For HR, L&D, executive teams & organizational leaders
Your organization already has intelligent, technically accomplished people. The question is whether their communication creates clarity, confidence, alignment, and action when it matters.
Executive Speaking Success designs customized executive communication coaching and leadership development programs for executive teams, high-potential leaders, technical experts, and organizations where words carry weight.
Trusted by leaders at NASA, GE Aerospace, Johnson & Johnson, Intuit, Accenture, and other organizations where communication directly affects performance.
The decision behind the program
The real question is not, “Can someone teach our people to be better presenters?” It is, “Will this change how our leaders communicate when the session is over?”
Executive Speaking Success programs are built for transfer into real work: board presentations, customer conversations, QBRs, all-hands meetings, investor narratives, technical explanations, difficult conversations, and moments of organizational change.
The work gives leaders a shared language for clarity, trust, storytelling, Emotional Credibility™, presence, and inspired action. Then they apply those principles to messages and situations that actually matter to the organization.
The goal is not a borrowed performance style. It is communication that is more precise, more human, more memorable, and authentically their own.
The right starting point
Private coaching can help an executive prepare for a board meeting, investor presentation, keynote, media appearance, promotion, organizational change, or a new level of public visibility.
A customized team program creates common principles for clarity, trust, story, feedback, presence, and the conversations through which leadership becomes visible.
A focused intensive can prepare leaders for a summit, product launch, investor event, customer meeting, major presentation, or another moment when the communication must land.
What the organization gains
Complex thinking becomes easier to understand, remember, repeat, and act on.
Leaders communicate with greater humanity, credibility, and Emotional Credibility™.
People understand what matters, why it matters, and what they are responsible for next.
Important ideas gain traction with boards, teams, clients, partners, investors, and other stakeholders.
Participants leave with principles and practices they can keep using after the engagement ends.
Leaders can coach one another and hold a more useful standard for consequential communication.
How the work is designed
01
Begin with the business and leadership result.
02
Find where communication affects trust and action.
03
Combine training, practice, coaching, and review.
04
Apply the principles to actual messages and priorities.
05
Turn useful insight into a durable leadership habit.
Flexible by design
Programs can be delivered in person, virtually, or through a thoughtful combination of both.
Private executive coaching, workshops, team intensives, and preparation for a specific high-stakes moment.
Leadership cohorts and blended learning journeys that combine group development with individual coaching and feedback.
Some organizations begin with one leader. Others begin with an executive team or cohort. Very often, successful work with one leader creates the opportunity to strengthen communication across the organization.
Proof in practice
GE AEROSPACE
Senior engineering leaders turned deep technical expertise into clear, human, memorable communication. The rigor stayed intact. The audience could finally experience why it mattered.
JOHNSON & JOHNSON INNOVATION — JLABS
One TEDx talk became leadership-team development, programs across the United States and Europe, and ongoing pitch coaching for scientific founders.
INTUIT
A respected vice president humanized his communication, shared authentic stories, and built greater trust across the company.
“John, I can’t thank you enough for working with us here at NASA. You were so engaging and gave my team great tools and inspiration to take our communications to the next level.”
— Ashley Edwards, Communications Manager, NASA Headquarters
Why John Bates
John has trained all the active NASA astronauts and worked with leaders at some of the highest-functioning, highest-stakes organizations in the world. He has coached speakers for more than 35 TED and TEDx events and serves as a coach for the TED Fellows Program.
He also understands the pressure from inside leadership. As a founder, executive, and entrepreneur who raised more than $100 million with his teams, John knows what it means to carry an important idea into rooms where trust, investment, and the future of the organization may be at stake.
His work is science-grounded, story-driven, deeply human, and practical enough to use immediately.
L=f(c)
Leadership is a function of communication.
Great leadership is a function of great communication.
Questions organizational buyers ask
Executive teams, high-potential leaders, founders, technical and scientific experts, and accomplished people whose communication increasingly affects trust, decisions, alignment, investment, or action.
No. Presentations are one application, but the work extends to meetings, boards, QBRs, customer conversations, media, pitches, difficult discussions, and everyday leadership. The aim is not performance polish. It is clearer thinking, stronger human connection, greater credibility, and communication that produces useful action.
Yes. Whenever practical, participants work on real messages and situations. That may include an upcoming presentation, investor narrative, technical explanation, leadership story, organizational priority, or difficult conversation.
Yes. Customization means understanding the organization, participants, communication moments, desired outcomes, and constraints, not simply placing a different logo on standard slides.
Yes. Programs can be delivered virtually, in person, or through a blended design. John works with organizations throughout the United States and internationally.
A focused workshop or intensive can address one immediate need. A multi-month engagement allows teaching, application, feedback, coaching, and reinforcement to become part of how leaders actually communicate.
Absolutely. Some of the strongest organizational relationships begin with one consequential leader or message and expand after the value of the work becomes visible.
Private 1:1 coaching with John begins at $9,500. Team and organizational programs are scoped around the number of participants, format, customization, duration, and level of coaching and support required. Read the executive communication coaching cost guide →
We discuss the people involved, the moment or capability that matters, what needs to be different, and whether Executive Speaking Success is the right partner. If it is, we can recommend a sensible starting point and scope.
Start with the outcome
Let’s design an engagement around your people, your priorities, and the moments where communication matters most.
A thoughtful first conversation about fit, format, scope, and the outcome you need to create.