The Message Makeover Minute: 5 Strategies for More Persuasive, Intentional Communication
Posted On May 29, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
In all our work, we strive to help our clients craft their communication in the most effective, persuasive way possible. Here are 5 coaching strategies and story telling approaches you can use to be a more intentional, more persuasive communicator. For more episodes of The Message Makeover Minute, and other videos from The Latimer Group, […]
The Self-Evident Truths of Communication Today
Posted On May 26, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
What does the world of communication look like right now? What are the barriers to getting our point across today, at this moment in time? There are a bunch, and none of them are inconsequential. Truth #1: The world continues to be a really noisy place. There are lots of people and things competing for […]
My Parallel Poker Life
Posted On May 15, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
I am a poker player. I love the odds, the strategy, the bluffing, the reading of the other players, and most of all the social interaction. I play a couple of times a month with friends, never online with strangers. And only for low stakes… very low stakes. I just enjoy the experience. Just like everything […]
Coaching Advice: Do You Connect, or Do You Correct?
Posted On April 20, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
During work discussions with your colleagues, many (perhaps most) conversations come down to the following choice: Which is more important to you… the relationship or winning the discussion? When we are having substantive, work-related conversations with our colleagues, and the ideas are being thrown around, there almost always comes a point when we have to […]
Is Remote Communication REALLY That Different?
Posted On April 13, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
There has been a LOT of content generated of late about the new challenges of communicating, running meetings and leading teams in a virtual environment. Much of it has been good, including several of the pieces posted here by our Latimer team. But just for a moment, let’s look at this another way. Sure, there […]
Why Your Powerpoint Slides Can Only Hurt You
Posted On March 11, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
According to some sources, more than 30 million business presentations are created each day. And you know what? Most of them are terrible. We’ve all sat through the proverbial terrible presentation with no purpose, nothing memorable, no clear action items, too many slides, the monotonous drone of the boring presenter. There is a reason business […]
The Power of Names in Communication
Posted On March 9, 2020 BY Hannah Morris
This post was written by Hannah Morris, Director of Assessment & Advancement at The Latimer Group. Names identify us and names connect us. When we use someone’s name, we acknowledge them, include them and show them respect. Using names is a powerful communication technique and an important element in building connection. This is not new information, but […]
Hear Her Roar
Posted On March 2, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
This is one of those simple, personal stories that I love to share. Our four-year-old daughter Kate loves animated movies (who doesn’t?!?) and her stuffed animals… The Lion King movie and her stuffed Aslan from the Narnia stories are current favorites. One day a couple of weeks ago, Emily and I started to notice a […]
The Courage to Shut Up
Posted On February 26, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
Frequently, one of the participants in a Latimer workshop will say something that totally grabs me. And I always will pause the workshop, write a note in my “ideas book” and then say, “That will be a blog post, and I can footnote you, if you want.” In this case, the participant politely declined a footnote. We […]
Five Simple Rules to Communicate By…
Posted On February 19, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about personal behaviors, especially in relation to how we “show up” in a professional setting. And here are five things that always seem to jump to the front of the line for me, as being the most important communication behaviors. Think about this… What would it be like if you […]