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Communication for Leaders

Course Instructor- Rakesh Godhwani, Adjunct Faculty rakesh.godhwani@iimb.ernet.in

PGP Term 4

Credits - 3

Course objective:
The art of communication is the language of leadership. In a few months, the PGP students will become
managers in prestigious companies or start their own. Communication is one of the most important
skills they would need to persuade their customers or colleagues and begin their journey to be called
leaders some day. An essential leadership quality is to communicate effectively and to persuade,
influence and inspire others. This course is essentially designed to help the students get ready to enter
the corporate as managers who will be expected to get things done starting from how to handle job
interviews, how to handle situations and overall, how to persuade their peers and fellow colleagues to
get things done.

In this course titled Communication for Leaders, offered in Term 6 of PGP program, we will attempt a
deep dive on communication styles of great leaders, what makes them powerful communicators, how
they structure their messages, how they deliver their talks and how they impact their audience. The aim
of the sessions is to guide the participants through an advanced step-by-step process of structuring a
persuasive message and choosing the medium which it will go through to reach the intended audience
in a corporate context. The most common of these scenarios for communication in the corporate
context are the following:

Making business/product/company presentations

Handling Job interviews and negotiating an offer
Sales pitch to customers/partners
Communication in difficult situations like customer reviews or a failure of a project
Written message (through email, newspapers, brochure, blogs) that conveys a vision, proposal,
viewpoint
Prepared or impromptu public speeches made on various occasions like team outings,
celebrations, valedictory, conferences, panel discussions, debates etc.
Pre-recorded or live videos on website/television

At the end of the course, the participants will be able to apply the techniques and frameworks adopted
by famous leaders in their own communication style to become high impact communicators and
leaders. Throughout this course, participants will be encouraged to think actively about their own
communication style, and how they can align their personal values and leadership qualities with their
communication. This is a course of doing, as much as learning and they gain the most if they are

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prepared to work intensively with the class exercises. We will review lot of videos and texts of speeches
of great leaders and the course is designed to foster t engaging discussions and constructive
development through positive feedback.

Course content outline and session plan

The course is divided in 6 modules and will be covered in 20 sessions of 1.5 hours each

Module Date Session title and readings Case

1. Introduction Session 1 and 2. What is Robin Hood
and overview of leadership communication and
the course why is it important. Review of Nokia CEO Letter
communication practices of best to all employees
leaders. The AEIOU Xtra E
framework I survived the
keynote
Readings heweb09
WTSWSUP text book chapters 3 to 11
Leadership Communication: A
Communication Approach for Senior-
Level Managers. D J Barrett
Harnessing the science of persuasion-
Robert B Cialdini (HBR)
How leaders communicate study of 50
TED Talks by Rakesh Godhwani
How great leaders communicate
George Anders

2. Applying the Session 3 & 4. Communication Innovative

framework to Job techniques for handling Resume for
Interviews interviews e.g. a job interview or AirBnB
interview for media
Role play and mock interview.
Guest lecture by Mr. Sanjaya
Sharma CEO of Tata Interactive

Readings
WTSWSUP text book chapters 13
The Job Interview Chris Hartung
To hire or not to hire Sharbelle
Fernandez DH
What employers
Want from MBAs this year - John Byrne
Session 5. Video resume 25% of
the course grading

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3. Storytelling Session 6 and 7. Storytelling a Royal Gunfield

powerful tool for persuasion. motors what
Adopting stories from various should Zubin say
contexts into the communication in the open
at hand. house?

Readings
Telling Tales (HBR) Stephen Denning
A little bit of slope
The Karaoke Effect

Videos
Steve Jobs speech in Stanford 3 stories
of my life

Malcolm Gladwell talk at University of

Toronto Convo

Mark Bezos talk on TED A life Lesson

from a fire fighter

4. Communicating Session 8 and 9 .Communication Major Payne

in difficult techniques and strategies to
situations (2 handle difficult situations and Flipkart Apology
sessions) Managing conflicts. Role play for the
workshop - How to say no, BigBillionDisaster
Negotiating, how to handle a Oct 6th 2014.
difficult customer, how to accept #Flopkart
failures, how to convey an
apology. Wattage Failure
Readings message
WTSWSUP text book chapters 1, 2 and
14
10 things extraordinary people say Satya Nadella
everyday Karma remark
Barriers and Gateways to and Apology
Communication(HBR)
by Carl R. Rogers and F. J.
Roethlisberger
IIMB Alumni Card
Taking the stress out of stressful on facebook
conversations Holly week (HBR) group
Sabha Chaturya communicating
tactfully with the king (Devdutt Shashi Tharoors
Pattnaik)
Chapter 7 of Reference Book tweet Cattle
Class. Episode
of the Sikh
turbaned lady in
Reddit

