Leaders ADAPT teaching package

Teaching executive presence: a free session plan for managers stepping into senior rooms

A ready to run class or workshop that teaches executive presence as a set of habits you can practise, not a personality you either have or lack. Free to use under CC BY 4.0. Participants walk out with one real update compressed to four lines, scored by a partner, and a question log to use in their next senior meeting.

20, 45 or 90 minutesFree test includedPrintable worksheetCC BY 4.0No sign up for instructors

Who this is for

Instructors of MBA leadership and career electives, university courses on managerial communication, corporate L&D leads running high potential or new director programmes, women in leadership cohorts, and team leaders who want to prepare a direct report for their first executive team meeting. It works best with people who already present upward, or are about to. No acting, no voice coaching, no wardrobe advice.

What participants leave with

A presence score across Composure, Clarity, Command and Consistency from the free test, and the one area to work on first.
One real update rewritten in four SCQA lines that passes the Titanic test, with a partner's understanding score from 0 to 10 for the before and the after version.
A question log for their next senior meeting: one question early, quiet in the middle, one question at the end, and a plan for the two seconds after they hear something they did not want to hear.

Pre-work (optional, 10 minutes)

Ask each participant to bring one real update they will give, or recently gave, to someone two levels above them: a project status, a budget ask, a risk they need to flag. They write it out the way they would normally say it, in full, and time themselves reading it aloud. Most people find it runs between two and four minutes. Do not tell them why yet. If nobody does the pre-work, give them 5 minutes at the start of the session to write it.

Presence is less, not more: the operator version

Andreas Pettersson's working definition, built from years in and around executive teams as a CEO and as an advisor, not from the textbook model of gravitas, communication and appearance. A top level executive communicates top down, short and precise. Nobody in that room cares how you did your homework. They care about the result. Presence is what is left when you stop trying to prove you belong in the room and start being useful in it.

Top down, short, precise, no fluff: Start with the outcome, then stop. Offer the how only if someone asks. If nobody has questions, move to the next topic, because anything more is spending their time to reassure yourself. The test for every sentence: does the room need it, or do I need to say it? The common fake is the opposite: overdressed for the occasion, polished delivery, and a lot of words that mean nothing, academic vocabulary and long context with nothing about what we are trying to solve. The real version answers three questions fast: what is the one thing, why does it matter now, and what do you need from this room.
Detox the middle manager mindset: In the middle of an organization you compete: with peers for the next role, against the people below you, inside the politics. Bring that into a senior room and it reads as junior. At the top the job is teamwork, dividing and conquering, and breaking down silos. Stop selling yourself, stop scoring points off peers, and offer help on problems outside your own area. Challenge people one to one, not in front of others.
Ask early, quiet in the middle, ask at the end: Ask a real question early, so the room knows you are present and curious. Be quiet in the middle: observe how the senior people talk, decide and disagree, and speak only if you add something nobody else can. Ask one sharp question at the end. Silence is not absence. Saying something because you have something to say is not a contribution. One caveat for introverts: staying quiet when you hold the analysis the room needs is not presence, it is withholding.
The Titanic test: Maiden voyage, iceberg, one of the two lovers has to die so the other can live. That is the whole movie in one breath. If you cannot get your update into that shape, you are not ready to give it. Compress it with SCQA: Situation, Complication, Question, Answer, one line each. Rehearse the short version before you walk in, not while you are standing in front of the room.
Score the understanding, out loud: Said, heard, understood, accepted or rejected, but always committed. Most people stop at said. After you give the update, ask the listener to rate how well they understood it from 0 to 10 and to say the number out loud. Anything below an honest 10 means the update, or your questions, are not finished yet.
The two second window: Presence is also how you receive. When someone tells you something you did not want to hear, the first two seconds, your face, your tone and your first words, decide whether they will tell you the next thing. Stay calm and grounded, no visible emotion, and make your first words a question or a thank you, not a defence. The room reads seniority as much from how you take bad news as from how you deliver an update.
One room at a time: Presence is also what you carry out of a room. After a hard board or executive meeting, the people waiting outside read your face before you say a word. If you walk out defeated, shut your door and start executing in silence, the whole organization feels it within the hour. Take the push back, listen for what is fair in it, then go back to your team with what was decided and what you are doing next, told straight and without the mood. Prioritize the requests, because there will always be more than you can deliver. Do not let the last room spill into the next one.

