Author Archive | Adam Kornegay

Be honest, have you ever started a sentence with, “In my day…?” Maybe you haven’t said it aloud, but perhaps you’ve thought it. It’s easy to do. As a father of a teen and a preteen, I often slip into comparisons of my childhood.  It’s not as bad as “walking five miles to school barefoot in the snow,” but it comes close. I will think about Saturday morning cartoons, riding my bike throughout the neighborhood and playing Wiffleball all summer. We all have stories and experiences that shape our perspective […]

We used two characters from the television show The Office to demonstrate classic behavior styles from the DiSC behavioral model in last week’s article Don’t Beet Around the Bush. Dwight Schrute is a great example of Dominance behavior: fast-paced, action-oriented and generally somewhat skeptical. Pam Beasley is slow, deliberate and trusting, exactly what we expect from someone who exhibits Steadiness behavior. Let’s take a look at the other two styles: The Influence style is fast-paced, action-oriented and trusting The Conscientiousness style is skeptical, slow and deliberate Someone with the Conscientiousness […]

If you were to think of someone with a dominance-style behavior, who would come to mind?  Last week we discussed the DiSC behavior model and described the Dominance style as someone who is fast-paced, action-oriented and generally somewhat skeptical. Donald Trump, Gordon Ramsay, and Simon Cowell seem to fit this style, don’t they? Now, think about the TV show The Office.  Who best exhibits a Dominance style? Did Michael Scott pop into your head?  He is the regional manager after all.  It would be easy to assume that the one […]

William Moulton Marsten, a psychologist with a Ph.D. from Harvard is a fascinating figure. Some know him as the creator of Wonder Woman. Some know him as the inventor of the polygraph, commonly known as a lie detector test. Still others know him as the person who put forth the behavioral model now known as the DiSC model. Last week, we spoke about the importance of adjusting your language to improve your communication with others.  But in order to adjust your language, you must first know your preferred style and […]

When’s the last time you said: “y’all?” I’m guessing it will depend on where you live and how you were raised. According to this site (http://survey.johndal.com/results/20/) about 19% of America says “y’all” or “all y’all” when referring to a group of two or more people in casual speech. As you can see on the corresponding map, most of these people live in the southeastern United States. After living in Knoxville for 12 years, I’ve found that “y’all” has continued to creep into my everyday vocabulary. However, it only seems to […]