Persuasion

We’ve spent a lot of time over the years writing about “the new communication age” and life in a “post-PowerPoint world.” Communication skills have never been more important than they are right now. And one of the best ways to communicate in a powerful way is through the use of story. Story can be used in lots of […]

I am just back after two weeks of vacation with my family… two weeks of hanging out with my kids, swimming, playing games, and just trying to keep up. (I am exhausted… I think I need a vacation…) Each day of my vacation began the same way… the sounds and smells of brewing coffee… a […]

We all aspire to be better communicators (or rather, we should.) Strong communication will help us accomplish our goals, drive good outcomes, and add value to our colleagues and customers, and generate business. All good things. But while the benefits of good communication are easy to identify, most people tend to think about poor communication as […]

This post was written by Hannah Morris, Facilitator and Coach at The Latimer Group. When we want to define something, such as authentic presence, we often need to define its opposite. So, what is inauthentic presence and why and how is it problematic? Inauthentic is fake, insincere, not genuine. When someone’s presence is perceived as inauthentic, […]

This post was written by Hannah Morris, Facilitator and Coach at The Latimer Group. In our first post in this series, we examined the idea that, within our authentic presence, each of us shows up in a variety of different ways based on choices we make to adapt to our environment, audience, and situation. We have […]

This post was written by Hannah Morris, Facilitator and Coach at The Latimer Group. Imagine yourself speaking with your closest colleague in an impromptu conversation where you’ve just dropped in to say “hi”. Now imagine yourself speaking with the Executive Leadership Team of your organization as you deliver a presentation about an important issue your department […]

Good morning, friends! It’s a noisy world out there, with lots and lots of things competing for everyone’s attention. And in this kind of a world, it is harder than ever for our message to cut above and through the noise, so that we can be heard. We all need to be heard. We all […]

I recently had a conversation with a person I am coaching, and he recounted a story to me. He recently had led a really hard meeting with colleagues, where he made a presentation on a challenging, divisive topic. He was trying to build alignment within the business unit on how to handle a significant business […]

(Author’s Note: I was scrolling through our blog archive over coffee in the early morning hours yesterday, when I came across this post from several years ago. The story is a simple one, and pretty self-explanatory. But as I always say to my clients, colleagues and friends, the simplest stories often have the most powerful […]

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 […]