Professional Development

I am serious about professional development (PD). I love the topic, the practice, and the results. I believe strongly in becoming a “life long learner”. For individuals and organizations alike, professional development is a path to excellence. I am entering a period of specialization in my doctoral studies, 18 credits in areas that I choose and [...]

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Career Insight from An International PR Leader

I had a most instructive conversation this past Saturday night over dinner. I want to share what I learned with current and former students as good career information. One of my dearest friends, Phillip Raskin, was here briefly from Seoul, Korea. Phillip is Director of the Burson-Marsteller office in Seoul. He mentioned that he had an opening [...]

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One Month Later

Today I begin the second month of More With Les. It is hard to believe that only 30 days have passed since I sat in a Richmond, Virginia, hotel room and started this blog. It was the night before a speaking engagement, but I was so excited to be jumping into the social media revolution [...]

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PR and Ethics Lessons from NASCAR

NASCAR recently issued some of the strongest penalties in its history for rules infractions found in pre-qualifying inspections for the Daytona 500, which ran today. It appears that among sports that have been marred by cheating scandals of all types, NASCAR takes cheating seriously. Michael Waltrip’s #55 Toyota, in its premier NASCAR appearance, was found in violation [...]

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Life Is Beautiful. It Really Is.

It was 10 degrees F. at 5:00 a.m. this morning when I dragged myself out of bed. I have a Saturday doctoral class from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at Towson University. It snowed and ice-stormed and stayed in the teens all week. There was a four-inch thick accumulation of hard-packed ice on my car [...]

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Strategic Thinking on Display in Fredericksburg, Virginia

I was up early today for a Saturday. I helped judge a category of IABC’s Gold Quill Awards competition, led by Katherine George, ABC, CAE. A team of us met at KG’s home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to judge the entries. As usual, KG had it all arranged for maximum effectiveness. She is a master organizer. [...]

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That Boston Thing Revisited

Richmond-based Consultant Extraordinaire Robert J. Holland has written an insightful and educational piece on the recent Boston guerrilla marketing campaign gone bad.  The link is: http://www.richmond.com/business/output.aspx?Article_ID=4570724&Vertical_ID=127&tier=1&position=6

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Change Your Thinking, and Change Your Life

AG stopped by to check on me today. She graduated last semester, but stays in touch. She surprised me by saying that she did not understand “how I do it”. I asked her what she meant. She listed teaching four classes, living 65 miles from campus, getting a doctorate, traveling to speak, etc., managing internships, [...]

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Strategic Planning for Schools

This addresses an important need – strategic planning for schools. This semester, I am taking a fascinating course called Transformation Leadership and Professional Development as part of my work toward my Ed.D. in Instructional Technology at Towson. In Saturday’s class, Instructor Dr. Jane Neapolitan introduced us to a wonderful resource for professional development, the National Staff [...]

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“Marketing Campaign” gets Blasted in Boston

A “marketing campaign” tactic by Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network TV to promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force went wildly wrong yesterday, shutting down the city as peoples’ fears in the post-9/11 world took hold. The tactic involved almost 40 blinking signs placed in a wide variety of locations, including bridges and security-sensitive buildings. The signs were [...]

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