Your strongest leaders are technically strong and may still struggle to communicate at the level their role requires.
That gap shows up in executive briefings, presentations, meetings, difficult conversations, and every other high-visibility moment. Practiced Presence closes it with a 12-month program built on live practice. A two-day in-person kickoff installs the framework, monthly practice labs turn it into habit, and in Month 12 every leader delivers a capstone presentation to their executive sponsors.
"The executive meeting should never be the rehearsal." · Summer Alexander
Organizations Summer has worked with
You have probably already seen these in a room.
Communication gaps show up as small moments that are easy to explain away. A meeting that needs a second meeting. A recommendation that stalls without anyone saying why. A leader who is confident in the work and less certain in front of the executive team. Six signals show up most often.
They struggle to turn complex thinking into a clear message
They understand the work at a depth almost no one else in the building does. The version that reaches the room arrives dense, technical, and hard to act on.
They present data without explaining what it means
The analysis is complete and the audience is left to work out the implication on their own. The room hears numbers at the moment it needs a recommendation and a next step.
They bury the recommendation under background
By the time the ask arrives, the executive audience has spent its attention on context it already had. The strongest part of the message lands last and lands quietly.
They have difficulty making the case for resources
Budget, headcount, and executive support go to the leader who builds the clearest argument. Strong work loses to a clearer case more often than most organizations want to admit.
They lose their point when challenged by senior leaders
One hard question from the head of the table and the message unravels. Composure and clarity under pushback are trainable skills, and most leaders have never been taught them.
They need stronger communication for greater responsibility
High-potential leaders are being prepared for wider scope and larger audiences. Their communication skills need to grow to match the rooms they are about to sit in.
Communication is a performance skill. Leaders strengthen it by speaking, receiving feedback, adjusting, and trying again. Live practice sits at the center of this program.
One connected arc across 12 months.
Most training fades within weeks, because performance skills decay without repetition. This program holds because the practice never stops. Leaders work real scenarios from their actual roles: the presentation they owe the executive team, the customer briefing, the resource request, the difficult conversation they have been avoiding. They receive direct coaching and specific feedback while there is still time to improve the message.
Schedule a CallBefore Kickoff
Pre-Work
Insights Discovery assessment and a communication self-assessment, completed one week before day one. This is the "before" picture the year will be measured against.
Month 1
The Two-Day Kickoff
The core framework installed in person: the Insights Discovery debrief, Human-Centered Strategic Storytelling™, and executive presence, with practice rounds, individual coaching, and a final presentation from every leader.
Months 2 to 12
Monthly Practice Labs
One live 4-hour lab each month, one skill per month, practiced on each leader's real work with direct feedback and a commitment to apply it. The month between labs is where the skill goes to work, and every lab opens by checking those commitments.
Month 11
The Before and After
Leaders retake the self-assessment and sponsors complete an observation rubric, producing a one-page before-and-after per participant and a cohort roll-up for the sponsor.
Month 12
The Capstone
Each leader presents to their executive sponsors: what they learned, the skills they built, and how it showed up in their work, followed by a sponsor debrief and next-cohort conversation.
All Year
Sponsor Visibility
The growth shows up in real meetings, month over month, before it appears in any report. A quarterly progress report to the executive sponsor then makes it undeniable. There are no surprises waiting at renewal.
One skill each month, practiced on real work.
Every lab runs the same arc: teach, build, practice, commit. One skill taught in 45 minutes, applied to a real challenge from each leader's desk, delivered live with feedback, and carried into the month with a named commitment, because the weeks between labs are where the skill goes to work. Leaders bring their own workplace scenarios to every month's topic, so the theme is the lens and their work is the material, and themes can be reordered to meet your organization's calendar.
Month 1 · The Core Framework
The two-day kickoff: Insights Discovery, Human-Centered Strategic Storytelling™, and executive presence. Every leader builds a real presentation and delivers it with coaching, twice.
Month 2 · Message Structure at Speed
Leaders bring a live presentation or briefing from their current work, rebuild it with the Narrative Flow Structure, and deliver it for feedback.
