BLArticle®
The personal touch of a blog; the informative touch of an article.
The One Thing An Audience Will Not Forgive
I’m not crazy about Matthew Broderick: I loved him in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, but who didn’t?! Thirteen years ago, I was in the audience of a Broadway performance of the musical “The Producers.” He was performing one of the lead roles. It turns out that some...
The Communication Shot Clock
I was a lucky kid for many reasons, and one reason was because I had a Dad, Lee Jolles, who taught me many amazing things. One of the best things he taught me was something he didn’t realize he was teaching me. You see, like most parents, my Dad always wanted to hear...
The Callback
If you ask most performers if they can remember the first time they took to a stage, the answer will come with surprising clarity. I don’t have the greatest memory, but I can remember my first time in front of an audience like it was yesterday… and I was four years...
The Corporate Compromise
As a Xerox trainer in the 80’s, the Xerox Corporation gave me the opportunity to go through their “Leadership Through Quality” program. I jumped at this chance to learn about the “Problem Solving” and “Quality Improvement” processes – something the company was known...
The Cost of Being Right
One of the benefits of being raised by a marine was that I was taught the meaning of courage. My father was a corpsman in not one, but two, wars, and the courage he displayed was beyond imagination. At an early age, my father demanded that I learn how to be...
Walking In The Client’s Shoes
At some point in a workshop, you’ll probably be engaged in a role-play. Did you see that face you just made? It wasn’t a happy face; it was a face that looked like you had a toothache! I’m not sure I’ve ever met a person whose reaction to a role-playing was this: “Oh...
The Art of Chit Chat
I still have a few painful memories of my first awkward dates when I was in High School; some rather unlucky girls were treated to an awkward, but well meaning, Rob Jolles. At the time, I thought I was quite a prize. After all, I wasn’t a person who had nothing to...
The Fog Of Fear
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a movie buff. At six years old, I would walk with my brother Richard to the Silver Movie Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland and thus began my love for movies. I shared that love with my own kids; one of our favorite outings...
Mind Over What Really Matters
Ah, the joy of youth. Carefree, and without worry… until we pursue our first, real job. Then, the concern of age rears its ugly head for the first time. “Will clients have trouble responding to me because of my age? Will clients think that my age makes me less...
Teaching Through Your Actions
I met William (Bill) Soper when I was eleven years old in Boy Scouts, only I didn’t know him as William or Bill. I knew him as my friend Willie. He was a quiet kid, but he was a very loyal friend. Unbeknownst to me, he would also become my teacher. Willie didn’t teach...
The Three Levels of Greed
Let’s begin by getting past the fifth word in the title of this BLArticle®, which, on some level, may have offended you. I’m referring to the word “greed.” Believe it or not, I happen to agree with the words of Gordon Gecko from Wall Street: “Greed is good.” Ask...
What Would You Attempt To Do…
The mind is an amazing mechanism, but it sure can fool you. Left unchecked, it can convince you of all sorts of things. When the body is injured, the mind can convince you you’re just fine. When you hear something that goes bump in the night, the...
The Biggest Question Never Asked
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a schoolteacher. Many people look at professional speakers and corporate trainers as teachers, but there is one critical difference between these two professions. That difference involves the students, and how to...
The Scourge of Productivity
“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar Let me set the scene for you… You’re sitting at your computer, and you’re focused and working hard. Perhaps it’s a proposal you’re working on, a blog you’re...
“This” Makes All The Difference
Some time ago, I was reminiscing about some of my favorite commercials, and a number of them came to mind. As a former Xerox employee, I was always a fan of many of the Xerox commercials. There was the Brother Dominic “Monks” commercial series, and a long series of...
Going To Your Off-Hand
I have always enjoyed the game of basketball. Not blessed with great height, I fell in love with the position of point guard. The position allowed me to relay plays being sent in by my coaches, and manage the flow of the game. It was the perfect...
Three Things
The Three Elements of a Successful Presentation When I worked for Xerox, I spent five days teaching trainers and speakers how to present information in a powerful manner. Those five days gave me time to work on many of the critical elements of speaking, including...
The Breakup
Part Two – Let It Go Part one of this BLArticle® series outlined the pain and anger that goes along with a bad breakup, whether it be from a friend, a spouse, a manager, or a company. Assigning full blame to someone else and telling story after story describing the...
The Breakup
Part One – The 90-10 Rule In business, as well as in life, there are certain cycles most of us go through. There is the thrill of being hired for a new job, and the joy of being wanted and appreciated. But part of the cycle is “breaking up” and moving from one job...
The Big Jinx… And Other Fallacies
I’m a superstitious guy. I won’t eat certain foods on certain days, I won’t hit a snooze bar, and I have a lucky tie I wear when delivering keynotes. If you hang around me long enough, you’ll hear me tell you why I do what I do. I’ll try to find logical reasons for...
“Rob is an expert not only in the art of influence,
but also in human nature.”
~Ken Blanchard,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and Trust Works!
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