! lol

We were also tasked to identify good communicators and make a presentation out of it. Our group chose Hilary Clinton (see top image for reference). We actually watched a bunch of her speeches on YouTube and identified key characteristics that made her an excellent communicator. We then put together these nice photos of her and put together a pretty neat slide deck.

Jungmin receiving plenty of positive feedback after her amazing theatrical performance! 

Of all the presentations that day, the one that stood out the most was Jungmin's group. Jungmin is my classmate from Korea. She previously worked in the HR department of LG. If you meet her, she seems very reserved, shy and extremely quiet. For us, it was a surprise to learn that she was presenting for her group.

What she did earlier today took us all by surprise! She did a major theatrical performance and it paid off. Her actions, timing and voice complemented her performance. We were all blown away. After she finished her 1-min presentation, she actually tried to briefly run away because she was so shy. But of course, what ensued after was minutes upon minutes of praise of how well she did.

During the break, I learned from one of her group mates that she actually volunteered to present. This told me a lot... I guess it was her way of overcoming being too reserved and she took the opportunity to do something different. I've heard that MBAs help people transform their lives. I was especially happy to know that this was a platform for her to do so (and well, the overwhelming response from everyone was indeed encouraging). Today was a good day, in my opinion :)