Learning and Development knows that effective presentation training is an essential skill for professionals in any industry. Nearly every company offers this training in the first two years of employment. As people become more senior, the challenge is how to structure the program to achieve the desired results.
Different levels need different formats. Senior groups prefer private coaching to group training.
Different roles have different communication goals. Sales and marketing professionals have different communication challenges than engineering and technical professionals.
Some individuals have deep resistance to believing they can change their communication style, too.
by Stephanie Bickel
Because the ability to deliver informative presentations is crucial for success in the workplace, every level should focus on mastering these skills. Let's examine senior leader communication training for the executive, emerging leader, and individual contributor.
1. For the Executive: Executive Presentation Training
Executives need to master three topics: the update, the recommendation, and the picture of the future. Executive presentation training requires a specialized form of training that develops the skills necessary to deliver powerful, persuasive, and impactful presentations. As leaders in their respective fields, executives need to know how to simplify complex ideas, strategies, and initiatives and connect them to a wide variety of stakeholders, including employees, clients, investors, and board members. Effective executive presentations require not only exceptional public speaking skills but also a deep understanding of the audience, a clear and compelling message, and the ability to influence and persuade others. Executive presentation training provides a tailored approach to developing these skills, focusing on the unique challenges and demands faced by executives in their roles, and helping them to achieve their business objectives through impactful and persuasive communication.
We recommend a full-day group immersion for a leadership team followed by 3-6 months of private coaching. For CXO transitions, a full year of support is ideal to cover 6 months before and 6 months after the public designation.
2. For the Emerging Leader: Leadership Communication Coaching
Leadership communication is a discipline that covers personal style, message structure, communication strategy, and leadership principles. Leadership communication is an art and science. When you identify a superstar manager, they benefit greatly from leadership communication tools. This teaches them how to adapt their communication when managing up, down, and across. It helps them convey information, ideas, and visions to others in a way that inspires action, fosters trust, and achieves organizational objectives. Effective leadership communication involves not only delivering messages but also active listening, building relationships, and creating a shared understanding among stakeholders. Leaders who excel at communication are able to influence and persuade others, manage conflict, and navigate complex situations with confidence and clarity. When you are promoting a manager to become a leader over their previous peers, leadership communication training helps this transition be easer.
We recommend three half day intensives followed by 10 mini sessions. In these half days, we work on the 5 most important messages, communication agility, and articulating a vision. The mini sessions all have a topic that relates to that individuals needs.
3. For the Individual Contributor: Communication Coaching
Individual contributors need to be masterfully adaptive in their communication and exceptional at relationship building. They need to communicate as experts, consultants, guides, visionaries, and facilitators. Individual contributors can feel isolated and unsupported when their is no team underneath them to help achieve their goals. Individual contributors have great success when they are strong communicators and have built strong relationships across the organization. They need to communicate clearly, empathetically, and persuasively. The best way to help individual contributors is to arm them with day-to-day communication approaches, frameworks, and tools. This helps them navigate difficult situations and foster greater collaboration.
We recommend giving them access to a communication coach to help design the structure and delivery of upcoming messages. Look for a monthly coaching program that can be customized in length to the person's needs. Speak by Design University is an example of a monthly communication coaching program.
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Speak by Design University creates great leaders. It’s the only leadership communication program in the world that gives you access to self-paced learning, group coaching and training and, most importantly, private one-on-one coaching. Learn more and register.