Defining Leadership - Trying to Understand

You can ask ten different people what their definition of leadership is and you will probably get ten different answers. Leadership doesn’t have a specific definition. By giving it a definition, you are putting restrictions and limitations on the word and the true value of leadership. Leadership is something that is complicated to explain and understand. It is formless; it doesn’t take on a particular shape or form, nor does it go in one particular direction. A great leader can adjust to any situation at any given time, under any circumstance, and still come out successful. Read on ...

Tips for enjoying poetry

Poetry is word-music, an art which paints pictures with words and sounds. Since the sounds greatly increase the effect of the words, poems must be read aloud to provide your fullest enjoyment. Silent reading just won’t do poetry justice–it’s like trying to enjoy a concert by reading the score. Reading aloud enables the poem to reproduce the music of rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and harmony to enhance the emotional colors of the words. Read the other 6 tips at Bob’s byway

Communication Quotation

The problem with communication ... is the illusion that it has been accomplished George Bernard Shaw More communication quotations

Quote for the week

"That which chiefly causes the failure of a dinner party is the running short - not of meat, nor yet of drink, but of conversation." --Lewis Carroll More quotations about Communication

9 Tips To Help You Write More Powerful Emails

By Suzan St Maur 1. Make the effort to learn about the etiquette (these days known as "netiquette") involved in writing emails. There are loads of good reference websites and books about the internet which will tell you the basics. I know it might seem a bit precious to attach so much importance to social niceties when the internet is basically very informal. However, whether we like it or not many people do take online etiquette very seriously. So if you're writing emails for business, you should assume that your recipient may well be one of those... read on ...

Book owners burn books in protest

I had this saved to share and got busy doing other things - strange publicity!! Book Store Owners Protest 'Decline In Reading' KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The owner of a midtown bookstore set fire to hundreds of books on West 39th Street on Sunday. "We hope to spark a conversation about the importance of books in the face of a marked shrinking in reading trends, and staggering waste streams of actual books," said Prospero's Books owner, Tom Wayne. Prospero's has publicized for months that it was looking for a good home for thousands of books, and saying it would burn the books if no one wanted them. Read more

The Power of Charm

The Power of Charm: How to Win Anyone over in Any Situation

by Brian Tracy Ron Arden

“Fully 85 percent of your success in business and personal life will be determined by your ability to communicate effectively with others.” This book gives readers the key they need to open any door...and get whatever they want, every time. The most important quality in winning someone over-whether business or personal-is one's charm. The books provides proven ways to become more captivating--and persuasive--in any situation.

With trademark directness, Tracy and Arden show readers what charm can do, and how they can use simple methods to immediately become more charming and dramatically improve their social lives and business relationships.

Readers will learn how to: * capture people's trust and attention within the first few seconds of meeting

* win the support of others who can help them achieve their goals

* master body language and advanced listening techniques

* sell more of their products or services

* deliver powerful and engaging talks and presentations * improve their negotiation skills

* get paid more and promoted faster

With The Power of Charm, readers will develop greater confidence and self-esteem and learn how to naturally create rhythm and harmony with others. It's a unique and powerful guide filled with proven techniques for making dreams come true--in business and in life!

Running Effective Meetings

While meetings are wonderful tools for generating ideas, expanding on thoughts and managing group activity, this face-to-face contact with team members and colleagues can easily fail without adequate preparation and leadership. Article continues

Leading in Times of Transition

Leading in Times of Transition12 Leader Competencies: What It Takes In Times of Transition For many leaders, managing the business and addressing the needs of workers are at odds. They ask, "How can I make the tough decisions if I have to focus on the emotions and concerns of my employees?" The answer isn't about choosing either the people or the business, according to CCL's Kerry Bunker. Instead, the answer lies in being authentic and building trust. Article continues

Eyes lock on different letters when reading

YORK (Reuters) - When we read our eyes lock on to different letters in the same word instead of scanning a page smoothly from left to right as previously thought, researchers said on Monday. Using sophisticated eye tracking equipment, the team looked at letters within a word and found that people combined parts of a word that were on average two letters apart, said Simon Liversedge, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Southampton Read on ...

