Blog

This post was written by Lauren St. Germain, Facilitator and Coach for The Latimer Group. I’m nearly two years into parenthood and often say that raising a little human is the fastest way to develop leadership skills. It’s forced me to become more self-aware, consider a perspective outside of my own, and has made me more mindful […]

Here is a story I have witnessed countless times in my career… Think about a young, aspiring leader, with great ideas, all the best intentions, and enough energy to power up a city block. This young leader wants to do well, wants to help the company, and brings great ideas to the table. But that […]

My colleagues and I always talk about the importance of getting to the point quickly. So don’t worry… I am not about to contradict twenty years of Latimer teaching. But my colleagues and I also believe in the importance of audience and situational awareness, and that we should always try to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. […]

Do you find persuasion easy? For most of us, the answer probably is some version of “sometimes.” It’s a broad question, with lots of variables: what you are “asking” for, the environment and situation, the person being asked, and several other variables can all play a part in how easily the persuasion happens… or if it […]

This post was written by Jay Prewitt, Director of Coaching and Facilitation at The Latimer Group. I was at a post-rehearsal sushi dinner with my friend Ayur, who sings bass with me in a choral ensemble. Ayur is ethnically Mongolian, speaks Russian, Buryat, and Korean, and has been living in the United States for a year and […]

I was speaking with a good friend recently. He’s a business owner, and the definition of a straight shooter. He doesn’t tolerate people who waste his time or who don’t deliver as promised. He shared a story of a contractor he was working with who never, ever seemed to be able to meet a deadline. And his […]

Making the determination about what is and what is not appropriate is a judgment call that we can only make when we are honest with ourselves about who our audience is and what the context is for our meeting.

Great and powerful communication is not a single skill set. No, in fact great and powerful communication is actually four skills. And like any other elite artist or athlete, great performances are built first by breaking the overall skill into subskills. When we break things down into smaller parts, it is easier to build a […]

Let’s talk about building credibility… real credibility. Not the short term version of credibility that comes from a referral or a common friendship or the personal courtesy of someone giving you a chance. No… let’s talk about the long-term credibility that is built by you, your actions and your performance. Real credibility is created in […]

Many of us in our professional lives will get to a point where we have a lot of experience. We have done the job for a while, we know the products, we know the stakeholders, we know what our clients or customers want or don’t want. Experience matters, a lot. And when we accumulate significant […]