Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
LjjSpeaks: Happiness is a snuggling puppy!
Book your next workshop, training or speaking engagement today!
www.TheJjWay.com
Friday, January 29, 2010
Harvard Business Review: Three tips to avoid wasting time on line | by Jeff Stibel
| 3 Tips to Avoid Wasting Time Online | |||
If you are like most internet users, you've probably chastised yourself for wasting time on the web. Research has shown that our brains enjoy being distracted and that the internet feeds that distraction happily. To avoid wasting time online, try these three things:
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
LJJSpeaks Blog Post: Tweeting On The Tens! A Winning Strategy? One person's every ten minute tweet experience!
1)To see if there would be any trending on Twitter by posting #10Tweet in all my ramblings.
2)To learn more about how twitter can work with business
3)To throw caution to the wind and try something new.
7:00 AM - Today it's #10tweet day. On the :10s of every hour from 7am - 4 pm I will Tweet whatever is top of mind at that moment! Why not?
7:10 AM Wow 10 minutes goes by fast. Makes you think about organizing and preparing for every minute in life. Right? 7:22 AM It's hard to tweet from the shower. Towel - Ipod... geesh already missed by 2 Min., See how time gets away from you?
7:30 AM I'm still amazed at report that kids spend over 11 hours with "media" in only a 7 hour day!http://post.ly/KRdQ
8:00 AM Show rundown is great - Blogger Terry Starbucker on taking the pressure off and VP Meijer Stacie Behler -tips for success! 2 PM!
8:10 AM AMI am hoping I can play a group webinar on Apple TV ... Will test in a few minutes! Webinar tomorrow w/ LMCU team.
8:20 AM Ten friends to thank @jgaler, @promobrain, @ preacherrr, @speria @PatiKay, @autoconomy,@adamschomaker, @smallchangefilm 2 more!
8:30 AM I love @mashable. I'm just sayin' Where else can you learn about the Pope Blogging and overdoing FBFriends all in one place?
8:40 AM LIVEit! continues with low carb omolette! Mmmmmm. ... And a chuckle at my Husbands org. skills - marks hard boiled eggs in ink
NY Times: New toys streaming media may be slow going by By JENNA WORTHAM. Thanks @ForbesWomen for locating!
As Devices Pull More Data, Patience May Be Required
ORIGINAL POST: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/technology/28overload.html?scp=3&sq=patience&st=cse
Could Apple’s new iPad end up being too much of a good thing?
Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, played up the iPad’s ability to stream live baseball games and hit movies during his demonstration on Wednesday. But people who are willing to pay more to get that content over AT&T’s 3G data network may pay another price: glacial downloads and spotty service on an already overburdened system.
America’s advanced cellphone network is already beginning to be bogged down by smartphones that double as computers, navigation devices and e-book readers. Cellphones are increasingly being used as TVs, which hog even more bandwidth. They can also transmit video, allowing for videoconferencing on cellphones.
And a new generation of netbooks, tablet PCs and other mobile devices that connect to cellphone networks will only add to the strain. “Carrier networks aren’t set to handle five million tablets sucking down 5 gigabytes of data each month,” Philip Cusick, an analyst at Macquarie Securities, said.
Wireless carriers have drastically underestimated the network demand by consumers, which has been driven largely by the iPhone and its applications, he said. “It’s only going to get worse as streaming video gets more prevalent.”
An hour of browsing the Web on a mobile phone consumes roughly 40 megabytes of data. Streaming tunes on an Internet radio station like Pandora draws down 60 megabytes each hour. Watching a grainy YouTube video for the same period of time causes the data consumption to nearly triple. And watching a live concert or a sports event will consume close to 300 megabytes an hour.
“Video is something the industry needs to get a handle on,” Mr. Cusick said.
AT&T, the sole carrier of the iPhone in the United States, has become the butt of jokes and the cause of vexation for its customers in major cities because of dropped calls, patchy service, and other network hiccups.
