The Uncommon Executive

Oct24

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Feb 2025

EP June 25

Your superpower is a strength that makes you stand out as a leader. It is what you can do better than most as a leader. Superpowers often start as innate preferences honed through experience.&nbsp; Take a short quiz to find your executive superpower and in what contexts it is most valued.

Discover Your Superpower

Have you felt the sudden attention shift to focus on someone entering the room? Or the collective sigh of relief when someone speaks up during a group meeting to put the discussion back on course? Or the unmistakable voice of respect one person uses for another? This is executive presence. It is made up of multiple components put together, and it can be learned.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Components of Executive Presence

Use GenAI prompts & tools to help you command the room, communicate concisely, and nail high-stakes conversations with executives. 

Yue Zhao

Master Executive Presence & Communication

Director

Senior Product Manager

Senior engineering manager 

Sr Director

Senior Manager

Product Marketing Lead

Chief of Staff. Scaled Operations. 

Principal Product Manager

Dec'24 and Mar'25 cohorts for this course are full. By popular demand, I have opened a June cohort with limited spots. Also *New* for June, I have added battle-tested GenAI tools that help you prep for curveball questions, tailor your writing, and improve your voice and tone. If you have been wanting to take this course, grab a spot!- Yue----------- Learn how to use GenAI tools to increase your influence, communicate effectively, and be viewed as a leader across your organization. Designed for emerging leaders and seasoned professionals alike, this course helps you build executive presence, sharpen your communication skills, and boost you into the top 1% of effective communicators and leaders. Through practical exercises, real-life use cases, and GenAI prompts and tools, we will explore together:- how the nuances of body language, clothing, and tone affect your perceived seniority and authority- how to choose powerful words and frame your communications at an executive level- how to command a (virtual) room and influence others in remote-first environments- Tips and tricks for building a confident mindset ahead of high-stakes conversations- how investing in relationships outside the room affects the power you hold within it You will learn to communicate with clarity and confidence, adapt your approach based on stakeholders, and drive effective decision-making in complex situations. Learn GenAI prompts and tools to help you prep for high-stakes conversations, draft executive communications, identify and improve your verbal quirks, and more. The course offers live practice sessions and take-home projects to help you apply what you've learned in your workplace, along with live Q&amp;A sessions to deepen your understanding. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with the tools to manage high-stakes conversations with ease. Join us to enhance your leadership capabilities, build authentic connections with other classmates, and accelerate your career trajectory. --- Expected outcomes: ﻿- Enhanced Communication Skills: Clear, confident, and effective communication- Improved Body Language: Effectively use non-verbal cues to project authority and confidence.- Stronger Emotional Intelligence: Learn to frame your communications from the receiver's perspective to 10X impact and adoption.- Higher Influence and Persuasion: Proven techniques to persuade and motivate others with different backgrounds, experiences, and priorities.- Increase Your Power and Confidence: Build self-assurance to lead and influence others effectively.- Accelerated learning with GenAI Tools: Use GenAI to help you prep, practice, and improve all aspects of written and verbal communication. --- From A Successful CPO &amp; CTO in Silicon Valley Yue shares the highest impact tactics and frameworks from 15+ years of executive leadership in Silicon Valley and coaching hundreds of senior executives and leaders. Yue invested in her own executive presence as a double minority (Asian, Female) to get promoted from PM to CPO in less than 15 years, landing mission-critical roles at Tier 1 Sequoia-backed startups and Meta alike. Hundreds of Alumni from: Slack, OpenAI, Instacart, Guild Education, SurveyMonkey, Amazon, Uber, Venture Firms, Revolve, Paypal, Braze, Meta, Thumbtack, Google, Capitol One, Figma, Microsoft, GenAI startups, EY, Deloitte, All Raise, Sift, Sprout Social, and more. Well-loved and EffectiveA version of this course was run on Reforge with 90% promoters for the content and 98% promoters for the instructor. ----------- This course is part of The Uncommon Executive Leadership Accelerator, an 8-week group coaching program that helps women and minority leaders fast-track to executive levels. The program covers additional topics like getting sponsorship, increasing influence, self-advocacy, setting boundaries, and strength-based growth.https://www.yuezhao.coach/accelerate ----

Gain Respect, Inspire Confidence, and Lead with Greater Impact

Provide a brief description for each module as a way to sell the value of what students will be learning throughout the course.

First Module

Second Module

Third Module

Course syllabus

If your events are recurring and at the same time, it might be easiest to use a single line item to communicate your course schedule to students

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Feel free to type out dates as your title as a way to communicate information about specific live sessions or other events.

