Developing Persuasive Communications
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This program will strengthen your ability to prepare and deliver effective communications for a broad range of situations, from public speaking engagements in front of large groups, to informal meetings with smaller groups, to the unanticipated discussions you have every day. We will help you build leadership communication skills, including how to:
Prepare well — create compelling messages and storylines that engage listeners
Speak with presence, clarity, and confidence
Influence people and motivate them to think and act differently
Conduct concise, action-oriented meetings, presentations, and town halls
Listen well, answer questions, manage difficult personalities, and overcome resistance
The rest of this page explains how to prepare for the program and provides an overview of the sessions.
Choose material to bring to the program
You will practice your own real communication situations. Pick three meetings or presentations that will happen after the program to work with and bring any slides or notes you may have.
The situations you practice should be important to you because you will improve the content as well as your skills.
Do not script yourself or over-prepare. You can bring work-in-progress. You will use your computer to prepare content during the program and adjust it based on feedback.
The first situation you practice should be a meeting or presentation to a group or individual.
Ideally it should get across a point of view or a recommendation, rather than simply inform.
You will present up to ten-minutes of content. If the actual material is longer, you can condense it before the program or during the preparation period.
You have the option to use four or five slides. You can bring draft slides / work-in-progress.
You will be asked to try different approaches to the messages and structure of the content.
At first, you will not practice taking questions or challenges, even if the real meeting will be interactive. Later in the program, you will practice responding to questions / challenges about your presentation.
When you practice the second situation, you will bring together many of the skills you have built through the program. You can practice almost any kind of verbal communication, but popular choices are interactive meetings and difficult one-to-one discussions.
You will need 3-10 minutes of content. If you want to practice more interaction, you will not get through as much content.
You have the option to use a few slides.
You can use the second situation to practice responding to challenges, interruptions, and difficult personalities, if any of those dynamics might be part of your real meeting, or you want to build those skills.
The third situation should be a meeting that involves some degree of complexity — for example, the topic might be difficult to explain, there might be very different points of view on it, or both the content and the people make it complex. We will introduce a practical and creative way to structure your material and test the strength of your storyline. You will apply our preparation tools to your material and then role play the meeting. Here are a few examples that often work well:
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 meeting where you are likely to face skepticism, active resistance, or passive resistance
A cross-functional team meeting where you need to influence without authority
Tell us who you are and what your goals are
If you would like to use a self-evaluation to think about your skills before answering these questions, click here. Many people also seek input from a few colleagues whose opinions they value.
Part One
Day 1 morning
Opening
Discuss the challenging communication situations and relationships you face and link the agenda to them.
Set goals
You set personal goals within our intellectual, emotional, and physical communication skills framework. We create a benchmark video of you. Together, we begin the process of giving and receiving feedback.
Increase presence
You practice telling a brief story — expanding your use of eye contact, voice and body language — to increase your presence, confidence and impact. We make a second video of you.
One-to-one coaching
You review the video from your first two sessions privately with a coach.
Create compelling messages
You use our preparation tools to work on the first meeting or presentation you plan to practice. You analyze your listeners and then create an outline with a compelling opening, clear messages and an action-oriented close.
Day 1 afternoon
Discuss visuals
Discuss how visuals support messages, where they get in the way, and how to use them well.
Deliver engaging presentations & meetings
You present a ten-minute version of the material you prepared earlier in the day. You practice and receive feedback on your ability to be persuasive and engaging. We make a third video of you.
One-to-one coaching
You review the video of your presentation privately with a coach.
Day 2 morning
Concise executive summaries
You practice delivering your material from Day One as a two-to-three-minute executive summary, without visuals, to strengthen your ability to be concise and get across a memorable message.
Answer questions confidently
You practice answering questions and responding to challenges on your executive summary — with credibility, confidence and empathy. We make a fourth video.
One-to-one coaching
You review the video of your executive summary and responses privately with a coach.
Day 2 afternoon
Lead productive meetings
You role-play a second situation — usually a meeting or one-to-one that will happen soon. You build your skills further, adapt them to a different environment and walk away with specific ideas that will contribute to the success of that situation and build your relationships. We make a fifth video.
One-to-one coaching
You review the video of your meeting or one-to-one privately with a coach.
Day 3 morning
Advanced Preparation: creating storylines for complex and / or controversial material
We introduce additional preparation tools that are particularly useful for complex material and skeptical listeners. You prepare for an upcoming meeting and then receive feedback and recommendations from your colleagues and a coach.
Day 3 afternoon
Lead complex meetings
You role-play the meeting you prepared in the morning to see the results of the additional preparation tools. You will also see how your delivery skills and ability to interact productively contribute to or get in the way of your success. We make a sixth video.
One-to-one coaching
You review the video of your complex meeting privately with a coach.
Plan actions
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.
Part Two
After 3-6 months of workplace application, Part Two will reinforce the skills you gain in Part One and add new skills to further enhance your working relationships.
Questions?
Email us goals@mcalinden.com or call us +1 212 986 4950
About us
Visit our main website McAlinden Associates