Newswriting + Reporting

HE IS AN INTROVERT WITH A COLOSSAL INFLUENCE

Denver—When he enters a room it’s impossible not to notice him, his distinct white hair and facial features depict a sort of a cold person showing no emotion. As he enters the room he hunches down in order to avoid the door frame. With every step he takes he has a rather clumsy walk and his backpack seems to be filled with rocks and he hunches down with every step or it might be because he is so tall. 

Born and raised in a New England farm having to work hard at a very young age raised by a mother that made a drill sergeant look weak and a father that only cared about his farm. He recalls having to work more than 12 hours a day at times in extremely cold temperatures and having to suppress any and all pain since no complaining or crying was allowed.

At the young age of 18 he found himself venturing off to attend college as both his parents were not supportive and were in complete disagreement with his ambition to attend college that would eventually led him to a career.  He recalls having the conversation with his parents of attending college and his parents both stating “he thinks he is better than us, he wants to enroll in college.”

His dream was simply to attend college. The negativity projected by his parents and their lack of support is what gave him the fuel to pursue his dream of attending college and claiming his education.

Today, Dr. Robert Melvin, is an exceptional influential professor, 40 years after receiving first his bachelor’s degree followed by his master’s a year later and finally obtaining his Ph.D in 1993. Ever since he started his teaching career he has been rewarded with several awards and recognition for his exceptional leadership and influential skills when teaching at the undergrad and graduate levels.

After working as an investigator for the U.S. Congress for 14 years he grew tired of the constant travel and colleagues at the University of Denver convinced him to teach at the university.

He immediately acquired the reputation of a professor that was honest, trustworthy, loved education, with a desire to develop people, and a strong dislike for individuals who engaged in destructive and unethical behaviors. That was the primary reason why he left his job with the U.S. government because he could not handle being around the bad guys any longer.

“When I sit in class I wish I could turn into a sponge to soak up the wealth of knowledge that Dr. Melvin shares with us in his lectures about persuasion,” said Michelle Weiser a student that took his persuasion class in the Fall of 2011. “His combination of teaching and sharing life experience stories is extremely helpful to apply to my everyday life experiences when practicing persuasion skills at home, school, or work.”

Dr. Melvin has been awarded the “Professor of the Year” award at The Women’s College on 3 occasions 1996, 1999 and 2003. In 2009 The Women’s College awarded him with “Faculty Spirit Award” this are only a few of the recognitions Dr. Melvin has received over the years. 

“I have learned some of the best things from Bob Melvin” says Shalynn Hancock.  She goes on to state that she learned from Dr. Melvin that "business is in business to make money," and "the rich don't keep up with the Jones's and the Jones's are probably broke."  “It is hard to put into words how valuable his classes have been to me he is truly an amazing professor and he has made every class I've taken with him one of my favorite. The students of TWC are lucky to have him.”

Dr. Melvin is well known and popular in the field of negotiation, persuasion, conflict management and organizational communication among others. He runs his own company where he often is hired by the U.S. government to present on a variety of communication perspectives.

For the most part he states “most persuasion is soft and we don’t really persuade much by logic.”

Also, he thinks things can backfire by promising the wrong thing at the wrong time for example he states “Obama is not going to do anything the whole country is in disintegration.”  He believes unethical persuasion wins over ethical persuasion and everyone is susceptible to persuasion

In a world full of technology and ever advancing gadgets he is able to utilize his past work and life experiences and use them as examples to demonstrate how persuasion, negotiation and conflict management can be used to your advantage and disadvantages. One of his favorite quotes is “Persuasion is like a gun use it to commit a crime or use it to defend yourself.” He states that the most powerful persuaders continue to persuade others long after their dead for example Christ, Hitler, Michael Jackson among others. He believes that you should influence people more to get what you want!

“I am constantly in demand as a teacher and normally carry a significant teaching load,” says Dr. Melvin. He has been selected to co-teach in the Emerging Leaders Program in the Daniels College of Business because of his reputation of helping others producing solid business and personal results.  The consulting business he has generates business strictly from word-of-mouth.  For that reason he has neither business cards nor brochures and conducts all of his consulting business without formal contracts. 

Dr. Melvin recalls having to watch his every move when he was working for the government. He remembers in instance when his boss took him out to lunch and was telling him about all the bodies he had disappeared when individuals decided to get in his way. Dr. Melvin took this as a threat for him not to think about messing with him or else he would vanish from the face of this earth.

But this did not scare Dr. Melvin one bit he was raised by a mother that made a drill sergeant look weak so he just continued to do what he felt was the right thing. After compiling a vast amount of evidence he was able to prove to his superiors that his bosses actions are work were at times unethical and against the code of conduct set for government employees. Soon thereafter his boss was fired and Dr. Melvin was offered a higher rank position.

His old boss instilled fear on each one of his employees except Dr. Melvin. Dr. Melvin was never scared of him and always spoke the truth even when he was lying. Dr. Melvin had been raised to speak the truth and work hard for his money. It was this mentality that allowed him to be a successful leader while in government for many years but working with bad guys all the time took a toll on his desire to continue working among the bad ones in government.

He further influences and shares his wealth of knowledge with students and colleagues with his written work such as his professional paper titled Risk Communication and Conflict Management presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Communication Association at Yale University.

~INTROVERT AT HEART~

Even though he states he is an “introvert” his students would never imagine that from sitting and listening to his lectures in his class. He states that more than half of the employees working for the U.S. government are introverts.

One would never imagine that Dr. Melvin is an introvert at heart. He is a bit sheepish when you first meet him and he gives you the impression that he doesn’t have any friends. But Dr. Melvin loves to teach he enjoys catching up with people about what is going out there in the real world since he does not like to go on the internet, email or do anything that has to do with technology. He doesn’t even have a cell phone. He states “Machines will dehumanize us” he dislike technology and is of the opinion that computers will eventually take over the world.

Carol Zak-Dance a colleague of Dr. Melvin says, “I've known Bob for 20+ years and he really is wearing the same pair of jeans as he was when we met!  Seriously, Bob's "aw schucks" demeanor speaks to his true humility and is not used to mask his sharp intelligence and great sense of humor.  He is a teacher's teacher.”

He teaches for six months of the year and sails away from civilization for the rest of the year. Although he enjoys teaching and being around other people he needs to get away from everyone and everything and just enjoy nature at his best with the ocean, the sun, the moon and the breeze. Even it comes to navigating the open sea he refuses to use new technology although his yacht is equipped with a GPS he instead uses maps, compass and his past experience when sailing.  

He never had children of his own so he always sets sail with his lovely wife who also knows how to sail the old fashion way as well as with new technologies equipped in their yacht. Dr. Melvin an introvert at heart feels the need to get away every year in order to recharge his energy. His energy is drained at the end of 6 months from having to interact with so many extroverts. He states that our world is mostly filled with extroverts and he gets tired of having to act like one.