Building Leadership Communication Skills – Part Two

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Part Two reinforces all the skills you built in Part One and adds new tools and skills to:

  • Structure storylines for complex material and controversial situations

  • Motivate people to think and act differently

  • Respond in the moment — convey compelling messages, with presence and confidence, when you do not have time to prepare

This page asks you to tell us how your skills have been working since Part One and what you will bring to practice. At the bottom of this page is an overview of the sessions.

Choose material

You need to bring two meetings, discussions, one-to-ones, or presentations to practice.

We encourage you to practice complex or challenging situations because you will learn more advanced skills and — with feedback from your colleagues and coach — you will increase your chance of success in the meetings you practice.

Here are some examples of complex meetings that work well:

  • A meeting where you are likely to face skepticism, active resistance, or passive resistance

  • A meeting where the other participants do not understand the issue being discussed, they have decided there are different reasons for a problem or solutions to it, or there is not consensus about the importance, urgency or risks involved

  • A cross-functional team meeting where you need to influence without authority

  • A discussion with an external partner where the relationship has gone off-track

  • A performance review

At a minimum, you need enough material to open the meeting and cover the key ideas in a three-minute executive summary before transitioning into a discussion. You can decide whether to bring any visual aids or not. The maximum amount of content you will practice is around 10 minutes. If your material is longer, you can choose to condense it or practice one section. If you are going to practice one section, pick the most difficult one.

Tell us who you are and what your goals are

Here’s a quick reminder of the skills framework we introduced in the first program, to help you set goals now and share them with your practice group at the start of your session.

Intellectual dimension

Deliver messages that are clear, relevant, and convincing

Emotional impression

Create a connection, earn trust, and convey conviction

Physical skills

Engage with presence, body language, and focused energy

Overview of the sessions

Day One Morning

Opening

Discuss your experiences since Part One, current challenges, and goals for Part Two.

 

Advanced stakeholder analysis

We reinforce the planning process introduced in Part One and add a more comprehensive stakeholder analysis tool that is valuable to apply in more complex situations.

 

Prepare complex or controversial content

We reinforce the organization process introduced in Part One and add techniques that are particularly helpful for structuring complex or controversial content

 

Visualize your storyline

We introduce a way to visualize your storyline to ensure it is compelling and enable you to see the separation of key messages from details. You prepare your first communication using the new tools.

 

Exchange feedback to improve storylines

You refine your storyline based on feedback from the group.

 

Day One Afternoon

Lead complex meetings

You role play the meeting you prepared in the morning, get feedback, and try different approaches on-the-spot. We make your first video.

 

One-to-one coaching

You review the recording of your meeting privately with the coach.

 

Day Two Morning

Motivate people to think and act differently

We provide you with tools to help you challenge people and the status quo in a productive way.

 

Overcome skepticism and manage active and passive resistance

You role-play a second meeting where you expect to face skepticism or resistance. We make your second video.

 

One-to-one coaching

You review the recording of your second meeting privately with the coach.

 

Day Two Afternoon

Communicate on short notice

You practice communicating about two or three different work-related subjects, with very little preparation time. Then you practice a completely spontaneous situation.

 

Commit to a plan

You identify a few meetings over the next couple of weeks and plan the skills you will apply in each one to increase your chances of success.

 

Questions?

Email us goals@mcalinden.com or call us +1 212 986 4950

About us

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