The other carriers may share the problem as they sell more data-sucking devices; sales of smartphones are expected to increase 30 percent this year, according to Morgan Stanleyanalysts.
In a recent briefing with analysts, Ralph de la Vega, AT&T’s chief executive for mobility, said that users of smartphones, primarily the iPhone, were straining the network by watching video and surfing the Web. The company reported an unprecedented increase in wireless data use of nearly 7,000 percent since late 2006.
Jake Vance, for example, catches every Red Sox game he can — mostly on his iPhone.
“I watch every game I can’t get on TV,” he said. “I’ve also been known to watch baseball at home on my iPhone while my wife is watching something else on TV.”
Last season, Mr. Vance, 27, who works long hours making cupcakes in the vegan bakery he owns with his wife in Rutherford, N.J., listened to the audio streams of 70 games and watched 30 live games using Major League Baseball’s iPhone app.
“The iPhone has changed the consumer’s expectation of what a mobile device is able to do,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president for devices at AT&T. “We are working rapidly to make sure they can meet those expectations.”
Yet, even as carriers struggle to meet the demands on their networks, they are encouraging the use of more sophisticated devices and the swelling catalogs of apps. Analysts expect carriers will generate more than half their revenue from data in three or four years, up from less than 30 percent today.
The carriers increasingly look to data plans and services like streaming high-quality video and audio as a way to differentiate themselves from the competition, Ross Rubin, an analyst with the NPD Group, said.
AT&T, for example, is offering a $30-a-month unlimited data plan to iPad owners. Customers are not locked into a long-term contract as they are for their cellphones, which makes the new service more enticing. “They want to plant the seeds in consumers’ minds now about what the potential is, even before the networks are ready. But they have to balance between providing a poor experience and overloading the network,” Mr. Rubin said.
Networks in other countries have similar problems, said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst. But many carriers outside of the United States balance out network use with tiered data plans. And bandwidth-intensive smartphones are often spread across multiple carriers in the same city.
Still, some, like O2 in Britain, have suffered from service failures because of a concentration of iPhone owners in dense urban areas like London.
Streaming video and live video broadcasting are still in the early stages of adoption. But most have already gained significant traction among consumers. The $10 version of the M.L.B. app that allows users to stream live games has been downloaded roughly 300,000 times since it went on sale in June, said Bob Bowman, chief executive of MLB.com.
“We didn’t even have the full season to sell the application,” Mr. Bowman said. “We think we’re going to see a substantial increase next season.” The app was demonstrated on the iPad at the event on Wednesday with Mr. Jobs.
The National Football League recently announced plans to make its RedZone channel, which offers real-time highlights, updates and live snippets of games, available to cellphone users next season.
Knocking Live, a free app that allows iPhone and iPod Touch owners to stream live video to one another, akin to a live video conference, has been downloaded more than 275,000 times, according to its developer, Pointy Heads Software. Nearly 540,000 live-streaming video sessions were initiated since the app became available in early December. On average, 120 gigabytes of data are shared each day, and the company estimates that around 90 percent of the sessions were over AT&T’s 3G network.
Ustream.tv, a Web site that allows anyone to set up a live broadcast of things as varied as a wedding ceremony and round-the-clock coverage of newborn puppies, recently introduced a free app that allows iPhone and Android-powered smartphone owners to broadcast video directly from their handsets. Within its first two weeks of availability, the company said users uploaded more than 500,000 mobile broadcasts.
“The ease and simplicity of being able to pull your phone out, hit a button and go live” is what makes the app so appealing, said Brad Hunstable, president of Ustream.
Mr. Hunstable said that the data required to broadcast or watch live video using Ustream’s app is comparable to that of watching a YouTube video. But the company is testing a high-definition version of its iPhone app, which will use more bandwidth.
“As the technology improves, so does our ability to stream in higher quality,” he said.
