The five bearings, one track each
Open any module for what it covers and what participants leave with. Every module also runs standalone.
The Leadership Foundations Track
The fundamentals nobody formally taught youForAnyone responsible for people, whether newly promoted or years into the job without formal training.
- 1Emotional Intelligence & Self-Awareness
The inner game that decides whether your other strengths land.
Most leaders are less self-aware than they believe. This module helps them see how they come across, especially under pressure.
You will leave withYour top three triggers named, and a plan to pause before you react.
- 2Command & Control vs. Servant Leadership
Why the best leaders flip the pyramid, and when the old model still fits.
Both styles aim for results but differ on whether people work best controlled or trusted. This module shows when each one fits.
You will leave withOne decision to hand fully to your team this week, and not take back.
- 3Earning Trust
Your most valuable leadership asset.
Trust has to flow down to your team, up to your leaders and across to your peers. This module covers how it is built, broken and rebuilt.
You will leave withOne concrete step this week to build trust with your team, your leader and a peer.
- 4Building High-Performing Teams
How a team works together matters more than who is on it.
Great teams are built on purpose. This module shows how to make it safe to speak up while holding a high bar.
You will leave withA 90-day sequence for building your team, and one step to take this week.
- 5The Art of Delegating
The lever that multiplies your impact, or the bottleneck that caps it.
Delegating is not handing off tasks. It is handing over the outcome, the authority and the accountability, with check-ins instead of hovering.
You will leave withThree tasks that belong to someone else, and one to hand off this week.
- 6Difficult Conversations & Conflict Resolution
The conversations you must have, and the conflicts you must resolve.
Avoiding a hard conversation only makes it harder. This module covers how to hold the ones that are yours and help others resolve theirs.
You will leave withA plan for the conversation you have been avoiding, to hold this week.
The People Leader Track
When the basics are no longer enoughForExperienced managers, managers of managers and functional leads.
- 1Motivation, Engagement, Loyalty & Winning Opportunities
What drives people, engages them, and earns their loyalty.
Each person is driven by something different, and the strongest motivators cost nothing. This module covers how leaders engage people and earn loyalty.
You will leave withA plan to learn what drives each person, and one winning opportunity for your team.
- 2Guided Discovery
Leading people to their own breakthroughs.
People act on the answers they find themselves. This module teaches leaders to coach with questions, and to know when to simply tell.
You will leave withA simple structure for coaching with questions, ending in a clear commitment.
- 3Managing Talent
Finding, growing and keeping great people.
Everything a leader does scales through people. This module covers how to hire, grow and keep strong people, and build a bench.
You will leave withYour biggest succession gap named, with at least one person to develop for it.
- 4Managing Within the Law
What every manager must know about leading people legally.
Most managers who face legal action are good managers who did not know the rules. This module covers what every manager needs to know.
You will leave withA 30-day plan to tighten how you hire, document and make people decisions.
- 5Inclusive Decision Making
Better decisions, and decisions that actually stick.
People carry out the decisions they helped shape. This module shows how to bring the right voices in, and when to decide alone and say so.
You will leave withTwo people you have been leaving out, and one step to include them this week.
- 6Resilience & Beating Burnout
Perform for the long run, and protect the people who do.
Burnout is a system problem, not a personal weakness. This module covers how to spot it early and protect your energy and your team’s.
You will leave withThe biggest cause of strain on your team named, and one recovery window to protect.
The Executive Presence Track
Land the message, command the roomForLeaders preparing for board exposure, senior forums and C-suite audiences.
- 1Executive Communication
Clarity, authority and impact at the highest levels.
Senior leaders want the answer first and a clear ask. This module helps leaders get to the point and turn data into a decision.
You will leave withA 30-day practice plan, starting with your next executive meeting.
- 2Understanding Body Language
When words and body conflict, people read the body.
People read your body before your words. This module helps leaders read others more accurately and notice what they signal under pressure.
You will leave withYour biggest blind spot named, and one habit to practice this week.
- 3Exercising Influence
Making things happen at work and beyond.
