Dean Brenner

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 get to the point, and find ways to engage the audience. And by the time they do, […]

Good morning friends! A very quick post today. We talk a LOT here at The Latimer Group about message development. It is central to almost everything we teach and coach. And one element of message development that is often overlooked, or at a minimum underestimated, is the process of figuring out what NOT say in […]

One of the most frequent debates that comes up in our workshops and coaching is this: “Sometimes I am not asking for anything, so there is no persuasion. Sometimes, it IS just an update.“ And The Latimer Group’s standard reply to that question is this: “We politely, but emphatically, disagree.“ Sometimes our ask is tangible […]

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/selves. And when we are any of these things, our productivity suffers. One of the best quotes I have ever heard (well… more of an attitude than a quote) is that “positivity […]

There are a few questions we frequently hear from our workshop participants. And perhaps the most vexing is the question of detail: how much do I need, where do I put it, how much is too much? Without exception, it comes up and is a major topic of conversation in every workshop. Why? For two simple, […]

My colleagues and I coach people on their communication skills for a living… all day, every day, for the last 21+ years. Over that time period we have learned and re-learned a lot of things about communication, and the realities inside the typical corporate entity. In many ways, my teammates and I are not just […]

I love to use metaphors when I teach. And this is one of my favorites. The best photographers carry around a camera bag, and in that camera bag they carry many different kind of lenses. Different situations call for use of a different lens: lighting, background, desired shot, timing and other variables can drive the […]

Let’s talk about the people that you bring into your organization. And in particular, let’s talk about the early career professionals that you bring in. Here’s the reality. As we often say here at The Latimer Group, we are operating in a complicated, fast paced, noisy world. And one of the best ways to make […]

In our communication workshops, we work with clients from many countries, across several continents, and of course, in varying age groups, from just-out-of-college Gen Z’ers to Millennials to Gen X’ers to late Baby-Boomers. In our work with these individuals, we often find a disconnect between how the generations speak to each other. These differences across […]

I recently re-read a great article that discussed the four behaviors most responsible for killing relationships at home. The article quoted John Gottman, author of The Seven Principles That Make Marriage Work. And Gottman was quoted in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink. Anyone quoted by Malcolm Gladwell is worth a few minutes of my time. In […]