Act Like the Leader You Want to Be
A two-session B2 practice pack following a Stanford GSB video on executive presence. Learners practise pace, pausing, stillness and recovering from problems while delivering a project update; best suited to managers and senior professionals who present to senior audiences, ideally one-to-one.
Print-ready A4 PDF · teacher's notes and answer key included
What's inside
- Video-based warm-up
- Sorting behaviours (authoritative or approachable)
- Dial rating with reasons
- Text mark-up for pauses and stress
- Read-aloud comparison of fast and slow versions
- Problem-card role-play
- Reflective planning
- Observation homework
By the end, learners can
- Classify body language and speech behaviours as more authoritative or more approachable
- Justify where to set their authority-approachability dial for different workplace situations
- Deliver a project update with deliberate pauses, falling intonation and stressed key words
- Use recovery phrases to buy time, correct errors and handle interruptions when a presentation goes wrong
- Build a short pre-meeting routine and report on observing a senior colleague
Skills: Speaking · Listening · Vocabulary · Pronunciation · Writing
Suits: Managers · Senior leaders · Executives · Project managers
Language practised: Justifying a choice · Buying time · Correcting yourself · Handling interruptions · Admitting you don't know something · Describing personal experience and observations · Reporting observations
Pairs with
Lesson 8: Act Like the Leader You Want to Be →
Teach the lesson first. The pack builds on the video your learner has just watched.
1 · Teach the lesson
Run the video lesson as usual.
2 · Run the pack
Two 60-minute sessions over the following week.
3 · Report back
Open the next lesson with the homework.
Teach it tomorrow.
Members get the complete practice pack, with teacher’s notes and answer key, plus all 91 lessons in the library, with new lessons added every month.
Not sure it's the right fit? Ask the lesson planner what to teach your learner next.