2-Day Program

Developing Your Leadership Presence

Sell yourself and your ideas with poise, power and passion

About the program

This powerful 2-day program teaches senior managers and executives to communicate more effectively, develop their executive presence, and forge higher quality relationships with customers and colleagues. The program employs theatre-based, experiential techniques combined with practice and personal coaching.

This popular program was created in partnership with The Ariel Group - an international training and coaching firm comprised of performing artists and business professionals.

In the Program, you will learn to:

  • Sell yourself and your ideas with poise, power and passion
  • Develop an authentic executive presence
  • Listen effectively to build relationships
  • Deliver succinct, clear and articulate messages
  • Inspire, motivate and lead more effectively

Who should attend:

This program is designed for senior managers and executives who rely heavily on relationships for success, and must motivate and connect with a diverse group of people through verbal communication.

You might also be interested in: Coaching for Challenging Conversations, Leadership

Personal Benefits

  • Inspire, motivate and lead more effectively
  • Build more positive relationships
  • Deliver succinct, clear and articulate messages

Organizational benefits

  • More effective and inspiring leaders
  • Improved motivation amongst employees
  • More authentic communicators in your leadership team

Built on the PRESence model for leadership

  • Present – The ability to be completely present in the moment and to handle the unexpected with confidence and flexibility.
  • Reaching Out – The ability to build relationships through empathy, listening and authentic connection.
  • Expressive – The ability to express thoughts and feelings appropriately to deliver one congruent message and motivate others.
  • Self-Knowing – The ability to integrate personal values into leadership communication to inspire those you lead.

The Program is built on four modules:

Module 1

Honing Personal Style for Projecting Confidence and Competence

  • Using acting skills to command the respect of your audience
  • Using emotion, imagination, spontaneity, passion and energy to develop a powerful personal style

Module 2

Forming Relationships through Self-Reflection, Listening and Empathy

  • Identifying ways to make your personal values more apparent through communication and presence
  • Communicating authentically

Module 3

Using Story-telling to make Communications Compelling

  • Using story-telling skills as an effective tool for sharing personal experiences and building relationships

Module 4

Integrating Personal Presence into Client or Colleague Interactions

  • Integrating story and image into business content
  • Communicating in one-on-one, group discussions, facilitation and presentations contexts

Session leaders include senior professors from Smith School of Business and knowledgeable experts from industry. These outstanding teachers are constantly in touch with today's business world through real-world business experience, Board memberships and their own consulting practices.

Christopher von Baeyer

Christopher von Baeyer, Senior Consultant with the Ariel Group Inc, is an actor and educator who specializes in the integration of theatre and human development. Over the course of his 20-year career, he has coached thousands of men and women in the art of public speaking, emotional intelligence and interpersonal communication. He has taught at a number of leading business schools including: Harvard, Kellogg, Boston College and Columbia. His corporate clients have included Merrill lynch, Lucent Technologies, Deloitte and Touche, and the Boston Consulting Group.

Josh Broder

Josh Broder is a facilitator, actor, and writer. He has more than 20 years’ experience teaching, coaching, and consulting in the corporate, not-for-profit, and public sectors. Josh has facilitated programs at organizations like Hewlett Packard, Citibank, Pfizer, AOL, and Columbia University’s Institute for Not-for-Profit Management.

Josh has acted extensively. After making his professional debut at the New York Shakespeare Festival, he toured the Soviet Union and performed at theaters across the country. Josh has done much improvisation and has appeared in such films as Silence of the Lambs.

In addition to teaching and performing, Josh adapted and directed Franz Kafka’s Amerika, and was the Artistic Director of “Mad River Radio,” which broadcast on a network of New England radio stations. He co-conceived and directed Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine, Norma Darden’s one-woman autobiographical show, which featured a full-meal prepared on stage for the audience. That show had productions in New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis, Washington, D.C., and Flagstaff. Josh is also an accomplished writer. His work has appeared in the Washington Post and Travel & Leisure magazine. He is currently researching a work of fiction set in the aftermath of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Josh lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and their son.

