Dean Brenner

I spend a lot more time thinking about listening now than I used to. Why? I am not really sure. It could be my advancing age. It could be parenthood. It could be experience in my job. It could be the influence of some of the people in my life. Probably, it is a little bit of […]

(Writer’s Note: We write about political issues and events on occasion in this blog, most of the time in the form of commentary on the dysfunction of our national political conversation, and always with a distinct effort to remain as apolitical as possible. This company enters the world as experts in persuasive communication, not in […]

Every good organization is always examining itself, its policies and procedures, behaviors and norms. And when something major changes inside your organization, there often needs to be a close examination of how things are done, and an effort made to adapt to the new reality. This happened, or should have happened, in many ways and […]

Hello and welcome to 2021! I hope you had a peaceful and happy holiday, and that everyone in your world is healthy. We had a wonderful “stay-cation” in our home, and spent a lot of time reading, playing games, and watching our favorite shows. Honestly, another week of that would be just fine. But its […]

(Writer’s Note: As we wind down the year, we have been spending time going through our blog archive, looking for older posts that still resonate. I wrote this post in 2012, and it applies just as accurately today as it did when I wrote it eight years ago. Enjoy!) I spoke at my former university […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council. In goal-oriented communication, few things are more important than creating a sense of connection between yourself and the person you are speaking to. When you are in the audience, what type of speaker captures your attention more: the one who speaks to your concerns, your needs and your circumstances, or […]

Writer’s Note: This piece was originally posted on our blog in November 2019, and was originally written for Forbes.com. And even though many organizations, are still operating primarily remotely, we believe that the behaviors in this piece are universal in their importance. So, don’t get hung up on the idea that we aren’t in the […]

We believe in lots of things at The Latimer Group, including the importance of certain traditions. Some of our favorites include starting off our Monday team meetings with personal stories and experiences from each member of the team; taking a mid-year retreat together for an in-depth look into our business (which sadly could not happen […]

The further I get into my career, the more I realize how much success is dependent on having strong, objective, trusted voices in your life to point you in the correct direction. On a certain level, I have always known this was a good thing. But the further I go, and the more I evolve, […]

Death by PowerPoint. Or as Dilbert put it: “PowerPoint poisoning.” It’s software that is so despised that it has been banished by Amazon and banned from military strategy meetings. It’s easy to hate on PowerPoint. After all, it’s often the single common denominator between all the boring presentations and too-long meetings we have to endure during our workdays. But is […]