Comics - trash or treasure

comis were seen during my childhood as trash - not serious reading or art atall. Now in the lbiraries where I wor and ive, "graphic novels" are allhe buzz and comics are being taken seriously again. Amazon published this interview with Doublas Wolk who has written a book on reading comics. Talking Reading Comics: An Interview with Douglas Wolk

... His second book, Reading Comics, was just released, and it's doubly refreshing. It does none of the bashful throat-clearing that mainstream writing about comics often uses to justify its interest in what was long considered a throwaway kids' medium. And it manages to love and explain the two often warring (or mutually ignorant) sides of today's comics, the ever-popular superhero tradition and the art comics that have gained so much highbrow attention lately, making the case for each to the readers of both. It's an appealingly idiosyncratic tour of many of his favorite artists that doesn't hesitate to criticize some of the most revered names in the business (like Chris Ware and Will Eisner) or investigate some of its most forgotten genre byways with serious enthusiasm. We asked Wolk a few questions about the book and his work.

Read more ...

"Three tips to improve your writing rhythm"

By Michele Pariza Wacek

As a professional copywriter, not only do I do a lot of writing but I also look at a lot of writing. One of the things I've noticed that sets the good/great writers from the so so is rhythm.

What I mean by rhythm is how the writing sounds. The rhythm of the words and sentences. It's a subtle aspect of writing, one not normally talked about, but that doesn't lessen its importance.

Unfortunately, rhythm is also tough to teach (which is probably why it isn't talked about very much). It's something felt deep inside, like it is with music. It isn't as straight forward as pointing out a grammar error.

What makes it tougher is that everyone has their own style and own unique rhythm. However, these three tips should get you started thinking about your own writing rhythm and how to improve it. Article continues

Words at Work

Merriam-Webster asked its readers for their favourite words -- and here are the top 10. Test yourself by seeing if you can match them up with their definitions. (If you're not sure, look them up at dictionary.com.) The Words: 1. juxtapose (juk-stuh-POZE) 2. serendipity (ser-un-DIP-ih-tee) 3. discombobulate (dis-kum-BOB-yuh-late) 4. plethora (PLETH-uh-ruh) 5. persnickety (per-SNIK-ih-tee) 6. callipygian (kal-uh-PIJ-ee-un) 7. kerfuffle (ker-FUF-ul) 8. flibbertigibbet (FLIB-er-tee-jih-bit) 9. defenestration (dee-fen-ih-STRAY-shun) 10. onomatopoeia (on-uh-mat-uh-PEE-uh) The Definitions: a. throw into a state of confusion b. the act of throwing a person or thing out the window c. words that imitate the sound of the thing they represent d. having shapely buttocks e. place side by side f. making a fortunate discovery by accident g. fussy about small details h. superabundance i. become dishevelled j. a silly, scatterbrained person

Envisioning the Next Chapter for Electronic Books

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 — Technology evangelists have predicted the emergence of electronic books for as long as they have envisioned flying cars and video phones. It is an idea that has never caught on with mainstream book buyers. Two new offerings this fall are set to test whether consumers really want to replace a technology that has reliably served humankind for hundreds of years: the paper book.

Read on ...

Roth wins PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

[Via the SJCPL Blog]

Eeeryman by Philip Roth has won the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Roth is the first three-time winner of the award. His previous titles awarded are Operation Shylock and The Human Stain. This national prize honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year. The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is an outgrowth of William Faulkner’s generosity in donating his 1949 Nobel Prize winnings “to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers.”

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Look out Below

On April 14, 1912, a luxury ocean liner on its maiden voyage struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank within hours, sending some 1,500 people to cold, watery graves. The Titanic tragedy has been memorialised and analysed in movies, books and historical exhibits. As anyone who saw James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster movie about this event can attest, the story is full of great human drama. From a leadership perspective, however, what really interests me is the iceberg.
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More on Leadership

Leadership Success Tip

Delegation helps to channel more of the latent strengths in other people. So if you can delegate, you will help the growth of both the individuals concerned and the organisation for which you all work.

