Presentation Skills

I recently stumbled across a great quote from Steve Jobs, that captures exactly how we feel about PowerPoint here at The Latimer Group: “I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking. People confront problems by creating presentations. I want them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show […]

The recent controversy over Bill Maher’s use of a racial epithet was yet another example of the power of language. Words have meaning, both good and bad. Words have power, both good and bad. Words make us feel things, both good and bad. This post is not about Bill Maher, the politics of language or […]

In nearly every workshop I teach, I ask a question that sounds something like this: “How many of you attend too many meetings that run long?” Nearly every hand goes up, every time. “How many of you get too many emails that are too overwhelming to read?” Nearly every hand goes up, every time. “How […]

Here’s a great goal for you in your next meeting or presentation. Make it your mission in life to make it easy for people to remember what you say. Have you ever had the experience where a presenter just walked into the room, and from the moment he or she opened their mouth, you were […]

  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 […]

Ask anyone who performs at a high level: athletes, dancers, singers, etc. They all prepare and practice their skills the same way. They break their skill down into smaller “sub-skills,” then practice each one individually, then put them all back together, and their overall skill level has improved. The same is true with communication. “Great […]

The Recipe for Great Communication contains 5 ingredients: Clarity, Brevity, Context, Impact, and Value. But depending on your audience’s “taste” — that is, depending on what kind of information your audience needs — those ingredients may vary in proportion. So, how do we know how much of each ingredient to use when we prepare for meetings […]

Have you ever listened to that person who says something like “um” over and over and over? After a while, all you hear are the “ums.” How about the person who says “like,” or “you know?” Hard to listen to that after a while. How about the person who qualifies everything they say with a […]

We have written recently about the political divide in our country and how ineffective so many of us are in our communication on political topics. No one listens, everyone judges, and everyone believes that they are morally right in their beliefs. We are all living in our own echo chambers, where we distance ourselves from […]

Several of my coaching conversations have been focused on the same thing of late… when I am speaking to my boss, how do I stay out of the weeds? I get stuck in the deep detail, and he/she gets frustrated with me. Sound familiar? “Too much detail” is a constant issue in the 21st century […]