Ljj Speaks: Think before you speak. It really is that simple.
Book your next workshop, training or speaking engagement today!
www.TheJjWay.com
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
MarketingCharts.com: Global Time Spent Social Networking Rises 82% via Nielson
Original Post http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/global-time-spent-social-networking-rises-82-11767/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink
Global Time Spent Social Networking Rises 82%
Global consumers increased the amount of time they spent on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter by 82% in December 2009 compared to December 2008, according to The Nielsen Company.
Time, Unique Audience Increases for Social Networking Sites
In December 2008, global consumers spent an average of three hours, three minutes and 54 seconds on social networking sites. That amount of time increased to five hours, 35 minutes and five seconds one year later. In addition, unique audience increased 27%, from 242 million in December 2008 to 307.4 million in December 2009.
Facebook Increases US Dominance
Facebook dramatically increased its dominance of the US online social networking market between December 2008 and December 2009. In December 2009, Facebook recorded about 110 million unique visitors, a 100% increase from 55 million unique visitors in December 2008. Myspace, which remained the second-most popular US online social network, saw its number of unique visitors drop about 17%, from roughly 60 million in December 2008 to roughly 50 million in December 2009. While Twitter only recorded 18.1 million unique visitors in December 2009, this represented 579% growth from 2.7 million unique visitors a year earlier.
Aussies Love Spending Time on Social Networks
Australians’ reputation for sociability transcends into the virtual world. Although Australia only ranked number nine on the list of countries with total social network unique audience for December 2009 (9.9 million), on average Australians spent the most time on social networks for the month (six hours, 52 minutes, 28 seconds). The US by far led in unique audience during December 2009 (142 million) but came in second in terms of time spent on social networks (six hours, nine minutes, 13 seconds). Japan had the second-highest unique audience monthly total (46.5 million) but came in 10th for time spent per person (two hours, 50 minutes, 21 seconds).
Facebook Beats Text, Email
In one sign that it is truly becoming a dominant means of communication, a recent survey by Prompt Communications indicates that among a pool of 300 consumers in Boston, 96% of them use Facebook to communicate with friends and family on a regular basis. While Facebook trailed the phone at 99%, it beat text messaging at 93% and email at 91%.
LOOK in the sky! It's a book - it's a computer - it's a big toy... IT'S IPAD! http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad/
It has USB ports so you can attach keyboard and mouse! Makes it perfect for office / trips/ meetings / school! How WILL it work in real life? http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad/
SmartBrief on Leadership: Respect is a key ingredient for innovation- by Roy Lubke
Respect: A key ingredient for innovation | By Roy Luebke | Category: Best Practices | |
Respect is a key ingredient for successfully bringing a new creation to market. In other words, innovation. At the highest level, senior managers should have respect for both the future of the organization and for the people they are responsible for guiding. The senior management team needs to be seen by the troops as having their best interests in mind, and not just pumping up the stock price. If the senior managers are viewed within the company as being self-serving and unconcerned about the long-term success of the firm, the creativity and focus needed across the company will not flourish. On a daily basis, people need to maintain civility and recognize the needs of their coworkers, as well as to maintain a respect for the growth of their organizations. With all the technology available via texting, e-mail, Twitter, and other communication tools, people are splitting their attention into smaller bits of time with increasing complexity of information. Communication (i.e., both understanding and being understood) is very difficult under the best of circumstances, and common respect for one another is the platform humans use to create the trust necessary to enable communication. Respect for the customer is the baseline for building any product or service company. As consumers, we have all purchased products that failed to meet our expectation, or the expectations the vendor has set through their branding efforts. We have all encountered poor service and been frustrated by a supplier’s seeming lack of concern for our needs. To effectively and profitably find and meet the needs of customers, it is vital to remember that the customer or user is a person with complex human needs. Respect for and understanding of these needs is the basis for building a long-term, sustainable innovation competence within any organization. | |
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
SmartBrief on Leadership: How do you respond to failure by Art Petty
original post: http://artpetty.com/2010/01/25/leadership-caffeine-create-success-by-managing-your-response-to-failure/
Leadership Caffeine-Create Success by Managing Your Response to Failure
Filed under: Career, Crisis Leadership, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leadership Skills,Leading in the Trenches, Management Education, Performance, Professional Growth, Talent Management, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
No one wants to fail. It’s not something that we typically seek out as part of our personal and organizational character building experience. However, from a distance, we tend to mythologize failure, especially in the context of achieving future success.- What went wrong?
