Public Speaking Skills

This post was written by Dan Cooney, Director of Coaching and Senior Facilitator at The Latimer Group. We are excited to introduce our brand new podcast, “The Message Makeover”. The show examines topical business communication challenges and offers expert coaching, advice, and feedback to business executives. Every day, consciously or not, we are constructing and […]

When you stand up to speak in a professional setting, there are three primary ways you are interacting with your audience: the message you have developed, the slides you have created, and the delivery skills you exhibit. All three matter, because all three impact your audience’s experience. Many people think about their work presentations this […]

At The Latimer Group, we believe there are five “ingredients” that must be present in order to have effective, persuasive communication: Clarity, Brevity, Context, Impact, and Value. We teach these concepts in our workshops and write about them here on our blog all the time, and we believe that all great communication contains these five […]

Have you ever led a meeting, handed out the slide deck, began discussing the topic and while still on slide 1 or 2, most of your audience has already flipped to the last slide? I’m sure you’ve seen this before… Perhaps you’ve been the one flipping to the last slide, or perhaps you were the […]

Most people struggle to get to the point. Most people struggle with clarity and brevity. And this affliction is largely due to an inability to plan out the message, and prepare appropriately. Getting to the point quickly and clearly is not just a delivery technique. It is the output of organization and preparation. However, on top of good […]

Don’t worry… this post is not an endorsement of any political figure, party or position. But I am shamelessly grabbing a well-known, and highly divisive, political slogan to make a point about the United States, and the state of our culture. As a country, we talk all the time about how to make our country […]

“Wow, that meeting was great. I wish it was a lot longer.” “When she explains things everything seems more complicated. It’s great.” “He never gets to the point. I love listening to him.” “It’s always hard to understand his main message, which is why I love his presentations.” “Her slide decks look like a passage […]

The short answer is, “Yes, absolutely.” The slightly longer answer is, “Yes, but you have to work hard at it.” We recently had an individual at a client company participate in one of our presentation skills workshops. When I saw his name on the roster the week before the class, I recognized it immediately. I […]

When we coach our clients on improving their persuasive communication skills, we don’t look at it as a matter of being “good” or “bad” at communicating. Obviously, not everyone communicates at the same level. For some, it comes very easily and naturally. For others, not so much. And for others, becoming more persuasive may be […]

“Music is the space between the notes.” ~Claude DeBussy In many workshops, we see two parallel fears come up over and over. People fear silence when they’re speaking. Silence makes them uncomfortable. Therefore, they often fill the silence with more sound — extra words and non-words (we call them “verbal pauses’). And at the same […]