Executive Communication: Build Your Executive Presence
Mamal Poladia
Engineering Leader, Educator
Show up with clarity and credibility in every room you walk into.
AI made everyone's written communication sound polished. Your emails, your Slack messages, your documents, they can all look great now with minimal effort.
But your executive presence isn't built in your sent folder. It's built in the room.
It's built when you stand up and present a recommendation to your VP. When a senior leader asks you a hard question and the room goes quiet. When you have to deliver bad news and keep people's trust. When you're put on the spot in a cross-functional meeting and you need to say something clear, right now, with no time to run it through a tool.
These are the moments that determine whether people trust your judgment. And they are the moments AI cannot help you with.
This one-day workshop is where you practice those moments. You'll write and speak under realistic constraints, with live coaching and peer feedback throughout the day. By the end, the gap between your actual ability and how people perceive you starts to close.
You won't leave sounding more polished. You'll leave being clearer, more direct, and more useful when the stakes are high and the room is busy.
What you’ll learn
Close the gap between how good your work is and how people perceive you in the room.
Senior leaders trust your judgment because your point is clear, your reasoning is visible, and you don't need a second meeting to land it.
When a senior leader puts you on the spot, you respond with a clear position. People remember how you handled the moment.
Your manager thinks "I'm glad they told me directly" instead of wondering why they're hearing about it now.
You stop being the person who does great work nobody notices. Leadership sees you as ready for more responsibility.
You separate what you know from what you're inferring. People trust your read because you're transparent about your confidence level.
You have a repeatable approach across updates, recommendations, and difficult conversations. Less time agonizing, more time doing the work.
Workshop agenda
Your Baseline: The 90-Second Brief
Record an unscripted 90-second briefing on a real workplace issue. No prep, no second take. You'll use this to identify your default patterns and compare against your capstone at the end of the day.
Read the Room Before You Speak
Before drafting anything, research your audience. What do they own? What are they measured on? You'll practice adapting the same issue for different decision-makers using real scenarios.
Lead With the Point
The decision-ready message spine: headline, impact, recommendation, tradeoff, ask. Rewrite real messages, master async channels, build project updates senior leaders can act on.
From Complexity to Recommendation
Separate fact from inference from uncertainty, surface real tradeoffs, and present a recommendation with calibrated confidence that earns trust even when the answer isn't obvious.
Deliver With Calm Authority
Verbal delivery for senior audiences. Structured openings, vocal pacing, concise answers, the discipline to stop after you've made the point. Practice the 90-second brief format with live coaching.
Stay Useful Under Pressure
Handle Q&A, pushback, and disagreement with someone senior. Respond to hard questions using a three-sentence structure. Disagree constructively by validating first, then stating your position.
Communicate Bad News and Uncertainty
Deliver difficult information (missed deadlines, incidents, mistakes) so your credibility goes up, not down: name it, state the impact, present the plan, own it. Communicate during ambiguity.
Capstone: The Executive Briefing
Re-record your 90-second brief using everything from the day. Compare against your Module 0 baseline. Receive coaching from the instructor and structured peer feedback.
Who this workshop is for
Senior ICs, staff engineers, and tech leads who brief VPs, directors, and steering committees
New and experienced managers who present recommendations, run decision meetings, and communicate upward
Project leaders, program managers, and cross-functional operators who translate complex work for senior audiences
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Mamal Poladia in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
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Reimbursement
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Everything L&D needs: email template, receipts, and certificate of completion.
Get reimbursedTeam discount
Learn with your teammates
Save 20%+ when 2 or more teammates enroll in the same cohort.
Save 20%+ with a teamPrivate cohort
Run a cohort for your org
A dedicated cohort with a custom schedule and curriculum, tailored to your team.
Book a private cohort$399
USD
12–3pm EDT