Executive Education

The Winning Edge: Communication Strategies for Leaders

Programme Overview

You are a competent manager and the boss of dozens, scores, or perhaps even hundreds of people. But do these people regard you as a leader? Does your communication radiate leadership? Do you wish you could engage with your followers more effectively? 

 

If you are perceived only as a boss and not as a leader, you may be constantly facing a battle that seems to not go your way despite your great ideas and strategies. In these fast-changing times, you can no longer command compliance on the strength of your status alone. Your colleagues and subordinates have to willingly concede that you are their leader and follow you. Your ideas need to be sold to others if you want them to take ownership of implementing these and making them successful. Unless each individual is inspired to work towards the goals, these appear uninteresting and perhaps impossible to achieve. The spark of inspiration and motivation is to be provided by your communications as a leader. Working with people in a world where traditional hierarchies have yielded place to more flat structures, our biggest strength may turn out to be our ability to inspire trust, to establish credibility, and to earn respect. 

 

Communicating like a leader will give you and your team the winning edge. What does it mean to communicate like a leader? There is no single, clear definition, nor a magic formula for a one-size-fits-all solution to the challenge of developing the necessary skills. Analyzing various aspects of communicating as a leader and reflecting on our own style may make us aware of the need to modify our approach and to develop a communication style that radiates leadership. Such a style must suit our personality, strengths, values, and circumstances. The Winning Edge helps you to systematically reflect on your current communication approach and strategies and to refine these so that they best serve your goals in your leadership position.

 

We invite you to join us to reflect and ponder over what it means to communicate like a leader. In the process, you will sharpen your most important managerial tool and test it out on highly accomplished peers from other functional areas and organisations. The experience could pave the way for a transformation for you, for your team, and perhaps for your organisation. 

Program Objectives

We will sensitise you to the challenges of communicating as a leader and help you in reviewing your leadership style. This will put you on the path to honing your communication skills and developing strategies for effectively meeting a range of communication challenges as a leader. Here is a tentative list of topics to be covered:  

Leadership and Communication Persuasion strategies for leaders Writing with impact Listening to lead Strategic communication Leading change Difficult conversations Ethical leadership Intercultural competence for leaders Creating leadership stories Speaking to inspire and motivate

Program Highlights

We follow the participant-centred 'workshop methodology'. Various activities including group work, role-plays, case analysis, and interactive mini-lectures are used to explore the themes. The focus of the entire programme is on helping you reflect on your styles and strategies rather than teaching you concepts. Be prepared to be stretched. You won't have a dull moment during the programme.

Program Coordinator

Rahul Gupta rahul-exed@iima.ac.in +91 87588 00397
IIMA