Elizabeth Callahan

Elizabeth Callahan brings more than 25 years of teaching and acting experience to her work. She has facilitated leadership training workshops for organizations such as General Electric, Capital One Services, Inc., CVS Corporation, American Express, and the Harvard Leadership Institute. As a teacher, she has developed an intensive week-long Shakespeare workshop and is co-creator of the “Art of REAL Communication” program. Elizabeth has also taught theater to inner-city youth and English at the middle- and high-school levels.

As an actress, she has worked on stage, in films, and on television. She has appeared in films such as Good Will Hunting and has appeared regularly on television stations such as WGBH-TV and WBZ-TV in Boston, Mass.

She has studied acting extensively in New York City and Boston, and she holds an MA in Theatre Arts from Catholic University in Washington, DC. Elizabeth is a member of Actors’ Equity, SAG, and AFTRA.

Byron Darden

Byron Darden is a consultant with a background in professional theater and an accomplished skating coach. He has conducted leadership development programs for organizations such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Harvard Business School, CVS, Praxair Gases, American Express, AT&T, Staples, Capital One, and the Executive Education program at Columbia University Business School. He has coached and trained professional coaches, athletes, and officials, in addition to having extensive experience delivering leadership seminars and consulting in the public and private sector.  As a member of the Actor’s Equity Association, Byron enjoys a thriving professional career as an actor. 

Julia Douglas

Julia is a skilled facilitator who has designed and delivered team effectiveness and leadership development programs across multiple industries and time zones for nearly 20 years. A specific area of expertise lies in her ability to create and integrate experiential learning opportunities that help individuals with the skills and motivation needed to make significant strides in their effectiveness and productivity.

A small sampling of the companies that Julia has worked with over the years includes Allstate Canada Group, AT&T Wireless, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec, Genzyme, GlaxoSmithKline, Gillette, Hard Rock Café, Houghton Mifflin, KPMG, MBTA, Merck, Millennium, Pfizer, Perrier, Raytheon, Roche, Solvay, US Navy, Wyeth & Verizon.

Julia’s passion for performance began in her “younger years” as a dancer and performer who traveled extensively throughout Canada, USA and Europe with a number of organizations.

Prior to launching into the Training & Development world, Julia had a diverse career working Conklin Shows and IBM Canada. She has an MS in Training & Development (with a focus on cross-cultural training) from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA and an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Queen’s University in Canada.

Born and raised in Canada, Julia has also lived on both coasts of the US (Boston and San Diego). She now resides in Cleveland, OH with her husband and son.

Joel Gluck

Joel Gluck, MEd, RDT, is a Senior Consultant and Leadership Coach for The Ariel Group. He was the first affiliate selected to lead The Ariel Group’s theater-based workshops in leadership communication, beginning in 1994. Since then, Joel has partnered with The Ariel Group as a trainer, coach, and program designer, serving leading organizations throughout the world, including General Electric, Deloitte & Touche, American Express, Société Générale, and The Federal Reserve. Joel has also provided services for top consulting firms, city and state agencies, not-for-profits and educational institutions including Harvard Business School, MIT, Columbia University Executive Education, and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Joel’s work has been truly international, working with schoolteachers in India, ex-prisoners and children in Boston's inner city, mental health professionals in Thailand, and corporate leaders on four continents.

Prior to his work in executive education, Joel was the sole proprietor of a successful software consulting firm. He has directed and performed in professional theater productions throughout North America, with experience ranging from Shakespearean classics to improv comedy. In addition to holding a degree in Literature and Writing from Columbia University, he is a graduate of the two-year intensive acting, directing and play writing program at Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, RI, and earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Lesley University, specializing in drama therapy.

Joel lives in the Boston area with his wife, Orapin, and their new daughter, Jasmine.

