Speaking with groups of people is a critical leadership skill. During their careers, leaders need to engage with stakeholders including employees, investors, and members of the general public. This technical note aims to provide the reader with a brief guide for harnessing and channeling the energy they experience when they are about to give a speech. It has two parts. The first section uses scientific research to reinterpret what we experience physically, mentally, and emotionally when we ready ourselves to speak before others. The second section leverages this knowledge by providing tips speakers can employ to perform at their peak.

This exercise is a way for facilitators to make in-the-moment adaptations to existing scripting exercises, in order to address questions and scenarios that arise during Giving Voice to Values (GVV) sessions. In a GVV program, participants are invited to practice scripting responses to and creating action plans for a values-challenging scenario. Sometimes, a participant's values challenge starts to dominate the conversations in the room, or participants find themselves doubting whether the GVV approach will work in their own circumstances. The Barry case in this exercise outlines how to adopt (with permission and care) the new, authentic values challenge brought up by the participant. This exercise adaptation is designed to occur after the GVV approach has been introduced and participants have worked through the role of purpose and the reasons and rationalizations we all face in voicing our values. It can be run at any point between the introduction of these elements and the final scripting and action-planning stage and will naturally adapt itself based on how much GVV content the participants have already covered. The exercise aims to demonstrate to GVV participants that the toolkit they have begun to develop is adaptable and personalized, and that the GVV approach is fit for use in "real" settings.

This case set is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. Isabel is a young, recently graduated finance professional who works for ABC Group, a small investment bank. Due in part to high staff turnover, she has recently been promoted to senior financial analyst, and her first important independent project is a business valuation for a five-star hotel out of town; ABC Group would intermediate the hotel's sale. At a business trip where she gets to know the hotel and gathers all the data necessary to do the valuation, she also discovers that the hotel sale might be connected to money-laundering activities. Back in her office, right after finishing the valuation, she receives a call from her boss asking her to manipulate the figures to obtain a much higher offer price. This request goes against Isabel's personal and professional values of honesty, truthfulness, and fairness, and it seems to confirm her suspicions of money laundering. This A case asks students to step into Isabel's shoes and figure out a feasible action plan that is consistent with her values. This case set is targeted at undergraduate students taking finance, leadership, or ethics courses.

This case set is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. Tom Patton is the head of internal communication at a cybersecurity company, RothBabbitt Cyber (RothBabbitt), which was the victim of a significant cyberattack. After informing Patton about the situation, his supervisor, Chief Communication Officer Lucille Givens, tells him to develop a plan to communicate the bad news to employees. Because the cyberattack is being announced to the public in two days, Patton will have only 24 hours to complete his plan. Fearing additional legal exposure, Givens and the company's general counsel instruct Patton not to share this news with anyone not already informed and to minimize the details that leadership will communicate to employees. Patton disagrees with this approach because he believes it is dishonest and unwise. He also thinks the company should be more transparent with the public. In his view, the right path is to provide full disclosure to employees who will already feel blindsided by the news. This case set is intended for use at the MBA level in courses on Strategic Communication, Organizational Behavior, Leadership, Tech Ethics, and Ethics. While it was written for an MBA curriculum, it can also be used by graduate and advanced undergraduate students in Communication, Journalism, or Computer Science who have experience employing the ideas in Mary Gentile's Giving Voice to Values (GVV) book and curriculum.

This case set is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. Tom Patton is the head of internal communication at a cybersecurity company, RothBabbitt Cyber (RothBabbitt), which was the victim of a significant cyberattack. After informing Patton about the situation, his supervisor, Chief Communication Officer Lucille Givens, tells him to develop a plan to communicate the bad news to employees. Because the cyberattack is being announced to the public in two days, Patton will have only 24 hours to complete his plan. Fearing additional legal exposure, Givens and the company's general counsel instruct Patton not to share this news with anyone not already informed and to minimize the details that leadership will communicate to employees. Patton disagrees with this approach because he believes it is dishonest and unwise. He also thinks the company should be more transparent with the public. In his view, the right path is to provide full disclosure to employees who will already feel blindsided by the news. This case set is intended for use at the MBA level in courses on Strategic Communication, Organizational Behavior, Leadership, Tech Ethics, and Ethics. While it was written for an MBA curriculum, it can also be used by graduate and advanced undergraduate students in Communication, Journalism, or Computer Science who have experience employing the ideas in Mary Gentile's Giving Voice to Values (GVV) book and curriculum.

Most MBA internships conclude with a presentation where you detail the results of your major summer project. A lot is riding on your performance-namely, whether or not you receive a job offer. The success of your presentation, however, does not rest solely upon your delivery. It is more accurate and beneficial to think of your performance as the earned result of completing the deliberate three-part process of planning, practicing, and presenting. While you will deliver your final internship presentation individually, you will often present as part of a team throughout your career. This technical note is a guide for team presenting. Each element of the three-part process-planning, practicing, and presenting-can be applied to individual and team presentations. The final section includes guidelines for virtual presentations.

Storytelling is a crucial skill that leaders use in a variety of business situations. Accomplished leaders employ storytelling to improve interpersonal relationships, communicate strategy, and build culture. From an operations perspective, storytelling is a skill that empowers leaders to create common ground among teams, unleash the drive and passion of their people, and share a vision for the future. Likewise, storytelling plays a vital role in engaging external stakeholders. To raise capital and acquire investors, you need to tell a compelling story about how your company will create value and why your strategy will be a winning one. If you want the media and other influencers to spread positive news about your products and services, you must articulate a story detailing the unique benefits you provide. The ability to tell a convincing story about your company's purpose and the social good you generate is essential to recruiting the next generation of top talent to your organization. This technical note helps MBA students improve the storytelling skills that they will employ throughout their careers.

This technical note is employed in MBA, executive education, and undergraduate courses that cover the art of persuasion. It is used in the core Management Communication course at Darden. Employing the canons of rhetoric devised by Aristotle and his classical contemporaries, the objective of the note is to provide students with a clear and usable map to guide them as they seek to understand the dynamics involved in persuading others. Persuasion is a critical management skill that must be mastered at all levels of the organization, but it is especially important for those at the leadership level. Most managerial communication goes beyond the sharing of information and involves elements of persuasion. Along with the five canons-invention, arrangement, memory, style, and delivery-this note also outlines the three primary modes of persuasion: ethos (an appeal to values), pathos (an emotional appeal), and logos (a logic-based appeal). This note often is used in conjunction with the technical note, Leadership Voice and Style.

This technical note is used in management communications or strategic communication courses in MBA or executive education programs where students are learning to develop their ability to persuade others through oral and written communication. It includes a framework for assessing the various skill sets that characterize accomplished communicators and guidance for both extroverts and introverts on refining their particular leadership voice and style. These are powerful tools for managers who wish to distinguish their organization from the competition in part by coaching team members to become exceptional communicators. This technical note is particularly impactful for courses where students have an individual speaking assignment or a group presentation. This note often is used in conjunction with the technical note, The Canons of Rhetoric.