Presentation Skills

My colleagues and I spend just as much time changing the way people think about communication as we do anything else. Better communication is not about new tips or tricks (here is a line I hear in workshops a lot… “I am looking forward to getting some new tips.” Wow, does that drive me nuts.) […]

Quick, but powerful idea for you today. Let’s say you have a meeting coming up and you will be making a presentation. Your boss and some other senior managers will be in the room or the virtual meeting… or maybe a key potential client who you have been trying to sell for a year… or maybe you will […]

I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about writer’s block. Well actually, I spent a lot of time this weekend puttering in my garden, and listening to podcasts while I was toiling away. And two of the podcasts were interviews with Aaron Sorkin, the famous writer of television shows such as The West […]

Your audience will only remember a small percentage of what you say. Some studies suggest it will be less than 20%. Fact. Other studies suggest that the average adult attention span is now about 8 seconds. Bummer. So what do you do about it? Focus on all three aspects of the audience experience: Make sure you prepare your […]

If your communication problem is time, then brevity is your friend. Make sure to shorten your message significantly. Reduce your information to a list of “three things,” so that your message is easier to remember. If your communication problem is attention span, then a “hook” is your friend. Work hard to connect with your audience with something […]

I was recently speaking to a close friend who had just attended a conference for her industry. The conference had been on the schedule since last fall, since right after the prior annual event. So, everyone knew this event was coming. But what transpired during the day-long conference last week was, in the words of […]

Can great communication skills be taught? Or are they entirely natural? Let’s try to answer that via a story. My wife and I have two children, 10 and 5. At their respective ages, the age gap is pretty big. They like different things, play a little differently, have different expectations… exactly as you would expect […]

How do you prepare for that big sales call, or that important meeting with your boss? If you prepare at all (not trying to insult you, but a shocking number of people still try to “wing it”), and if you are like most people we meet, then your prep goes something like this… organize your […]

This post was written by Hannah Morris, Director of Assessment & Advancement at The Latimer Group. In my last post, I presented the analogy of message as journey – a way to visualize, approach, craft, and deliver an effective presentation. The journey happens in three parts – open, content, close – and the itinerary is tailored to […]

This post was written by Hannah Morris, Director of Assessment & Advancement at The Latimer Group. Do you ever find yourself rambling in the middle of a presentation? Or do you find yourself planning to include key points… and then forgetting them in the moment? These are common problems, and there are ways to avoid them. When […]