Location
Virtual
Effective Business Communication鈥擮nline
Enhance your interpersonal communication skills, executive presence, and ability to motivate and persuade others.
Frequency
Three times a year; starting in February, April, and October
Fee
$3,200 USD
Status
Accepting Registrations
Register Now
In a world where businesses are increasingly interconnected, communication is perhaps the most essential skill managers can hone.
Gain confidence in your ability to motivate and persuade. Through frameworks, practice, feedback, and tailored guidance, you'll emerge a more effective and inspiring leader, capable of transforming ideas into impact for your organization.

Effective communication can’t be learned from a book, and everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Gain confidence in your ability to motivate and persuade by acquiring impactful communication frameworks that can only be obtained through hands-on experiences and real-life practice. This program conveniently combines self-paced material with live-online sessions.
By attending, you will:
- Enhance your ability to persuade people by using frameworks that will make your communication engaging, memorable, and compelling.
- Become clear, concise, and confident when communicating your ideas and thoughts to others.
- Develop a deep understanding of the process, structure, and style of effective communication.
- Strengthen your executive presence: learn how to project confidence, empathy, and thoughtfulness when communicating both in-person and online.
- Discover a range of tools to deploy in the real world, practice them, and receive detailed feedback.
- Acquire the ability to analyze an audience quickly and identify how to win them over.
- Learn how to structure your arguments to make them clear and powerful.
- Gain experience in public speaking and learn how to improve.
Personalized Practice and Feedback
Throughout the program, you'll have opportunities to grow your skills in real-time:
- At the start of the program, you'll receive a communications map to identify areas you want to improve.
- You'll engage in live sessions with faculty Hal Weitzman and risk-free practice. Exercises are tailored toward your goals. You'll receive detailed feedback on your performance and concrete guidance on how to improve.
- At the end of the program, you'll be able to measure how your skills have grown.
A High-Impact Learning Format
This program incorporates three live online sessions with program faculty as well as self-paced learning. You鈥檒l experience a blend of classroom sessions, group discussions, case studies, and assessments. Each module builds on the last, ensuring an impactful learning experience that makes you confident in your new skills and ready to drive change.
Language
This program is offered in English.
Program duration
Six weeks, 5鈥6 hours per week. The program's three faculty-led live-online sessions are 90 minutes each.
This program is ideal for mid- to senior-level leaders from any functional area who want to elevate their communication to inspire action and drive results with clients, colleagues, and stakeholders. Suitable for professionals across various industries and geographies, the program offers a globally relevant leadership experience.
Life is Not a TED Talk
- Understand what persuasion is and is not
- Analyze your current communication skills
- Make your daily communication more deliberate and focused
Not about What You Say, but about How You Are Heard
- Learn about why companies so often misjudge their audiences
- Develop tools to analyze the audiences you want to win over
- Explore the power of good questions
Building Up, Not Cutting Down
- Discover the role of narratives in influencing your audience
- Explore the narrative structure and process, beginning the “big why”
- Learn to frame problems in a way that will make your audience want to help you solve them
Narrative—Openings and Closings
- Learn how to hook and engage an audience from the start
- Explore communication techniques such as dropped introductions, calls to action, and outros
- Examine how to close a narrative
Articulating Your Superpower
- Discover how to identify and convey your personal brand
- Explore how to capture the value you bring
- Learn how to build and maintain professional networks
Turning Skills into Habits
- Identify how to turn the new skills you’ve learned into successful habits
- Build a six-month personal development plan that sets goals and measures progress
This program ticked all the right boxes. I’m prepared to leverage the skills I learned in day-to-day operations.
—Opeyemi Familade, Senior Manager, Visa Directý
I enjoyed all the online learning as well as the live sessions. I was able to apply my knowledge immediately and see results at work.
—Christina Wagener, System Director, Clinical Service Lines
Professor Weitzman's teaching style is extremely engaging, which allowed easy uptake of the material. The communication strategies and supporting structures that he delivers in this program have given me a useful framework for presenting.
—Ken Nupert, Vice President Health, Safety, Security and Environment, Apache Corporation
It gave me a great and feasible framework to improve my communication.
—Program participant
The tools and thoughts around the approach is practical, and I can see the benefits for me in my career.
—Program participant
Amazing frameworks, great insights and Professor Hal was great!
—Program participant
Despite my thoughts about how good a communicator I was already, the course provided me with new perspectives (chiefly audience focus, getting out of the "me zone") to consider.
—Program participant
Speak with an Advisor
Have Questions? Contact us to discover which program is right for you and your organization.
+1 312.464.8732
exec.ed@chicagobooth.edu