Leadership

Just about three years ago, I published a post on this blog called “Teach Them to Fly,” about my then three-year-old son, and how important it is to give people — kids and adults alike — the confidence and encouragement to soar with their passions and strengths. I revisited this post recently, and some things […]

My colleagues and I speak and write all the time about the importance of getting to the point. We talk about the importance of respecting your audience’s time, managing their attention span, and how our fast-paced 21st century world makes this skill a critical one. It turns out that a pretty famous guy, Winston Churchill, […]

Last Saturday night, Feb 13, 2016, I was standing on the bench for the Choate hockey team, cheering for the team, and supporting two of my good friends, Pat Dennehy and Mike Velez. They indulge me a few times a year, and let me join the team as “guest coach,” which basically means I cheer, […]

There is an old adage that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat people who “don’t matter” and when no one is looking. In other words, you get the real insight into a person’s character by the way they treat people who can’t help them in some way, or […]

At The Latimer Group, we’ve been talking lately about the difference between Persuasion and Consensus. The question came up in our discussions among our colleagues and clients about whether Consensus is always necessarily a good thing. We wrote recently that it is — that we can persuade our coworkers toward a certain outcome, but if […]

We recently contributed another article to our friends at Switch and Shift, a business blog focused on “the human side of business.” Our latest piece is called, “Leadership is One Big Sandbox,” and is all about the little demonstrations of respect that we as leaders need to show our coworkers every day, and how even […]

I had a great chat this morning with a partner of The Latimer Group’s. She and I discussed a number of components of great leadership in the 21st century, and one of the ideas we kicked around was the concept of leadership “vulnerability.” I was struck by the idea enough to write a quick post […]

In our communication skills workshops, there is a theme that always comes up that seems to surprise first-time participants. We talk about many of the most important aspects of great business communication: clarity, brevity, being memorable, setting context, communicating value, staying “on message”… all of the things that are required in the 21st century business […]

(Originally posted on April 9, 2012) I came across something  worth sharing with you, that I think will help you refine your leadership vocabulary. If you want to be a good leader and set a good example for your team, the most important six words you can utter are “I admit I made a mistake.” […]

On April 9th, The U.S. marked the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War. While I’m not a historian, history (American military history, specifically) is a favorite subject of mine, so this week’s commemoration has me thinking. In the wake of General Lee’s surrender to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, President Lincoln […]