Leadership Communication Skills

for

National Operations Team

Kick-off Meeting January 2026

To achieve the Path to 20% goal, you and the rest of the team will need to create partnerships with a range of stakeholders — from RVPs, to GMs, to Operations Managers — over whom you do not have authority. Effective communication is a key part of building those partnerships and driving results through them.

Therefore, a day and a half of the Kick-off Meeting will be dedicated to a program that focuses on strengthening your communication skills, including:

• Creating brief, clear, and memorable communications

• Using presence and tailored messages to engage and influence listeners

• Answering questions and challenges clearly and confidently

This program will help you prepare and deliver effective communications for a broad range of situations:

• In-person and remote meetings and presentations

• Calls, one-to-ones, and difficult conversations

• Town halls, webinars, and other public speaking opportunities

Experienced coaches from McAlinden Associates — who regularly work around the world with leaders from a wide variety of companies — will conduct this highly interactive and practice-intensive program. Convergint has partnered with McAlinden for 8+ years.

McAlinden programs have worked for the Senior Leadership Team through Operations Managers at CTCs, so the approaches covered have been proven to work in Convergint’s culture.

• You will be actively engaged throughout in practice, feedback, and multiple one-to-one coaching sessions

• During the one-to-ones, you will watch recordings of your practice, so you get a clear picture of your strengths and areas for work, as well as concrete suggestions for how to improve.

• You will be working in small groups with one or two colleagues and a coach, to ensure you have a very personalized experience. We don’t think there is one right way for everyone to communicate to all listeners. Instead, we will help you strengthen your skills while remaining true to your own personality.

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 with your own real communication situations. Think about the RVPs, GMs, and Operations Managers you need to influence. Then pick two meetings or presentations that will happen after the program that are challenging and important to get right.

You may only practice one of them during the program, but bring two, along with any slides or notes you may have.

• Do not script yourself or over-prepare. You can bring work-in-progress. You will use your laptop to prepare content during the program and adjust it based on feedback.

• It is easier to work with content that has a clear point of view or recommendation, rather than something that is purely informational or an update.

• 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.

• 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 content.

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.

Overview of the sessions

Tuesday Afternoon

Wednesday Morning

Wednesday Afternoon

Questions?

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

About us

Visit our main website McAlinden Associates