Seminar to stress motivation, analysis
by Joline Soelberg, reporter

    Self-analysis and using behavior to effectively motivate others is the focus of a seminar sponsored by Women In New Roles (Win-R) next week on South Campus.

   Grace Bradley, a self-employed business woman, will discuss the importance of recognizing behavior styles in oneself and other people. She will speak Tuesday, Oct. 1, 11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m. in the Student Center Living Room.

   “Often, when we encounter people that are different, we judge them as wrong, but … being different isn’t wrong. It adds strength to a workgroup, a family or a circle of friends,” she said.

   Bradley wants the audience to learn how the workplace can be a social mine field or gold mine, depending on a team’s understanding of the strengths each person naturally brings to the work arena. She believes people’s behavior type determines how the actions of others are interpreted.

   While one person sees a forthright individual, another sees a bossy jerk. What one perceives as procrastination, another perceives as being a “cautious thinker,” she said.

   Bradley will cover the four primary behavior types, as outlined in Personal Styles and Effective Performance, a book by David W. Merrill and Roger H. Reed.

   Bradley said she will also lead the audience through a self-analysis to discover their own type and explain how to use this knowledge to understand other people.

   Bradley believes there are misunderstandings every minute of every day, based on judgments made with too little information.

   “If everyone understood their own type and understood other people’s types, we would all have more harmony and cooperation,” she said.

   Losing her job in post-9-11 layoffs, Bradley started her own company, Learning with Grace. Her company offers group training facilitation services in the education and business worlds.

   One of her company’s products, Presenting with Power, is designed to turn people who would rather be wallflowers into people who present with purpose and power, Bradley said.

   “I want to have the audience walk away with a little piece of truth about themselves and others that they didn’t know that will make their lives easier,” she said.

   Triesha Light, associate professor and director of WIN-R, says this is a community seminar, open to the public. All students are welcome; this seminar is for everyone, Light said.

   More information about the seminar can be obtained from the WIN-R Web site at http:// somedia.tccd.net/south/win-r/index.html.