Leilani Henry

Leilani Henry, MA and licensed Educational Kinesiologist, is a pioneer in bringing innovative whole brain strategies to personal, professional, and organization transformation.

Leilani served as Director of Training and Development with Jones Intercable and was an Organizational Development Specialist with Honeywell and Lockheed Martin. Since 1997, she has been a facilitator/trainer, business coach, and organization designer for companies such as AT&T, CARE USA, HBO, HP, Intuit, Lucent, North Dakota State University, Rockefeller, and the Federal Government. She assists many talented leaders from opera singers to corporate executives to social activists on their success journey.

A demonstrated thought leader in the field of organizational development, Leilani is cited in several national publications and organizations such as the Fetzer Institute and new visions in business. Fast Company identified Leilani as one of their RealTime Models and Mentors. She has been awarded a Fellowship for her work in Dialogue at Regis University.

Leilani is Founder and Director of National Playback Theater. Her ensemble puts a new face on leadership development by using improvisation to build bridges between people with different perspectives and experiences. Her lifetime experience in musical theater and as a professional dancer is integrated into her unique approach to innovation, leadership, and performance.

In 2007, Leilani became a radio show host for the Connections program at KGNU, a nationally regarded community radio station in Boulder/Denver.

She is writing a book and screen play about her father, George W. Gibbs, Jr., the first African American to set foot on the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica, with Admiral Byrd’s third expedition to the South Pole.

Carolyn Holland

Carolyn Holland is a senior corporate trainer and executive coach who combines business experience with professional theater training. She spent seven years at Morgan Stanley, where she facilitated meetings of senior managers and developed and delivered a software implementation program. She has facilitated programs for leaders at American Express, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Electric, and Merrill Lynch, and has led workshops at the Executive Education Programs at Harvard, Duke, and Columbia Business Schools. She developed and taught the Introduction to Improvisation Workshop at the Eastern States Theatre Association Festival in Rome, NY, and has been involved in several presentation workshops around the globe.

Carolyn's professional acting training includes schools in Boston and the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Her favorite stage credits include Agnes of God and The Dining Room. She has several years’ experience in comedy improvisation as a longstanding member of the Wingnuts and a regular cast member of The Sunday Night Jam, also in NYC. She has performed improv at private parties, done role plays for educational workshops and has appeared in a number of independent films. She spent a semester in French Studies in Paris and holds a BS in Physics from Tufts University. She currently makes her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Jeffrey Korn

Jeff is a seasoned business coach and has been with The Ariel Group since 1997. He has led Ariel senior executive programs, coached leaders for major organizations, and taught leadership development at respected business schools. Jeff is also an accomplished actor and singer who has performed around the world and shared the stage and screen with stars like Cher, Sally Field, Glenn Close, Bob Newhart, Faith Hill and Crosby, Stills & Nash. His industry specializations include technology, design, and healthcare.

Sharon Leckie

Sharon works in the field of organizational development, is a leadership and communication coach, and an actor.  Her clients include Harvard Executive Education, Columbia Senior Executive Program, Darden Business School, American Express, Booz Allen Hamilton, BlueCross BlueShield, Deloitte Consulting, Merrill Lynch, and Capital One.  Sharon has performed improvised comedy theater in Boston, New York, and Chicago, in plays at the Boston Center for the Arts, and in film. She has taught and directed throughout Boston including at Newton South’s award-winning theater program and at ImprovBoston Theater. 

Carol Lempert

Carol Lempert is a communication and leadership specialist and executive coach with over 15 years of experience in the field of Training and Development. Since 2006 she has worked with The Ariel Group with such clients as American Express, Home Depot, HSBC, Booz Allen Hamilton, Harvard Executive Education and Exelon.  From 2000-2006 she worked as Vice President, Learning for e-role play. She taught Acting, Voice and Speech at York University, and has lead seminars in Presentations Skills for the Toronto Board of Trade. In addition, Carol is a professional actress in theatre, television, and commercials. This part of her background gives her an intimate understanding of the importance of performing on the job and working creatively to solve problems and foster innovation. 

