MCIN Stories from the Field
1. Chu Hua, a Chinese woman and senior manger, felt her only obstacle to partnership was to improve her English. Even though she has strong verbal skills, facilitates meetings with ease, and presents content well, she expressed doubts in herself and told her MCIN coach that her performance reviews always state that her English is deficient.
In evaluating her skills, we found that Chu Hua’s communication challenges were not much different than those of her native-speaking colleagues. She gets anxious in high-pressure situations such as client interactions and hates speaking on camera. But she is a terrific learner and practiced how to create impact, connection, and engagement. Further, she learned to tell exciting and entertaining stories as a part of her narrative. In the end, her communication challenges had little to do with English and far more to do with leadership development. Now that she understands this nuance, she is helping others in her organization recognize that leadership is not only about language competency. It takes two to tango and everyone has responsibility to ensure clarity.
Chu Hua is a high-energy leader who needed someone to validate that her skills are strong, and that she has everything she needs to continue to advance in her career. Today, she is a partner at her firm.
2. Koichi, a young Japanese gentleman, felt that his English was a lost cause. In our MCIN program, Speaking with Impact, he rated himself below average in every communication category. He lost all confidence when presenting in front of native-speaking colleagues because he felt he would lose credibility. However, he learned to recognize his strengths and built his communication skills around them. First, he speaks clearly (even though he had been told to take accent reduction programs). Second, his positive attitude and good-natured personality translates very well in front of a group. He has stage presence.
He learned to connect his content to his audience and embraced fundamental public-speaking techniques. Diligently, he practiced performance exercises to help him gain confidence in real-time situations. In front of a small group of colleagues, Koichi delivered several presentations in the MCIN course. In his last presentation, he had the audience feeding out of his hand. He is both light-hearted, well prepared, and not thrown off by challenges. He adopted a learning plan to become a stronger communicator. Now he looks forward to presenting.
3. Katerina, a Russian woman and manager, was prepared to resign from her company because she was so intimidated by working in English. In one of our stakeholder interviews, her manager described her as a talented performer who was very hard on herself. The first lesson in her MCIN coaching package, Katerina learned that her strong Russian accent does not mean “poor English.” Her grammar and vocabulary are impeccable, and she learned to leverage that to enhance her clarity of expression. Further, we encouraged her to focus more on her audience than on her shortcomings. The strategy worked. By practicing performance exercises, she implemented the tips and techniques to engage and connect her audience in real-time situations. She is now a senior manager and has gained confidence in her career.
4. Raphael, a Mexican manager, has no fear of public speaking and has overcome the stigma what some consider to be his “heavy accent” in English. His super power includes a robust range of expression and a charming personality.
His challenge, on the other hand, is being long-winded. Simply put, he uses too many words. We have found this to be a characteristic of many professionals working in English as a second language. They don’t trust that the message is relayed properly the first time. Asked if this was also a problem in Spanish, Raphael’s short answer was “no.” Thus, he needed to gain confidence that his English explanations were good enough the first time. He had to keep in mind that his audience is intelligent and gets the message the first time. Raphael learned to package concise messages. He has the potential to be a “star” public speaker and made great strides during this MCIN coaching sessions.