The War On Detail
Posted On November 2, 2015 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 […]
How to Persuade Your Audience Using the Concept of Leverage
Posted On October 28, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
Have you experienced the power of presenting in front of a camera? Chances are if you’ve been in one of our workshops, you’ve had the opportunity to be videotaped while you present. And you’ve experienced firsthand the transformational power of seeing yourself come to life on the screen. It’s a tremendous learning experience—we see our […]
Communication Lessons from a Newborn Child
Posted On July 27, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
My wife recently gave birth to our second child, a baby girl born in May. What a blessing… we are grateful every single day to have our new little one with us. Over the course of the last two months, I’ve been thinking a lot (obviously) about family, and when you spend time every day […]
Storytelling Techniques: Opportunity → Leverage
Posted On July 22, 2015 BY Dean Brenner
We recently wrote about a powerful storytelling technique called Problem⇒Solution. It is a “cause and effect” technique, where you lay out the problem first, quantify the problem, and then share the solution and the benefits of the solution… and you do all of that as part of the OPEN in your presentation, conversation or meeting. […]
Practice DOES Matter
Posted On November 20, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
I had an outstanding experience yesterday with a workshop participant from one of our major client companies. This young man had participated in one of our one-day presentation skills workshops about six weeks ago. And then he signed up for a different workshop this week, a two-day “executive communication skills” workshop. In the October session, […]
The Global Need for Respect
Posted On November 17, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
During the past year of client work, we’ve spent time with professionals from over 25 different countries… busy, ambitious, successful, intelligent professionals. They worked in finance, engineering, marketing, communications, procurement, and all sorts of leadership and management positions. Our client base is certainly a diverse group! And any time we have an intense period of […]
Executive Presence Means Different Things Around the World… Sort Of
Posted On October 22, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
It is very early in the morning in Paris, and I am preparing for day two of a workshop on executive communication skills and presence. The room will be filled again today with a culturally diverse group of executives from this client company, all of whom are serious about their communication skills, and this class. Over […]
Global Communication and the 3 Things Every Audience Needs
Posted On October 9, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
In the coming weeks, we’ll be doing some work with clients on three continents, and executives from 15 different countries. In planning business travel of this scale, it always gets me thinking about how we communicate in that global environment, and how we have to adapt what we do to an audience that may not have […]
5 Things Improv Class Taught Me About Business Communication
Posted On October 2, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
Today’s post was written by Brett Slater (above, left), Chief Social Media Officer at The Latimer Group Last June, I started taking comedy improv classes at Unscrewed Theater in Tucson, Arizona. My original motivation was to fan my creative flames by working with others in a collaborative setting. As a freelancer, I don’t work with […]
Listening Is Respect
Posted On September 2, 2014 BY Dean Brenner
This past weekend, I participated as a speaker in a training conference for young leaders. This is something I do every year, and that I enjoy immensely. It’s a great program, well designed, with lots of valuable information from multiple speakers. I spoke twice (both times on good communication skills) to two different subsets of […]