UNIVERSITY OF BAHRAIN

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

SEMINAR

CHENG 491

Report #3

Summary on Speaking With Confidence

Submitted by:

Rafiuddin Mohammed

20135673

Submitted to:

Dr. Najat Eshaqi

Submitted on:

11 May 2017

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Abstract
A beneficial workshop on the topic of Speak With Confidence was provided for the students of
CHENG491 Seminar course and for other members of the Department of Chemical Engineering.
The provider of the workshop was Mr. Mohamed Ali Shukri who is an internationally recognized
public speaker. A professional trainer in the same field, Mr. Shukri used his personal life
experiences to emphasize the importance of being confident in speaking and giving presentations.
His workshop covered methods to introspect and self-analyze on the level of confidence that each
one had as well as some practical and simple steps to improve those levels.

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Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4
The workshop.................................................................................................................................. 4
Opinion and Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 7
References ....................................................................................................................................... 7

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Introduction
This report gives a brief summary of the workshop provided by Mr. Mohamed Ali Shukri on the
topic of Speaking With Confidence. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Mohamed Shukri is a
world class award winning public speaker, a professional trainer, and a coach. He has worked for
17 years with ALBA (Aluminum Bahrain) company in Power Generation as well as Health and
Safety Management, while simultaneously honing his talent for public speaking. For the past 10
years he has been a professional trainer and is currently specialized in Occupational Health and
Safety, Public Speaking and presentation skills, in addition to soft skills training including
Leadership, Motivation, Team Building and Customer Services.

Some of his awards and achievements include two Bahrain Championships, two Middle East
Championships, and a 2006 title of the first Arab to be one of the Top Ten Speakers in the World
at the World Championship of Public Speaking.

More recently, in the last year, he has set up his own training establishment, called Y Access
Training Solutions, in order to take his passion for training and development to the next level.
There, he has begun many training workshops to train seekers in public speaking and confidence.
One of the workshops is called Me no speak English which is targeted at an Arabic speaking
clientele in order to train them to build the confidence to speak in English.

The workshop held in Building 32 of the Isa Town Campus of University of Bahrain was along
similar lines. It aimed to highlight the challenges faced by individuals in their personal and
professional lives due to a lack of confidence. The different practical approaches to handle these
issues with confidence while speaking were also discussed.

The workshop
The workshop began with the speaker narrating some stories about his time spent in Milan with
his wife. He mentioned an incident when his confidence was called into action and he had to speak
in a foreign language. This was the way he introduced the difficulties that life situations present
when there is a lack of confidence. He encouraged the audience to participate by chipping in their
ideas as to why people lack confidence and noted that it stems from a deeper issue of self-doubt
and not believing in oneself. Even when someone has an excellent idea that they are sure will
benefit a great many people, the self-doubt and lack of sufficient confidence in themselves can
hinder their presentation of the idea and a potentially monumental development would have been
delayed or stopped altogether.

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Mr. Shukri also talked about his daughter and how he uses his children as muses for his talks, often
bringing up their names in order to make a point. In this case, the point that he was trying to make
was that the crux of a good speech or talk is a story and a message. In order to get ones point
across effectively, the point should be embedded in a story. In order for the story to be described
effectually, it should be genuine and real, it should be relatable, sufficiently detailed, and should
contain elements of humor. The best stories are always followed with a sincere message that is
relevant to the talk being conducted. Mr. Shukri presented an example of such a story using a story
about his daughter and how she made a small and innocent complaint about how their house was
small.

As an extension of the same message, he asked the audience to think of some stories that happened
to them as a part and parcel of daily life. He instructed each one to think of some good stories,
some bad stories, and some stories that involved ones mother. He then illustrated, by asking the
number of stories each one recalled, that the number of such stories was very high even while the
time limit to remember them was very short. Since these stories allow for very effective talks to
be given, and each person has a great deal of such anecdotes, then the question arises of how to
convert these stories into good talks. The answer to this is to have an effective message at the end
of each of these stories. This can only be achieved through an introspective and retrospective
methodology of thinking through which one derives life lessons from daily incidents. Another
method which can help this, is the practice of keeping a journal and updating it every night or
every weekend. Even just thinking about the happenings of the past day before falling asleep at
night could develop this skill of deriving messages from stories.

Story
Reflection Message
Lessons learned

Another important thing to keep in mind while presenting the story and the message is the body
language and voice modulation that make an impact on the audience. This is an important factor
that affects the way that the listeners perceive the speaker. These actions and behaviors also add
to ones own confidence while presenting any topic and help the speaker connect more effectively
with those attending the presentation.

Mr. Shukri then asked those present to embark on a journey of introspection to gauge their level
of confidence and examine which areas they need to improve. Some of the questions were:

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 If you see someone on the side of the road looking lost, would you offer them help or
directions even if they dont speak the same language as you?
If the teacher asks a question, do you take the initiative to answer?
Do you converse with strangers at parties and gatherings?
Do you sometimes attempt to converse in another language that you are not very familiar
with?
Do you express your opinion even when it disagrees with that of others?
Do you use hand movements and body language while talking with others?
Do you add new words to your vocabulary from what you hear others saying?

These questions aimed to give each one an idea of where their level of confidence lies and what
are some creative ways to improve on it by some simple day-to-day practices, as highlighted in
the questionnaire. These simple changes in ones daily activities not only help to increase ones
confidence, they also add to ones life experiences and allow for the acquisition of important skills
and life lessons by interacting with people and learning from them. All of these questions focus on
one important methodology: taking risks. This was a point that Mr. Shukri emphasized and stressed
as an invaluable teacher of confidence and speaking skills. Taking risks enable one to grow and
learn new ways to think and to deal with people. It allows for the experiencing of new stories
which enable one to give better presentations with more relatable messages to convey. It is what
makes a person a real public speaker.

Mr. Shukri also talked about five animals that help in public speaking. Each animal represented a
skill or an acquired mindset that has to be conquered through facing a fear. The animals were:

Cow: which represents the ability to be at peace with oneself and remain calm in the face
of naysayers and unhealthy criticism from those who dont believe in ones capability
Owl: which represents wisdom and the ability to take an incident from ones daily life and
turn it into a story with a message
Bear: which is a teddy bear representing love meaning that an effective presentation
requires that the speaker loves the audience and feels a connection with them
Dolphin: representing how a presentation should be fun for the audience as well as the
speaker and should include healthy amounts of humor
Monkey: which represents the annoying voice inside which tells you to doubt yourself and
this should be sent away and shooed off

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Opinion and Conclusion
Such workshops provide extremely invaluable skills to students at any level. Such abilities, like
public speaking and self-building, should be of prime concern in syllabi of teaching institutions at
all levels. In fact, these personal skills should be given a priority level above that of technical and
scientific knowledge. Confidence and self-esteem are key personality traits that are prerequisites
to gaining other types of knowledge because these characteristics allow the attainment of other
scientific information in the right manner and consequently allow its usage in the right direction.
So a person who is first in a comfortable, confident, and optimistic state of mind can then focus
on gaining the knowledge that is most aligned with their interests and will always be on the lookout
for areas in the society where that knowledge can be applied. Thus is it vital that, even before
instructing students in procedural and mechanical knowledge, they should be equipped with the
mental tools and the attitude to their purpose behind gaining knowledge in the first place. This
should be incorporated into formal education from the early levels onwards in order to have a
generation that is properly oriented towards success and productivity for themselves, their families,
their communities, the society, the nation, and the world itself.

References
LinkedIn, Mohamed Shukri, https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-ali-shukri/