Overview

This Standard is about presenting a positive image of yourself and your organisation at cultural heritage events.  An event may be a meeting, seminar, conference or similar, that you attend on behalf of your organisation.

It includes allowing time to prepare for events, making sure your appearance and behaviour give a good impression, being punctual, listening to others, making informed contributions, dealing with problems and sensitive issues, summarising information for others and working effectively with other people.

This standard is for anyone who needs to represent themselves or their organisation at cultural heritage events.

Performance criteria

You must be able to:

  1. allow sufficient time to prepare yourself for events, seeking advice from relevant people when required
  2. ensure your appearance, behaviour and what you say reflects the standards of your organisation
  3. make sure you are punctual when attending events
  4. listen to what other people are trying to communicate and ask questions at appropriate times and when necessary to clarify your understanding
  5. make useful and informed contributions to discussions with other people
  6. identify and extract the main points from material that you need to communicate to other people
  7. provide accurate, clear information to other people in appropriate formats
  8. provide other people with the information they need when they need it
  9. identify any actions you are responsible for and agree them with relevant people
  10. deal with problems, sensitive issues and other people's feedback in line with organisational processes
  11. follow any required procedures for safeguarding children and vulnerable people during events
  12. work with other people when required, fulfilling your responsibilities and commitments as agreed                                       

Knowledge and understanding

You need to know and understand:                       

  1. the types of events you will be called upon to attend and the roles you may carry out at such events
  2. the importance of preparing yourself properly for events and how to do so including finding out how you will get there, and carrying out any background or required pre-reading
  3. who you should liaise with and seek advice from
  4. why it is important to know what types of information other people need from you, how to give them this information in a way that meets their needs and which they can access, why it is important to communicate accurately and clearly with others and how to do this
  5. the importance of active listening skills, why you should always give other people the opportunity to contribute their ideas and why it is important to take account of their ideas
  6. why you should always ask questions when there are things you are unsure about
  7. how to organise your ideas so that you can make effective contributions to discussions
  8. the types of material you need to work with as part of your role and how to identify and extract the main points
  9. the importance of building and maintaining good working relationships with all stakeholders
  10. why it is important to agree objectives, who is responsible for specific tasks and ways of working with those with whom you work
  11. why it is important to take responsibility for your own actions
  12. the types of problems and conflict that may occur when you are working with people and how to deal with these problems
  13. how to deal with people's feedback and emotions effectively
  14. why it is important to give feedback to the people you work with and how to do so
  15. the importance of identifying how you can improve the way you work with people
  16. why it is important to present a positive image of yourself and your organisation, the standards expected of you by your organisation and how to make sure your appearance, behaviour and what you have to say reflects these standards
  17. the types of sensitive issues that you may encounter at events and how to deal with these