Level Up Your Listening Skills
Posted On October 17, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
I spend a lot more time thinking about listening now than I used to. Why? I am not really sure. It could be my advancing age. It could be parenthood. It could be experience in my job. It could be the influence of some of the people in my life. Probably, it is a little bit of […]
How to Eliminate Distractions from Your Speaking Style
Posted On October 10, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
Have you ever listened to that person who says something like “um” over and over and over? After a while, all you hear are the “ums.” How about the person who says “like,” or “you know?” Distracting, right? How about the person who qualifies everything they say with a “sort of” or a “kind of” […]
Simplify Your Slides, Simply
Posted On October 5, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
Over the last month, we have spent nearly every day in workshops with some of our top clients. And in every single one, the concept of terrible PowerPoint slides came up. Everyone wants to know how to make their slides simpler. Everyone wants to have a “Steve Jobs” level of simplicity with their slides. But […]
To Be More Persuasive, Be More Than a Messenger
Posted On September 28, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
So often in preparing to communicate, we make a fundamental mistake: we enter what my colleagues and I refer to as “the messenger mindset.” What this means is that our entire approach to communication is about the “delivery of information.” When we fall into the messenger mindset trap, we are only thinking about what we want […]
Your Presence is The Sum Total of You
Posted On September 19, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
There is a mindset I hear people articulate from time to time… and that mindset is that your presence is primarily created by the way you look and carry yourself. I heard this again recently in a workshop I was teaching, and the participant said that they did not have the wardrobe to create a […]
Your Communication Behaviors Are Contagious
Posted On September 14, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
We spend a lot of our time in workshops, on this blog, and in all our conversations with our clients, discussing the importance of good communication skills. We always talk about the power of listening, of being prepared, of having goals and talking points and plans… all of it matters. When you take a good […]
Silence Is NOT An Absence of Music
Posted On September 7, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
When we are listening to music, and there is a moment of silence in the piece of music, that moment of silence is not an absence of music. No. Rather, the moment of silence is part OF the music. I love this idea. The silence is a conscious choice by the composer. The silence contributes […]
6 Tips to Help You Nail Your Next Interview
Posted On August 24, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
In our coaching and training, we end up discussing the interview process all the time. Many of our existing clients interview regularly for promotions within their company. And we also partner with many young professionals or “pre-professionals,” who are trying to get launched and established on their career path. In other words, regardless of where […]
AI: “Use It as a Prompt”
Posted On August 15, 2023 BY Kendra Raguckas
This post was written by Kendra Raguckas, Senior Director of Learning at The Latimer Group. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has quickly become a hot button topic for many in recent months. To ensure they are not left behind, many organizations are scrambling and investigating how to leverage AI, including The Latimer Group. In a recent meeting with […]
Breaking Through That Ceiling
Posted On August 10, 2023 BY Dean Brenner
My family and I met with a dear old friend yesterday, who has recently started a new job as Head of School at a well-known New England boarding school. We were going to be in his neighborhood, and he generously agreed to spend a few minutes with us and show us around. It was great […]