Dean Brenner

Simple idea today, that comes up in our coaching sessions from time to time. My colleagues and I talk all the time about great communication skills, and all the things that help create those skills. We believe that when we take the time to prepare for our meetings, presentations and calls, we will do a much […]

One of the things I listen closely for in our workshops is a certain kind of vocabulary that we call “weak” or “qualifying” language. And when I hear it, my coaching sensors start ringing loudly. Words or phrases like “sort of,” “kind of,” “pretty much,” or “basically,” can be toxic for the speaker and dramatically […]

The numbers may vary from study to study, but the story is generally the same these days: a significant percentage of emails today are initially read via a mobile device. But when it comes to work-related emails, most of the importantemails we write, the ones with some substance on important topics, we tend to write from […]

Do you find it easy to persuade people? That’s a broad question, with an answer that is likely to be some version of, “Sometimes.” Whether someone is easily persuaded depends on a lot. The size of the ask, the environment and situation you’re in, the kind of person you’re trying to persuade, and other variables […]

“Get good at something, and don’t try to be something that you are not. Don’t try to do something that you don’t fully understand, . If you try to be something you’re not, it will come off as disingenuous.” ~L.J. Spinnato, varsity football head coach, Choate Rosemary Hall In this episode of The Message Makeover, […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, December 2018. One of our central tenets in teaching persuasive communication is to know your audience. Having an informed sense of your audience’s needs, concerns, and context (did the company just suffer a drop in the stock price, did the VP in the room just get a big promotion, […]

The single most frequently asked question I hear regarding public speaking is this… “Dean, how can I be more confident as a speaker?” I’ve been in this line of work for more than 15 years, and every year, I hear that question more than any other. And throughout my time leading The Latimer Group, my answer has remained […]

“If you don’t hear these words and understand their importance, we are not going to get ‘there.’ And in my world, getting ‘there’ is winning a gold medal.” ~Luther Carpenter, US Olympic Sailing Coach Coaching people to elite performance is hard, under any circumstances. But it is especially hard at the Olympic Games, where you are […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, December 2018. When we go into a meeting, we all usually have some sort of plan for what we want to say. But how many of us make a listening plan? Now, listening may seem like the simplest thing in the world to do, and the idea of taking a […]

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 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 the generations exist […]