We are being asked and asking ourselves to evolve.
What is Visible Leadership?
The art of noticing how you hold your presence with an audience, your community of listeners.
For visible leaders truth is a social practice.
Origin Story
I created Visible Leadership coaching at Harvard Law School and fine tuned it at UCLA Anderson School of Management. My desire was to answer a simple question: What makes a speaker compelling and memorable?The broad spectrum maxims of Visible Leadership coaching emerged from that exploration.
Leaders are always advocates
There is no such thing as a generic audience
Leadership presence creates an energetic experience
Design is essential to cut through the noise
Listening is an act of courage
Whose voice do we listen to: which voices do we hear?
Who is it for?
Leaders, entrepreneurs and advocates who want to reset their communication to meet the demands of change.Teams who want to build fluency in storytelling, pitching and engaging tough audiences.Organizations who want to uplevel internal and external communication with a focus on the energetics of perception and well being.
Leadership presence creates an energetic experience for an audience.
About Justine
Justine Lewis is the creator of Visible Leadership coaching (1998) and Mind Artist Yoga®(2018).The focus of Visible Leadership coaching is the articulation of leadership presence and authentic voice in strategic communication to advance new ideas.Dr. Lewis created Mind Artist Yoga® to help leaders develop intentional practices in communication that create sustainable connection with diverse audiences.
As a young itinerant actor and musician, Justine traveled in Europe, Africa and the U.S. working with experimental theatre companies, village folklorist storytellers and Romani communities – the root inspiration for her work.Dr. Lewis is a graduate of Harvard University (MA) and UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television (PhD). Her dissertation – Performance in Legal Advocacy – examined the roles of storytelling, improvisation and presence in legal communication.At Harvard, she taught at Harvard Law School, The American Repertory Theatre and The Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. At UCLA Anderson School of Management, she designed courses for the Executive and Full-time MBA programs, The Easton Technology Leadership Program, and the Center for International Business Research.For over 25 years, Dr. Lewis has designed communication training for teams in advocacy organizations, startups & business education. She is a recognized strategic communications coach for leaders in finance, education, medicine, law, government, technology, arts and non-profits.
THE THINKING
As leaders, the art of noticing can be distilled with these questions
How does my energetic presence respond to and impact this unique community of listeners?
How can I articulate ideas that focus and engage my audience?
What kind of experience do I want to create for my audience (and for what end)?
What do I want to leave as a sustainable gift?
THE WORK
Visible Leadership - Workshops, Coaching and Consulting
Team Workshops
Customize these trainings - Pitching Innovation, StoryBanking, Smart Argument, Intelligent Voice
What are the opportunities and challenges facing your team?How might refreshed strategic communication practices help those?
Idea
Incubator
Partnering leaders, startups and entrepreneurs to create and articulate sustainable ideas for changeWhat's the story you need to tell?Are you pinging ideas that don’t seem to settle with stakeholders?
Leadership Coaching
Leveraging the dynamics of leadership presence and persuasive communication in evolving scenariosWhat are your current leadership challenges?How might shifting the energetics of leadership presence impact those?
Campaigns & Advocacy
Communicating ideas that motivate and mapping a campaign of conversations for a causeWho is your audience and do you have common ground?Do you have integrity of intention across live and digital platforms?
THE PROCESS
The Visible Leader©
Are you curious about how leadership presence shapes audience perception, receptivity to ideas and catalyzes action?
Expressive Character Repertory
Marker Values
Authentic Presence
Pitching Innovation©
Is there a new idea, initiative or project that you want to advance with a specific audience?
The Naval Model©
Messaging Innovation
Design and Flow
Improvisational Conversation©
Would you like to be fluent in the dynamics of listening, capturing focus and conversational timing?
Brave Listening
Modular Design
The Heart of Improvisation
Smart Argument©
If you want to upgrade your strategic communication as a leader, consider the interactive art of classical argument.
Claims, Grounds, Evidence
Counter Claims and Strategic Rebuttal
Dynamics of Ethical Argument
Storybanking©
Storytelling is essential in leadership. We live and work in a landscape of stories. The stories people tell themselves create their experience.