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Special session on
Negotiation for Job
Offers
5. Persuasive
Pitch(sales pitch)
6. The politics of
communication and
managing
stakeholders
7. Networking and
socializing
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Session 10 and 11. Crisis The 1982 J&J
Management communication Tylenol crisis- A
strategy in a state of crisis case study of
communication
Readings strategy during
The Ten Steps of Crisis Communications crisis
by Jonathan L. Bernstein
Corporate Communication: A Strategic
Tool for Crisis Management. Gupta, Spree Cruiselines
Rachna
Chapter 12 of Reference Book
Session 12- Mid term review of
the course and catching up on
the readings, classes and theory
or spill over from previous
classes
Graded Assignment 1 - written
submission
Session 13 and 14: Making a Andrew Sullivan
sales/elevator pitch and Faraway Ltd.
Readings Review of few
WTSWSUP text book chapters 13
How to pitch a brilliant idea(HBR) scenes from
Kimberly Elsbach Million Dollar
Arm (Pitch by
JBB)
Session 15 and 16: Managing Case -
stakeholders. Breaking the Outsourcing the
message into multiple parts for entire
different stakeholders. The department and
strategy of communication reducing
headcount/costs
Readings )
The Science of Why We Dont Believe
Science Chris Mooney
Session 17 and 18: Case Deepikas
Communication in a social Dilemma
context
Networking and art of making
friends
Impromptu speaking and
handling the fear of facing
audiences
Readings
Text book WTSWSUP chapter 14
The art of conversations Maria Papova
Dale Carnegie Part 2- chapter 2 4 5 6
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8. Knowing when Session 19 The art of listening Case and Role

not to speak and shutting up Plays

9. Online medium Session 20- The Best Student Role Plays

for communication speech
with wide and
dispersed Managing your presence on the
audiences social media

Course wrap up and feedback on

the written assignments.
Practice session of the
framework and a role play in the
class.
End Term

Pedagogy:
1. Student presentations and class discussions
2. Review of speeches of leaders videos and texts
3. Practice sessions for impromptu speaking
4. In class practice sessions and role plays for different communication scenarios
5. Brainstorming and peer support in small group interactions

Evaluation
1. What did I learn self learning sheets for each session 10%
2. Individual Written Assignment 25%
3. Video Resume - 25%
4. End-Term - 40%

Attendance and class size

Attendance is mandatory as per PGP office guidelines (minimum 75% to ensure no grade loss)
Maximum class size as per PGP office guidelines

Text book (to be given to all students)

1. What to say and When to Shut Up! By Rakesh Godhwani published by Penguin Random House
India

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Reference books (available in IIMB Library)

2. How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie
3. Leadership Communication, 3rd edition 2010 - Deborah J Barrett. Published by McGraw Hill

Readings (same as the ones prescribed in session column above)

1. Leadership Communication: A Communication Approach for Senior-Level Managers. D J Barrett
2. The Nature of Managerial Work. Mintzberg, H. (HBR)
3. Harnessing the science of persuasion-Robert B Cialdini (HBR)
4. Rhetoric by Aristotle (simplified version) by GA Kennedy
5. Telling Tales Stephen Denning (HBR)
6. How to pitch a brilliant idea Kimberly Elsbach(HBR)
7. Taking the stress out of stressful conversations Holly week(HBR)
8. Sabha Chaturya communicating tactfully with the king - Devdutt Pattnaik
9. Barriers and Gateways to Communication by Carl R. Rogers and F. J. Roethlisberger (HBR)
10. Corporate Communication: A Strategic Tool for Crisis Management. Gupta, Rachna
11. The Job Interview Chris Hartung
12. To hire or not to hire Sharbelle Fernandez (Deccan Herald)
13. Speaking off the cuff- Carol Blaszczynski, Diana J. Green
14. I have a dream Martin Luther King - Speeches that changed the world Alan J Whitiker
15. The keynote and the harshtag Dave Ferguson
16. A Dongle Joke That Spiraled Way Out Of Control Kim Cutler

Caselets (same as the ones prescribed in session column above)

1. Robin Hood
2. I survived the keynote heweb09 - Conference Humiliation of David Galper
3. Nokia CEO letter
4. Martin Luther King I have a dream
5. Steve Jobs 3 mistakes of my life
6. Major Payne
7. Andrew Sullivan and Faraway Ltd- HBR case 9-813-104
8. The 1982 J&J Tylenol crisis
9. Spree Cruiseline
10. Facebook fight on IIMB Alumni Association issue of Alumni Card
11. Episode of the Sikh turbaned lady in Reddit
12. Shashi Tharoors tweet Cattle Class
13. Karma remark on womens pay Satya Nadella apology

Copyright Rakesh Godhwani 2015