Month 3 · The Foundation Presentation
Every leader delivers the full presentation developed since kickoff, integrating structure and presence, with a complete feedback round.
Month 4 · Influence Without Authority
Leaders map a real stakeholder they need to move and deliver the case, using the 3 Pillars of Influence and the Influence Map.
Month 5 · Executive Presence in Everyday Moments
Leaders recreate the moments that repeat on their calendar, including status updates, skip-levels, and meeting contributions, and practice commanding them.
Month 6 · Making the Ask
Every leader delivers a real ask they owe someone, whether that is budget, headcount, a decision, or support, structured to win it.
Month 7 · Handling the Critic, the Contrarian, and the Skeptic
Leaders deliver their real content while the cohort applies live pushback, practicing composure and clarity under pressure.
Month 8 · Storytelling with Data
Leaders bring actual analysis or a working deck and turn it into a narrative that moves decision makers, then deliver it.
Month 9 · Speaking Off the Cuff
Unscripted rounds are built from each leader's real topics, including the hallway question, the surprise ask, and the executive drop-in.
Month 10 · Strategic Visibility
Leaders identify the rooms that matter for their goals and practice the contribution they have been holding back.
Month 11 · Capstone Build
Each leader constructs and rehearses the presentation they will deliver to their sponsors, with full coaching.
Month 12 · Graduation Showcase
Live capstone to executive sponsors: what they learned, the skills they built, and how it showed up in their work all year.
Two days built entirely on practice.
Day one teaches the framework and executive presence and runs a first practice round. Day two is individual coaching, rehearsal, rework, and a five-minute final presentation from every leader.
Foundation & Frameworks
Every participant speaks in the first 35 minutes. Improv introductions, a facilitated Insights Discovery debrief that builds the cohort's shared communication language, and the Strategic Storytelling Framework taught in full with worked examples.
Build & First Practice
Each leader structures the real presentation they brought with the facilitator coaching on the floor, learns the executive presence work they will use the next day, and delivers in a first practice round with peer and facilitator feedback.
Coaching & Rehearsal
Day two is built around individual attention. One-on-one facilitator coaching while leaders rehearse, followed by protected rework time to apply the feedback before going live.
Final Presentations & Close
Every leader delivers a five-minute final presentation with targeted facilitator feedback. The cohort sets first commitments, the practice workbook is introduced, and the kickoff closes.
The full hour-by-hour agenda is included in the program overview, shared after a discovery conversation.
Three pillars. One integrated program.
Built on Summer's Human-Centered Strategic Storytelling™ Framework, developed over 15 years of facilitating leadership programs across four continents.
Insights Discovery Debrief
Leaders complete the assessment as pre-work. The kickoff opens with a facilitated debrief that builds a shared language for how each person naturally communicates and how they are experienced by others. It frames everything that follows.
Human-Centered Strategic Storytelling™
Leaders learn the Narrative Flow Structure and apply it immediately to the real presentation they brought. Clear, audience-centered messages structured for impact across presentations, briefings, and stakeholder conversations.
Executive Presence
Leaders work on vocal authority, physical grounding, and the delivery habits that build or undercut credibility. This is taught on day one so they can prepare how they show up for their own finals the next day.
What the framework gives leaders
- Communicate complex ideas clearly
- Make their thinking and judgment visible
- Adapt messages for different audiences
- Gain support for recommendations
- Respond to questions and pushback
- Close with a clear decision, ask, or next step
Also included
Ethical AI Integration
Leaders learn to use AI during preparation while preserving the expertise, judgment, emotional intelligence, and human connection that build credibility in the room. Your leaders are already using these tools. This gives them a defensible way to do it.
The toolkit.
Every participant receives the complete Leadership Storytelling Toolkit, delivered in print and as downloadable workbooks. There is no software to install and no online platform for your IT or security team to review.
Presentation Prep Workbook
A physical workbook guides leaders through structuring, building, and rehearsing any presentation, from executive briefings to team updates.
