Communications Excellence Program
Perfect Your Communication Skills to Engage and Persuade Audiences
Overview
The Communications Excellence training program offers a comprehensive curriculum designed to help you perfect your communication skills, interact with clear intent, establish your confidence and leadership presence, craft and deliver a truly memorable pitch, and master advanced presentation skills.
Through this intensive leadership communication training, participants will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to overcome public speaking anxiety and develop persuasive presentation abilities that inspire and engage their audience. This program not only boosts individual confidence in both business and interpersonal communication but also develops your personal communication style while establishing your influence.
Key Takeaways
Interact with Clear Intent
Understand why effective communication is essential in business and learn how to tailor your communications, whether verbal or nonverbal —from presentations to PowerPoints—to connect with any audience and get the precise results you want and need.
Develop Your Confidence and Leadership Presence
Acquire and practice effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills by leveraging your breath, body, and voice to maximize your impact and presence during public speaking. Through intentional practice, master how to seamlessly integrate each element of effective communication into your daily habits.
Perfect Your Personal Communication Style
Define, develop, and refine personal strategies uniquely suited to you and your business to create memorable pitches, maximize your presence in the Zoomiverse, recognize when something isn’t working, and make masterful adjustments.
More about the Communications Excellence program
No matter what industry you’re in or what level you are within your organization, your success relies on your ability to communicate with excellence. Speaking confidently and engaging and persuading multiple audiences using a variety of communication styles—whether in team meetings, town halls, or stakeholder presentations—requires relationship-building skills and advanced professional communication capabilities.
This is where our Communications Excellence Program comes in. Part business communications intensive, part interpersonal communications class, this powerful program was designed to help leaders and professionals—like yourself—communicate more effectively in complex business environments and bring your work to the next level to dramatically strengthen your impact.
Enjoy An Engaging Program Experience
Throughout the program, faculty directors Adam Leipzig, Penny Kreitzer, and Juliana Schroeder lead participants through a dynamic blend of activities including:
- lively discussions and group exercises
- powerful gestures and body language workshop
- guided practice and rehearsal components
- pitch refinement
- coaching
- illuminating hands-on exercises
- persuasion goal-setting*
*Note: you will choose a real-world goal and be led through a framework to help articulate, refine, and organize your persuasive strategy.
Emerge Confident in Your Communications Excellence
Communications Excellence is an advanced communication training for executives that engages you on a profoundly personal leadership development journey to foster the executive communications skills you didn’t know you had. You’ll learn how to establish winning communication strategies, create memorable pitches, confidently make adjustments in real-time, be in the moment, and connect to your audience with an authentic, clear, and powerful message.
You’ll leave the program with the confidence to engage and persuade audiences, build relationships, interact with clear intent, appear confident and poised, and deliver stellar presentations.
Who's it for
- Senior leadership executives and high-potential professionals in business development, sales, and marketing teams looking to effectively lead their teams and drive business growth
- Professionals in leadership roles at nonprofit and service organizations needing to effectively convey their organization's mission, build relationships, and inspire support
- Web developers and engineers looking to communicate with other departments to effectively communicate technical information, collaborate, and understand the needs of stakeholders
- Entrepreneurs seeking to develop leadership communications skills to effectively pitch their ideas, negotiate deals, and lead their team toward success
Want to approach your employer about professional development classes and request employer support? Read the Employer Payment Assistance Guide.
Format & Structure
In-Person
- Two-day in-person, communication-intensive at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business campus
- Executive communication skills training
- World-renowned Berkeley Haas and Executive Education faculty
- Exercises to identify and develop your personal communication success strategies - suited to you and your business
- Blend of group exercises and one-on-one coaching
- Guided practice and rehearsal components built into the program structure
- Exclusive networking opportunities with faculty and peers
- Access to the program alumni community
- Communications Excellence Certificate of Completion
Dates & Costs
In-Person
Other Ways to Participate
Attend this program with a group of your colleagues.
Attend this program with colleagues to gain greater organizational impact. Groups of five or more receive special rates.
Customize this program for your organization.
Use this program's curriculum as the foundation of a program based on your company's unique objectives.
What people are saying
Get more information
Download the Communications Excellence Program Guide
The complimentary guide includes sample schedule, program curriculum, learning objectives, and more.
Employer Reimbursement
Gain tips on how to approach your manager about professional development and tuition reimbursement.
How do I enroll in the Communications Excellence program?
Enrolling in any one of our programs is simple:
- Click on the "enroll" button on the program page
- Create an account or log in to our customer portal
- Complete the online reservation form (should take less than 2 minutes)
- Pay by credit card to complete your enrollment, or select your preferred payment type to reserve your seat and connect with the finance team
How much time can I expect to spend on coursework each day?
We know that time away from the office is precious, so we work hard to make our program experiences as productive and valuable as possible. Our programs span full business days starting between 8:30-9:00 a.m. and running through 5 p.m. with lunch served in the classroom and short breaks throughout the day.
Approximately 1-2 hours of evening activities and preparation for the next day are required for some programs. Please download the program guide for more detail.
Do your programs provide credits towards a degree, grades, transcripts, or Continuing Education Units (CEUs)?
Our programs are non-degree programs and do not hold any credit unit equivalency, letter grades, pass/fail designation, Continuing Education Units (CEUs), or transcripts. Rather, we provide a certificate of completion at the conclusion of the program.
To qualify for a certificate of completion, a participant must meet the minimum requirements as noted for each program and maintaining at least 80% attendance/engagement.
Can I enroll in a program if I live outside of the U.S.?
Yes. Enrollment is available to global leaders, but visa requirements may apply. Proficiency in written and spoken English at a level that allows full engagement and participation in a program is recommended.
For most international participants, a B1/B2 visa—for participation in scientific, educational, professional, or business conventions, conferences, or seminars—is required for entry into the United States to attend a program with us.
Requesting and receiving a visa takes time and we recommend beginning the process three or four months in advance of the start date of a program.
You can ask your Program Manager to prepare an invitation letter to help with your visa application. It is important to emphasize that the visit is for business purposes.
The Visa Waiver Program is available to citizens or nationals from select countries. Check the Department of State website to determine your eligibility and learn about the waiver process.
The list of countries sanctioned by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control currently includes: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the Ukraine-Crimea Region, plus the addition of Russia for Berkeley Executive Education at this time.
Faculty
Juliana Schroeder
Associate Professor | Harold Furst Chair in Management Philosophy & Values | Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership | Management of Organizations
Penny Kreitzer
Trainer and Coach for Leadership and Communications, Haas School of Business
Certificates
Certificate of Completion
Signal your professional achievement to your network and get recognized for your completion! Upon successful completion of the program, UC Berkeley Executive Education grants a verified digital certificate of completion to participants that you are encouraged to add to your profiles.
Note: This program results in a digital certificate of completion and is not eligible for degree credit/CEUs. After successful completion of the program, your verified digital certificate will be emailed to you directly. All certificate images are for illustrative purposes only and may be subject to change at the discretion of UC Berkeley Executive Education.
Certificate of Business Excellence
Participants in the Certificate of Business Excellence (COBE) program will earn a mark of distinction from a world-class university, gain access to a powerful global network, and enjoy the flexibility of completing the program in up to three years. A UC Berkeley Certificate of Business Excellence allows individuals to create a personal learning journey structured by our four academic pillars to gain management essentials in Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, and Finance to drive both personal and organizational development.
