Dean Brenner

Here is a great way to think about your message, in three acts. ACT I: The Open You meet your audience, and your audience meets you. Your goal is to get them engaged right away, and the best way to do that is showing them what will be coming. Give them the topic, the main […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, July 2018 Have you ever run a virtual meeting — over the phone or by video — and felt like no one was on the other end of the line? Have you ever asked a question in that situation and been met with what feels like an ocean […]

America lost more than a well-known politician on Saturday, August 25. We lost one of the last leaders of a breed that is not only dying, but might perhaps now be extinct. We lost a politician who was not afraid to speak his mind, but always did so with respect and decency for those with […]

Winston Churchill once famously said “the most important thing about education is the appetite.” We teach and coach communication skills all day, every day, here at The Latimer Group. And we see all kinds of people walk into our workshops. We see the willing, the unwilling, the motivated, the unmotivated… and everything in between. Some […]

We’ve written on this topic before, but it is such a global business issue, that I am writing about it again. We have clients across a range of industries and on five continents. And no matter where we go, no matter what the industry is, everyone complains about the exact same thing. Everyone wants their […]

I heard a keynote recently by a guy who built much of his talk around the distinction between the words “cooperate” and “collaborate.” His point was that the concept of collaboration was a few steps beyond the concept of cooperation. His use of the terms was that when people cooperate they do the bare minimum […]

Originally published with the Forbes Coaches Council, July 2018. Meetings are a ubiquitous part of the modern office across all industries. Think of meetings as a company’s blood flow: When they are well-run, ideas and decisions flow through them like oxygen through veins, invigorating every aspect of the business, stimulating new ideas and pushing strategy […]

Here’s a challenging one, with no easy answer. Do you make your work life harder if you become friends (non-romantically) with a colleague or colleagues? Does it become harder to do your job when your professional relationships are overlaid with personal friendships? I think the answer is “maybe.” Adding a personal component to a professional […]

This post was written by Dan Cooney, Director of Coaching and Senior Facilitator at The Latimer Group. On July 25, 2018, Facebook held its Q2 earnings call, during which Facebook stock dropped by 24%, and net value decreased by as much as $150B. What happened on that call? What was discussed? (Audio of the call […]

Our three-year-old daughter challenged us a lot this weekend. But I could write that sentence almost anytime. She is strong and stubborn and delightful and hysterical, all at the same time. My wife and I adore and encourage her strength. But we also believe in strong parenting, and rules and limits. Which means we lock […]