Subject Lines: 15 Rules to Write Them Right

Fifty characters could be all that stands between you and success in your next email campaign. Fifty characters is all the space you have in a typical subject line to catch your reader's eye and entice him to open your email and take the action you want. How could something so small make or break an email's success? Because many recipients use the subject line to decide whether to open or delete an email. Subject lines are tricky devils, however. A good one can get your email opened in a flash, while a bad one could spell oblivion in the trash or junk file. Because so much is riding on your subject line, we came up with 15 rules for crafting a good one. Be sure to review them before you send your next email campaign. Read on ...

Meeting Success Tip

Prepare a written agenda for your meeting. Make sure that everyone at the meeting is aware of it, and if necessary, have the meeting agree to it, formally. Then, if you need to, you can keep discussion focussed by referring to the agenda.
More on meetings

Eduspeak

From This is true

Forget "compare and contrast"; schoolchildren now learn "text-to-text connections".

They don't go to "home room" but rather "Achievement Time" or, in some schools, "Time to Care".

The temporary classroom is now a "learning cottage" rather than a "trailer".

Even the humble essay is gone, replaced by the "extended constructed response".

"If teachers want to talk in those terms among themselves, they're welcome to," says Vocabulary Review publisher Hartwell Fiske. "But introducing children to them is criminal, dehumanizing." Students agree. "It's like renaming a prison 'The Happy Fun Place'," complains a Maryland senior. "Tests should be called tests. 'Brief constructed response'; you just wonder why they don't say 'paragraph'." (Washington Post)

...It's nice that kids still get to learn about George Orwell.

Collaborative Problem Solving For Ending Social Conflict: A 6-Step Method

When it comes to reaching an end to a social conflict by use of communication, skill in listening, assertion, and conflict resolution are required so as to use collaborative problem solving. In addition, you need to recognize a process that works for you in order to reach a solution. Below is a 6-step sample Collaborative Problem-Solving Method. Read on ...

Speech Making Success Tip -Body language

Before you open your mouth to say the first word of your speech, you are communicating with the audience. Your stance, facial expression and body language are a picture that paints a thousand words. Make it calm, confident and pleasant, and you start "on the right foot"! So plant both of your feet, stand up straight and smile at them. You'll feel confident, sincere and professional and the audience will know. Than you can play with them. For free tips on using body language in your presentations, just send me an email.

Using humour images and cartoons in presentations

Have you talked in front of many people? Have you wondered what to do in order to get your ideas across? Any public speaker who has faced a crowd of listeners knows that humor has a great effect and brings out a point like nothing else. I have talked to many presenters and all of them say they have a number of jokes up their sleeve, as well as visual gags -- CARTOONS. Read on ...

Tautology too

Kerry Webb writing in Incite listed this wonderful website:

If you get annoyed with people who delight in using tautologies (or even those who have not got a clue what they are talking about) have a look at the absolutely essential site at "www.wordexplorations.com/pleonasm.html"

Language - a quote

Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides.
Rita Mae Brown
More Quotes on communication

Speech Making Success Tip

Before you open your mouth to say the first word of your speech, you are communicating with the audience. Your stance, facial expression and body language are a picture that paints a thousand words. Make it calm, confident and pleasant, and you start "on the right foot"! So plant both of your feet, stand up straight and smile at them. You'll feel confident, sincere and professional and the audience will know. Than you can play with them. More on Public Speaking

Communication Success Tip: letter writing

Writing a letter to someone who is personally important to you is a chance to give them a little more of your personality than is possible in an email and a little more to remember you by than is possible in a telephone call.

Smiley

It has become part of our language, well a certain part of it anyway. Here's one person's comment on the smiley face ..."The Smiley Intervention"