SCQA (Situation, Complication, Question, Answer) comes from Barbara Minto's Pyramid Principle. The Titanic test, the operator definition, the middle manager detox, ask early and quiet in the middle, the communication ladder, the two second window and one room at a time are Andreas Pettersson's.

Want the system underneath? The 5-Minute Leader

The 5-Minute Leader is not a presence course, and this page does not pretend it is. What it installs is the weekly leadership rhythm underneath presence: delegation, 1:1s, accountability and meetings, so your team runs without you in the room and you arrive at senior meetings prepared instead of firefighting. This package covers the senior room. The book covers the week around it, step by step.

The Delegation Protocol: the three minute handoff conversation and the check that the message actually landed, the same discipline as the communication ladder on this page, applied to your own team
The 1:1 Protocol, with SBED feedback built into the structure, the place to practise the direct, one to one challenge this session asks you to stop making in public
The Accountability Protocol: how to hold someone to a standard and keep the working relationship, in the conversations people most often get wrong in front of a group
The Rhythm Protocol: a daily stand-up and a weekly team meeting agenda that give every update a fixed, short shape

Get the full 5-Minute Leader system

Session plans

Pick the length that fits your slot. Every version uses the same test, framework and worksheet.

20 minute version

Minutes	What happens
0 to 3	Frame: "Presence is less, not more." Read the operator definition aloud. Ask the room: who has watched someone lose a senior room by talking too long? Hands only, no stories.
3 to 7	Everyone takes the free executive presence quiz on their own device. Ask them to note their lowest of the four areas.
7 to 9	Teach the Titanic test and SCQA with one live example: the instructor compresses a long update of their own into four lines on the board.
9 to 16	Worksheet Part 2 and 3. Each person writes their update in four SCQA lines, then delivers it to a partner in under 30 seconds. The partner says the understanding score out loud and names one fluff word they heard. Swap.
16 to 20	Teach ask early, quiet in the middle, ask at the end. Everyone fills in the top of the question log for a real meeting in the next two weeks. Close: each person says their lowest quiz area and the meeting they will try it in.

45 minute version

Minutes	What happens
0 to 5	Frame: read the operator definition. Ask: what is the difference between someone who is in the room and someone who has presence in the room? Collect three answers, write them up, do not judge them yet.
5 to 10	Everyone takes the free executive presence quiz. Note the lowest area and the level. Ask for a show of hands per lowest area so the room sees its own pattern.
10 to 18	Walk the framework. Spend most of the time on fake presence and the middle manager detox. Ask: which middle manager habit have you seen cost someone in a senior meeting? Keep it to behaviours, no names.
18 to 23	Read the fictional case aloud. Small groups answer discussion questions 1 and 2.
23 to 38	Titanic your update. Round 1: each person delivers their pre-work update as written, partner scores understanding 0 to 10 out loud. Then 4 minutes to rewrite it as four SCQA lines and strike the fluff. Round 2: deliver the short version in under 30 seconds, partner scores again. Swap roles. Collect the before and after scores on the board.
38 to 43	Teach ask early, quiet in the middle, ask at the end, and the two second window. Pairs practise the window: one person delivers a piece of unwelcome news, the other has two seconds to respond with a question or a thank you, nothing else.
43 to 45	Everyone fills in the question log header for one real meeting in the next two weeks. Close with discussion question 6.

