Buzzwords buzz in the area of interpersonal skills as well as other sectors of society. Pollinating new ways of looking at things, they energize us to think about how we present ourselves in collaboration with what's going on in the world at the moment. On a cold February day I asked Tero's team of experts to give me the buzz about Image, Speaking Skills, Etiquette, Negotiation and Cross Cultural Communication. Some of the buzzwords and concepts may surprise you, but they are all guaranteed to have you looking at the world of presence and interactions in a new way.

I began my questioning with Becky Rupiper-Greene, Tero's Image Consultant. Whenever you see Becky she is perfectly pressed and dressed stunningly professionally. I knew she would be right up on the current trend in the field she knows and role models so well.

When I inquired about the best buzz concept in the realm of image, this is what Becky shared.

"The Image industry's buzz concept of the 90s was Business Casual. Current economic challenges, however, have created a much tighter job market, making an upgraded image a competitive advantage. Thus, the Business Casual buzz has transitioned to the more modern concept - Creative Corporate."

"Creative Corporate means an edgier polished look, without necessarily having to wear a suit. The more refined look focuses on attention to detail, elegant fabrics, and simple yet classy wardrobe combinations with longevity." Creative Corporate - what a great buzzword to get us thinking about what we are wearing, buying, and most importantly the messages we are sending with our attire.

My next stop was to see Carlos Alvarez. If you have had him as one of your facilitators for Tero' popular Impact - How To Speak Your Way To Success presentation skills workshop, you will remember he has a commanding way of rolling his r's as he introduces himself, and in getting you to be a more polished speaker. I have heard he has been called "Mr. Impact" by some members of the Tero team, and that he has an affection and affinity for magic tricks.

The buzz concept he shared alludes to the magic people can make if they are a skilled presenter.

"The buzz concept in presentation skills is Connect. The speaker has to be able to connect in a way that he or she completely engages each member of the audience, throughout the whole presentation. We have a visually oriented and visually stimulated society due to the popularity of TV and mass media. If a speaker does not connect by developing rapport, giving off professional and engaging visual and vocal messages, and utilizing the eyes to make everyone feel important, the audience is not going to stay with the message, or the presenter. It is non negotiable. A presenter in today's world competing with TV and media imprinted minds has got to be engaging and make a powerful human connection."

I could tell Carlos Alvarez practices what he preaches as he created a connection with me as he spoke and I felt myself drawn into his message and this buzz concept first hand - like magic.

Rowena Crosbie, president of Tero was next on my list. Rowena began Tero fifteen years ago, and under her entrepreneurial spirit and leadership it has grown into an international company in a relatively short time. I had heard Ro, as she is called, is not only a highly skilled presenter but an astute negotiator as well. Ro researched and designed Tero's Negotiation skills class, and knows the buzz around effective negotiations. I caught up with her in her window lined, plant filled office at Tero.

"When we began our negotiation research several years ago everyone was touting the buzz word compromise. Never really defining what that that meant, coming to a compromise was misinterpreted many times. Some people thought it meant that each party had to come away with half. Others interpret it to mean giving in. Yet what if I do not want half or to give in? We began to see in the research that Harvard Business School and others conducted that the key to negotiations was finding a way, both in interaction and strategy, to truly collaborate to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution. And frankly that is still the buzz concept, seeing negotiations as Collaborative Common Ground Work. If you can learn the skills to address negotiations from that standpoint you create win wins for everyone involved."

I could see "CCGW"(Collaborative Common Ground Work) would be an effective acronym for this buzz concept that anyone wanting to be good at negotiations needs today. Life is so fast paced yet interrelated we usually negotiate again and again with the same parties. If we find a way to create CCGW, our time spent is building frameworks of common ground that we can pass over again in future negotiations saves time and resources.

Lastly I sought out Deborah Rinner, Tero's Director of Corporate Etiquette and International Protocol. I wanted to know what the buzz concept in etiquette was, as well as in the field of Intercultural Communications. I caught her at an airport waiting for a flight from Reno to Lacrosse. When I asked about the etiquette buzz concept she replied quickly Social Networking. Explaining that the etiquette of technology (email, cell phones, etc.) is evolving with use, the social networking opportunities and best practice of these opportunities for business is also evolving. "Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and all the vehicles to network electronically demand that we give some consideration to our technological presence. Using these well can be advantageous to us to build our professional network, but at the same time, we need to be careful about how we are represented both individually and organizationally on these sites."

When I asked Rinner about the buzz in the field of intercultural communication (she serves at Tero as an interculturalist) she said, True Inclusivity. "Many organizations are trying to attract and retain diverse work forces, but do not prepare the groundwork of the existing organizational culture to be able to be truly inclusive. We see attempts at having special interest groups for the national cultures that are different than the majority culture inherent in the organization, but is that truly being inclusive? More and more the buzz in companies is over how to create awareness and skills around managing and gaining from cultural difference for ALL employees to prepare the soil for true inclusivity."

Talking with Tero about these buzz words and concepts gave me a lot to think about. In fact it made me realize a buzzword/concept of my own. If I paid attention to my corporate creative look, connected with audiences in presentations and one on ones, worked toward collaborative common ground work, put some energy and thought in to how I wanted to be perceived on and use the social networking sites, and began to educate myself about culture in order to prepare myself to be inclusive as my organization and the world embraces diversity, the buzz around me would be that I was demonstrating Executive Presence. And that thought on this cold February day makes me realize my success in the future as a result of paying attention to these buzz words alone will be able to make even a February day seem warm and bright.