Hope Miller

Hope has a broad range of experience in business, education, and the arts. She started her career as a professional writer, editor, and project manager in the technology industry. Working in both corporate and client-services environments, Hope wrote, edited and proofed content, managed resources and produced final deliverables on both document development and Web application projects. Clients included small, regional start-ups as well as multi-national corporations such as Deloitte and Raytheon.

Prior to joining the Ariel Group, Hope taught literature and writing at an applied arts college. Students knew her as an engaging, approachable, and rigorous teacher with a low tolerance for half-heartedness. In keeping with the Ariel Group’s philosophy, Hope sees the classroom as a laboratory where students—or clients—can try out new ideas and new ways of doing things.

Captivated by theater at an early age, Hope studied theater and performed throughout high school and college. In her early 20s, she ran a non-profit children’s theater organization and taught drama classes in Connecticut and California. She enjoys the serious playfulness of the performing arts and believes that by tapping into our authentic creativity, we can generate innovative solutions and engender lasting, positive change.

Hope holds a B.A. in Literature from Yale, a M.A. in English from the University of Utah, and a M.A.T. in English from Agnes Scott College. She lives with her spouse, two dogs, and three cats in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Patricia Mulholland

Patricia has been an advocate of the arts all her life, whether it be on the stage, in the classroom, the corporation, the community, or the clinical setting. She began her affiliation with the Ariel Group in 1993 and has led leadership development and communication programs for many organizations world-wide including Deloitte, Capital One, General Electric, American Express, Merrill Lynch, Société Generale, Praxair and the Executive Education programs at Harvard, Columbia, Duke and Northwestern Universities. In addition to her work with The Ariel Group, Patricia served as Director of Curriculum for The Saltwater Institute from 2001-2004.

Patricia holds a Master of Arts Degree in Theater and Interpretation from Northwestern University and has trained extensively with the Roy Hart Theatre in France. A frequent presenter at the Women in Management Conference in Maine, she is also adjunct faculty at Maine College of Art. She maintains a consulting practice through Programs in Expressive Learning, working with individuals and groups on voice and presentation preparation and delivery.

Patricia has performed widely in the theatre including an original one-woman show, Emily Dickinson: The Woman, The Poet. She may be heard on the audio book, I Only Say This because I Love You, by Deborah Tannen. Her love of music led her to music therapy training at Berklee College of Music, where she has won awards for her songwriting. Her CD, “Coming Home,” includes her original compositions.

On her own time, Patricia enjoys volunteering at nursing homes, where she sings standards with her band, Aiko and Friends. She is the proud mother of two grown sons: Patrick, a professional violinist and Ashley, a student in medical school.

Kate Nugent

Kate Nugent serves as Director of Product and Training for The Ariel Group. She has conducted leadership development programs for a variety of organizations and is passionate about women’s leadership, virtual presence, and filling the leadership pipeline with high potential leaders who have presence.

Elsa Powel

Elsa Powel is a singer, coach, project coordinator, and research consultant. She integrates her wide variety of experience to create a dynamic, engaging and rigorous approach to leadership development.

Passionate about music, she has been performing and studying opera and cabaret for more than ten years. Her career includes performances in Carmen, Madame Butterfly, and The Gondoliers with Opera Providence. Aware of the power that music has to affect us deeply, Elsa uses singing to provide life review therapy for senior citizens with memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease and teaches therapeutic breath release work. She is an active member of the board of directors of the Boston Association of Cabaret Artists. Throughout her performance career, her purpose has been to stir the hearts and imaginations of her audiences. She now brings this intention into the classroom to coach executives and managers how to connect with their teams and clients.

