All the world is a stage

Well, hello, everyone. I am sitting in a very rainy, almost wanting to snow Brighton. Um, and, uh, I’m really excited about our conversation today. Over the last little while, you would, well, you might have noticed that I’ve been posting and talking a lot about the influence of art, creativity. Um, on both work and life. And today, I have a really special guest with me. And our conversation is going to be around, um, well, the provocative title, Do we all need to be actors in the workplace? And I’m really looking forward to exploring that.

But why don’t we ask my guest to introduce himself. So over to you. Hello, good morning. Good morning from a cold Oxfordshire. um, it snows here, uh, and I’m delighted to be here. Thank you for inviting me on, um, to talk to you. My name is Jotham. Anan, uh, I am a consultant, coach, facilitator, and an actor. So, um, I come here today to talk to you about acting, acting. In the workplace, acting in our personal lives, what is acting? What does it mean to be an actor?

Are we all actors, really? Um, my personal experience with acting stems from childhood. I loved performing as a child. I was exposed to literature, um, through school, through, you know, the books on my shelf at home. And from that, those very early years, it progressed to, uh, working as a professional actor. Uh, as a young child, um, I then went on to the Royal Academy. And studied in the UK, uh, which. Opened up the world of acting to me yet again. Um, to performance working internationally. And subsequently, I then went into coaching and kind of sharing with people in the corporate sector.

You know, transferable skills, you know, what are the transferable skills from acting that can be advantageous, um, in the workplace, in a corporate setting. So, yeah, that’s a little bit of me. So, um, all the world’s stage came to mind when I, when I was listening to you there for a second. And also, as far as the Royal Academy is concerned, I think one of the best, like, executive development. Activities I ever did was to do a, um, you probably might not hear it today, because I’m not sounding and doing all the right things I should be doing, but it was a one on one programme on or series of sessions on Public and executive leadership speaking.

And I think that was, that was so powerful, which, um, and it did touch on this piece, the piece around acting. But I love how you said, acting and world and life, and, you know, as I said, that made me think about all the worlds of stage. So, I think if we Put this title on LinkedIn as a title for our podcast. Some people might be thinking we’re being inauthentic. We all need to be actors in the workplace. And I can hear the voices going, yeah, but what about authenticity?

So why don’t you tell us what you mean? With Like you’ve just said there. Hm. Yeah, that’s a, a really good point, and it, it touches on a question that I’m often asked in the workplace. And it’s a, it’s a great starting point, you know, what is acting? And a good way to start off with it, uh, a good definition. Is to repeat a quote from Meisner, Stanford Meisner, who was a a very well known uh theatre practitioner. An acting coach, and he talked about acting. Is acting truthfully in imaginary circumstances.

So if you speak to a classically trained actor or a professionally trained actor, we actually come from the perspective of acting is actually real, it’s truth, you know, when we access emotions, we’re not, we’re not, they’re not false, um, they are real, and it’s the circumstances that we are in. That are imagined, you know, the stage, the setting, you know, are we in the 15th century, are we in the future? Where are we? You know, that’s the script, that’s the, you know, that’s the writer, that’s the director, that’s the costumes, all that is, you know, fabricated, but the actors are, are being truthful.

I love that. Close to truthful as possible. So I think that is a really good way in for somebody who is, uh, a public personality, you know, public profile, whether or not that’s a leader, uh, um, a manager, you know, do consider thinking, acting as being genuine and real, um. I think, I think that’s a good starting point. I don’t know how that sounds to you. No, I love that. OK. But are you then, so I like the distinction between the acting, being real, and the circumstances we find ourselves in, and that could, let’s think about work for a second or, um, you know, in a work situation.

That that is, because it is, it’s ever-changing. But are we saying it’s that’s not real? Are we saying that the circumstances we have to show up as an actor isn’t real, or is that a mindset we need to have? So what we are saying, so what I would be arguing or putting forward to somebody that was kind of challenging me about what acting is, I spoke to somebody about this yesterday and they said well. You know, when I’m in the workplace, it’s real, it’s unguarded, and we, we agreed that, you know, the workplace can be unpredictable, there are lots of different er forces at play.

Um, and his argument was that, you know, in the workplace, yeah, I’m unguarded, I don’t know what’s happening, but when I’m acting, where are the scenarios where you need to be a good actor? Yeah, so tell us a little bit more about that. So I would argue that you know, the scenarios where you need to be a good actor are, are continuous. I think it’s about creating a harmony, you know, thinking about acting not as a false state. I, I think we all, you know, we all act in our daily daily lives, you know, I think we all have to, you know, that we talk about masks, you know, we all different masks, and I think a lot of the time when I’m helping somebody with their presentation skills or their public speaking.

Um, it’s about letting go of some of the masks that they carry. Yeah, and accessing some of their authenticity. So I often say to people, you know, I coach people across a range of sectors, uh, a range of, uh, experience, you know, from, you know, C-suite down to graduates, you know, down, you know, across to middle management. And I often say, OK, look, I’m not really interested in what you do, actually, right now, I will be, we can come to that, but just to start off with.

