Your interpersonal communication trainer
An interpersonal communication trainer in Toulouse, Peter Lake presents his career path to help you better understand his professional development.
My beginnings in music
Back in the 80’s as a young professional trumpet player and brass band conductor l lived in St Andrews, Scotland. Not always easy as a “Sassenach” (what the Scottish call the English) to adapt to life north of the border, especially as Margaret Thatcher, prime minister at the time, was closing down all the mines! How could I win them over?
Then a mining town brass band needed a conductor to help them start winning competitions. I applied for the job and they took me on. This was my opportunity! After 3 months, the band won it’s first competition in years and I was definitively adopted as a Scotsman!
After that, we won a lot but we also lost a few times, even if the preparation had been the same. Why was that ? I wondered.
My arrival in France
Moving to Toulouse, France, in 1992, I started teaching English and observed the same phenomena. Again, why ? And, above all, how can one make a group or individual performance consistently good? I decided to become a bilingual communication trainer and facilitator in communication and kept on searching for an answer.
Relational presence
Then I found it, in 2003… In Holland ! An approach called Relational Presence. What is Relational Presence? It’s mindfulness in communication. The ability to be fully present in the here and now when interacting with others. Connected to yourself while still being available to connect with the other.
So, how can relational presence improve individual and group performance? Google carried out a survey over many years to find out what made a consistently successful group, and the number one factor is “psychological safety”. When Individuals are seen and heard for who they really are, without judgement, that creates trust, security and mutual respect. This is the meaning of “psychological safety”. And the tool to reach this state is Relational Presence.
My evolution towards interpersonal communication training
Relational presence has been the foundation of all my work since 2003. It also led me to the field of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) in which I became a business practitioner, in 2014, enhancing further my training and facilitation skills.
In my personal life, my experience has been greatly enriched by Neema, my Tanzanian wife. Learning to adapt to a completely new culture and language has been a daily challenge! Not always easy, but one which has developed even more agility in my way of thinking and acting (Thank you Neema!).
This agility has enabled me to successfully keep my English identity while being open to other cultures and disciplines. The ability to be 100 % open and connected to myself and at the same time 100 % connected to others allows me to be fully in the here and now, focused and agile at the same time.
Today, through my 25 years international training experience and my colourful personal background, I am dedicated to empowering professionals, from all fields, to reach their full potential. By developing greater presence, authenticity, connection and confidence, I help individuals and teams to maintain a consistently high level of performance in any group setting or situation.
For further information, call on my skills as an internal communications consultant in Toulouse.