As a project coordinator for an international engineering firm and as an independent researcher, Elsa’s work has included: coordination of the USTDA-sponsored Post-Disaster Financing conference in Bangkok, Thailand (a workshop designed for the countries hit by the 2004 tsunami), consulting to Tufts New England Medical Center on data analysis for a study on IV drug use patterns, and collaboration with the Indian Medical Association Blood Bank in Kerala, India, to promote and deliver HIV prevention seminars.

Out of her desire to preserve and support the health of the planet, Elsa volunteers for the Pachamama Alliance as a facilitator of a multimedia symposium on the interconnection of environmental sustainability, social justice, and psycho-spiritual fulfillment. Elsa graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University with a BA in Community Health.

Kenny Raskin

Kenny Raskin has been a Senior Consultant with The Ariel Group since 1998. He has facilitated over 450 executive training workshops across the globe for such companies as Coca Cola, Merrill Lynch, Deloitte and Touche, General Electric, American Express, HBO, Turner Broadcasting and Capital One. He has also taught leadership programs as part of Executive Education programs at Columbia, Northwestern, Duke, and Harvard Business School.

Kenny has been an accomplished actor and teacher of acting and physical comedy for more than 15 years, serving on the faculties at Boston University, Emerson College, New York University, and Emory University. He is also a much sought after teacher at acting and improvisation retreats around the country.

Kenny's work as an actor has been prolific, having appeared in numerous plays and musicals, eleven films and countless television and radio commercials, corporate and industrial training films, and live shows. He made a name for himself as one of the leading physical comedy performers in the United States, starring as the lead clown, Monsieur Everyman, in Cirque du Soleil’s critically acclaimed production of Nouvelle Experience. He subsequently originated the role of Gaston's comic sidekick, Lefou, in Disney’s musical Beauty and the Beast, a role that he performed for two and a half years.

Kenny holds a degree in American studies from Brandeis University.

Richard Richards

Richard Richards has traveled wide and far in his varied leadership and training roles in the corporate world. Originally from the UK, he has lived and worked in the USA, Germany, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. While leading teams in Australia, Korea, Israel, China, Mariana Islands, Germany, Chile, Argentina and Mexico, he continued to hone his cross-cultural, leadership, systems implementation, organizational development, instructional design, and facilitation skills. In addition, he has owned two businesses: a fine art gallery specializing in Latin American art and a training consulting practice.

Until recently The Ariel Group’s Vice President of Learning Design, he has reconfigured his relationship with the Ariel Group (and his life in general) to allow him to explore people and leadership development opportunities with alternative populations, including prisoners, formerly incarcerated individuals, their loved ones and at-risk youth.

Richard has a BSc (Hons) from the University of Surrey in the UK and an MA in Applied Learning, from the School for New Learning at DePaul University in Chicago, focusing on “The Use of the Arts in Community Building and Social Change.” This degree began life as “The Use of Theatre to Describe, Understand and Modify People’s Perceptions and Behavior”—a focus that continued to inform his final degree and foreshadowed his relationship with The Ariel Group and subsequent non-profit work.

As a professional actor, Richard has studied improvisation at Second City in Chicago and has worked on stage, in voice-over and in film, and plans to write and perform narrative monologues – something he has done in the past - in his reconfigured life.

Bill Smartt
SUMMARY

Based in New York City, but originally from Tennessee, Bill has worked in financial services, technology, advertising as well as the performing arts. He had a ‘lightbulb moment' when teaching acting classes at Queens College in New York, seeing his students gain self-assurance and find a voice that they didn’t have when they first walked into the classroom and knew these skills were transferable to business professionals. From there, he led presentation skills workshops for IT staff and executives at Credit Suisse, and then found his way to the Ariel Group.

TRAINING EXPERIENCE

Bill regularly provides customized executive coaching, facilitation and training across a wide spectrum of industries. Some clients include:

  • AMC Networks
  • American Express
  • Deloitte
  • Facebook
  • Metlife
  • Morgan Stanley
  • Rutgers University
  • Shutterstock
  • Time Warner
  • United Nations
BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

For seven years, Bill worked at Credit Suisse in IT as a Project Portfolio Manager, Jr. Controller, and Communications Coach. Bill also worked in Software Sales and Client Services at Kindling Inc. Bill continues to help tech entrepreneurs sharpen their pitching skills at General Assembly, Echoing Green, and the Canadian Tech Accelerator (CTA), all based in NYC.