Influence is what you do, not the title you hold. This module shows why asking and listening often move people further than pushing.
You will leave withA plan for one important conversation where you will ask and listen first.
- 4Managing Up & Marketing Yourself
Become the leader your leader wants to work with.
Great work that nobody sees does not get funded or promoted. This module covers how to make your leader’s job easier and your team’s work visible.
You will leave withOne senior leader named whose trust you will work to earn over the next 90 days.
- 5Financial Literacy for Leaders
Speak the language of business.
Leaders who cannot talk about money rarely get a seat where strategy is set. This module covers reading the numbers and making the business case.
You will leave withA four-week plan to learn your team’s numbers, starting with its top three costs.
The Enterprise Leader Track
Lead the system, not just the teamForSenior leaders, functional heads and those moving into enterprise roles.
- 1Vision, Strategy & Goals
Craft the vision, choose the strategy, set the goals.
Strategy says what to do and vision says why it is worth doing. This module covers both, and goals that connect every team to them.
You will leave withA one-sentence vision for your team, ready to test on someone outside it.
- 2Systems Thinking
Every problem that keeps coming back is a system.
Most management effort goes into reacting to events. This module helps leaders see the patterns underneath and fix causes instead of symptoms.
You will leave withYour most persistent problem mapped, with the one change that would matter most.
- 3Organizational Power Management
Stop looking up for decisions. Look across.
Too many decisions travel up the chain when they could be settled across it. This module helps leaders move decisions to where the knowledge sits.
You will leave withOne decision you will stop making for your team, handed back this week.
- 4Culture by Design: Values & Learning
What you stand for when it costs something.
Values are not posters. They are what a leader tolerates and rewards. This module also covers how to make learning a team habit.
You will leave withThree to five values your team lives today, each backed by evidence.
- 5Leading Change & Transformation
Moving people through uncertainty, and making it stick.
Most change fails with the people, not the plan. This module covers how to win early support and carry people through the difficult middle.
You will leave withA one-minute vision for your change, and three allies to enlist this week.
The Career Track
Your own trajectory, on purposeForHigh performers, emerging leaders and succession pools.
- 1Leadership Passages
From individual contributor to enterprise leader.
Each step up demands new skills, a new use of time and new values. Many leaders bring the habits of their last level into the new one.
You will leave withAn honest read on the level you lead at today, and what the next one asks of you.
- 2Career Development Plan
Design it deliberately. Live it intentionally.
Your career plan and your performance plan are not the same thing. This module helps leaders design their career on purpose, alongside their life.
You will leave withYour career plan started in a workbook you keep, and the one gap to close this year.
- 3Getting Promoted
Promotion is recognition of what you have already proven.
A promotion needs readiness, a business need and a budget, and only readiness is yours. This module covers what changes between levels and what holds strong performers back.
You will leave withA plan for your promotion conversation, and the evidence to show before you have it.
- 4Business Owner Mindset
Think like an owner, wherever you sit.
Thinking like an owner has nothing to do with your title. This module covers the daily habits of ownership, and what to do when it unsettles colleagues.
You will leave withOne act of ownership outside your job description, to take this week.
- 5The Leadership Playbook
The behaviors that separate high performers, in one place.
Twenty-four everyday behaviors across mindset, relationships and execution. Run first, it maps the whole program. Run last, it brings it together.
You will leave withYour strongest behavior and your biggest gap named, with one action for this week.
What every module has in common
Grounded
Built on published research and more than 25 years of leading global teams, not on opinion.
Reflective
Every module opens with the participants’ own experience and returns to it. The questions are the teaching.
Engaged
Small cohorts by design. Every module opens a discussion, and leaders learn as much from each other as from the material.
Actionable
Each session closes with specific commitments for the week ahead. Insight without action is entertainment.
How to run it
Same curriculum, three depths. Pick the room you are trying to change, then pick how far you want to take it.
One module
Any single module, standalone. The quickest way to see how a session runs, or to close one specific gap.
- One to two hours
- No prerequisites
- An executive team, a group of managers, or a cohort
- In person or virtual
One track
Five or six modules built around one population and one outcome. The standard engagement.