- What did you learn?
- How can you prevent this from recurring?
- What are your ideas for moving forward?
- How can I help?
SmartBrief on Leadership: Stop hiding in the corner office! Take a Walk-A-Bout: Mike Myatt N2growth
Original Post: http://www.n2growth.com/blog/disconnected-ceo/
The Disconnected CEO
By admin | January 25, 2010
By Mike Myatt
My advice to CEOs, regardless of whether you’re running a start-up or a Fortune 500 company, is to go see things for yourself. I think you’ll find that your view of the world will change dramatically when you rely upon your own observations, as opposed to what you read in a management report, or what you hear third or fourth hand in a meeting. Think about it…when you’re sitting in front of the board, on an analyst call, providing testimony, or speaking at the annual shareholder meeting, wouldn’t it be great to actually know what your talking about as opposed to interpreting what someone else has told you?
So the real question is this…how does a CEO get to the point of being so disconnected from operations that he or she just doesn’t have a clue? The reality is that there are any number of reasons why this can happen, a few of which I’ve noted below:
- The Optimistic CEO: I have met a number of CEOs that simply choose to view the world through rose colored glasses. They will believe what they want to believe regardless of what they hear or what they observe. Even in the worst of times they believe nothing to be insurmountable. While optimism is generally a great quality for a CEO to possess, there is a point at which unbridled optimism can disconnect a person from reality.
- The Arrogant CEO: These CEOs believe they can will their view into reality in spite of circumstances, situations, or events. The arrogant CEO doesn’t value the input of line and staff management. These CEOs see management opinions as inconsequential, unless of course, they happen to be in alignment with their own beliefs and opinions.
- The Unaware CEO: These CEO’s will take any report or piece of information at face value. These CEOs are overly trusting, and often politically naive. They fail to seek clarification, validation, or proof supporting the information they have been fed. This is a very unhealthy state of mind for a CEO hoping to create any degree of tenure.
- The Disconnected CEO: Unlike CEOs who understand how to leverage time and resources via delegation while remaining connected to management and staff, the disconnected CEO does just the opposite. They have reclusive tendencies which cause them to often completely abdicate responsibility and remain disconnected from management by sequestering themselves in the corner office. Sticking one’s head in the sand will not make the circumstances of a particular situation go away, rather that type of thinking will likely on exacerbate the issue.
If you’re a CEO with clouded vision and desire to change the view from the top it is critical that you maintain open lines of communication through a variety of channels and feedback loops. All good leaders maintain a connection and rapport with both line and staff. Furthermore, savvy CEOs are always working to refine their intuitive senses. A good CEO demands accountability and transparency. They challenge everything of consequence. They understand that acceptance of general statements and ambiguity, or blindness to hidden agendas will only contribute to limiting their vision…
If you’re a CEO and you haven’t personally spoken with your top customers, suppliers, vendors and partners, you’re doing yourself and your company a great injustice. If your CFO handles all communications with your banking relationships, and your Chief Investment Officer handles all of your investor relations, you’re flat out missing the boat. If your CMO is making all of your brand decisions there will be h*ll to pay down the road. Moreover, in today’s litigious and compliance oriented world where the CEO is no longer out of reach, it’s just plain smart to take a more hands on approach. Remember that there is a major difference between delegating and abdicating responsibility. I think President Reagan said it best: “trust but verify.”
