listening

How to Survive in a Noisy World

Posted On December 2, 2015 BY

Quick thought for the day, and a theme we discuss all the time here at The Latimer Group. Wow, is it ever noisy out there! And the best way to get the attention of your colleagues, the best way to be heard, is not to yell louder. The answer is not to combat noise with […]

In our last post, we talked about a few key steps you can take to become a better listener. But there will always be obstacles inhibiting our ability to listen. One of those obstacles is bias — the idea that we have preconceived ideas about who we’re communicating with, which prevents us from being fair […]

The 3 R’s of Active Listening

Posted On November 19, 2015 BY

Think of all the communications courses you’ve taken, seminars you’ve attended, and articles you’ve seen in which they tell you how to speak, how to present, or how to create a PowerPoint slide. Compare that to how much less often a course is offered on how to listen. Active listening is a key — an […]

We discuss in every single workshop the power and importance of knowing your audience. It is a fundamental belief here at The Latimer Group, and we embrace the fact that knowing your audience is a key differentiator between mediocre and great communication skills. Here is a story to illustrate the point. We partner with many […]

We live in a world of distractions, constant and loud. We are expected to be available to everyone all the time, we compete for mindshare with unlimited amounts of content and entertainment, we have a social media landscape which can turn every day into an all-day conversation with friends all over the world. Quieting the […]

We write all the time in this space about the importance of getting to the point. No one likes to sit in a meeting, or presentation or on a conference call and listen to someone delay or ignore the most important information. We hate it when others do that to us. And yet many, 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 […]

Just about a year ago, I wrote this short piece around the time of Robin Williams’ passing… For me, the words still ring true, and I refer back to them fairly often. The original post follows below. Hope you find it helpful. ~Dean No matter how certain you are, you never really know what another […]

Today’s post was written by Brett Slater, Chief Social Media Officer at The Latimer Group. As you may know from my last post, I also do morning radio in my home state of Maine. Phone calls from listeners are a big part of our show every morning, and the topics vary widely, from local politics […]

We work all the time with people who want to improve their speaking skills. But like any coaching situation, you need to determine what the root cause of the speaking problem is, before you can solve for or eliminate the problem. Does the speaking problem manifest itself with poor delivery and little projected confidence? Well, […]