Miho Aizu used to be confident about communicating in English. “I visited overseas clients and held three-hour meetings, so I thought my English communication skills were fine,” says the 35-year-old manager at Accenture, the professional services firm, in Japan.

But when Ms Aizu took part in a training programme that brought together colleagues from around the world, she realised that her skills fell short of what she would have liked. “During the team discussions, there were many things I wanted to say, but I felt I had to brush up my English language and presentation skills,” she explains.

When it came to role-playing, Ms Aizu recalls: “I was told I needed to jump into discussions rather than wait until everyone had said what they wanted to say.”