Tell me a joke. Tell me a story. Oh, that’s the worst I have to tell you a joke. But it’s a good one. It breaks down boundaries immediately, doesn’t it? Yeah, it forces you to reconnect with yourself. Yeah. I find that a lot of people, and it’s great, I love that response that you’re giving me, no, I don’t, I don’t like telling jokes. In fact, I know I’m I’m terrible at telling jokes, but I’m, I’m pretty good at. I guess articulating how I’m feeling or thinking in the present moment.

And acting is that’s really important, and that’s what acting is, would you say? Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s, it’s, it’s about, we spend a lot of time focusing on presence. Mm. Um, still. What, what, what, what about people who don’t like, like, acting is not for everyone, right? And there might be, um, it might not come natural to everyone. So if I listen to your story, you, it’s been, it’s almost kind of been in your blood from a young age, and you had an affinity for it. But what do we do with people who, who don’t feel that it’s something natural for them or don’t have an affinity with them?

Mm. What do we do for those people that don’t feel it’s natural to them? Yeah, yeah. There’s, there’s lots you can do. That’s the first thing I would say is there’s lots you can do with those that feel that it’s, it’s not them. um, because actually what you do is in the same way that, you know, we’re often told that everybody has a story, you know, everybody has a bit inside them or everybody can sing. I think with acting, I would start off by just finding stillness with the individual.

And actually saying, look, let’s shed away, let’s work on it’s a lot of the time it’s about unlearning, bad habits. It’s about, you know, reassessing how you walk into a room or how you introduce yourself. And a lot of the time we do things out of habit. So, in that scenario that I’ve been in before where I’ve had people say to me, look, I don’t want to be an actor. In fact, actually, I genuinely can think of a client that I recently worked with who. Categorically said, look, I do not want to do acting training.

You know, they were, um, a finance director, um, quite introverted, and adamant that they did not need any acting coaching. After 6 months, um, working together, you know, on a monthly basis, she shared with me really openly that the transformation had been incredible and actually the acting element. Was actually one of the largest pieces, the most significant pieces of her transformation. So What I would say to someone who says, you know what, I can’t do it. I don’t, it doesn’t feel right to me, I would find the stillness.

I would find the moments in that person where they can just be and leave themselves alone. So actually people associate acting with, I don’t know, the greats, you know, the Oscars, the dresses, the outfits, the, you know, the, the spectacle, and actually a lot of fine actors. Actually distance themselves from that. A lot of all the actors that I respect, and they can stillness and they can find truth, truth in, in the smallest moments. Uh, and I think the person who is a finance director or an IT salesperson or a fixed income whiz kid.

Sometimes needs to find the stillness. OK, what, who are you if we remove your CV if we remove your latest, you know, win, who are you just as a person in the room? Because at the end of the day, from my perspective, I think. I engage with people, you know, and. And I think people respond to people. I think we’re all, you know, we are human beings, you know, beyond our titles, uh, and our achievements, and I think in the workplace. We need to be, you know?

Yeah, I think. I mean it’s acting entity, right? Because all who we essentially are. And someone actually said to me yesterday, we were having a difficult conversation about some someone else who was really challenging, and She pointed out, we’re all human at the end of the day. And if we come from that point or perspective, that’s how we can meaningfully connect, right? Forget all the other noise and things that are going on. But that, that’s our real connection point. And I guess that’s how we also then drive authenticity.

Mm. Why would you say, though, um, I mean, if we look at our, the, the, what’s going to be the title of our podcast. So, I’m assuming you’re answering yes. Do we all need to be good actors in the workplace? And I guess the emphasis is on good. We’re not saying we all need to be actors, because I think we were saying we all need to be actors. That’s when inauthenticity could potentially come. But are you therefore saying, yes, we all need to be good actors? And can you give me some examples of how that can manifest itself, or the impact it can have if we are actually all good actors?

Yes. Yes, I think the emphasis is on the good and what is good. And you know, what is the definition of acting, so we’ve explored, you know, the context, you know. Oh, kind of the wider breadth, you know, it’s, it’s being truthful, but I think if you break that down into finer finer parts, um, I would include active listening. You really being able to engage and actively listen to the person in the room or the people in the room, how do you engage and listen? I would include understanding and knowing your audience and engaging with your audience, and I think the time.

People don’t, I think people can focus on themselves primarily. I do. That’s so true. And I think if you can be the leader. Or the employee or the manager that can actually focus on the other, that can really open up or that can actually be a a great way in. So I think acting. As a term, could be, could make people, uh, misdirect, right? It could kind of actually send you into spectacle, you know, into performance mode. But actually, I think it’s actually primarily about understanding your audience, who are you engaging with at any given time.

You know, I think we talk a lot about. You know, or people often talk about, you know, um. When this person walks into the room, they make you feel like you’re the only person there. Have you heard that, you know, we’ve all heard that expression, right? So that, what are they doing there? They are focusing on the other person. And actually, in doing that, they are actually then making themselves look. Wonderful, you know, admirable, so it actually serves its goal, you know, you actually end up looking like a better um person by focusing on the other.

