Dean Brenner

You can tell a lot about an organization by the way it behaves. The things that an organization says it cares about matter, of course. But what matters more is whether the organization’s actual behaviors match up with its communication. It is one thing to say “our customers come first.” But what matters more is whether, […]

A few weeks ago, during a coaching conversation, a business leader made a comment to me about the blind spots within his team. He was highly frustrated by the way his team was making choices and decisions. He went on in great detail to explain all the ways they were being “reactive” to the market […]

Memory is a curious thing, serving different people in different ways. Some people have a great memory for numbers, others dates, and still others names. My memory is pretty esoteric. I can tell you the name of every episode of the television show The West Wing, the opening day starting lineup for nearly every Yankee […]

(Author’s Note: I wrote this piece nearly one year ago, on September 11th, 2020. And based on the number of emails and comments I received at the time, it resonated loudly with many. So, with the twentieth anniversary of September 11th, 2001 approaching, we share it again today. Be safe, everyone. — DMB) I love […]

In so many organizations, we see discussions around problem solving go wrong. To be an effective problem solving organization, there has to be a framework of questions that will lead towards full alignment on the issue. Once we have that alignment, then we can have a serious conversation around legitimate solutions. In a world where everyone […]

The best speakers I know don’t waste words. The best speakers I know say what they mean, as clearly as possible, in as few words as possible, as often as possible. They don’t waste their audience’s time, or weaken their message, with weak language like “pretty much,” “sort of,” “kind of,” or “a little bit.” Phrases […]

People are constantly evolving. As we grow, get older, and experience new things, the sum total of who we are is constantly changing. We are not the same people we were a year ago, two years ago, ten years ago. Because every experience, every relationship, every success, every failure, has an impact on the bottom […]

We are picking up on the same theme that we wrote about here a couple of days ago… credibility. So I was speaking with my good friend Tom the other day, and he said something to me that really resonated. Tom is a business owner, and the definition of a straight shooter. He doesn’t tolerate […]

Quite some time ago, we got some bad news from a vendor we used to work with. A major deadline was going to be missed, and a deliverable we were counting on was not going to arrive on time. We had discussed this deadline with our vendor openly and emphatically as being important to us. […]

Keeping your energy level up all the time is hard. We all get tired. We all get frustrated. We all get sick of our work/colleagues/friends/family/selves. And when we are sick of any of these things, and our energy level drops, so too our productivity suffers. One of the best quotes I have ever heard (well… […]