Early last month I gave a keynote speech at a major American bank in London.

It was called: ‘Courage in Times of Change: What Actors Know about Building Ensemble.'

I presented it twice - once to a live audience in the bank’s headquarters in Canary Wharf - live-streamed to Europe, Africa, and Asia, then in the afternoon as a zoom call for people in Europe and the Americas.

About 2000 people attended in person or online.

I’d like to pretend it was just a normal day at work for me, but that would be a lie.

I don’t much hang out in the corridors of corporate power, with multi-million pound art works on the walls, and marble floors to walk on.

I’m more often in my studio, painting and talking to people who wander in, or sitting on the floor in a primary school classroom doing foolish things with children who have not yet learned to fear foolishness.

Yet I was not nervous that day, visiting the upper floors of a gleaming temple of power and wealth.

Partly because I knew what I was talking about. The work on the deep levels of connectedness between people - how to build impassioned teams that sustain over time - is very familiar to me. I’ve spent thirty years researching, doing and writing about it.

Also though, I have another area of knowledge I trust deeply. It came up when a member of the audience after the live presentation asked: ‘What is the single most important skill I need to develop to grow my resilience and connectedness?'.

My answer is simple: ‘Presence’.

The prerequisite to any kind of contact with another person, and to the ability to find the best response to any situation, is to be fully, fearlessly and non-judgementally present with yourself, others and the environment you’re in.

Everything else follows from that.

I’d love to share my insights more widely (and if you know of any organisation that might be interested, drop me a line). However, my self-image is not tied to my doing so.

I am present with a schoolchild, a painting, a visitor to my studio, a tree, my cat - just as much as I am with a room of senior executives. In presence I continually re-encounter the joy of being alive.

That’s its own reward.

#presence#courage#keynote#teambuilding#humanresources