So I think those would be the two main elements for me. Actively listening and focusing on your audience, which I think anybody can do well. But I think you know, you need to know how to do that. And so if I’m reflecting back, I think again, you, you make me think of so many things, and you make me think of some examples of great leaders who are actually one, yes, the one, they make you feel as if you’re the only person in the room, but they’re actually to a point around stillness and listening.

I find Some of the most powerful leaders I’ve worked with are not the ones that necessarily say a lot. They listen first, create the space for everybody else to speak, and then step in. So I think that that’s also just a quick reminder of, um, something you might have forgotten. So. So what, what is your view? And we always do about 20 minutes. I can see we’re, we can go on for a long time, but, but we also need to, we need to respect everybody’s, um, attention span.

And, um, so in conclusion, You know, what would you say if people can’t work with you necessarily, or haven’t met you, or haven’t had a coach like this? What are some of the tiny things we can start trying to do as leaders? Um, To become a bit better or to become, to take those first steps in terms of becoming a good actor at work. And even if we’re not a anybody, right? We just want great colleague relationships or, you know, connections with customers, better connections. What are some of the things that we could do?

Just easy 333 things. A few little, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. It’s a, it’s it’s a lovely question to be um. To be given to answer, it’s something that I really enjoy doing. OK, you know, for the, in respect of the time, let me uh give you some. Overview I’m I’m also thinking about your response that you gave me around kind of lead it’s, you know, it’s such a fascinating topic, I think, you know what makes somebody, um. Impactful, you know, what is leadership, you know, um, and there’s so many different settings for it, but let me be focused and, and, and respond to you.

No, no, no, but feel free. I squeeze out a little bit more. So if you wanna add before you answer my question, please feel free. Um, I, well, I think it’s just, I think it’s just I think it’s expanding on that sense of, you know, What What you come away with when you, you know, you’re in the presence of fine leadership. And what, what feelings and emotions you are left with, and I think it, I think it just, it, it lends itself to that that theory that we.

How do you, for people out there, for leaders, employees, anybody, I encourage people to think about how do you make the other person feel? You know, I often ask that to my clients, you know, OK, great, you’ve got your fantastic broad presentation or your wonderful pitch, but have you thought about? How you want people to feel about you on an emotional level at the end, you know, I often say to people, and this can be one of the takeaways actually takeaways quite nice, you know. Choose 3, let’s keep it simple, choose 3 characteristics. 1.

How do you want to be seen? adjectives, you know, and then think about how do you actually embody that using your voice or your presence or your physical expression, because you can’t be everything to everybody. And if you don’t define for yourself how you want to come across, people will make it up for you. And I think that is a huge error of judgement that sometimes people make is that they just think that their work will speak for themselves and they forget, and this is going perhaps into too much detail for now, but I think people can forget that we are sentient beings, so we, we will also form impressions based on.

Your tone of voice, or how well you make eye contact, or, you know, or how well you listen to what someone else says to you and how you respond. Um, so, but let me come back to those, those three little takeaways. Um, let’s say we’ve got, I don’t know, a couple of people listening who are thinking, right, OK, well, you know, I’ve got a meeting, you know, in 20 minutes, how do I be more impactful or present myself in a better way? Yeah. Hm. There is so much.

There is so much in this area. And, and I think what really is so powerful and what you’ve said is, it’s not about you. It’s because you want to get your message across, but it’s about how you make those that you people that you’re going to be interacting with feel And say about you once you’ve left, right? I, I don’t know. There, there’s something for me that even in speaking to you a few times, because I’m probably a bit impatient, and I interrupt you, and then, so the thing that struck me is like, be still.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, stillness and, and I to kind of follow on from that, observe, be an observer, learn to observe and actually. You know, let’s start with then one point. I would say learn to observe and wholly observe yourself and those around you. I think we can be very quick to judge ourselves. So I think unlearning, like recognising your habits, good, I mean, life is to some degree habit, right, isn’t it? It’s kind of breaking, breaking the bad habits and learning the good ones and like reinforcing the good ones and I think when it comes to uh personal interaction.

I think we can all be quite habitual, you know, just do it how we’ve always done it. Or we can neglect it because we’re focused on, you know, as I say. Our external achievements. So I would totally wholeheartedly agree with you that stillness is important. The breath, now these are, this can sound quite esoteric, but I think the breath, the breathing, learning to, you find stillness in the body and find stillness in the breath. And learn to be an observer, because if I, if I’m working with someone.

In the early stages, I asked people to kind of. Start to To kind of watch again. How do you walk into a room? How do you order a coffee? How do you speak to people? Because basically the basis on which the basis on which you order your coffee with the barista actually how you communicate with the, you know. So true. The board director. So um. Yeah. So true. So true. Well, listen, I absolutely enjoyed this. There’s clearly a lot more that we can speak about. And if anybody wants to get in touch with you, what is the easiest way to do that?

So the best way to get in touch with me is um via my website at www.armatos. org uh or email me at Jotham, which is spelled J O T H A M at Armatos.org. And Armatos is A R M A T O S, meaning to armour oneself. Oh, yes. Wonderful. Well, thank you very much again. And um yeah, let, let’s carry on the conversation some other time. That would be fantastic. It’s been a delight. Thank you. Bye-bye.