Your Competitive Edge

It doesn’t take much to distinguish a polished executive or outstanding leader from the rest. They simply exude confidence and gain a competitive advantage. At Rice+Associates, we work with business professionals to improve their interpersonal communication and presentation skills so they can reach their full leadership potential. Our expert coaches are skilled in facilitating lively, engaging workshops that boost your confidence and forever transform the way you communicate — verbally and visually. In a small group or one-on-one coaching session, we build on your natural strengths and personal sense of style to provide the competitive edge you need to win the job, the sale, the promotion or the support of everyone around you.



Presentation Skills & Speaker Training

We’ve helped everyone from early career professionals to C-level executives develop their effective communication skills and refine their messages — so their listeners will take action. Sessions include digital recording for immediate feedback and to heighten awareness of strengths and gaps.

Leaders enroll in private coaching sessions or in small group workshops. Key themes include:
• Communicating more effectively on the job
• Handing challenging questions and difficult personalities
• Using first-impression and power skills to convey confidence and authority
• Creating messages that inspire
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Using stories, visuals and other elements effectively
• Adapting for effective virtual communications




Leadership Communication & Executive Presence

The Hallmark of Successful Leaders
Often, the qualities that lead to promotion, like technical expertise and the ability to get things done, are not enough to inspire and influence others to achieve system-wide business goals. Here’s a chance to close up discrepancies between intentions and perceptions and help your valued leaders succeed! Our certified coaches work with individuals or teams to help them understand how others perceive them and then provide strategies to close any gaps. Key themes:
• Measure and develop critical leadership drivers including, character, substance and style
• Enhance personal reputation and professional brand
• Improve interpersonal relationships and communication skills
• Improve morale and performance
• Speak to lead

All leaders participate in a scientifically based executive presence assessment.

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Finding the Guts to Lead

Developing Skills to Drive Meaningful Change
Courage is a skill that when strategically cultivated can help everyone become the ultimate change agent – for the good of your team, organization, and society. This inspiring and thought-provoking presentation engages the audience in the stories of brave leaders who describe what courage looks like in real life. Then, it gives the audience time to reflect on these insights and make connections to their own professional journey. As a result, everyone leaves the presentation with personalized action steps for delivering positive change in your organization or workplace.

The presentation is drawn from the stories of 17 courageous people from around the world in the book, Brave Leaders: Finding the Guts to Make Meaningful & Lasting Change (Advantage 2020), coauthored by Margareta Barchan and Jeanne Westervelt Rice. The book is the outcome of an investigation started by Margareta in 2012 while conducting research at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. She was curious about the traits and habits of brave leaders, and wondered whether the skills were coachable. Read more about The Brave Leaders Project™.

As a result of this presentation, your organization will…
• Foster a culture of trust so employees feel empowered to take action.
• Improve employee readiness and appetite for change.
• Engage your team or workforce around your change initiative.

SAMPLE STORIES & THEMES
Kenneth Frazier of the United States shares a story of overcoming his ego and facing his fears to “do the right thing,” as CEO of Merck & Co.

Marina Silva, Brazilian politician and rainforest defender, shares her story of persistence and resilience through challenges and defeat.

Kongjian Yu, a landscape architect from China, shares his story of personal risk and being publicly ostracized to put environmental planning on the country’s national agenda.

Sasja Beslik of Sweden shares his story of personal integrity and clear values combating corruption in the telecom industry.

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Power of the Pause

Clearer Thinking. Better Decisions.
Equip your team with a structured writing method that helps leaders think more clearly, navigate complexity, and make difficult decisions with confidence.

Participants experience and learn a series of short, guided writing techniques that slow thinking down long enough to organize ideas, examine competing perspectives, sharpen judgment, and discover insights they might otherwise overlook. Each writing technique is intentionally selected for the specific thinking challenge or leadership outcome you want to achieve.

These customized programs are delivered in 90-minute or half-day modules for up to ten participants, either virtually or in person.

COMMON APPLICATIONS
• Preparing for high-stakes conversations
• Clarifying complex decisions
• Working through competing priorities
• Resolving conflict and difficult conversations
• Strengthening critical thinking
• Building resilience
• Clarifying and applying values
• Developing strategic perspective
• Moving from uncertainty to action