The Art of Negotiation (as taught by a five-year-old)
Posted On February 13, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
(We originally published this post in June of 2014, but as always, there are business communication lessons here that ALWAYS hold up.) I spent the entire day yesterday with my five-year old son. We had quite a nice little Saturday. We woke up early, had breakfast together, and then went out for some man-style shopping. […]
What Pete Carroll Can Teach Us About Accountability
Posted On February 2, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
Well… that was a great game. For those who care, and watched, I would rank that as one of the three or four best Super Bowl games of all time. And for those of you who do not care and did not watch, trust me… this is not a post about American football. Today’s post […]
The Customer is NOT Always Right
Posted On January 26, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
Sometimes certain phrases get repeated so often, they become more than cliche. They become indisputable fact. But that doesn’t mean such statements are always correct. Like many cliches, “the customer is always right” has some element of truth to it. The customer knows what they want or need, and the customer is entitled to certain […]
What to Know Before You Tell Your Story
Posted On January 23, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
At The Latimer Group, we talk and write all the time about the ability to communicate clearly. That is our purpose, our mission, our raison d’etre. To succeed in the 21st century global business environment, you need to be able to communicate with your colleagues, employees, customers, prospects, and shareholders, and you need to be […]
To Communicate Well, You Must First Communicate
Posted On January 21, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
Last week I spent some time speaking with someone I occasionally coach. Last week’s problem was that he and a close colleague were in a tough spot, not communicating well. Apparently, the colleague was doing some things that were intensely frustrating for my client. The details are not important to the story, but there was […]
Just Be Nice
Posted On January 15, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
I recently spent some time conducting training workshops with one of our best clients. It was a week away from home, which is always a hard thing. I hate being away from home, but I also love my work, and this is a great client. So, yes, it can be conflicting when the work you […]
The Importance of Staying in Touch
Posted On January 12, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
We had a great interaction this week, a story worth sharing. We heard from a guy who had been in one of our workshops in 2005, back when he was with one of our biggest client companies. He left that company in 2007, which is probably the last time we had any contact with him […]
An Important Communication Lesson from 2014
Posted On January 9, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
Over the holiday, I was reviewing my client notes from throughout 2014. Last year we worked with client companies in a range of industries, including financial services and banking, insurance, mining, oil and gas, aerospace, commercial construction, and several other forms of heavy industry. And we worked with executives and professionals from North and South […]
Can You Make it Simpler, Daddy?
Posted On January 7, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
I had an interesting conversation with my five-year-old son over the holiday. He asked me to explain something about sailing (which, of course, made his Dad smile). He doesn’t yet know how to sail on his own, but I’ve taken him out many times, and he loves it. He talks about boats all the time, […]
3 New Year’s Resolutions for Better Communication
Posted On January 5, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
Happy new year to all! We trust and hope that your holidays were happy and healthy. We’re back today from a well-deserved and welcomed break, and are excited for a great 2015. Over the course of our holiday break, we spent a lot of time thinking about the year gone by, and the year to […]