Coaching

In our coaching and training, we end up discussing the interview process all the time. Many of our clients interview regularly for promotions within their company. And almost all of our clients have to conduct interviews with others, for positions they are trying to fill on their own teams. Part of our coaching process is to ask […]

We spend a lot of time here coaching people on how 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 that happens in the […]

So often in preparing to communicate, we make a fundamental mistake: we enter a messenger mindset. Rather than establishing a clear goal and aiming to persuade our audience, we set out to inform, to update, to share. On this path, we end our inquiry with a period: here’s what I need to say, full stop. But […]

Simple idea today, that comes up in our coaching sessions from time to time. My colleagues and I talk all the time about great communication skills, and all the things that help create those skills. We believe that when we take the time to prepare for our meetings, presentations and calls, we will do a much […]

“Get good at something, and don’t try to be something that you are not. Don’t try to do something that you don’t fully understand, . If you try to be something you’re not, it will come off as disingenuous.” ~L.J. Spinnato, varsity football head coach, Choate Rosemary Hall In this episode of The Message Makeover, […]

“If you don’t hear these words and understand their importance, we are not going to get ‘there.’ And in my world, getting ‘there’ is winning a gold medal.” ~Luther Carpenter, US Olympic Sailing Coach Coaching people to elite performance is hard, under any circumstances. But it is especially hard at the Olympic Games, where you are […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, December 2018. When we go into a meeting, we all usually have some sort of plan for what we want to say. But how many of us make a listening plan? Now, listening may seem like the simplest thing in the world to do, and the idea of taking a […]

In our communication workshops, we work with clients from many countries, across several continents, and of course, in varying age groups, from just-out-of-college Millennials to Gen X’ers to late Baby-Boomers. In our work with these individuals, we often find a disconnect between how the generations speak to each other. These differences across the generations exist […]

We coach people to be as persuasive and powerful in their communication as possible. But sometimes, your audience is just not open to what you have to say. Our clients often share experiences where the audience is not always open minded. Some of our clients tell us, “They don’t want to hear that from me,” […]

When we communicate well in the workplace — when we get to the point, when we articulate value, when we make the point clearly — what we are really doing is respecting our audience, and their time. When we do not prepare sufficiently, or make the point quickly and clearly, then what we are really doing is disrespecting […]