Have you ever sat through a meeting, or a conference call, or a presentation, and thought to yourself… “Oh my god… I wish this person would get to the point…“? Yeah. Me too. Many, many times.

Getting people to listen to you in today’s modern workplace is hard enough. We write about that challenge all the time. But once you get people to hear you, your challenge is not over. Getting people to hear you is a great first step… but only a first step.

Does your message stand out? Do you make it easy for your audience to remember what you say? Does your message make an impact on the mind of your listener? You need to care about this, because

The short answer is, “Yes, absolutely.” The slightly longer answer is, “Yes, but you have to work at it.” Some will have to…

Well-timed moments of silence will enhance the experience for everyone in the room.

One of the questions I get asked all the time is, “How can I be less nervous when I stand up to present?” Here are a few things that will help build your confidence, the first two of which will not surprise you in any way.

Have you ever sat through a meeting, listening to someone who just rambles on and on and on? Brutal, isn’t it?

Most people think of their communication as a tangible and clear output: words on the page, images and messages on a slide, words coming out of the mouth. And there is truth in that belief.

It’s a common occurrence in the business world. You prepare for a meeting or presentation, expecting that you will be able to speak for a certain length of time… only to find out that you will be allotted much less time than you planned for.

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?

Your audience will only remember a small percentage of what you say. Some studies suggest it will be less than 20%. Fact. Other studies suggest that the average adult attention span is now about 8 seconds. Bummer. So what do you do about it?

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

We write constantly in this blog about all the different elements of good communication… clear messaging, effective visuals or slides, powerful presence and delivery, speaking with the “executive voice“…

In many workshops, we see two parallel fears come up over and over. People fear silence when they’re speaking. Silence makes them uncomfortable.

Anyone who has ever worked with The Latimer Group, or read or listened to any of our content, will easily recall one of the primary tenets of our work – great communication requires that you understand who you are speaking to. We discuss this constantly — anyone who

Have you ever, um, listened, um, to someone who, um, has a distracting pattern to the way they, um, speak?

How often do you sit in a meeting, or on a conference call, or listen to a presentation, and feel disengaged within the first two to three minutes? Yep… me too. It usually takes speakers forever to simply

What do people say about your meetings and presentations? Do you know? Are you sure?

The slides don’t matter until you first figure out what you want to be talking about. The slides need to be placed in proper perspective.

There is one element that is consistently required for successful and persuasive communication…. creating an emotional connection.