Blog

(Our author today is our wonderful colleague Robert Mapstead, Director of Learning and Instructional Design for our NextGen Services Group. Robert brings a strong creative mindset and voice to his work every day, so there is no one better to be talking about today’s topic: creativity. Enjoy!) Coming up with creative ideas is critical in […]

We spend a lot of time here coaching people on how to communicate in order to get the outcomes they want. And in some cases, the outcome is a sale of a product or a service. But in many cases, the outcome is the “sale” of an idea or a plan. The vast majority of persuasion […]

If you have the power to advocate for the things you believe in… If you can make the compelling case for the idea… If you can influence the decisions and behaviors of others… If you can build consensus and persuade… You have competitive advantage. Period. Full stop. In the 21st century business world — where […]

At the risk of oversimplification, there are two macro “messaging problems” that come up a lot in our work. Problem #1: the speaker knows what they want to achieve, has a general goal in mind, but has not put enough thought into the details of the message and how they will achieve the goal. They […]

This blog post was inevitable. I was always going to write it. I just needed a moment of inspiration. Because when your favorite poem is quoted by your favorite actor/comedian, in your favorite scene from your favorite movie, the stars are about as aligned as they could possibly be. So, late the other night I was flipping around […]

At The Latimer Group, we talk and write all the time about the ability to communicate clearly. That is our purpose, our mission, our raison d’etre. To succeed in the 21st century global business environment, you need to be able to communicate with your colleagues, employees, customers, prospects, and shareholders, and you need to be […]

This post was written by Dan Cooney, Founder of The Cooney Company and a long-time Coach and Facilitator with The Latimer Group. Creators have always fascinated me, especially music creators. There’s a line from the movie A Star is Born that blew me away, even the first time I heard it. But then I couldn’t get […]

So much of the psychology of our business culture is about teams, working together, looking for the “win-win” scenario… and that’s all good. Those are good things to work towards. But can we be part of a collaborative environment, and still be able to ask the hard and uncomfortable questions? I hope so, because it’s […]

Sometimes it is hard to know the right way to say or write something. Sometimes it is hard to know the correct tone to take. How should I speak to these people? How formal or informal should it be? The answers depend on lots of things: the nature and seriousness of the topic; the level of […]

One of the best parts of the client workshops we teach is that our clients are really smart people. We are blessed to be able to work with so many companies, which are full of bright, qualified, hard-working people. Sure… I am kissing up to our clients this morning… but it also happens to be true. And frequently someone […]