May 7, 2022

Schedule items can also be used to convey commitments outside of specific time slots (like weekly projects or daily office hours).

Weekly projects

Course schedule

Senior Managers, Directors, and Principal ICs who aspire to be senior leaders. Self-motivated. Min 4 years of work experience.

Those feeling overlooked or talked over, and want to better manage a room, increase their influence, and get noticed.

Those who want to more effectively communicate their value, seniority, and leadership style to their leaders or hiring managers.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Learn how to facilitate and stand out as a leader in executive reviews, VP-level discussions, and large group meetings.

Land high-stakes conversations and get decisions to stick.

Improve your body language, voice control, and emotional intelligence. Learn how to develop a commanding presence, gain respect, and improve your leadership capabilities.

Increase your presence and command of a room visually.

Learn how to frame your communications based on your audience (executives, peers, team, technical, not technical, etc), answer difficult questions on the spot, and move critical conversations forward.

Adapt your communication style to effectively influence across functions and org lines

Maintain and enhance executive presence in remote-first or remote-only environments. Learn to build rapport and direct your influence through video.

Battle-tested tactics for virtual and remote-first workplaces.

Build rapport with executives, gain their trust, and manage their expectations effectively.

Meet and manage up to your leadership with confidence

80%+ of communication is non-verbal. Maintain a powerful posture at the table and virtually. Have your presence acknowledged. Learn to use your appearance to your advantage. Accessorize your way to visibility and power.

Polish your appearance, posture, and tone to gain respect

Women and Minorities face additional challenges when it comes to holding power and building influence. Learn unique tactics for balancing gender and cultural norms and contradictory expectations!

Overcome biases and stereotypes in executive leadership

Learn how to use GenAI tools to help you practice for high-stakes conversations, improve your verbal communication, and draft concise written communications.

Use GenAI tools to Prep and Practice

Doing a lot but not getting noticed?Feeling stuck in place?Wondering whether you should stick it out or head elsewhere? Learn how to tailor your work to best leverage your leadership superpowers.Did you know that at the highest levels of leadership, companies are often looking for spiky talent, not "well-rounded" leaders?Shift your mindset. Ruthlessly prioritize your time to focus on the work that helps you stand out. When you align your work to your superpower, you'll deliver more impact, get noticed, and move up into executive leadership fast. --- Focus on strength-based growth* Take your leadership strengths and what you love to do and turn them into your superpower* Learn real-life examples of superpowers of famous executives like Fiji Simo, Steve Jobs, and more.* Know potential pitfalls (or “shadows”) of your superpower* Manage multiple superpowers and adapt them to different leadership roles Craft your career trajectory * Craft your pitch for projects that showcase your superpower* Turn your superpower into your personal brand* Ditch the work that isn't getting you ahead. Get promoted* Build a positive cycle of delivering impact and advocating for your work* Incorporate your superpower into performance reviews and promotion processes --- When you reach a certain level in the workplace, it is no longer about shoring up your weaknesses.Instead, focusing on your strengths will get you further, and faster. Learn how to align your work to your superpower and career progression not only possible, but inevitable. --- What you will learn* Map your superpower to the type of projects and work environment that uniquely values your strengths.* Prioritize how you spend time and what projects you take on* Learn how to delegate or say "no" to projects that fall outside your superpowers* How to advocate for your wins and build your personal brand* Translate your superpower into a strong promotion narrative. --- Course content is based on Yue's personal experience leveraging her leadership superpowers to get promoted from PM to CPO in less than 15 years, landing mission-critical roles at Tier 1 startups and Meta alike. She also leveraged her superpowers to transition industries from consulting to product management to venture capital. Alumni from: Slack, OpenAI, Instacart, Guild Education, SurveyMonkey, Paypal, Braze, Meta, Instagram, Thumbtack, Sequoia-backed Tier I Startups, Google, Capitol One, Figma, Microsoft, and more. Well-loved and EffectiveA version of this course was run on Reforge with 90% promoters for the content and 98% promoters for the instructor. -----This is one of three Maven courses by Yue designed to help women and minority leaders fast-track to the C-suite. * Mastering Executive Presence &amp; Communication: https://maven.com/yuezhao/execpre* Chart Your Path to Executive Leadership: https://maven.com/yuezhao/superpowers* Self-Advocacy and Influencing Upwards: https://maven.com/yuezhao/selfadvocacy For more, Yue also runs The Uncommon Executive Leadership Launchpad, an 8-week leadership transformation program that helps women and minority leaders fast-track to executive levels. The program covers the topics above and adds additional topics like sponsorship, relationship building, and building sustainability in your career. It also combines curriculum with coaching and community in a way you will not find anywhere else. Check out the full program here: https://www.yuezhao.coach/accelerate ----

Chart Your Path to Executive Leadership Through Focusing On Your Strengths

Focused discussions on the week's material and live Q&amp;A.