Make the Ask Workbook
A digital workbook walks leaders through planning a high-stakes request, clarifying the audience, the goal, the message, and the ask before the conversation happens.
Everyday Public Speaking Coaching Cards
A physical card deck built on the framework gives leaders story structures, audience prompts, and trigger questions for any high-stakes moment.
The Practice Workbook
Each monthly lab has a matching set of prompts, reflection questions, and self-coaching exercises that carry the practice between sessions.
Monthly Teaching Replays
The 45-minute teaching portion of each lab is recorded and delivered for your internal systems. Practice rounds are never recorded.
Quarterly Sponsor Reports
The executive sponsor receives a written progress report each quarter, along with a before-and-after measurement picture in Month 11.
10 to 12 leaders per cohort.
The program is built on practice with live feedback, and cohorts are designed to be intentionally small so every leader gets specific feedback and coaching. Every leader gets in front of the room every single month, and a 4-hour lab can only hold so many rounds. A cohort stays together for the full 12 months, so trust builds in the room and the feedback gets sharper as the year goes on. Organizations with more leaders to develop can run multiple cohorts.
Organizations fill their cohort with senior leaders who present to executive teams, boards, or key external audiences, and with high-potential leaders being prepared for larger roles, including succession-planning candidates.
Investment outlined in your program proposal. Travel, accommodations, and venue costs are billed separately.
Location
Kickoff on-site at your location
Or in Dallas, TX at a Simply Training Solutions venue. Monthly labs run live and virtual by default.
Availability
Year-round
The full-year lab calendar is set within 30 days of signing
Pre-Work
Insights Discovery
Included. Completed no later than one week before kickoff
Investment
Outlined in your proposal
Travel, accommodations, and venue billed separately
Materials
Print and digital toolkit
Nothing for your IT or security team to review
Measurement
A before-and-after picture
Self-assessment and sponsor rubric, proven live at the Month 12 capstone
Summer Alexander, M.A.
Leadership Development Facilitator & Public Speaking Coach
Summer Alexander has spent 15 years helping leaders close the gap between knowing their work and being able to make it land in a room. She has facilitated programs across four continents, coached more than 125 leaders, and built the Human-Centered Strategic Storytelling™ Framework on what actually changes how leaders show up under pressure.
She has coached more than 125 leaders one-on-one and trained thousands more through workshops and corporate programs. Her work is grounded in adult learning theory, organizational leadership, and 15 years of speaking and facilitation. She is the founder of Simply Training Solutions and the creator of Practiced Presence™, the Leadership Influence Style Assessment, and the Everyday Public Speaking Coaching Cards.
"Your work won't speak for itself. You have to be the voice of your ideas, thinking, and decisions."
From the rooms Summer has led.
Feedback from leaders and program owners who have brought Summer's sessions to their organizations.
The session provided us with practical strategies to tackle these challenges effectively. Since the session, we've observed significant positive impacts... The interactive exercises were particularly engaging, allowing us to apply strategic thinking concepts in real-time. Summer's expertise and ability to create a safe space for open dialogue were also highly appreciated.
Marisa Tatum
Senior Global DEI Manager, Teradata
Summer provided a clear, step-by-step approach... making the process accessible and actionable for all participants. The impact of her session was immediate: attendees left feeling more confident and equipped with practical strategies... We highly recommend Summer for any organization looking to strengthen their professional development offerings.
Jennifer McClain
Senior Director, LISC
Summer Alexander brought confidence, authenticity, and real practical wisdom to the conversation, helping attendees think differently about how they build trust, influence outcomes, and lead without relying on title alone. She has a gift for making people feel both capable and inspired... Do yourself a favor and book her. You won't regret it!
Isis Miller
Events Program Manager, Pinterest
Schedule a discovery call.
If your organization is preparing leaders for bigger rooms, bigger decisions, and greater influence, let's talk. Thirty minutes to understand what your leaders are working on and whether this program fits. No pressure, no pitch deck.
Book a 30-Minute CallPrefer email? summera@simplytrainingsolutions.com · 469-575-5719
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