Dean Brenner

We spend a lot of our time in workshops, on this blog, and in all our conversations with our clients, discussing the importance of good communication skills. We always talk about the power of listening, of being prepared, of having goals and talking points and plans… all of it matters. When you take a good […]

At The Latimer Group, we often say, “no one leads all the time.” And today, we would like to dig into that a little bit more. Take a look at the image above. The yellow figure is usually the one that gets all the attention, much of the acclaim when things are going well. Many of […]

My colleagues and I talk and teach all the time about the power of strong communication skills. When we communicate effectively, The Latimer Group always says, we drive results. We get approvals. We connect with the people around us. So many good things happen when we can communicate well. But let’s add to that long […]

The question I’m asked most often in workshops and coaching sessions is, “I get really nervous when I present; can you help me eliminate my anxiety?” And my answer is that having at least some anxiety is actually a good sign. It means that, at that moment, you’re engaged. You are plugged into your audience […]

Hello friends! We recently added a new element to our website, where you can submit your communication questions directly to us. We will collect the questions, and either answer directly back to you, or when appropriate, publish your questions and our answers on our blog. Our goal here is to give you some quick support […]

I love sports. I have played a lot of sports, some very competitively, some merely recreationally. And I follow most sports on at least a casual basis. My favorite is baseball, which I consume voraciously. But I also actively follow American football, and I keep an eye on basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, golf. I become […]

We think and talk about persuasion a lot over here at The Latimer Group. We believe that the ability to use your words to create good outcomes is a critical skill in our world today… this has probably always been true, but perhaps never MORE true than it is today. In a world where communication and information […]

(Author’s Note: For those who have been following along with this blog for a while, you know that your authors, especially this one, are not afraid to share elements of our non-work life here. For those who are new to this blog, don’t let the personal nature of today’s topic scare you away. This is […]

So often in preparing to communicate, we make a fundamental mistake: we enter what my colleagues and I refer to as “the messenger mindset.” What this means is that our entire approach to communication is about the “delivery of information.” Rather than communicating based on goals and desired outcomes, we set out to inform, to update, […]

The other day I was playing with my kids, and my daughter asked me about what I do at The Latimer Group. I gave her what I thought was a good answer, straight from our highly curated marketing materials: “we provide coaching and training to…” But my answer wasn’t super helpful to a six-year old. […]