David was stunned. He interrupted the session to tell me. I had just come back to the main room of a virtual training session with 20 Interns and 4 ETS Trainers. I was about to give the final talk when he jumped in.
This time of year is Intern Season at ETS. Throughout the year we coach all levels, from individual contributors up to the most senior level executives. Toward the end of summer, we start getting groups of Interns. They’re college students doing Internships at a variety of large corporations.
They’re unbelievably smart. Interns work on serious projects that are often implemented, broadly adopted and produce meaningful ROI. A large percent of them go on to become employees after college.
It’s a great experience for college Interns because it’s the real world and, instead of sitting endlessly in classrooms, they get to actually spread their wings and fly. And it’s wonderful for the corporation because they get to test out whether this person would be a valuable employee. It’s a fabulous way to recruit great new talent.
The Interns work on their projects all summer, and then at the very end, they each have to give a big presentation to a panel of executives. They talk about why they chose that project, what they did and results, the potential impact on the business if their work is broadly adopted, and recommendations for going forward. In other words, no difference between this and a real business case presentation.
Where we come in is to give them a crash course on how to present to executives. We love working with Interns. They’re super eager to learn, mega motivated. They learn fast. They have a good time. It’s a crazy amount of fun.
The training is super successful, and afterward we often have executives comment, “Why are these Interns presenting better than a lot of our experienced leaders?”
This is the power of good coaching. The way the training is structured is that I give a lecture in the main room and then the Interns go into small group breakout sessions for personal coaching with ETS trainers. They get coached on everything from their Camera Presence, communicating with confidence, to being poised and compelling. Then we all come back to the main session for the final wrap-up.
Dave, the Program Manager for one of our recent Intern groups, was gob smacked when they came back to the main room. He jumped in, speaking straight to the Interns: “I just have to say, this is absolutely amazing! I saw your camera presence and the way all of you were showing up before you went into your breakouts. I’ve been seeing it all summer. And now suddenly, when you all showed up right now, the difference in how you’re showing up is stunning. You all look really incredible. To see all of you showing up this way as a group is amazing.”
He was right about the remarkable difference. When we started the session, they were too dark, sitting too far from the camera, at weird angles, looking down at the faces on the screen making them look like they were fixated on their keyboard, afraid to look into the camera, awkward.
But now …
Each of the Interns had adjusted their lighting and were well lit, no shadows on their fabulous faces which were shining. They knew exactly where to sit in relation to the camera, they were sitting close enough and they were filling the screen. It gave them tremendous presence. Their poise and presence was remarkable. They looked like serious young executives, but radiant with personality. They really showed up.
Dave was right. Seeing it as a whole group was almost overwhelming. So good. Stunning.
And it doesn’t stop there. When they start to speak, it’s pretty amazing. I am so proud of all of them. Their presentations are coming up and I am grinning with anticipation. They’re confident, and they’re going to hit it out of the park. The execs are going to be blown away.
In their success stories Interns wrote they’re so happy to have these skills and plan to use them for the rest of their lives.
Happy sigh. I love Intern Season.
In case you’re interested in the points we coach them on for Camera Presence, here is the Camera Presence PDF that will walk you through step-by-step for your own camera presence.
“Showing up” means you stop hiding. It means you come out of the shadows for everyone to see. Not only will this create a good feeling in you, it will create that same feeling in your audience. If you are truly committed to creating extraordinary outcomes, “showing up” is the very first step.
Be the cause!