Lee Glickstein on Relational Presence

This morning, Lee Glickstein spoke on Relational Presence and integrated some practical exercises. Here is a summary:

Presenting is about speaking out into the world about what you are passionate about. It is simple when you get what relational presence is all about. We can be more effective if we can remember to come from oneness.

We speak in the North from a sense of separation. The illusion is that we are separate from our audience. However, Indigenous people have been raised to communicate implicitly, from the Unity of the whole. They have no self consciousness. They do not question the assumption that they already belong to the tribe of humanity. Consequently they are always in what we call relational presence.

We can be very effective when we are relationally present. We softly listen for where people are longing to belong and reach into it. When we speak by connecting into our core, sharing from a deep place without separation, we naturally reframe our thinking in terms of belonging. By considering the aspect of belonging in the audience, we will dissolve any anxiety we have about speaking.

Relational presence is a muscle. We can develop it so that it seems like we are with one person at a time. Remembering that the Earth is involved in our presentation, will help us resonate with others. Grounding into that connection will bring us down, down, down, down into common ground with others. Then we can embrace ever larger pockets of energy, increasing the circle of energy we stand within. Rather than horizontally sweeping the room with eye contact, as most people do, we need to remember to be present and available to the energy vortices in the room. It is about speaking with the crowd …not at…not too.

We need to get out of our heads with our charts, graphs, presentations, CD’s, DVD’s, agenda, etc. At first when you practice relational presence, you may not be able to think and speak at the same time. It might take a long time to come. But if we remember that our heart is listening too, we focus on engagement. As we move and get into our intuition, wisdom, body, connecting to the energy coming from people, we start to move energy into the room. As we practice, it gets easier. Start facilitating audience listening by telling a personal story. Let them know what is being brought to them in terms of hopes and wishes.

So we can see it is about creating ever widening circles of energy, intentionally broadening the circle as we engage from relational presence. We need to know our script in advance so our bodies can be a signal that we are available, staying connected much as we did as toddlers. We can easily connect to people one by one from the center of the very large energy circle we create simply by being present. We learned how to do this in the exercises given.

Lee gives has a book called, “Be Heard Now! His web site is at www.speakingcircles.com