Dean Brenner

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, July 2019. We all face many moments of persuasion in our careers: convincing an executive to back a new initiative, selling a product or service to a new client, bringing our teams on board to change strategies. But perhaps the most important and nerve-racking persuasion opportunity is much more personal: […]

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? I’m sure you’ve seen this before… Perhaps you’ve been the one flipping to the summary, or perhaps you were the frustrated presenter. It […]

Great communication does not just happen. It requires thought, preparation, practice… and it requires a philosophy. There are many philosophies out there in the 21st century business world. But here is what works for us (and our clients tell us it works for them as well): Great communication requires a few key ingredients, which are the basis […]

My son takes sailing lessons in the summer at a wonderful little club in Rhode Island. This is his third summer taking lessons, and he likes it. But, at least for now, our son prefers just messing around in boats and has not developed a thirst for racing. Our entire approach to parenting is based […]

In our coaching and training, we end up discussing the interview process all the time. Many of our clients interview regularly for promotions within their company. And almost all of our clients have to conduct interviews with others, for positions they are trying to fill on their own teams. Part of our coaching process is to ask […]

When we think about communication in the workplace, all too often we focus on the delivery part: what we will say, what our slides will look like and how loudly we should speak. All that’s important, but what about the other side? Before we speak, we need to listen. And when we do speak, we need to make sure […]

This week, I am highlighting two special relationships that have had a disproportionate impact on the growth and success of The Latimer Group. It’s “Relationship Week” here at TLG headquarters. In my last post, I shared a little history about the founding of The Latimer Group, and focused on a man who hired us for […]

This week, I am going to highlight two special relationships that have had a disproportionate impact on the growth and success of The Latimer Group. It’s “Relationship Week” here at TLG headquarters! I founded The Latimer Group in 2002, with little more than an idea, three extra rations of energy and passion, and encouragement from […]

We spend a lot of our time with clients working on message development. We focus on delivery as well, but good delivery is almost irrelevant if you have not first worked out what the message will be. In other words: What you say is really more important than how you say it. When building a good […]

We heard a great idea from a workshop participant last week. During a two-day class on Executive Presence, one of the participants mentioned his plan for skill development after the class was over. And in particular, he said something fascinating… he mentioned working closely with his “accountability partner.” We pushed him a little, to tell […]