90 minute version

Minutes	What happens
0 to 8	Frame: read the operator definition. Ask what the room thinks executive presence is, write the answers up. Most lists will be about appearance, voice and confidence. Leave the list on the wall and come back to it at the end.
8 to 15	Everyone takes the free executive presence quiz. Note level and lowest area. Pairs compare which area came back lowest and whether it matches the feedback they have actually received.
15 to 30	Walk the full framework. For the middle manager detox, run a quick sort: on sticky notes, each person writes one habit that got them promoted to where they are now. As a group, sort them into keep, adapt and drop for a senior room.
30 to 45	Read the fictional case. Groups work discussion questions 1 to 4. Each group rewrites Ingrid's update as a Titanic version and reads it out. The room scores each one for understanding.
45 to 65	Titanic your update, two full rounds as in the 45 minute version, then a third round in groups of three: one speaks, one listens and scores, one plays the senior executive who interrupts after 15 seconds with "What do you need from us?" The speaker must answer in one sentence.
65 to 78	Meeting simulation. Groups of five run a 10 minute mock executive meeting on a topic you give them (for example: a delayed product launch). Two observers per group log who asked early, who stayed quiet in the middle, who asked at the end, and every moment someone defended instead of asking. Debrief the log, not the people.
78 to 85	Two second window drill in pairs, three rounds each, with escalating news. Then one room at a time: the listener from the last round walks to another pair and gives them a 20 second account of the meeting they just left, decisions and next step only, no mood. Debrief: what did your face do before your words did?
85 to 90	Go back to the list from minute 0. What would you cross out now? Everyone fills in the question log header for a real meeting and says out loud which one they will use it in.

The free test participants take

Participants take the free executive presence quiz on their own phone or laptop. It takes a few minutes. It asks for a name and email to send the full result, so tell participants that in advance. Results go only to the person who took it, so nobody has to share a score unless they choose to.

Link to give participants (paste it into your slides or learning platform):

https://www.leadersadapt.com/assessments/executive-presence/?utm_source=teaching-package&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=teach-executive-presence

The case: the director who prepared too well

Fictional case, written for teaching. Names, companies and numbers are invented.

Ingrid Sorensen is director of supply planning at Northvale Foods, a fictional 1,400 person food manufacturer. She is the best prepared person in every meeting she attends. Her team respects her and her forecasts are the most accurate in the company. Twice a year she gets 10 minutes on the executive team agenda.

Last quarter she brought 19 slides. She opened with the history of the forecasting model, explained the three data sources her team had cleaned, and reached the actual issue, a supplier capacity gap that puts the autumn launch at risk, on slide 14. At slide 6 the CFO asked, "What do you need from us?" Ingrid said she was getting to that. At slide 11 the CEO started reading email.

In the open discussion afterwards Ingrid corrected a peer, the head of sales, in front of the group on a number he had quoted. She was right about the number. She said nothing during the twenty minutes on pricing strategy, a topic she had strong and well founded views on, because it was not her area.

Two weeks later her manager told her the CEO's feedback was that she "lacks presence". Ingrid has booked a voice coach and bought a new jacket for the next meeting. She is also preparing more slides, because she believes the problem was that she was not thorough enough.

The handout

One page per participant. Parts 1 to 3 are done in the session, Part 4 is taken into a real meeting. Download the Word version