Let me be very clear…I’m not suggesting that you become a micro manager or that you stop delegating, I’m simply suggesting that you do the job the way it is supposed to be done. Great leaders champion from the front…they are not disengaged invisible executives. As the CEO you are the visionary, influencer, champion, defender, evangelist and you must have a bias to action. You can be none of these things as a recluse…
It’s important to note that the average tenure of a CEO is less than 5 years…if you want to extend your shelf-life or make yourself more marketable for better opportunities be very visible and very active. In addition to leading your organization, pay close attention to managing your reputation and your personal brand both inside and outside the company.
Harvard Business Review: How to ask for help - without looking stupid: Jodi Glickman Brown
How to Ask for Help — Without Looking Stupid
Last week, more evidence emerged in the Securities and Exchange Commission's debacle over the mishandling of theBernie Madoff über-fraud. While the SEC failed repeatedly to uncover the greatest Ponzi scheme in our country's history($50 billion and counting), the New York Times revealed a tale of "unseasoned people uncertain about what to do and unwilling to ask for help."
But learning how to ask for help — and how to do it right — is critical to doing your job well and setting yourself up for success.
You may be afraid of looking dumb, but to be afraid to ask for and get the help you need is inexcusable,especially when the stakes are high. Asking for help in the workplace is a good thing. In fact, asking for help the right way can show how smart you are: it demonstrates that you've got good judgment and shows that you know what you know and what you don't know. Moreover, getting help up front saves endless time, energy and resources on the back end; in the Madoff case, it could have saved billions of dollars and immeasurable heartache.
Of course, it's not just asking for help — it's asking the right way. I recently coached a young man in commercial real-estate who relayed a conversation he had with his boss about starting a new regional initiative for his firm's brokers. Several times he asked, "How should I do this?" or "How should I think about this?" I cringed every time.
Instead, think about the following strategy to get the best answer — and show how smart you are — the next time you ask for help:
- Start your question with what you know. Do your homework first. Get enough background information to put your issue or problem in context. Give the other person an idea of what you've completed to date or what you know already and then proceed to explain what's outstanding, where or how you're struggling, or what you need help with.
In the vast majority of cases, you'll get a lot further in your career by asking the tough, smart questions. Had the SEC junior staffers pressed senior management for more guidance and help, Bernie might have been stopped long ago.
Jodi Glickman Brown is the founder and president of communication consulting firm Great on the Job. She is the author of the forthcoming book Great on the Job, to be published by St. Martin's Press in early 2011.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Harvard Business Review: Zone Out - Idle Brains more likely to come up with new ideas! by Gina Trapani
 | Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Burned Out? Take a Creative Sabbatical" by Gina Trapani. |
@Mashable: Your brain can't handle your facebook friends... it caps out at 150: Stan Schroeder
By: Stan Schroeder
Your Brain Can’t Handle Your Facebook Friends
Even if you have thousands of friends, that number is really meaningless as far as true friendships go, Dunbar told Times Online. He supports this with traffic data. “The interesting thing is that you can have 1,500 friends but when you actually look at traffic on sites, you see people maintain the same inner circle of around 150 people that we observe in the real world,” he said.
This is a well-known concept. The company that produces Gore-Tex fabrics, Gore (as famously explained inMalcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point), keeps its employees divided into small teams because in very large teams the relationship between people start to deteriorate.
The number is a bit different for boys and girls, Dunbar claims, without going into specifics. “There is a big sex difference though … girls are much better at maintaining relationships just by talking to each other. Boys need to do physical stuff together,” he said.
Personally, I keep the number of my Facebook friends very small, around 100 – I friend only the people I know IRL – but I don’t feel that having several hundred friends would be meaningless. After all, when you count in the relatives, business contacts and other acquaintances, I’m sure your social circle can grow well over 150. As far as real friendship goes, well, I’m not sure that Facebook is the best indicator, anyway.