Thursdays each week

Personal projects with each lesson are designed to apply theory and examples to your specific environment.

Projects for Async Feedback

Refined and honed through workshops and classes taught at top tech and consumer companies, each lesson is packed with tactics and examples that are relevant and applicable to you and your workplace.

Well-loved, easy-to-digest lessons 

Leaders with more than 4 years of work experience in their industry looking to hone in on an area of strength.

High-achieving leaders who want to deliver more impact while raising the bar for their team.

Leaders who want to figure out what type of company or work is the best fit for their strengths and leadership style

Are you a turnaround guru? Visionary leader? Team builder? Are you uniquely able to see the special talent in others? Stay extra calm under pressure? Follow a proven method to identity your superpower based on your strengths and passions.

Discover Your Leadership Superpowers

Startups look for visionaries. Scaling growth companies look for seasoned operators. Work with me to transition to projects and places where you'll be invaluable to the business.

Supercharge your impact at work - become irreplaceable and get promoted

Learn tactics to advocate for your business impact and wins. Get feedback from myself and the community on your personal brand -- the external articulation of your superpower.

Build your personal brand to land a stretch role 

Superpowers help you deliver more impact with less work. Learn tactics and frameworks to improve your energy flow throughout the day, recharge quickly between meetings, and maintain a sustainable workload while taking on stretch projects.

Decrease your stress and improve your work-life balance 

Get tailored support throughout the course through projects and live Q&amp;A sessions. Hear directly from Yue how she aligned her superpower to her career, landing her in the C-suite and a 7-figure income in 15 years.

Get personalized feedback (not just theory)

Chart your path to the executive level by leaning into your leadership superpowers. Find environments that value you for who you are.

Use GenAI to Nail Questions From Executives With Confidence

Executive Coach, CPTO, Author

Use GenAI to come up with FAQs for your executive meeting. Practice your answers and get feedback

Prompts to Help You Prepare

Use videos to get feedback on your executive presence and catch quirks

Recording Videos for Feedback

Use GenAI to uplevel your communication or tailor it to your specific audience.

Prompts to Uplevel

How To Say What Truly Matters in Leadership Interviews

CTO & CTO, Executive Coach, Author, Ex-Meta, Thumbtack, McKinsey

What is the interviewer really looking for? What is the question behind the question? Get curious to Get Relevant

How to Uncover What Truly Matters to the Interviewer

When is it your turn to ask questions? How do you ask them most effectively?

How and When to Ask Probing Questions

Learn how to influence how hiring teams think about "the Top candidate."

What Most Qualified Candidates Miss At The End

Nail Your Executive Presence in High Stakes Settings

Chief Product & Technology Officer, Leadership coach, Author, Ex-Meta, McKinsey

Lorraine K. Lee

Teaches communication @ Stanford Continuing Studies, Speaker, Prev. Dir @ Prezi

How to facilitate well as a contributor, leader, or executive

How to Manage the Room Based On Your Seniority

How to "think on your feet" when you need to think before you speak

3 Tips for introverts to increase their presence

2 frameworks for communicating with confidence with executives.

How to speak with confidence with executives

How High Performing Execs Manage Their Time

Chief Product Officer turned Career Coach; Ex-Meta, McKinsey, Thumbtack

Allyson Letteri

VP Marketing at Handshake, Startup Advisor

Our calendar dictates how we spend time. Putting thought and effort into it ensures priorities are truly priorities

Calendar management to enforce prioritization

How calendar planning is done differs by horizon. Learn what to look for and why.

Build the quarter, 2-week, daily plan

Allyson will discuss how priorities change for a PMM, VP of Marketing, or startup advisor.

Learn how priorities vary by role

Uncover Your Leadership Superpower to Elevate Your Career

Learn common types of superpowers and where they're most valued

4 examples of leadership superpowers

Proven ways to identify and focus on what makes your leadership unique and irreplacable.

4 ways to hone in on your superpower

Adapt your schedule, project priorities, and more to regain energy and deliver more value.

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