Leadership

America lost more than a well-known politician on Saturday, August 25. We lost one of the last leaders of a breed that is not only dying, but might perhaps now be extinct. We lost a politician who was not afraid to speak his mind, but always did so with respect and decency for those with […]

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 […]

I heard a keynote recently by a guy who built much of his talk around the distinction between the words “cooperate” and “collaborate.” His point was that the concept of collaboration was a few steps beyond the concept of cooperation. His use of the terms was that when people cooperate they do the bare minimum […]

Here’s a challenging one, with no easy answer. Do you make your work life harder if you become friends (non-romantically) with a colleague or colleagues? Does it become harder to do your job when your professional relationships are overlaid with personal friendships? I think the answer is “maybe.” Adding a personal component to a professional […]

This post was written by Dan Cooney, Director of Coaching and Senior Facilitator at The Latimer Group. On July 25, 2018, Facebook held its Q2 earnings call, during which Facebook stock dropped by 24%, and net value decreased by as much as $150B. What happened on that call? What was discussed? (Audio of the call […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, July 2018. Showing your audience respect has a lot of great payoffs. It makes your audience feel engaged and positive, it can enable a culture of buy-in, in which people feel committed not only to execute a plan or implement a new product but to make it succeed, […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council February 21, 2018. Many of us have big ideas: a new business, a new product, a new initiative at work. But taking that big idea from a dream into reality isn’t always easy — and it’s easy to feel intimidated by the process. All too often, we shelve our […]

Don’t worry… this post is not an endorsement of any political figure, party or position. But I am shamelessly grabbing a well-known, and highly divisive, political slogan to make a point about the United States, and the state of our culture. As a country, we talk all the time about how to make our country […]

When we coach our clients on improving their persuasive communication skills, we don’t look at it as a matter of being “good” or “bad” at communicating. Obviously, not everyone communicates at the same level. For some, it comes very easily and naturally. For others, not so much. And for others, becoming more persuasive may be […]

My wife Emily and I have recently been going through some old files in our basement, clearing some stuff out and making some much-needed room in an already-crowded basement. And whenever one starts opening boxes from long ago, two things always seem to happen. You find some stuff, and wonder “why did I ever keep […]