Petulance, Parenting, and the President
Posted On March 7, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
Earlier this morning, I was thinking about the way I coach clients. My colleagues and I always preach the important of message AND delivery. Message matters, first and foremost. But the way in which the message is delivered has a huge impact on the way the message is received. And then on my drive into […]
Leadership Tips: When to Debate, When to Dictate
Posted On January 30, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
I’m working with an executive right now who has an interesting and engaging leadership style. He likes to collaborate, he likes dialogue, he wants to hear what people have to say. He allows lots of input, and seems to detest strict hierarchy. I like this style, actually, because it is similar to my own. But […]
Election Commentary: Our Most Toxic Issue
Posted On November 15, 2016 BY Dean Brenner
My colleagues and I have a long-standing policy with this blog… no politics. We have clients and friends who sit on both sides of the political divide, and this blog is about business, not politics. Given the current state of US politics, it is almost impossible to address issues without offending SOMEONE. But our business […]
What Is Your Superpower?
Posted On November 3, 2016 BY Dean Brenner
I have written here on many other occasions that leadership and team lessons can come from anywhere. It is always great to find some little nugget of wisdom and apply it to other facets of your life. And it is especially profound when that little nugget comes in the most innocent of ways… a passing […]
4 Keys to Leading a Successful Virtual Team
Posted On September 21, 2016 BY Dean Brenner
A virtual team is a team that is spread out over many locations, connected by the wonders of electronic communication. The hardest part of the Virtual Team is that the group rarely sees each other face to face, and in many cases, team members have never met in person. Despite an abundance of tools that […]
Leadership Tip: Look to Your Parenting for Help
Posted On September 8, 2016 BY Dean Brenner
My wife Emily and I are proud parents of two great kids, one age six, and one age sixteen months. We’re also both voracious readers, and we’re always looking for ideas and insight on better parenting. And much of what we read boils down to this: As a parent, will you make decisions that solve […]
Sharing Credit Builds Better Teams
Posted On August 22, 2016 BY Dean Brenner
Have you ever worked with someone who seems obsessed with taking credit for everything? I have, and it… is… awful. It is unmotivating, frustrating, and exhausting to be around someone who is constantly trying to remind you how great they are. All you ever hear from a person like that is some version of […]
The Powerful Idea of Leadership Transference
Posted On August 15, 2016 BY Dean Brenner
Leadership can mean different things at different times to different people. But a few things are non-negotiable. And while sitting on an airplane the other day, I was reading a short essay about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the concept of “transference” came up. The point of the essay was that during his presidency, Roosevelt was not […]
Vulnerability and Strong Leadership: The Connection
Posted On August 8, 2016 BY Dean Brenner
I had a great chat this morning with a partner of The Latimer Group’s. She and I discussed a number of components of great leadership in the 21st century, and one of the ideas we kicked around was the concept of leadership “vulnerability.” I was struck by the idea enough to write a quick post […]
Your PowerPoint Slides Can Only Hurt Your Presentation
Posted On July 20, 2016 BY Dean Brenner
According to some sources, more than 30 million business presentations are created each day. And you know what? Most of them are terrible. We’ve all sat through the proverbial terrible presentation with no purpose, nothing memorable, no clear action items, too many slides, the monotonous drone of the boring presenter. There is a reason business […]