Persuasion

(We originally published this post in June of 2014, but as always, there are business communication lessons here that ALWAYS hold up.) I spent the entire day yesterday with my five-year old son. We had quite a nice little Saturday. We woke up early, had breakfast together, and then went out for some man-style shopping. […]

Sometimes certain phrases get repeated so often, they become more than cliche. They become indisputable fact. But that doesn’t mean such statements are always correct. Like many cliches, “the customer is always right” has some element of truth to it. The customer knows what they want or need, and the customer is entitled to certain […]

At The Latimer Group, we talk and write all the time about the ability to communicate clearly. That is our purpose, our mission, our raison d’etre. To succeed in the 21st century global business environment, you need to be able to communicate with your colleagues, employees, customers, prospects, and shareholders, and you need to be […]

Last week I spent some time speaking with someone I occasionally coach. Last week’s problem was that he and a close colleague were in a tough spot, not communicating well. Apparently, the colleague was doing some things that were intensely frustrating for my client. The details are not important to the story, but there was […]

Over the holiday, I was reviewing my client notes from throughout 2014. Last year we worked with client companies in a range of industries, including financial services and banking, insurance, mining, oil and gas, aerospace, commercial construction, and several other forms of heavy industry. And we worked with executives and professionals from North and South […]

I had an interesting conversation with my five-year-old son over the holiday. He asked me to explain something about sailing (which, of course, made his Dad smile). He doesn’t yet know how to sail on his own, but I’ve taken him out many times, and he loves it. He talks about boats all the time, […]

Happy new year to all! We trust and hope that your holidays were happy and healthy. We’re back today from a well-deserved and welcomed break, and are excited for a great 2015. Over the course of our holiday break, we spent a lot of time thinking about the year gone by, and the year to […]

We’ve been reflecting a lot lately here at The Latimer Group… not only on 2014, but also on the last 8-10 years. The business environment has changed dramatically: more demands on our time, more access to information, more channels to communicate than ever, social media, lean organizations, a cacophony of opinion on everything… the world […]

Whitney and I are planning in earnest for another trip to Australia for client work, in 2015. We’re finalizing dates, logistics, content, etc. And when we are getting ready for a big trip with lots of client time, we always make sure to spend some time getting (or remaining) familiar with the client’s situation. We […]

I am out in Minnesota, teaching a three-day workshop on executive communication skills for our largest client. And over the course of the day yesterday, the group had a great conversation about the complexities of understanding audience perspective. Knowing your audience is critical to great communication… we all know that. But in 2014, the business world […]