Presentation Skills

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 […]

Many people want to be known as great speakers. Many people want to be known as the person who can make the point in a clear and compelling way. And many work on this skill by focusing initially on the wrong things. Speaking well and sharing information is, first and foremost, about knowing how to […]

Knowing Your Audience is Complex

Posted On December 3, 2014 BY

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 […]

Practice DOES Matter

Posted On November 20, 2014 BY

I had an outstanding experience yesterday 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 communication skills” workshop. In the October session, […]

The Global Need for Respect

Posted On November 17, 2014 BY

During the past year of client work, we’ve spent time with professionals from over 25 different countries… busy, ambitious, successful, intelligent professionals. They worked in finance, engineering, marketing, communications, procurement, and all sorts of leadership and management positions. Our client base is certainly a diverse group! And any time we have an intense period of […]

It is a little after 4am on a cold and dark October morning in New England… jet lag. I’m home for a few days after a great week of client work in Paris. And in a few days, it’s Singapore, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. During stretches like these, where we have several busy months, and […]

The Impact of Optimism

Posted On October 24, 2014 BY

I’ve been working in Paris, France all week, leading a series of executive communication skills workshops for our largest client. The participants have come from all over Europe and the Middle East: France, England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Finland and India. It has been a fantastic opportunity to test ideas on a global scale and enhance […]

It is very early in the morning in Paris, and I am preparing for day two of a workshop on executive communication skills and presence. The room will be filled again today with a culturally diverse group of executives from this client company, all of whom are serious about their communication skills, and this class. Over […]

Anyone who knows The Latimer Group knows that “Know Your Audience” has been one of our enduring themes since our founding thirteen years ago. We believe it is one of the fundamental rules of great communication. And the concept has lots of implications and manifestations. Knowing your audience means, in its simplest form, understanding what will […]

In the coming weeks, we’ll be doing some work with clients on three continents, and executives from 15 different countries. In planning business travel of this scale, it always gets me thinking about how we communicate in that global environment, and how we have to adapt what we do to an audience that may not have […]