Teaching packageTeaching executive presence

Leaders ADAPT | CC BY 4.0leadersadapt.com/teach-executive-presence/

Titanic your update

PART 1. THE LONG VERSION The update I need to give, to whom, and when: ______________________________________________ Time it takes to say it as I normally would: ____ minutes PART 2. THE TITANIC VERSION (one line each, under 30 seconds in total) S Situation (what is true now): ______________________________________________ C Complication (what changed or what is at risk): ______________________________________________ Q Question (what this room must decide or know): ______________________________________________ A Answer (what I recommend or need from you): ______________________________________________ Titanic check, tick each one: [ ] It starts with the outcome, not the history [ ] The ask is stated, not implied [ ] No sentence is there to show how hard we worked [ ] Fluff words struck out (for example: leverage, holistic, alignment, just to give some context, basically, as you know) PART 3. PARTNER SCORING (the partner says each number out loud) Round 1 (long) Round 2 (Titanic) Understanding, 0 to 10: ____ ____ Time taken: ____ ____ Could the partner repeat the ask in one sentence? (Y/N) ____ ____ Fluff words the partner heard: ______________________________________________ What the partner would have asked first: ______________________________________________ If round 2 is not an honest 10, what is still missing? ______________________________________________ PART 4. QUESTION LOG (take this into your next senior meeting) Meeting: ____________________ Date: __________ My lowest area from the quiz: Composure / Clarity / Command / Consistency EARLY (first 10 minutes). The question I asked: ______________________________________________ MIDDLE. Times I spoke: ____ Of those, how many added something nobody else could: ____ What I noticed about how the senior people talk and decide: ______________________________________________ END. The question I asked: ______________________________________________ TWO SECOND WINDOW. One moment I heard something I did not want to hear. What I did in the first two seconds: ______________________________________________ What I will do next time: ______________________________________________ ONE ROOM AT A TIME. What I will tell my team after this meeting, in two lines: ______________________________________________

Teaching executive presence: a session plan. Andreas Pettersson, Leaders ADAPT. Free to use under CC BY 4.0. https://www.leadersadapt.com/teach-executive-presence/ The full system: 5minleader.leadersadapt.com/5ml

Discussion questions

Rewrite Ingrid's update in four SCQA lines. What did you have to leave out, and would the executive team miss any of it?
Which of Ingrid's behaviours are middle manager habits that served her well in her current role? Which one would you have her drop first?
Ingrid's diagnosis is that she was not thorough enough. What is the cost of acting on that diagnosis at the next meeting?
Was correcting the head of sales in front of the group a presence problem if she was right? What would ask early, quiet in the middle, ask at the end have looked like in that discussion, and in the pricing one?
When is staying quiet in a senior room presence, and when is it withholding something the room needs?
Look at your own before and after understanding scores. What did you cut, and why did you include it in the first place?
Think of the last time someone told you something you did not want to hear. What did your first two seconds teach them about telling you the next thing?

Facilitator notes

The quiz asks for a name and email before it shows the full results. Tell participants this before they start, and say clearly that the session works without the score: anyone who prefers not to share an email can answer the twelve statements and self rate their lowest area.
Expect pushback on "adapt to the room" from people who hear it as "stop being yourself". The line to hold: core values do not change, behaviour in a specific room does. Learning any new behaviour feels fake at first, like learning to sing. That is not evidence it is wrong.
The understanding score only works if the partner says the number out loud. People will write a polite 8. Insist on the spoken number, and ask the speaker what question would get it to 10.
If nobody volunteers for the Titanic demo, go first with an update of your own and make the long version deliberately bad. The room relaxes once it has seen the instructor fail the test.
Keep the middle manager detox about behaviours, never about named managers or colleagues. If someone starts telling a story about a real boss, redirect: what did they do, and what would the senior version have been?
Timing: the rewrite in Round 2 always takes longer than people expect. Hold it at 4 minutes. An unfinished SCQA delivered in 30 seconds teaches more than a perfect one nobody has time to hear.

Use, adapt and cite

This package is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. You may copy, print, adapt and share it in any course, workshop or internal training, including paid ones, as long as you credit the source with a link.

Citation

Pettersson, A. (2026). Teaching executive presence: a session plan. Leaders ADAPT. https://www.leadersadapt.com/teach-executive-presence/

Link for your course page or syllabus

<a href="https://www.leadersadapt.com/teach-executive-presence/">Teaching executive presence: a free session plan for managers stepping into senior rooms</a> by Andreas Pettersson, Leaders ADAPT (CC BY 4.0)

Using the package does not imply any endorsement of Leaders ADAPT by your institution, and none is claimed. Teaching with it? Tell us at andreas@leadersadapt.com and we will list your course on the teaching packages page.

Keep going after the session

If the question log showed you that your week leaves no time to prepare the short version, start with the rhythm. The 5-Minute Leader installs it one protocol at a time.