Arc & Flow
Narrative Wheels
Emotional Ecosystems
Intelligent Voice©
Have you ever noticed how voice quality, phrasing and sound frequency impacts a community of listeners?
Tone/Pace/Rhythm/Beats
Resonant Voice
Conscious Breath
Campaign of Conversations©
If conversations happen on multiple platforms simultaneously, then how do you map conversations to cut through the noise?
A Network Model IQ
Map a Strategy Series
Digital Identity & the Gaming Self
Mind Artist Yoga®
Intentional practices that settle and tune the mind are essential in shaping strategies for change. These practices help leaders articulate shared value and collective vision.
Landscape Your Mind
Surf the Energetics of Breath
Source Resonant Creativity
Mind Artist Yoga®
Mind Artist Yoga® offers simple practices to settle the body, brain and mind in challenging times.For leaders, this settling allows us to curate our perception of, experience in, and attitude toward our audiences.Specifically, Mind Artist Yoga® is an exploration of the Mind as a Landscape of Stories. These stories are conditioned by internal and external forces simultaneously - the neuroplasticity or "live wiring" of our brain and the cultural environments we experience.The attitude of the artist is distinct from the attitude of the trainer.
The artist leads from curiosity; the trainer leads from compliance.
Artists create space; trainers create rules.
The path of the Mind Artist can soften the grip of the mind’s whirling distractions, invite creativity and embody joy.As we curate our stories, we calm the mind and alleviate extreme stress. This practice helps enhance and expand our energetic presence by grounding our nervous system in a more sustainable way. Mind Artist Yoga® can open the space to imagine new ideas, connect to what matters and lead from the core.
Outcomes & Benefits
Advance ideas with dynamic audiences in challenging timesBroaden strategic engagement across live and digital platformsCut through the noise of competing messages and narrativesIdentify and leverage your unique expressive repertoryIncrease competency with advanced rhetorical and persuasive techniquesArticulate shared value and collective vision
Testimonials
"Justine helped me identify my different internal voices, attitudes and ways of projecting my presence, and helped me hone which combinations to use for different audiences and communication goals. Before her help, my performance was memorable but didactic, inaccessible and one dimensional. After, I had a multi-toned repertoire of attitudes, a rich arsenal of voices and a commanding presence that could persuade, teach, fight and/or lead. Visible Leadership reveals the speaker to herself so she can authentically reveal transformation to her audience."Connie Rice, Esq.
Co-founder and Co-director Advancement Project
"Justine has been a great Idea Incubation partner for us. She brings enthusiasm, humor and bold thinking to every process, and has been vital to our achieving Winner’s Circles on several occasions. She finds the center, thinks about audience and successfully challenges individuals and teams with heart, smarts, and deep insight, helping design language that captures ideas in a way that inspires every stakeholder. Expansive dreamers, startup players and tech entrepreneurs will enjoy and immensely benefit from Visible Leadership coaching."Simon Maskell
Filmmaker and Founder, Gigniks
Advancement Project CA
“If you’re trying to deliver a message, you need to talk to Justine. Her background in both theater and political philosophy are essential to not just framing a perspective, but also embodying it. She helped me own my full voice and point of view. She has an uncanny ability to hear authenticity - and will let you know what sounds true or rings hollow."Omar Brownson
Co-founder and CEO - gthx
"I had the honor and pleasure to work with Justine Lewis on multiple complex public policy-related documentary films. As a filmmaker, my goal was to tell a good human story that will resonate with policymakers; however, it takes more than cinematic and directing skills to tell a big-picture story that will humanize complex social issues. The wealth of knowledge Justine Lewis brought to our storytelling was invaluable. While I saw the story development process from my camera's lens, Justine always helped me see the story from the 30,000 feet bird's eye view, and her perspective served as my guide in developing and telling these complex stories. Having Justine Lewis on my side as a messaging consultant and a co-writer of the film was absolutely the main reason why our documentary films were so successful. Due to her targeted messaging advice, our film moved California legislators to approve a bond measure that resulted in $1 Billion in state funding to construct new schools. The resulting new legislation has since produced over 100 schools in California to relieve overcrowding."Art Simon Documentary Filmmaker, Storyteller Art Simon Productions
