MVP Seminars - All Blog Entries

Creating a Team

People join a group for many different reasons. Motivation, excitement, appropriate skill level, cooperative attitude, and desire to participate, may be lacking. Some people join a group to "look good," to add it to their resume, because someone coerced them and they just could not say no, or because they're curious but don't intend to contribute much. Others join a group with the intention of being a star, the boss, leading others to their own self-serving goals, or just controlling others to boost their own morale. Some people join a group because they want to receive what that group has to offer - education, advice, money, prestige, or a sense of belonging. Then there are the rare few who join a group to discover what they can contribute, how they can help the group to improve and expand.

Not only do people join groups for diverse and completely different reasons, they also arrive with completely different personalit

Generation Text

The United States is no longer a nation of readers. We are no longer a nation of writers. We aren’t even a nation of talkers anymore. We have become a nation of shorthand communicators. The well-constructed sentence no longer holds intrinsic value because of its usefulness in communicating complex ideas. Instead, we increasingly gravitate to abbreviated forms of communication that rely on not only a syntax that may be at odds with standard English, but that use an entirely new lexicon that is rapidly infusing the ways in which we write and talk to each other. In fact, this lexicon is developing and spreading so quickly that it is arguably the fastest growing language in the world. This new language of the 21st century is not Spanish or Japanese or even standard English. The new language is called Text, and it’s sweeping the globe like a pandemic flu.
Despite its shortcomings, texting is a cornerstone of contemp

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April 24, 2008 Posted by Suzanne Disheroon, Ph.D. | writing, training, text messaging, professional development, professional communication, manners, Grammar, email, education, communication, clarity, Business Writing | Comment (0)

Privacy: Blogging and Online Communities

I participate in an electronic community (aka online community, social network) that is aimed at business professionals. It is very likely that you or one or more of your employees are one of the more than 18 million people who are part of this one community or one of many more like it. During the last couple of weeks I noticed and answers are clearly inappropriate. Some members of the community argue that being professional excludes having fun, and all they are trying to do is liven up the community by having fun. What it really comes down to is appropriate vs. inappropriate -- not fun vs. boring agony.

Electronic communities, blogs, and email have become a valuable source of information for character references and character assassination? Character assassination is usually done by the hands of the victims themselves by being inappropriate in w

All I needed to know about Leadership, I learned from my Cat

We have two cats that provide endless hours of entertainment. The oldest, Sundae, is a female calico who is definitely the Alpha over her partner, Max, a male tabby. Sundae's entire mission in life is to be loved, and while she is not the sharpest tool in the shed, she usually reaches her goal.

Recently my husband Larry had rotator cuff surgery and was confined to the couch for a few days - this definitely stirred interest as something "amiss" for the cats. They are not accustomed to see him still for so long. Sundae, in her mission for affection, called dibbs on Larry's lap, and proceeded to make herself comfortable. When Larry did not respond to her royal presence by petting her, Sundae nudged or licked his hand, causing Larry to move it. Undeterred, Sundae repositioned herself and nudged again.

This went on for several minutes until, exasperated, Larry finally bestowed the affection Sundae sought. As I witnessed th

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November 7, 2007 Posted by Allison Adams Blankenship | women, training, pet, life coaching, leadership, effective management, effective, cat, career, allison blankenship | Comment (0)

Scaring People into taking Action

I recently received an invitation to address a group of professionals about identity theft. While chatting with the organizer to learn how I could best customize my presentation to the audience, the organizer nonchalantly said, "don't scare them."

Since that conversation, I have been pondering on how one could talk about the world-wide identity theft pandemic without scaring anyone in the audience. A "How-To" workshop entitled "Identity Theft for Fun and Profit" targeted to an audience of scoundrels could leave the audience walking out confident and enthusiastic about the future opportunity of becoming an identity thief. But even one or two of the rogues, who lacked the nefarious skills of the others, might get scared that they might be made or not be able to swindle as much as the more skilled villains.

It occurred to me that talking about identity theft and countermeasures is like talking about global warming o