What’s Your Default Setting for Detail?
Posted On September 9, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
In nearly every one of our communication workshops, we spend significant time discussing the role of detail in 21st century communication. Does detail matter? Of course it does. How much detail is necessary? That depends on many things: who your audience is, how familiar they are with the topic, how senior they are, how mission […]
How Distracting is Your Speaking Style?
Posted On August 11, 2014 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”? Hard to listen to that after a while. How about the person who qualifies everything they say with a […]
Choosing the Correct Tone When You Speak
Posted On August 4, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
Sometimes it is hard to know the right way to say or write something. Sometimes it is hard to know the correct tone to take. How should I speak to these people? How formal or informal should it be? The answers depend on lots of things: the nature and seriousness of the topic; the level […]
“I” vs. “We” and President Obama
Posted On July 31, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
The pronouns we use when we speak can be a powerful window into the way we think, the way we lead, and the way we think about others. When we hear a leader speak with “I” as the dominant pronoun it creates a certain experience. And when we hear a leader speak with “we” as […]
It’s Never as Clear as You Think It Is
Posted On July 11, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
There is a disconnect that I witness every day. The disconnect is between our own perception of what is “clear” and what others think about that clarity. When we have an idea or a strategy or something in our head, and we have thought it through and worked it out, in our own minds it […]
A Tip for More Powerful Storytelling
Posted On July 3, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
This is a simple idea, but a very powerful one. We’ve all heard it before, yet so many of us continue to ignore it’s value. Whenever possible, tell your story with pictures and not words. Pictures create images in the mind, and for most of us the mind retains the things it sees much longer […]
The War on Detail
Posted On May 19, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
Details matter in business, and in some industries, the details are everything. But the amount of detail we discuss in meetings and presentations, and the way in which we communicate it, is a daily source of frustration in most companies. Ask yourself this question: “What percentage of meetings that you sit in take your time […]
Are You “Other People Focused” in Your Communication?
Posted On May 5, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
Have you ever listened to yourself speak to your colleagues or customers? Have you ever just recorded yourself in a standard, nothing-special conversation, and actually listened to what you sound like? Try this. Record yourself in a typical conversation or phone call and listen closely to what you sound like. More specifically, count your pronouns. […]
A Simple Tip to Simplify Your Slides
Posted On April 23, 2014 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 […]
Your Slide Deck is Nothing But Risk, Part 2
Posted On April 14, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
A little while back, I wrote a post called Your Slide Deck is Nothing But Risk. It’s caused a lot of discussion — in our workshops, in discussions with our clients, and in some of the social media where we spend time. It’s a premise that has cause a lot of people to furrow their […]