Your Colleagues Will Build a Statue in Your Honor
Posted On May 18, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
In nearly every workshop I teach, I ask a question that sounds something like this: “How many of you attend too many meetings that run long?” Nearly every hand goes up, every time. “How many of you get too many emails that are too overwhelming to read?” Nearly every hand goes up, every time. “How […]
3 Keys to Being a More Memorable Speaker
Posted On May 15, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
Here’s a great goal for you in your next meeting or presentation. Make it your mission in life to make it easy for people to remember what you say. Have you ever had the experience where a presenter just walked into the room, and from the moment he or she opened their mouth, you were […]
To Change the Minds of Others, Change This About Yourself
Posted On May 9, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
Some of our most popular blog posts lately have been about how we communicate with each other, and the divide that’s so often formed when we’re faced with an opinion or viewpoint different from our own. And while there are plenty of examples we’ve written about from our President on this subject, it’s certainly not limited to […]
Video: The 4 Skills of Great Communication
Posted On April 24, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
Ask anyone who performs at a high level: athletes, dancers, singers, etc. They all prepare and practice their skills the same way. They break their skill down into smaller “sub-skills,” then practice each one individually, then put them all back together, and their overall skill level has improved. The same is true with communication. “Great […]
United Airlines: Every Day is a Job Interview
Posted On April 11, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
Like many of you, I watched the video of the United Airlines passenger being dragged off a flight with horror and sadness. It was an awful scene, and for those of you who have not heard the story, here are the basics… passengers had boarded a flight in Chicago, bound for Louisville. It was a […]
Video: The Recipe for Great Communication
Posted On March 27, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
The Recipe for Great Communication contains 5 ingredients: Clarity, Brevity, Context, Impact, and Value. But depending on your audience’s “taste” — that is, depending on what kind of information your audience needs — those ingredients may vary in proportion. So, how do we know how much of each ingredient to use when we prepare for meetings […]
How Distracting is Your Speaking Style?
Posted On March 13, 2017 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 […]
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 […]
Presentation Tips: Organize Your Details
Posted On February 9, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
Several of my coaching conversations have been focused on the same thing of late… when I am speaking to my boss, how do I stay out of the weeds? I get stuck in the deep detail, and he/she gets frustrated with me. Sound familiar? “Too much detail” is a constant issue in the 21st century […]
When Communicating, Don’t Make People “Change the Channel”
Posted On February 6, 2017 BY Dean Brenner
The world I grew up in and the world my young son is growing up in are vastly different. And I’m not even that old! But when I was a kid, there was no cable TV, no internet, no streaming content… We had five channels, and you watched what was on, commercials and all, and […]