Your strongest leaders are technically sound 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 speaking moment. Practiced Presence provides the practice, structure, and tools to close this gap. A two-day in-person kickoff builds the foundation. Two live virtual sessions follow every month for the rest of the year, and the program closes with a capstone presentation to executive sponsors.
"Public speaking is a skill, and a skill can be learned." · Summer Alexander
Organizations Summer has worked with
You have probably already seen these in a room.
Organizations start this conversation when they notice a pattern in the room. A meeting needs a second meeting before anyone reaches a decision. A recommendation stalls without anyone saying why. A leader who is confident in the work sounds far 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 arrives last, after the room has stopped listening for it.
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 can unravel the whole message. 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, and performance skills can be taught and learned. Live practice sits at the center of this program.
Four phases, one arc.
The year moves through four phases: pre-work that captures the starting point, a two-day in-person foundation, eleven months of live practice, and a close where leaders demonstrate their skills in front of sponsors. Leaders practice real scenarios from their day-to-day work, including the presentation they have to present to the executive team, the customer briefing, the resource request, and the difficult conversation they have been avoiding.
Schedule a CallBefore Kickoff
Pre-Work
Each participant completes an Insights Discovery assessment and a communication self-assessment one week before day one. The self-assessment establishes the starting point the close will measure against.
Month 1
The Two-Day Kickoff
A two-day in-person session that teaches the frameworks and puts every leader in front of the room twice. Day one covers the assessment debrief, Human-Centered Strategic Storytelling™, and executive presence. Day two is coaching, rehearsal, and final presentations.
Months 2 to 12
The Practice Year
There are two live virtual sessions every month. The 4-hour practice lab is built on a themed curriculum, and each leader works their real material in front of the room and leaves with a commitment for the next 30 days. A 90-minute group coaching session follows two weeks later, where leaders bring live challenges and get them addressed on the spot.
Month 12
The Close and Capstone
Participants complete the post self-assessment, sponsors complete their observation rubric, and every leader delivers a capstone presentation to their executive sponsors, followed by a sponsor debrief.
All year
Sponsor visibility
Sponsors of the program will see the growth show up throughout the year in real time, in the meetings, presentations, and conversations these leaders have on a day-to-day basis. Sponsors will receive a quarterly progress report to keep the picture current all year.
One skill each month, practiced on real work.
There are two live virtual sessions every month. The 4-hour lab runs the same arc each time, and a 90-minute group coaching session follows two weeks later. Leaders bring their own workplace scenarios to every month's topic, so they practice on the work already sitting on their desk. Themes can be reordered to meet your organization's calendar.
Teach · 60 min
One framework or skill is taught in full, with worked examples and room for questions.
Build · 30 min
Each leader applies it to a real challenge from their current work.
Practice · 2 hours
Leaders deliver live and receive direct facilitator feedback along with structured peer feedback. Everyone presents, every month.
Commit · 10 min
Each leader names where they will use the skill in the next 30 days.
Coaching · 90 min
Leaders bring live challenges to a virtual session two weeks later and get them addressed in the room.
Month 1 · The Two-Day Kickoff
The kickoff covers the assessment debrief, Human-Centered Strategic Storytelling™, and executive presence. Every leader builds a real presentation and delivers it with coaching, twice.
Month 2 · Frameworks and Storytelling for Every Room
Leaders apply the Narrative Flow Structure across the meeting types they face most, including executive briefings, project updates, client conversations, and team meetings.
Month 3 · The Mechanics of Speaking
Leaders work on the physical side of delivery, including poise, breath, pace, volume, and posture, so their body supports the message when the stakes are highest.
Month 4 · Influence Without Authority
Leaders learn how to influence outcomes and decisions without direct authority, which is the reality of most cross-functional work, using the 3 Pillars of Influence and the Influence Map.
Month 5 · Executive Presence in Everyday Moments
Presence is built in small moments long before the large ones. Leaders practice status updates, skip-levels, hallway conversations, and the meetings that fill their week.
Month 6 · Making the Ask
Leaders learn to structure a request that wins budget, headcount, resources, or a decision. Each one delivers a real ask they owe someone and sharpens it before they make it.
Month 7 · Handling the Critic, the Contrarian, and the Skeptic
Leaders practice holding their message under live pushback, building composure and clarity for the moments when a senior audience challenges the recommendation.
Month 8 · Storytelling with Data
Leaders turn analysis into a narrative decision makers remember and act on. Each one brings real data or a working deck and rebuilds it around the decision it should drive.
Month 9 · Speaking Off the Cuff
Leaders learn to organize their thinking in the moment for unscripted, high-stakes dialogue. The session drills the hallway question, the surprise ask, and the executive who joins halfway through.
Month 10 · Strategic Visibility
Leaders map where they stand with the people who make decisions about their work, then build a plan to be seen and heard in the rooms that matter to their goals.
Month 11 · Capstone Build
Each leader constructs and rehearses the presentation they will deliver to their executive sponsors, with full coaching on structure, message, and delivery.
Month 12 · Graduation Showcase
Every leader delivers a live capstone presentation to their executive sponsors, showing what they learned and how it changed the way they communicate at work.
Two days built entirely on practice.
Day one teaches the frameworks and executive presence and runs a first practice round. Day two is coaching, rehearsal, rework, and a five-minute final presentation from every leader.
Foundation & Frameworks
Every participant speaks in the first 30 minutes. Improv introductions, a facilitated debrief of both pre-work assessments 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.
Peer & Facilitator Coaching
Concentrated peer and facilitator coaching to allow time to act on feedback, followed by protected rework time to apply it before going live.
Final Presentations & Close
Every leader delivers a five-minute final presentation with targeted feedback, run in two rounds with breaks between them. 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 of this 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.
Presentation Prep Workbook
A printed workbook guides leaders through structuring, building, and rehearsing any presentation, from executive briefings to team updates.
Make the Ask Booklet
A printed booklet 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 teaching portion of each lab is recorded and hosted by Simply Training Solutions, with participant access through 30 days after the final live session. 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 at the close.
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, sequenced or in parallel.
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. Available year-round.
Monthly Rhythm
A lab and a coaching session
A 4-hour lab plus a 90-minute group coaching session two weeks later, delivered virtually by default
Assessments
Insights Discovery and a self-assessment
Included. Completed one week before kickoff and repeated at the close
Investment
Outlined in your proposal
Travel, accommodations, and venue billed separately
Materials
A printed toolkit
Workbooks, the Make the Ask booklet, and the coaching cards for every participant
Measurement
A before-and-after picture
Self-assessment, sponsor rubric, and facilitator feedback, proven live at the Month 12 capstone
Summer Alexander, M.A.
Leadership Development Facilitator & Executive Communication 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 leadership programs across four continents 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.
Thirty minutes to talk through what your leaders are working on and whether this program fits.
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