Would drama training brings any benefit to a working professional? This is a question that I have been asking myself for the past couple of years.
Drama training has long been something that an adult would not go through unless he or she is a practitioner of the art form.
As a professional, you may not think of drama as something that could benefit you in your career. However, learning drama can actually provide numerous benefits that can help you become more successful in your professional life. In this article, we will explore how professionals can benefit from learning drama.
Boosts Communication Skills
Perhaps one of the most significant advantages, when you learn drama as a professional, is the boost in communication skills. As a seasoned professional, you will be expected to communicate effectively with your colleagues, clients, and even those in senior positions to you.
Drama can help you master communication by teaching you how to speak clearly, enunciate words, emote, and project your voice. Little details like these are often overlooked, but they can make a big difference in how well you are understood in client meetings, presentations, or project briefings.
Collaboration & Teamwork
Another aspect where drama can benefit you greatly is Teamwork. By joining drama groups, you can learn to collaborate and work with different personalities. You will get to learn how to work as a single cohesive unit, just like in a theatre production where everyone is working towards the same goal. That is not all. You will also develop qualities like being open to constructive feedback, demonstrating self-awareness, and exhibiting a willingness to develop and learn can get enhanced too.
Improving Confidence & Presentation Skills
Another reason why drama is highly beneficial to professionals is the boost in confidence and presentation skills. Whether you are presenting to a small group of people or a massive audience, public speaking can be daunting. Drama will help you learn how to present yourself and your ideas in a clear, confident manner. You can learn how to stand tall, maintain eye contact, and project confidence even in situations where you feel apprehensive. The workshop and practice environment is a safe space for you to experiment and learn at your own pace.
Boosting Emotional Intelligence
Drama also boosts the Emotional Intelligence (EI) needed to become a successful professional. Emotional Intelligence, often regarded as soft skills are about understanding, managing, and mastering the emotional aspects of personal and professional lives. Studying drama provides insights and skills to help with emotional control, empathy, and emotional communication — all critical components in today’s socially engaged work environment. High EI is essential for leaders to cultivate work environments that encourage transparency, honesty, and growth.
Problem Solving Skills
Drama education enhances creative thinking and problem-solving skills. In acting or improv, you must develop characters and their scenarios and put yourself in the shoes of different personalities in order for you to be able to see their situation objectively. Furthermore, through group collaboration, improvisation, and critical thinking, students learn to create stories and solve dilemmas in unique, imaginative ways. These skills can translate into providing solutions and innovations to complex business problems, and help you with lateral thinking outside the traditional management playbook.
Increasing Self-Awareness
You cannot be an effective collaborator, communicator or leader without first having a solid sense of self-awareness. Drama will expand your skillset in this aspect too. Acting demands self-awareness in the sense that you look inside and develop layers to the external image you portray. This self-awareness combined with classroom or rehearsal techniques can help you identify issues that make your interpersonal relationships or dealing with certain tasks difficult. It often involves moving beyond your comfort zone into different positions, cultures, languages or attitudes, providing insights into areas where you can strengthen, refine or filter yourself. As you become more self-aware, you will be better able to understand why some situations trigger certain emotions and how to manage them effectively.
Let’s Conclude…
In conclusion, learning drama is not only for aspiring artists or theatrical professionals. It can teach invaluable communication skills, team-building attributes, creative thinking, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness, among others, making it an attractive combination for any professional discipline.
By enrolling in drama classes or engaging in drama activities, you can find yourself developing new skills, honing current ones, and seeing distinct improvements that may surprise you. So, invest in yourself and your professional development; enrol for a drama class today with Thespian Lab!