Your team needs shared language and guided practice.
Build practical communication skills around the conversations managers face together.
See Workshop FormatsFacilitated workshops for teams
Build the communication skills your leaders need when the room gets tense.
Barbara Jenks works with managers and teams on the conversations that affect trust, expectations, accountability, and forward movement. Each workshop connects practical tools to the real situations your people are facing.
In person and virtual · Pacific Northwest and nationwide engagements
Choose the right kind of support
Start with what the room needs.
A shared skill, a repeated organizational pattern, and an event each call for a different kind of engagement.
The same communication pattern keeps returning.
Look beneath a recurring issue across a team, department, or leadership group.
Explore ConsultingYour event needs a practical message people can use.
Bring Barbara to a conference, association, leadership event, or retreat.
Explore SpeakingWhen communication starts slowing the work
Your managers do not need another script to memorize.
They need a way to notice what is happening while the conversation is still in front of them.
01
The message sounded clear, but the team heard something different.
02
Useful feedback turned into defensiveness, silence, or a longer cleanup conversation.
03
A manager waited for the perfect words while the problem kept growing.
04
Stress and assumptions filled the space where clarity should have been.
These are communication patterns. Patterns can be noticed, practiced, and changed.
Practice for real workplace moments
The workshop should meet the conversation your team is already having.
Barbara's facilitated workshops are grounded in actual workplace situations, not polished theory. Leaders examine the patterns beneath a conversation, practice specific communication tools, and build more flexibility in the moment.
The work draws on more than 20 years of corporate HR and leadership experience, practical tools informed by cognitive and behavioral science, and the adaptability of improv.
Change the pattern. Change the conversation.
A practical framework
Three skills that work together.
Awareness, Listening, and Word Choice give leaders a clear way to understand what is shaping a conversation and choose what to do next.
Awareness
Notice your state, desired outcome, assumptions, and automatic reactions before they take over the conversation.
Listening
Hear the words, tone, energy, and the ask underneath what another person is saying.
Word Choice
Choose specific language that reduces confusion and gives people a clearer way to respond.
A useful starting point
Start with the pattern, not a prewritten package.
Identify the pattern.
Barbara begins with the communication pattern your leaders are facing and the moments where it keeps showing up.
Name the real need.
Barbara learns what your leaders are navigating, where conversations tend to stall, and what you want them to handle more clearly.
Fit the work to the room.
The workshop format and focus are tailored to the team, the workplace context, and the communication challenge in front of them.
Workshop questions
What organizational buyers ask.
What does Barbara Jenks teach in leadership communication workshops?
Barbara's workshops help managers notice and change the patterns beneath communication. Topics may include difficult conversations, feedback, listening, clear expectations, communication under pressure, and the Three Pillars of Communication: Awareness, Listening, and Word Choice.
Who are the facilitated workshops for?
The workshops are designed for people managers, team leaders, and organizations whose work depends on direct, real-time human interaction.
Are workshops available in person or virtually?
Both. Barbara is based in the Pacific Northwest and offers in-person and virtual workshops. Nationwide in-person engagements are available when travel and accommodations are provided.
What workshop formats are available?
Options may include half-day workshops, full-day workshops, lunch-and-learn series, leadership retreats, and custom engagements shaped around the organization's communication needs.
How does an organization get started?
Schedule a conversation with Barbara to discuss the team, the communication challenge, and the workshop format that may fit.
Bring clarity into the room
What conversation does your team need to handle better?
Tell Barbara what your managers are facing and what you want them to be able to do more clearly.
Barbara is based in the Pacific Northwest. Workshops are available in person and virtually, with nationwide engagements available when travel and accommodations are provided.
Meet Barbara