Communicating as a Leader
Being an effective leader is about more than expertise. It requires the ability to rally others around your vision, influence key decisions, and drive meaningful change.
Communicating as a Leader is a four-session coaching series for emerging leaders ready to confidently establish their presence and communicate compellingly in meetings, one-on-one conversations, and team settings.
The result? You’ll capture attention, speak persuasively under pressure, hold your ground with dominant personalities, and project authentic authority in every interaction.
Make the shift from contributor to confident leader by transforming how you show up.
Format
Coaching Series
Duration
4 One-Hour Sessions
Ideal For
Emerging Leaders
Delivery
Virtual
The Program
The Experience
Designed virtually over four targeted one-hour sessions, this program combines strategic assessment, proven frameworks, and intensive practice to transform your leadership presence.
- Phase 1
Communications Assessment
Objective
Identify your current communication context and map a personalized strategy for building your leadership presence.
Focus
We'll conduct a comprehensive diagnostic covering:
- Scenarios where you want to have greater influence and impact
- Challenging dynamics with colleagues, stakeholders, or team members
- Moments where communication feels ineffective or unclear
- Your natural communication style and how to leverage it for leadership
- Past experiences that inform your current approach to authority and presence
- Current strengths to lean into and growth areas to address
- Your goals for tone, presence, and influence
- Phase 2
Communications Framework
Objective
Learn proven techniques and frameworks for persuasive leadership communication.
Focus
Building on our assessment, we’ll introduce targeted strategies tailored to your development priorities. This session will cover essential skills such as:
- Structuring messages for maximum persuasive impact
- Techniques for speaking with authority under pressure
- Strategies for establishing presence with dominant personalities
- Methods for thinking and responding effectively on the spot
You’ll receive a reference guide documenting these strategies for ongoing use. We’ll also decide the focus areas for sessions three and four based on your specific needs and goals.
- Phases 3 & 4
Personalized Communications Coaching
Objective
Practice and refine your new skills through realistic scenarios with real-time coaching and feedback.
Focus
These intensive practice sessions are customized to your leadership context. Depending on your priorities identified in earlier sessions, we might focus on:
- Role-playing challenging meeting dynamics where you need to assert leadership
- Practicing concise, compelling responses to unexpected questions or pushback
- Honing how you invest others in your role and your team’s value
- Developing techniques for managing difficult conversations with confidence
Each session includes immediate feedback and adjustment, ensuring you leave with concrete skills you can implement immediately.
Who It's For
Emerging Leaders
This program is for you if you:
- Are transitioning from individual contributor to leader and want to make the shift with confidence
- Struggle to assert yourself in meetings, especially with more senior or dominant personalities
- Find it hard to think and respond clearly when you're put on the spot
- Want to be taken more seriously and seen as a credible, influential voice
- Are managing a team and need to communicate your value - and theirs - more compellingly
- Know you have more to offer, but aren't sure how to make others see it
Meet Your Coach
Kerci Marcello Stroud
Two decades of helping leaders elevate their voice and amplify their impact.
Kerci, executive vice president at The Perry Group, coaches professionals at all levels. Her clients don’t just improve their communication — they transform how they show up and how others see them as leaders.
Her approach? Teach practical strategies and deliver honest, empathetic feedback in an environment where you feel both challenged to grow and supported to succeed.
Kerci brings extensive senior leadership experience, including roles as chief marketing and communications officer at Rhode Island School of Design and vice president of communications at Teach For America.
When you work with Kerci, you’re not just getting a coach. You’re getting a strategic partner invested in your success.
