Send two. Pay for one.
As a SIM Detroit Leadership Summit attendee, bring a second person into the January 2027 cohort for the price of one. IT leaders often send two from the same team, and the shared language they bring back is part of the value.
Or reach me directly: 617-803-2671 · robsalafia@protagonistconsulting.com
2 for 1 offer
For SIM Detroit Leadership Summit attendees. Send two of your people for the price of one.
Effortless Executive Presence
Fast track executive level readiness
Your IT directors and senior managers see everything. Can they say it in the boardroom? Theater-proven techniques to propel your rising technology leaders to the executive stage. This is the work behind Rob’s keynote, Leading Rapid Change with Poise and Presence.
Are you a CIO or senior IT leader wondering how you are going to get your top talent to begin thinking and acting like enterprise-level leaders?
Do you need them to be confident in front of the CEO, the board, and the business?
Executive Presence is how we show up and the impact that we have on others within a specific role and environment.
This is why we created the Effortless Executive Presence Accelerator. Executive Presence is our bread and butter.
Full visibility. Least formal authority.
Think about the IT director on your team who knows where the program really stands. She has seen the risk coming for weeks. Then she walks into the steering committee, the business leaders are running hot from the meeting before, and she decides this isn’t the moment.
Does this remind you of anyone?
Your senior technology managers see across the whole enterprise, and they often hold the least formal authority in the room. When change moves fast, they are the ones asked to carry it. What they can bring is presence, and under pressure presence is the first thing to go.
- The ability to be fully present
- Composure
- Interactions turn transactional
- People roll in hot and less prepared
- Confidence evaporates, influence diminishes
- Voice gets lost
- Intake callShapes the learning around each person
- 10 live virtual workshops90 minutes each, interactive
- 10 group coaching sessions90 minutes each
- 5 individual coaching sessionsOne to one with Rob
- myQuest learning platformAsynchronous assignments and reinforcement tools
- The bookLeading From Your Best Self (McGraw-Hill)
20 classes over 20 weeks
I spent more than 20 years in the performing arts before I coached my first executive. What I learned on stage is what I teach now: how you show up, how you connect, and how you make a message land. These are skills, and they get stronger with practice. So the Accelerator is built around practice.
Structured lessons
Theater-proven techniques, taught in a small group and tried on in the session.
1:1 and group coaching
Coaching with me, alone and together. This is the difference maker.
Applied to the day job
The learning goes into real meetings, real presentations, and real decisions.
Program details
The Presence of a Leader
Getting present and managing the transitions in a stacked day. Physical vitality, vocal expressiveness, and landing a message with impact.
Authenticity, Purpose, and Connection
Finding the Best Self and bringing it into the hardest rooms. Mindful listening and relationships built on earned trust.
Expanding into Conflict
Staying open and composed when the conversation gets difficult, and steering it toward a productive outcome.
Leadership Storytelling
Turning a complex idea into a story people remember. Structure, values, and what it takes to be a storyteller.
Creating Momentum and Compelling Presentations
Persuasion, intention, metaphor, and narrative structure, used to build support for an idea and inspire action.
When: Thursdays, 10:00 to 11:30 am ET, from January 28 to June 10, 2027. Workshops and group coaching alternate week by week.
See all 20 dates
- Jan 28Session One: The Presence of a Leader, part 1
- Feb 4Group Coaching Session One
- Feb 11Session Two: The Presence of a Leader, part 2
- Feb 18Group Coaching Session Two
- Feb 25Session Three: The Presence of a Leader, part 3
- Mar 4Group Coaching Session Three
- Mar 11Session Four: Authenticity, Purpose, and Connection, part 1
- Mar 18Group Coaching Session Four
- Mar 25Session Five: Authenticity, Purpose, and Connection, part 2
- Apr 1Group Coaching Session Five
- Apr 8Session Six: Expanding into Conflict
- Apr 15Group Coaching Session Six
- Apr 22Session Seven: Leadership Storytelling
- Apr 29Group Coaching Session Seven
- May 6Session Eight: Creating Momentum, part 1
- May 13Group Coaching Session Eight
- May 20Session Nine: Creating Momentum, part 2
- May 27Group Coaching Session Nine
- Jun 3Session Ten: Compelling Presentations
- Jun 10Group Coaching Session Ten
What your people will be able to do
- Step into leadership moments with confidence to positively affect and lead change.
- Maintain composure and critical thinking skills in stressful situations to generate desired results.
- Demonstrate enhanced physical and vocal presence skills to land messages with impact.
- Build relational skills to create synergies among teams and across the enterprise.
- Deal with conflict productively, leading to a positive outcome.
- Illustrate leadership values through direct narrative storytelling.
- Exhibit improved communication skills to create inspired action at the enterprise level.
As a senior leader in a large international organization, it is my responsibility to see and develop the potential in each of my team members. I sent four of my team members to his Effortless Executive Presence Accelerator program. The results have been remarkable. The combination of the live virtual sessions and 1:1 coaching with Rob was a game changer for them. Highly recommended!
Working with Rob has transformed my approach to communication and leadership as a first-time biotech CEO. The real “aha” moment for me came from learning the practical skills of theater. Rob offered me mechanisms to unlock my ability to communicate and connect with a wide variety of audiences, in settings both small and large. Working on the fundamentals of storytelling while learning skills focused on presence and voice gave me a new confidence, focus, and agility in pitching, communicating our story, and leading the internal team to deliver.
Rob’s sessions are extremely powerful in building the right mindset, creating trust and developing leaders to be more effective and inspiring communicators.
Rob provided a safe space and optimal learning opportunity for us to increase our individual communication capabilities, as well as enhance the relational fabric of our team.
Rob is great to work with. He really cares about listening to your requirements, bringing that brief to life and delivering on it.
Meet Rob
I started out as a street performer, tap dancer, and wire walker. Today I coach leaders to step into high-stakes moments with composure, and I invite them to have some fun while they do it.
- CEO, Protagonist Consulting Group
- Lecturer at MIT Sloan and Master Executive Coach at the MIT Leadership Center
- 20+ years in the performing arts
Author of Leading From Your Best Self: Develop Executive Poise, Presence, and Influence to Maximize Your Potential (McGraw-Hill). Every participant receives a copy.