How to read the room, speak with confidence, and sell your ideas (with Roberta Ndlela)

If you want to learn how to present information to school boards, administration, or other leadership or land more speaking engagements, you won’t want to miss this episode! Reading the room is an essential life skill, whether we’re talking about a child navigating recess, or an adult trying to navigate the workplace.For kids, this skill will impact their ability to succeed academically and make friends.For an adult, it not only impacts their relationships, but their ability to get a job, keep the job, and be successful in that job.That’s why I invited communication and public speaking expert Roberta Ndlela to the “De Facto Leaders” podcast to talk about how to navigate different cultures, work settings, and be a more effective speaker, presenter, leader and team member. Roberta hails from the Zulu tribe in South Africa, whose foundation is ‘Ubuntu’, which means HUMANITY - ‘I am because you are’.Throughout her corporate career spanning over 15 years as a Transportation Economist and Manager, she realized that technical skills can only take you so far. She spent a decade teaching English in South Korea, where she discovered the major role played by culture in the workplace. She came to the US in early 2020 intending to visit a friend, and ended up staying due to the pandemic. That led to her starting the “Speaking and Communicating” Podcast in order to share her professional and cultural experiences with professionals.Currently, Roberta offers support for professionals who want to communicate more effectively with their teams and be more compelling public speakers. If you’re doing speaking engagements or looking for ways to network and grow your business, I highly recommend reaching out to her. She’s offering a free consultation for “De Facto Leaders” listeners, and you can learn how to take advantage of this special bonus at the end of the episode.In this conversation, she shares:✅How she transitioned from working in South Africa to South Korea, including how she grew to understand the culture and attain career success as an English teacher.✅Some examples of cultural differences in the countries she’s worked; including the social hierarchy and how it impacts communication.✅How subject-matter experts can communicate with leadership, sell their ideas, and present technical information in a more compelling way. Roberta is offering a free one-hour 1:1 consult, which is a no-brainer for you if you want to improve your networking skills, learn how to present information to your leadership in a compelling way, or get better at public speaking.To take advantage of this exclusive bonus for De Facto Leaders listeners, connect with Roberta on Instagram @coachandspeaker and send her a message that says “De Facto Leaders”.You can also listen to the Speaking and Communicating podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_GzEL5dlnfWw6MTdjYsE7QYou can connect with Roberta on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberta-ndlela-93774121/In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program for related service providers who want to take a leadership role in implementing executive functioning support. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/efleadership Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:Learn more about Renaissance:As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.