In William Shakespeare's As You Like It, a character famously states: 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.' The Great Bard may well be referring to the corporate world, with its fair share of imperious executives, secretarial drama queens, finance department clowns and boardroom bit-players.
Just like actors, tough bosses do get cold feet before delivering a big speech. Worse, their stage presence may be more of a non-presence that sends people into a midsummer night's stupor.
Enter Jeanne Hartman, the Los Angeles-based 'actor's detective' who was in Hong Kong recently on her fifth annual trip to lead acting workshops and private coaching for actors, directors, writers - even business managers and CEOs.
In the United States, one of Hartman's first corporate clients was the vice-president of a big American company who was an excellent speaker before a small group but would mumble and gesture excessively in front of a big audience.
'They say that public speaking is worse than dying for some people,' Hartman says.
This same vice-president had attended a public-speaking seminar in the US and the solution offered him bordered on the macabre: they put bricks in his hands and tied them to prevent him from gesturing too much.