Do You Practice What You Preach in the Workplace?
Posted On July 13, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
We get inquiries all the time from managers, directors and organizational leaders about a need for communication training for their teams. And in nearly every conversation, the leader is very clear about the needs and weaknesses of his or her team. Then, when we actually conduct the training, and once the participants get comfortable enough to speak […]
Great Speaking Starts with Great Listening
Posted On June 30, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
Many people want to be known as great speakers. Many people want to be known as the person who can make the point in a clear and compelling way. And yet many work on this skill by focusing initially on the wrong things. Speaking well and sharing information is, first and foremost, about knowing how […]
Being a Great Communicator Also Means…
Posted On June 22, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
In a recent workshop, one participant asked a series of questions about how broad the application of the content we were teaching in the course actually was. I answered in a very “Latimer way,” by saying that our model applies to all forms of workplace communication: meetings, conference calls, presentations, email exchanges, etc. As I […]
Controlling the Outcome of Your Communication
Posted On June 20, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
“That’s not what I said…”“That’s not what I meant…” “You’re not hearing me…” You’ve probably said at least one of those three things at some point in communicating with your colleagues. At first pass, they may seem like simple objections, simple statements to help steer someone to the point you’re trying to make. But if […]
Do You Give AND Receive Communication Well?
Posted On May 31, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
We spend a lot of time in this space, and with our clients, discussing how to communicate more effectively. We discuss how to prepare and structure a message, how to capture attention, how to make the meeting valuable, how to get to the point, etc, etc, etc. We talk about how to make your audience more likely to want […]
Coaching Advice: Connection vs Correction
Posted On May 23, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
During work discussions with our colleagues — when we are debating issues and making choices about things like strategy, policy or design — many (perhaps most) conversations come down to the following choice: Which is more important? “Winning” the discussion or maintaining functional dialogue with our colleagues? In other words, when we are debating the […]
The 3 R’s of Intentional Listening
Posted On May 13, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
Think of all the communications courses you’ve taken, seminars you’ve attended, and articles you’ve seen in which they tell you how to speak, how to present, or how to create a PowerPoint slide. Compare that to how much less often a course is offered on how to listen. Listening (good, active and intentional listening) is a […]
Watching Greatness… in a Conference Call?
Posted On May 11, 2022 BY Hannah Morris
This post was written by Hannah Morris, Facilitator and Coach at The Latimer Group. When I want to improve at something, I study other people who do it well. I watch elite runners and examine their form. I read writers who inspire me and examine how they build a story with prose. One of my […]
Changing Behaviors is the Hardest Thing
Posted On April 29, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
Clients of The Latimer Group have heard me say, many times, that the hardest thing for any organizational leader to do is to change the way his or her people actually behave. If you want to reinvent your organization, you can add or subtract business units, product lines, services, locations, etc, etc, etc. You can […]
The Energy Drain of Leadership
Posted On April 18, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
I heard from a business leader last Friday, someone I have done some business with, but who is also a friend. And what started as a quick “hey, how are you” conversation, turned into an hour-long therapy session of venting and asking for advice… in both directions. I was thinking about this conversation for the […]