How to build strong teams and partnerships in times of change
The Manager’s Playbook
A four-week workshop series for leaders who are ready to have more fulfilling and productive relationships with their team members, peers, and partners. Begins May 8.
Every day, teams have a choice: to come together or fall apart. And right now? Way too many are falling apart.
Some are running in circles after a reorg or layoff, trying to follow vague feedback from their managers to “demonstrate more impact.” Others are stuck on defense, treating cross-functional partners like enemies instead of peers. And still others are covering up their dissatisfaction with fake smiles and thumbs-up emojis.
As a manager or lead, you have a choice to make: You can let these issues fester and watch people backchannel, backbite, and burn out. Or you can use this moment to build connection and collaboration—both within your team and across your org.
That’s why we created the Manager’s Playbook—a workshop series for emerging and established leaders who are ready to have more fulfilling and productive relationships with their team members, peers, and partners.
Ask your boss
Convince your company to pay for your registration. Share this program overview with your boss.
What you’ll learn
The Manager’s Playbook will leave you with powerful coaching, communication, and relationship skills to help you lead up, down, and across with less stress and more success. You’ll learn how to:
Lead feedback and performance conversations with candor and care
Hold coaching conversations that help your team get unstuck (without adding more to your plate)
Align your team around shared goals and values
Deepen connection and influence with your partners
Resolve cross-functional challenges and misalignments
Over four weeks together, you’ll get eight hours of hands-on training and practice in the core skills you need to build a culture of trust, collaboration, and engagement in your org.
By the end of this program, you’ll feel confident setting clear and fair performance expectations, coaching your team through challenges, giving difficult feedback, and finding common ground with partners and leaders (even when you disagree). You’ll leave knowing that even during challenging times, you have what it takes to say the hard things that will help everyone move forward… together.
“I had a difficult conversation with a colleague last week that I am 100% sure I would not have been able to have if not for that workshop… Having the tools to get it started made something that is never going to be easy somehow easier.”
—Past workshop participant
“This workshop totally reset me. I’ve been struggling with a specific situation with my direct report and this workshop gave me a new sense of confidence and new skills to better support her.”
—Past workshop participant
Program schedule
The program includes three 2.5-hour workshops, followed by a private coaching session with either Jen or Sara. Here’s what we’ll cover each week:
WEEK 1
Foundations: Essential skills for effective relationships
Workshop: May 8 at 1-3:30pm ET
In our first session, you’ll learn the three most transformative—yet under-discussed—skills in the manager’s toolkit: self-awareness, curiosity, and listening.
WEEK 2
Your team: Coaching skills for trust, alignment, and performance
Workshop: May 15 at 1-3:30pm ET
Learn how to use coaching skills to build trust, inspire growth, give feedback, and create clear expectations with your team—even in times of change.
WEEK 3
Your peers and partners: Working across functions and through conflicts
Workshop: May 22 at 1-3:30pm ET
Learn the skills to build stronger partner relationships, navigate stress and tension in productive ways, and turn conflict into collaboration.
WEEK 4
Synthesis: Private coaching session with Jen or Sara
Slots available from May 23-30
Get personal support putting these tools into action with a 30-minute, 1:1 coaching session with Sara or Jen. We’ll give you a range of options so you can book a time that works for you.
“Active Voice has been an invaluable addition to our CX&Design community’s learning and development program… building the resilience to partner strategically with the business is no easy feat. Our attendees rave about the courses, attendance rates are consistently high, and feedback is reliably stellar… We can’t recommend Active Voice enough.”
—Jess Greco, Mastercard
What to expect
Who should join
This program is primarily designed for managers and team leads—and those who hope to become managers. However, the relationship and communication skills we’ll teach are applicable for anyone who’d like to build their coaching, communication, and relationship-building skills.
Have questions about this program or whether it’s right for you or your team? Email us!
What’s included
3 live workshops
Workshops for our May cohort will be held May 8, 15, and 22 at 1pm ET. Each workshop is 2.5 hours long, and includes a mix of instruction, breakout activities, practice sessions, and coaching from Jen and Sara.
1 private coaching session
To close out the program, you’ll also receive a 30-minute, 1:1 coaching session with Sara or Jen to synthesize what you’ve learned and make an action plan. You can also practice your new skills with us and get feedback live.
Digital workbook
The workbook pairs with our live sessions and coaching session. It’s packed with activities and self-reflections to guide your progress, plus tools you can use after the program ends.
Private Slack channel
Connect with your cohort, DM Sara or Jen, and take part in the full Active Voice Slack community—a supportive, welcoming space filled with people who share our vision of building bold leaders and better workplaces in design and tech.
Register now
This cohort is capped at 30 people, and registration closes May 3.
Registering 3+ people? Use code TEAM at checkout and save 15%.
The Manager’s Playbook
Workshop series | May 2024 cohort
Live sessions:
May 8, 15, and 22 from 1-3:30pm ET
When you register, you’ll be asked to agree to our code of conduct. We take this code seriously, so please read it!
Meet your facilitators
Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Active Voice CEO
Sara founded Active Voice in 2020. Before that, she built her career in content design and UX, and is known for her work on ethics and responsibility in the tech industry. Her work in the field taught her the value of having hard conversations, and her training as a coach—including both team coaching and trauma-informed coaching—taught her how to have those conversations with candor, care, and self-awareness.
Jen Dionisio
Director of coaching programs
Before becoming a coach, Jen spent her career building and leading content teams—most recently, scaling up a content strategy practice from 5 people to 25 people in a year. Jen loves supporting the career growth of her reports and mentees, managing managers, and helping new managers establish a leadership style authentic to their values and core strengths.
Created by Active Voice
Bold leaders. Better workplaces.
Since 2020, we’ve been helping people in design and tech understand who they are and how they lead—so they can speak up with confidence, build team resilience, and navigate challenges with ease.
We’re a tiny company with big ideas about how to change work—for good. And we can’t wait to get to know you. Learn more about us.
Learn to lead up, down, and across with less stress and more success.
Reserve your spot in the Manager’s Playbook program now.