Persuasion

(Note: This post was originally published in August of 2013. But it’s more important now than ever.) My family and I spent the weekend with some dear friends, and over the course of a weekend of laughter, swimming, ping pong and wine, the conversation turned (for a few minutes) to business. My good buddy, who […]

I was recently speaking to a client, a person I have been coaching for about six months. This coaching assignment has been focused on the subtle aspects of persuasion. He is relatively new in his organization, and has wanted to work on how to better influence his colleagues, without coming on too strong. Many of […]

My colleagues and I preach the importance of “knowing your audience” all the time. We believe it is a critical component of persuasion. But knowing your audience requires knowledge on multiple levels, beyond just the individual. Here is what I mean… if you are pitching someone on your product or service, and trying to sell […]

(This post was originally published Dec 2014) I had an outstanding experience recently with a workshop participant from one of our major client companies. This young man had participated in one of our one-day presentation skills workshops about six weeks ago. And then he signed up for a different workshop this week, a two-day “executive […]

Think about how you communicate in the workplace. Not just the words you use, or doing what you say you’ll do, or meeting deadlines, or smiling and being easy to work with. Assuming those traits are all a given, what about your “brand” among your coworkers? Have you given thought to how you, personally, are […]

We talk all the time in our workshops — and write all the time on our blog — about the things you’ll never hear your audience say when you speak or present. So, because we GUARANTEE your audience will never say these things, you’ll have absolutely NO reason not to be clear and simple in […]

Last Saturday night, Feb 13, 2016, I was standing on the bench for the Choate hockey team, cheering for the team, and supporting two of my good friends, Pat Dennehy and Mike Velez. They indulge me a few times a year, and let me join the team as “guest coach,” which basically means I cheer, […]

We spend a lot of time discussing credibility with our clients. And we always like to tell them that no matter how good a speaker you are, no matter how strong your message, voice and presence are, if your audience does not find you credible then we can’t help you. Credibility is everything. To quote […]

As we close out 2015, my colleagues and I at The Latimer Group have been giving a great deal of thought to what we learned over the last twelve months. Communication is a critical skill, in every organization. And there is a never-ending need to keep working towards improvement, for us as well. So, with […]

At The Latimer Group, we’ve been talking lately about the difference between Persuasion and Consensus. The question came up in our discussions among our colleagues and clients about whether Consensus is always necessarily a good thing. We wrote recently that it is — that we can persuade our coworkers toward a certain outcome, but if […]