Karolus Smejda

KAROLUS SMEJDA, M.A. (Consultant, facilitator, producer, playwright). Featured in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, NBC, CNN, The Chicago Tribune, and Future, Karolus has consulted with corporations, government, privately-held firms, and professional partnerships to improve leadership, management, sales, and communication since 1974. Using a holistic, purposive approach to understanding and improving communication, he applies his practical, on-the-job approach to communication when custom-designing individual and group programs in effective oral, written, and team communication. In addition, executives, managers, and salespeople consult with Karolus one-on-one to improve the effectiveness of both individuals and organizations. He has consulted and presented in both the U.S. and Europe.

As an expert and thought-leader in business communications, Karolus has presented his seminars to organizations as diverse as Federal Home Loan, Federal Reserve, BPAmoco, Chicago Police Department, Evanston Hospital, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Northern Trust Bank, Chicago Society of Association Executives (now Association Forum), United Insurance, American Dental Association, Council on Logistics Management and USG Corporation.

As both a producer of the PowerSuasion Players (formerly LaSalle Street Management Theatre) and a playwright, Karolus has produced and written his business plays for audiences such as Abbott Laboratories, Allstate, Navistar, Baxter-Travenol, Harris Bank, Walgreens, BP, USG, the American Society for Training and Development, International Society for Performance and Instruction, Sales and Marketing Executives, Illinois Affirmative Action Association, and the Illinois Association of Personnel Consultants, and the National Family Business Council. The following list of his "live cases" provides an overview of his work in this medium.

Furthermore, Karolus has created The PowerSuasion Assessment to provide feedback to business-persons and organizations on what to improve in their communications. A professional assessment of business communication, The PowerSuasion Assessment, uses on-the-job business writing as its data-set. Professional editors use a content-analysis methodology to provide data to PowerSuasion s proprietary algorithms. The output of the algorithms provides business people feedback on how to improve their communication online, in seminars, or in one-on-one consultation.

In 2003, Karolus earned his M.A. from the School for New Learning at DePaul University. His project for the master s degree focused on writing assessment and developing a business communication assessment. This graduate work resulted in The PowerSuasion Assessment. In addition, over the years, Karolus has published numerous articles in a variety of business venues.

Currently, Karolus also teaches Business Writing at Loyola University in Chicago as adjunct faculty.