How Good is Your Poker Face?
Posted On December 2, 2019 BY Dean Brenner
We spend a lot of time leading workshops for our client companies, and we are often impressed with some of the insightful things that are shared in those sessions. Some time ago, we were with one of our most significant client companies and a participant in the workshop, named Paul, started talking about the card game poker. At that […]
Finding Deeper Ways to Listen
Posted On November 20, 2019 BY Dean Brenner
I spend a lot more time thinking about listening now than I used to. Why? I am not really sure. It could be my advancing age, with a major milestone looming on the horizon. It could be parenthood. It could be experience in my job. It could be the influence of some of the people […]
Feeding the Appetite for Self-Improvement
Posted On November 18, 2019 BY Dean Brenner
Winston Churchill once famously said “the most important thing about education is the appetite.” We teach and coach communication skills all day, every day, here at The Latimer Group. And we see all kinds of people walk into our workshops. We see the willing, the unwilling, the motivated, the unmotivated… and everything in between. Some […]
The Best Email I Have Ever Received
Posted On November 13, 2019 BY Dean Brenner
Every once in a while, something unexpected happens that just makes your day so much better. I had one of those “somethings” yesterday. I am on the road again this week, away from my family, which is never fun. I landed and made my way to the hotel, got settled and unpacked, and prepared to […]
How to Communicate at the Highest Level
Posted On November 4, 2019 BY Dean Brenner
Have you ever considered mapping your progress as a communicator? In short, the only way to REALLY be sure you’re improving as an effective communicator is to have some way to measure that improvement. When we work with clients at The Latimer Group, we use a three-stage rubric of Professional-, Leadership-, and Executive-Level communication… So how do we […]
Be Human — Machines May Do Everything Else
Posted On October 30, 2019 BY Dan Cooney
Communicating with empathy might be the most important skill you can master. Why so? Because it’s quite possible that machines are going to be dramatically better at almost – almost – everything else, and maybe much sooner than we expect. What we know for sure is that artificial intelligence (AI) is already very much woven […]
4 Persuasion Tips from a Brewery Tap Room Manager
Posted On October 28, 2019 BY Brett Slater
Today’s post was written by Brett Slater, Chief Social Media Officer at The Latimer Group. In addition to my work with The Latimer Group, I also work in the tap room of a local craft brewery in the tourist town of Boothbay, Maine. On any given summer Saturday, I interact with literally hundreds of people […]
Let’s Not Call Communication a “Soft Skill” Please
Posted On October 23, 2019 BY Dean Brenner
(We recently had a conversation with a good friend of The Latimer Group, who said something really powerful to us. Our friend shared that her firm no longer calls communication a “soft skill.” Instead, they refer to communication as a “power skill.” We LOVE that, and it caused me to write this post, which has […]
How to Succeed in The New Communication Age
Posted On October 14, 2019 BY Dean Brenner
At The Latimer Group, we speak with our clients and friends all the time about the “New Communication Age” that we live in. Today, communication is not just about having or controlling information. Years ago, in an era when not everyone had access to all the information they needed, the best communicators were, in fact, […]
How to Add Immense Value to Everyone and Everything
Posted On October 9, 2019 BY Dean Brenner
There is a theme that comes up in every workshop we teach… we live in a really noisy world. The world is loud, there is endless competition for mindshare and attention, and everyone we speak to is drowning in too much information, too many meetings, too much access, too little time. This problem is chronic […]