- Five or six modules in sequence
- Typically six to ten hours in total
- Cohorts of six to ten
- Weekly, every two weeks or monthly
The full curriculum
All five tracks and 27 modules, run as a single cohort over roughly eight months at a weekly pace. The deepest option, and the one that changes how an organization talks.
- 27 modules, five tracks, one cohort
- Roughly eight months, weekly
- Opens or closes with The Leadership Playbook
- Peer accountability between sessions
Working with an executive team, coaching one leader, or need an outside read on the organization? See leadership team sessions, 1:1 executive coaching and management consulting.
What a leader walks away with
Grouped by the step a leader is taking, from leading a team to leading the organization. Every one of these is built inside a named module and practiced on the leader’s own real situations, not left to inspiration.
Leading a team
A practical plan for building a stronger team
How to make it safe to speak up while holding a high bar, with a 90-day sequence to start.
A way to earn trust and loyalty
Concrete steps to build trust up, down and across, and to learn what drives each person on the team.
The conversation they have been avoiding, prepared
How to prepare for and hold a hard conversation, and how to help two others work through a conflict.
Leading managers
A way to hand off work and coach instead of tell
Delegation that hands over the outcome and the authority, and a coaching habit in place of a telling habit.
A plan to grow and keep their best people
A development conversation with every direct report, and their biggest succession gap named with a candidate.
A plan to protect their energy and their team’s
Burnout treated as a system problem, with the biggest cause on their team named and recovery time protected.
Leading the organization
A clearer voice at the senior table
How to lead with the answer and one clear ask, manage the signals they send, and talk about the numbers.
More ways to influence without authority
Asking and listening as well as pushing, and the habit of settling decisions with peers instead of sending them up.
A clear vision, and a plan for change
A one-sentence vision, goals that connect to it, and a plan to carry people through change and make it stick.
Your own career
A career plan they own
A plan worked back from where they want to be in three to five years, the one gap to close this year, and what a promotion takes.
What the organization gets
Clearer direction
A vision turned into goals that connect every team to it.
Managers who act on engagement
What drives and drains people, taught as things a manager can change.
A common language
One shared vocabulary from first-line managers to the executive team.
Decisions closer to the work
Decisions handed to the people closest to the facts.
A bench planned ahead
Successors named and developed before a key seat opens.
Before you start
Who is a cohort for?
Six to ten leaders, at one level or across several: an executive team, a layer of managers, or a cross-functional group. Each track names the population it is built for.
Do we have to commit to a full track?
No. You can start with one pilot module and decide from there. Every module also runs standalone.
In person or virtual?
Either. The format does not change the content. Travel outside Greater Boston is billed at cost and agreed in writing beforehand.
How much time does it take?
Each module runs one to two hours. A typical track is six to ten hours, weekly, every two weeks or monthly. Every session ends with one committed action rather than homework.
Who teaches it?
I do. I deliver every module personally, drawing on more than 25 years leading global engineering organizations.
Can it fit our context?
Yes. Every module is practiced on your leaders’ own situations, and a custom module can be built for a specific need.
What participants say
“I reported to Manish as a Director of Engineering, and how I lead today as a global head of implementation traces directly back to him. … Manish doesn’t just train people; he permanently changes how they lead.”
“Working for him, I learned by watching. In the cohort, I was actually taught, and I could use it the same week. … He ran engineering organizations of several hundred people and every model he teaches is one he used under real pressure.”
“One of the most valuable lessons I took from Manish’s mentorship was the importance of expressing my perspective as a thought leader, even when an issue was outside my direct area of responsibility.”
Start with the gap you are trying to close.
Thirty minutes, no charge and no pitch. We will find the bearing your leaders need first, then recommend the track and sequence that fit where they are.
- 01
One conversation
Thirty minutes on the capability gap you are actually trying to close. No deck and no pitch.
- 02
A mapped proposal
Within a week, the track and the sequence that fit your people.
- 03
A pilot module
Run a single module with your team before you commit to anything longer.