We need to be thinking about doing more than just delivering information from point A to point B. Sharing or delivering information is fine. Providing our colleagues with a status update is important. But it is not nearly enough.

No one, and I mean NO ONE, leads ALL the time. At some point, we all need to know how to follow. And following is not a bad thing.

The world of communication is constantly changing… new vocabulary, new tools, new techniques and new norms are consistently available to us and expected from us.

And this reality continues to be as true today as it ever was. The rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence tools is changing…

We all have bias, whether we will admit it to ourselves or not. And if we are not careful, and if we don’t manage our bias, then that bias may get in the way of real business progress.

What do people say about your meetings and presentations? Do you know? Are you sure?

The slides don’t matter until you first figure out what you want to be talking about. The slides need to be placed in proper perspective.

There is one element that is consistently required for successful and persuasive communication…. creating an emotional connection.

In business, just like on the poker table, success is simply about balancing what you have in front of you, and the variables around you, and the information available.

Twice a week, The Latimer Group’s experienced facilitators deliver clear, succinct, and actionable lessons about business communication to tens of thousands of readers worldwide. Here’s the latest entry:

The best preparation involves getting fully immersed in what the other side/person/group is going to say, and to try to see their point of view.

Meetings, conference calls and presentations are the blood cells that regulate the blood flow of your business. In a healthy organization, the meetings, conference calls and presentations are well run. In other words, the “informational blood flow” is healthy, because the “meeting blood cell” is healthy.

In any organization, leadership is built on credibility—a foundation of trust, expertise, and consistency that allows a team to work together with confidence in the organization’s overall decision-making and strategic vision.

The single most frequently asked question I hear regarding public speaking is this… “Dean, how can I be more confident as a speaker?” I’ve been in this line of work for more than 15 years, and every year, I hear that question more than any other.

And throughout my time leading The Latimer Group, my answer has remained essentially the same:

Your people will follow you for one of two reasons: because they want to, or because they have no choice. One of those is better than the other. How will you choose to show up?

When you stand up to speak in a professional setting, there are three primary ways you are interacting with your audience: the message you have developed, the slides you have created, and the delivery skills you exhibit. All three matter, because all three impact your audience’s experience.

The decision on what not to say may be driven by many factors: time, sensitivity, politics, detail-driven “rabbit holes,” among many others. But those decisions on what to leave out are often, in my experience, just as important as the decisions on what to include.

One of the best ways to make sure we are competitive in this world is to make sure that our employees, the people on our team, the people we invite into our organization are set up and equipped to succeed.

What if we took the same approach to how we present, lead meetings, and engage with our teams? How do you ensure your communication is clear, impactful, and continuously improving?

Sometimes certain phrases get repeated so often, they become more than cliche. They become indisputable fact. But that doesn’t mean such statements are always correct.

Have you ever worked with someone who seems obsessed with taking credit for everything? I have, and it… is… awful. It is unmotivating, frustrating, and exhausting to be around someone who is constantly trying to remind you how great they are. All you ever hear from a person like that is some version of “look at me,” “look what I did,” “I created that,” and “I’m fantastic, don’t you agree?” Even when it is more subtle than that, it is unmistakable.