Leadership Training & Development

Would you like some practical leadership development that goes deep and really sticks? Would you like your managers to embody your organisation’s values, influence effectively and become inspiring leaders? Is leadership training that gives managers personal impact, presence and the ability to stay calm despite pressure and change important?

Embodied Management Training is an interactive leadership training method that teaches people how to lead authentically with presence, gravitas and charisma so that they get results. Research shows that 90% of communication is non-verbal and that emotional intelligence and personal impact are critical success factors, yet most leadership development does not address the body. Our executive and management training consists of some non-athletic physical practices relating to posture, breathing and movement, combined with traditional training, linguistics and emotional intelligence training. This truly transformational leadership training improves not just what managers know, but who they are and therefore the results they can achieve. This is training is for people who are cognitively intelligent and know the technical aspects of their jobs, and understand that this alone isn’t enough to really succeed. Integration Training is the European specialist in this area and we have worked with a wide range of clients over the last five years.

Embodied learning leadership workshops take 3-10 days in an office environment and are suitable for managers, executives and leaders of all levels. Shorter tasters can be arranged. All our leadership training is truly bespoke, designed around your needs and culture to go deep and stick. One-to-one embodied coaching is also available but we provide free open-course taster afternoons twice a year.

Embodied Training for Leaders – FAQ

What are some of the benefits of Embodied Management Training?

As all managers are primarily communicators this is a set of critical leadership skills that we work with, both in terms of getting things done day-to-day, and the deeply personal side of communication – inspiring people and building trust. Our promise is that your managers’ personal impact and influencing skills will be radically improved after studying the body and leadership with us. This work is truly transformation and lasts because of the high level of personal involvement and interaction in training. Our management development has a large range of other benefits depending depend your strengths and requirements. We bring about the following, leading to higher quality work and improved results:

Real inspirational leadership
Improved change management
Authentic leadership presence
Improved empathy and emotional intelligence
Improved personal impact
The ability to not only manage stress but thrive under pressure
Growth in confidence, assertiveness and also humility
Improved ability to “read” and assess others
An increased ability to coordinate as a part of a team. Including improvements in building trust, managing accountability, listening, avoiding corporate bullying and appreciating diversity

Is there any science to back this up?

Yes, lots. This is a summary of the science of embodiment. Professor Richard Wiseman’s book Rip It UP is also a good overview.

Is embodied learning about body language?

Yes and much more. “Body-being” would be more accurate a description of our executive management development as it’s about who someone is. We work at the level of managers’ characters as this is what gets results, rather than by teaching inauthentic gestures. (the key differences are here). We teach what people’s bodies reveal on a deeper level – known as body reading. “Physical intelligence” or “body intelligence” is another way of talking about the leadership skills we enhance as like emotional intelligence it’s an important but often undervalued way to be smart. We help managers shift how they are and who they are to raise their organisation’s performance.

Where does Embodied Management Training come from?

Embodied Management Training incorporates various sources from Western psychology and therapy, sports science and theatre; to Eastern martial arts and mindfulness practices. The field is sometimes called Embodied Leadership®, physical intelligence, embodied learning, embodiment or somatics. The Integration Training team have been trained by the modern day founders of this type of manager training. We acknowledge Dr Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Wendy Palmer, Dylan Newcomb and Dr Paul Linden as teachers, have been innovative in the field ourselves and are European leaders in this area.

Can you teach these skills to our in-house leadership development team?

Yes, we have worked with and mentored the HR and L&D teams within organisations a number of times to build their skills with embodied techniques. This can be used to enliven an established programme (we added an embodied element to an existing emotional intelligence course to make it more interactive and “sticky” with a financial services company for example) or create a new one.

Do you also offer more conventional management training?

As well as being the European specialists in embodied learning we also provide foundation management skills training.

Testimonials

Mark taught me a simple Awareness – Balance – Connection approach to centring when I was a stressed out manager in the public sector 5 years ago. I have used it daily ever since – it is a way a checking in with myself at the start of every day, and when I want to regain calm and focus. I can use it anywhere at anytime. It came into its own recently when I was caught in a 7.5 earthquake in China. Using ABC helped me connect with the trauma, and speed my recovery.

Below is the most comprehensive list of embodiment resources available online:

Embodied HR, Training & Leadership

How to be a good leader

Building Leadership Presence

How Posture is Embodied

What Toddlers Can Teach Adults

Centring video

How we lost our bodies

What is Your Body Saying?

Body Mind Basics

Body Mind Tools

A personal note from Integration Training’s Lead Trainer Mark Walsh on working with the body in business

“I love Embodied Management Training and embodied learning. I see daily how leadership skills not only makes a huge difference to people’s job performance but how it’s personally transformative…it has been for me! When asked what we do at Integration Training I sometimes say, “the human side of business” and both sides of this are important to me – getting the job done AND supporting the people who do it. My own background is in the field of non-governmental organisations and I’ve spent years training in embodied work abroad and field testing it in demanding locations such as conflict zones. The current financial climate is equally challenging and I see the present situation as necessitating exactly the kind of effective, centred leaders that we help forge.

Embodied Management Training is leading-edge work and I’m proud to be part of a team of management consultants at the forefront of this growing field. I get satisfaction from helping people become better at what they do and seeing managers grow as people – this stuff works! Embodied training is my passion and I look forward to hearing from you so that your organisation can benefit from learning in this way and enjoy doing it!”
Mark Walsh, Brighton/ London, UK