THEATER EXPERIENCE
  • Created and performed original work while attending the Atlanta College of Art.
  • Wrote & performed theater that was combination of music, video, & character study in San Francisco.
  • Produced solo work in New York.
  • Taught acting as an adjunct professor at Queens College.
EDUCATION AND CREDENTIALS
  • BA in Acting from San Francisco State University
  • MFA from the University of Washington
Maggie Steig

Maggie Steig is a performer, educator, and business professional in the field of corporate events. With 20 years’ experience selling creative ideas to corporate clients, Maggie greatly enjoys helping others to present an idea concisely and with impact. She has worked extensively with the international organization YPO, a group of CEOs who hold events for idea and information exchange. Her performing background is grounded in improvisational comedy. She has performed with ImprovBoston and co-founded the beloved Boston troupe Guilty Children in 1983.  As well, she was drama coach for the national television show Zoom in 2004. 

Meg Wolf
SUMMARY

Meg is passionate about using the power of the arts to facilitate deeper connections between people and within their work. A classically trained professional actor living in New York City, she has over sixteen years of experience as a performer on stage, screen and in voice-overs and audiobooks. She also has an extensive background in the business world as a project manager, business writer and communications consultant.

TRAINING EXPERIENCE

Meg has worked extensively with a wide range of business segments, including tech, education non-profits and the financial industry. Select clients include:

  • Global Brands Group
  • Work & Co
  • Bank of America
  • BD Corporation
  • Viacom
  • Percolate
  • Le Camp (@ The Grind)
  • Head Start
  • Early Learn
  • Administration For Children’s Services
BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

Communications Consulting, Project Management, & Business Writing for multiple clients, including a nonprofit educational organization serving over 1,000 families in the New York area.

THEATER EXPERIENCE
  • Has appeared in network and cable television series; regional theatre productions; national commercials, voiceovers, and audio books.
  • Has voiced various characters on Seasons 2 - 4 of the critically acclaimed TV comedy Inside Amy Schumer.
  • She is a singer-songwriter and has performed with a number of bands over the years, ranging from punk to folk.
  • Her album of original music, Theory of Gravity, is available on iTunes.
EDUCATION AND CREDENTIALS
  • Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the University of Washington in Seattle
  • Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (theatre and psychology)
  • A Guthrie Experience for Young Actors in Training
  • Acting on Impulse Improvisation
David Zucker

David Zucker is a professional actor, author, director, playwright, mime, T'ai Chi teacher, and corporate facilitator. He has delivered leadership programs for the Executive Education departments of Harvard, Duke, Columbia, IMD in Switzerland, and Smith School of Business, as well as at corporations such as Deloitte Consulting, The Royal Bank of Scotland, General Electric, Merrill Lynch, Saudi Aramco, Praxair, CVS, Coca Cola, and American Express.  As a director, he has worked professionally in New York, Washington DC, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. As well, he is an international performer with over 300 performances a year.  He has taught acting classes for years in the greater Boston area as well as at the Boston Rep Theatre, the Actor's Workshop, and Boston University's Summer Theatre Institute. 

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Katie Parks

Speak to a member of our team.
Call 1.888.393.2338 or Chat live
Monday to Friday. 8:30 am - 4:00 pm EDT

Upcoming Sessions

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada

  • Sep 25 to Sep 26
  • Dec 11 to Dec 12

Fees

$3,700 CAD (plus applicable taxes)

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Westin Harbour Castle
    1 Harbour Square
  • Feb 28 to Mar 1
  • Jun 12 to Jun 13
  • Oct 16 to Oct 17

Fees

$3,700 CAD (plus applicable taxes)