"For many years Justine has guided me and my colleagues in the making of persuasive presentations of all types, not just written materials, but videos, speeches, and in appearances before legislative bodies and broadcast media. In forty years as a courtroom lawyer and non-profit advocate, I have seen none better than - or even as good as - Justine. She’s a Grand Master of Persuasion."Steve English, long-time litigator and Co-Founder of Advancement Project
"Dr Justine Lewis’s unique perspective on performance and communication represents a critical contribution to digital communication driven by issues of self and emotion. She applies an impressive range of knowledge and worldviews to a global understanding of expression and identity. Dr Lewis’ leadership coaching applies this with searing insight to the mediated worlds we all now inhabit, thinking of and using language in fresh ways beyond the literal, and cutting through the noise."Dr Clare Foster, PhD, FHEA
British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow, CRASSH
University of Cambridge*
AI & Society: Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Communication
Founding convener, ‘Re-‘ Interdisciplinary Research Network
"Dr Justine Lewis helped redesign our presentations for national and global outreach as well as delivered annual presentation training for all admission officers and leaders who engage the public. She customized one-on-one coaching with the eye of an educator and the instinct of an advocate. This boutique approach enhanced the professional development for each team member.
I absolutely recommend her as a training and coaching partner for any educational department or team that is looking for a fresh approach to both internal and external communications."Janina Montero
Vice Chancellor Emeritus UCLA Student Affairs
"At the UCLA Easton Technology Management Center, a student once told me: “I don’t want to be seen as just an engineer or technology specialist. I am also a leader, a manager, an entrepreneur.” Dr Lewis’ strategic communication workshop series moved MBA students toward that goal with insight, integrity and humor through dynamic and interactive scenario-based learning."Vandana (Ana) Mangal, PhD
Higher Ed Innovator. Academia-Industry Connector.
"If you want a genuinely brilliant communications expert to lift your thinking, help you see around corners, give deep insight into how to be proactive, and respond with wisdom, Justine Lewis is your person. Her Visible Leadership agency is proven to offer tools to expand the voice of our leaders, which then helps to move progressive politics and policy forward. She also has a unique ability to motivate leaders with great ideas to help them transform those ideas into action. She's an incredible asset to any organization and leader."Katie Smith (they/them)
Director of Communications
Advancement Project CA
"Transparency in telling and exchanging personal stories helps create an experience of shared value. Political messaging can’t be prescribed – it needs to be designed with awareness of who is and isn’t in the room to hear. Leadership presence is not just how you hold yourself in public; it’s how you listen, energetically, to the communities you serve. Visible Leadership coaching is for anyone seriously interested in the impact of presence and story in persuasive communication."Beth Burnam
Community Activist LA County
Leaders often feel under siege. We are functioning on adrenaline. We are hustling to pivot. We are scanning for ways to support our teams’ wellness. We are turning inward, as well out toward our audiences, with new questions about value and viability. We are challenging ourselves, our systems and our people to adapt, thrive and innovate. We are hurtling into a global digital first world.
Understanding both the strategic and mindful art of communication is critical now. We need it to stay healthy as people demand more from us to engender trust. And only with the gift of that trust, whether from colleagues, partners, teams, constituents, clients or stakeholders - can leaders inspire from the ground up with authenticity.We can advance new ideas as we check in on the energetics of progress and change. We can create a culture of action that is motivated by vision and not fear or bluster. We can lead visibly and include different or discordant voices while framing the truth.
Visible Leadership coaching and Mind Artist Yoga™ create the space to expand leadership presence and authentic voice in strategic communication.Coaching and training are curated for your organizational brand, personal style and the unique challenges of your constituency and mission. VL coaching is opportunity driven and designed to provide lasting sustainable change.
