When Should Professionals Consider Wharton Executive Presence and Influence?
| Synopsis:
The Executive Presence and Influence Program supports professionals whose impact depends on leadership presence, persuasive communication, relationship building, and influence beyond formal authority. |
The Wharton Executive Presence and Influence program helps participants turn professional presence into meaningful influence through practical tools, communication, self-reflection, and relationship-building. This guide looks at when this executive presence and influence program becomes relevant, what capabilities it develops, and what makes the learning experience useful for working professionals.
Wharton Executive Presence and Influence Program at a Glance
| Program Feature | Details |
| Duration | 6 weeks |
| Format | Online |
| Time Commitment | Approximately 4–6 hours per week |
| Learning Experience | Video lectures, discussions, articles, knowledge checks, surveys, assignments, peer learning, and real-world application |
| Key Learning Outcomes |
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Why Consider the Wharton Executive Presence and Influence Program?
This executive presence and influence program becomes particularly relevant when professional impact depends on more than technical competence. It develops the presence, communication, influence, and relationship-building capabilities needed to move from expertise toward broader leadership impact.
Move From Expertise to Meaningful Influence
The Wharton executive presence program helps participants understand how to create impact through formal and informal sources of influence.
Participants examine how to:
- Use informal channels and tools to advance an agenda
- Differentiate between types and sources of power
- Recognize the gap between technical competence and meaningful impact
- Apply the tools and mindset needed to navigate that gap
This is useful when a role requires professionals to influence colleagues, stakeholders, and teams beyond their formal authority.
Strengthen Leadership Presence and Persuasive Communication
The Wharton executive presence course develops the communication practices, mindset, and behaviors that contribute to a more impactful leadership presence.
Participants learn to:
- Use presence and poise to strengthen a leadership narrative
- Identify actions that help shape leadership presence
- Communicate persuasively with people senior to them
- Tailor communication to audience needs and interests
- Apply logos, pathos, and ethos as foundations of persuasion
The focus is practical. Developing executive presence is approached as a capability that can be strengthened through study, practice, self-reflection, and deliberate behavior.
Build Networks That Extend Informal Influence
The Executive Presence and Influence Program from Wharton Executive Education also treats professional networks as a strategic part of leadership influence.
Participants learn to:
- Recognize the importance of a diverse network
- Differentiate between strong and weak ties
- Examine redundant versus efficient ties
- Identify strategies for building a professional network
By covering informal power, professional networks, and relationship-building, the course also serves as an executive influence program for leaders seeking to extend their impact beyond formal authority.
Communicate Vision and Strategy With Greater Impact
This program connects persuasive communication with the ability to articulate a longer-term direction.
Participants explore how to:
- Use organizational architecture to communicate strategy
- Consider organizational culture as a medium of communication
- Recognize the role of persuasive communication in leadership
- Build and communicate a long-term vision effectively
By connecting persuasive communication with vision and strategy, the course functions as a leadership influence program for professionals who need to communicate direction more effectively.
Wharton Executive Presence and Influence Program Outcomes
The Executive Presence and Influence program brings these capabilities together, focusing on professional presence, communication, relationships, and leadership impact.
As a participant, you can develop the ability to:
- Strengthen professional presence by refining the mindset and behaviors that shape leadership impact
- Communicate more effectively with stakeholders and adapt messages to different audiences
- Use rhetorical strategy and persuasion techniques to advance professional agendas
- Build and maintain valuable professional relationships within and outside the organization
- Support peers and team members in performing at their best through stronger leadership practices
- Communicate long-term vision and strategy with greater clarity and impact
Find out why executives turn to the Wharton Executive Presence and Influence program to build persuasive leadership and influence beyond formal authority.
What Makes the Executive Presence and Influence Program Worth It
The program turns an often-abstract idea, such as executive presence, into tangible skills including communication practices, influence strategies, networking approaches, and leadership behaviors. Its six-week format combines practical application with peer interaction, flexible online learning, faculty expertise, and a Wharton certificate of completion.
Flexible Online Learning for Working Professionals
The leadership presence program is structured to fit alongside existing professional responsibilities.
- Six-week online format
- Approximately 4–6 hours per week
- New modular content is released weekly
- Access through computers, tablets, and smartphones
- Video lectures, discussions, articles, knowledge checks, surveys, and assignments
This gives working professionals flexibility while maintaining a structured weekly learning progression.
Practical Application, Case Studies, and Peer Learning
The learning experience combines case studies, practical exercises, real-world applications, and peer interaction, enabling participants to connect leadership concepts to situations they encounter at work.
Participants can:
- Work through case studies and real-world examples that illustrate leadership and influence in practice
- Complete exercises and assignments connected to professional situations
- Apply frameworks around informal influence, persuasion, networking, leadership narrative, and communication of vision
- Exchange perspectives through peer review, discussions, and collaborative learning
This makes the Executive Presence and Influence program practical, rather than limiting development to conceptual discussions of leadership style.
Certificate of Completion From Wharton Executive Education
Upon successful completion, participants earn a digital certificate of completion from Wharton Executive Education. The program does not grant academic credit or a degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Faculty Guidance Grounded in Leadership and Decision Research
Wharton faculty bring expertise across leadership development, decision-making, influence, communication, and organizational effectiveness. Through video lectures and live webinars, participants gain perspectives that connect leadership concepts with practical professional situations and the challenges of building presence and influence.
Is the Executive Presence and Influence Program a Right for you?
The Executive Presence and Influence Program is most relevant when professional growth requires more than deeper technical expertise. Present and future leaders who need to communicate with clarity, strengthen leadership presence, build professional relationships, and increase their influence across teams and stakeholders can use the program to develop these capabilities in a focused format.
Explore the program brochure to learn in detail about the program and strengthen your presence, persuasive communication, and leadership influence.
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