How acting lessons from the professionals can help Manchester businesses develop and thrive

Drama school RADA is famous the world over, counting the likes of Maxine Peake, Michael Sheen, Sophie Okonedo, Sean Bean, Taron Egerton and Coronation Street’s Julia Goulding among its high-profile graduates.

Using their experience of acting training, RADA Business has coached senior business leaders from some of the world’s largest and most successful companies on how the application of acting techniques can improve their performance in the workplace.

Now, they’re set to launch a series of leadership and public speaking courses, and courses designed for women in business, in Manchester.

RADA Business will launch its training at HOME on First Street, and will run a range of courses from October 2018 onwards in a bid to train the city’s business talent in the art of communication, public speaking and leadership.

“Manchester was one of the first regional locations for RADA’s acting auditions more than 25 years ago, and we have recently started to bring our technical production recruitment here too – so we couldn’t think of a better city in which to launch our RADA Business regional expansion,” said Kevin Chapman, director of RADA Business.

“Manchester is a hub of business excellence with so many large companies now choosing to relocate here – it felt like the natural choice.”

RADA Business, which launched in 2001, offers an extensive programme of courses and in-house training, working with over 7000 delegates every year, in over 30 countries worldwide.

Their tutors, who have a background in the performing arts and a wide range of experience, have trained many of the world’s most inspiring business leaders in the art of communication.

The Manchester courses will include some of the organisation’s most successful one and two-day courses: Presenting Made Brilliant, Personal Impact, Storytelling for Business, Impact and Influence for Women, and Personal Impact in Meetings.

Presenting Made Brilliant is a practical course that takes the focus away from what you present and instead focuses on how you present, using the techniques used to train actors for stage. It covers how to make an entrance, how to use your breath to calm nerves, and how to use your voice to interest, influence and inspire.

Using role-playing scenarios with professional actors, the Impact and Influence for Women course aims to explore the power of physicality, voice and language to equip female delegates with the skills, impact and influence to drive towards the next stage of their career.

“As a business and a training provider, we have diversified our portfolio to include a pioneering three-tier programme for women that we’ve been running for over two years, helping them to overcome specific challenges faced by women in business,” said Kevin.

Places are limited to eight delegates per course to provide those taking part with a personal experience and a high level of individual attention and feedback to help participants transform their communication style.

Open courses for individuals take place in small groups, and tailored training programmes are available for companies. The courses are designed to suit the needs of everyone who might benefit from communication and leadership training, no matter their age, industry or career stage.

“Last year we launched a specialist three-day course for experienced leaders and are now extending this to a two-tier programme for team leaders at different stages of their career,” said Kevin.

“We believe organisations work best when everyone has a voice. By giving people the skills to get themselves heard, our training helps both individuals and organisations to thrive.”

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