Communicating Effectively
– a skill-building day for the Shift Supervisor 2026 Summit –
for
This program will help strengthen your ability to:
Communicate clearly, concisely, and with an action-orientation
Adapt communications to engage internal colleagues and external stakeholders
Assert appropriate command and control over situations
This is a highly interactive and practice-intensive program:
You will be in a small working group, with two of your colleagues and an experienced coach, to ensure you have a very personalized experience and enough time to try different approaches. We don’t think there is one right way for everyone to communicate to all listeners. Instead, we will help you strengthen your skills while remaining true to your own personality.
You will have a one-to-one coaching session after each practice session to review video recordings, so you get a clear picture of your strengths and areas for work, as well as concrete suggestions for how to improve.
The rest of this page explains how to prepare for the program and provides an overview of the sessions.
Choose material
You will practice two communication situations during the day:
You will choose the first one.
Pick any topic you need to speak to an internal or external group about in the future.
You need around 3 minutes of content.
Do not script yourself; work-in-progress is fine.
The second situation will be provided by National Grid, so there is nothing to prepare.
Tell us who you are and what your goals are
If you would like to use a self-evaluation to think about your skills before answering these questions, click here. Many people also seek input from a few colleagues whose opinions they value.
Overview of the sessions
Morning
Opening
Discuss the challenging communication situations you face and link the agenda to them.
Set goals
You set personal goals within our intellectual, emotional, and physical communication skills framework.
Increase presence
You practice telling a brief story — expanding your use of eye contact, voice and body language — to increase your presence, confidence and impact. We record your story. Together, we begin the process of giving and receiving feedback.
Prepare and deliver a clear, compelling talk
Using the content you have brought to practice, you apply our preparation tools to think through what you want to say. Then you deliver it as a 3-minute talk, receive feedback, and try different approaches. We record your talk.
One-to-one coaching
You review the recordings of your story and 3-minute talk, privately with your coach.
Afternoon
Role-play a problem resolution meeting
You practice leading a problem resolution meeting, with a couple of colleagues role-playing employees and external stakeholders. National Grid will provide the scenario. You receive feedback and try different approaches. We record your meeting.
One-to-one coaching
You review the recording of your meeting, privately with your coach.
Questions?
Email us goals@mcalinden.com or call us +1 212 986 4950
About us
Visit our main website McAlinden Associates