Little Things Matter: 36 Things To Do In Less than 10 Seconds To Make You A Better Person | Todd Smith

36 Ways to Make a Positive Impression in Less Than 10 Seconds

 Todd Smith

Original Post:  http://www.littlethingsmatter.com/blog/2010/05/03/36-ways-to-make-a-positive-impression-in-less-than-10-seconds/

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of little things we can do to raise the bar in our professional and personal lives. So many of these things are easy to do and can be accomplished in less than 10 seconds. They just require an intentional effort.

What is CRITICAL to understand is that your ultimate success, fulfillment and happiness will come from doing the little things that matter.

As entrepreneur and best selling author Harvey Mackay said, “Little things don’t mean a lot. They mean everything.”

Here is a short list of 36 things you can do in less than 10 seconds that will make you a better person, enhance your self-image and improve the quality of your life.

1.  Make it a point to say the words ”I love you” to the people in your home every single day.
2.  Offer a friendly authentic smile- a great smile radiates warmth, puts people at ease and makes you likable.
3.  Make comfortable eye contact- your eyes send messages; establishing and maintaining eye contact with people demonstrates confidence, respect, and genuine interest.
4.  Use someone’s name – everyone likes to hear and see his or her name.
5.  Acknowledge people- smile and say hi to the people around you.
6.  Express your appreciation- say “thank you” to everyone who does something for you even if they are paid to do it.
7.  Be unselfish and put others first- it could be as simple as holding the door open for someone.
8.  Offer a word of encouragement- sometimes this is all a person needs to build confidence and take the next big step. This is big!
9.  Accept responsibility when you are wrong- it’s the sign of a person with character.
10.  Be friendly- it lifts the attitude of others and is the #1 factor in being likable.
11.  Maintain a positive mental attitude- your attitude is a choice and that choice is 100% within your control.
12.  Be kind and considerate- to people you know as well as strangers.
13.  Be like a dog and be the first to greet people- it helps new people entering the room feel more comfortable and demonstrates your interest in them.
14.  Offer people you meet a warm greeting- this will set the tone for the entire encounter.
15.  Say please- make it a habit to use the word please EVERY TIME you ask someone to do something for you even if they are paid to do it.
16.  Get up and walk into the other room to speak to someone, rather than yelling.
17.  Put the toilet seat down.
18.  Turn your head and cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough.
19.  Improve your body posture- poor posture is an indication of low self-esteem.
20.  Say goodbye- make a good last impression.
21.  Offer a proper handshake- a good, firm handshake demonstrates confidence and makes a good impression.
22.  Give someone a hug- a hug is a sign that you really care for the other person.
23.  Proof your email, text or post- this is an important component of portraying a professional online brand.
24.  Click the LIKE button on someone’s Facebook post- it’s an easy way to demonstrate interest.
25.  Turn off your phone in meetings- even though your phone may not make sounds, your eyes and attention will be diverted from the other people in attendance and your lack of attention demonstrates disrespect.
26.  Repeat your phone number twice when leaving a voicemail- speaking slowly and repeating your phone number will make you stand out.
27.  When scheduling appointments use the other person’s time zone- this avoids misunderstandings or missed opportunities.
28.  Speak with life and energy in your voice- no one likes to be around people who are “dead, dull and lifeless.”
29.  Walk with a bounce in your step- it’s evidence of an energetic attitude that ultimately leads to success.
30.  Turn off the notifications that are bugging those around you.
31.  Write things down- it prevents you from forgetting things that are important.
32.  Say something positive to others about another person- reverse gossip.
33.  Congratulate your opponent- good sportsmanship is evidence of leadership.
34.  Introduce yourself- be proactive and introduce yourself to people whom you have never met.
35.  Look for the good in others and tell them what you see- you have the ability to bring out the best in people, especially when they may not know it themselves.
36.  Hold in that fart- the pain will go away in less than 10 seconds.

As you can see, each of these tips is easy to do. They don’t require any formal education or financial investment. We can begin to incorporate them into our lives this very minute. All we need is to be conscious of them and be willing to take 10 seconds to do them.

Let me encourage you to print out this list and put an asterisk beside the ones you are committed to working on. Track your results and see how you do.

This is just a small sampling of the things we can do in less than 10 seconds to make a positive impression on others. What are some other simple things we can do in less than 10 seconds? I look forward to reading them in the comments section below this post.

About the Author: Todd Smith is a successful entrepreneur of 29 years and founder of Little Things Matter. To receive Todd’s daily lessons, subscribe here.

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Harvard Business Review: Do you diminish your team's work with your managing style?

Managing Yourself: Bringing Out the Best in Your People

by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown | Original Post  http://hbr.org/2010/05/managing-yourself-bringing-out-the-best-in-your-people/ar/1?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-management_tip-_-tip081910&referral=00203&utm_source=newsletter_management_tip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tip081910

Some leaders drain all the intelligence and capability out of their teams. Because they need to be the smartest, most capable person in the room, these managers often shut down the smarts of others, ultimately stifling the flow of ideas. You know these people, because you’ve worked for and with them.

Consider the senior vice president of marketing who, week after week, suggests new targets and campaigns for your team—forcing you to scurry to keep up with her thinking rather than think for yourself and contribute your own ideas. Or, the vice president of product development who, despite having more than 4,000 top-notch software engineers on staff, admits that he listens to only a couple of people at development meetings, claiming “no one else really has anything much to offer.” These leaders—we call them “diminishers”—underutilize people and leave creativity and talent on the table.

At the other extreme are leaders who, as capable as they are, care less about flaunting their own IQs and more about fostering a culture of intelligence in their organizations. Under the leadership of these “multipliers,” employees don’t just feel smarter, they become smarter. One example is K.R. Sridhar, a renowned scientist and the CEO of Bloom Energy, a green-tech firm. Sridhar recruits elite talent but is careful not to cultivate prima donnas, who might dominate the team’s thinking. When one of his star scientists began relentlessly pushing his own ideas, even handing Sridhar an ultimatum, the CEO chose to place his bets on the team, even though his decision might jeopardize the next product launch. After the loss of this seemingly critical player, the rest of the team rallied, quickly learned new technologies, and successfully hit the release date.

Although working for multipliers like Sridhar feels great, these leaders aren’t feel-good types; they have a hard edge. They expect stellar performance from employees and drive individuals to achieve extraordinary results.

How do we know this? Several years ago, we embarked on a study to answer the following questions: What are the differences between leaders who multiply intelligence among their employees and those who diminish it, and what impact do they have on the organization? We interviewed senior professionals in industries in which organizational intelligence is a competitive advantage—for instance, IT, health care, and biotech. We asked them to identify two leaders they’d encountered in their careers: one they felt had diminished their intelligence and capabilities and one who had multiplied them. We then studied more than 150 of those selected leaders in more than 35 companies, spanning four continents. We conducted intensive 360-degree analyses of many of these leaders’ behaviors and practices.

We found several critical differences in mind-set between the two types of leaders. The diminisher’s view of intelligence is based on elitism, scarcity, and stasis: That is, you won’t find high levels of brainpower everywhere, in everyone, and if your employees don’t get it now, they never will. The multiplier’s view, meanwhile, is much less cut-and-dried. This type of manager believes smarts are ever evolving and can be cultivated. The critical question for these leaders is not “Is this person smart?” but rather “In what ways is this person smart?” The job, as the multiplier sees it, is to bring the right people together in an environment that unleashes their best thinking—and then stay out of the way.

Getting the most from your team is important all the time; but when the economy is weak, it’s even more critical. You can’t solve talent problems by throwing money at them, swapping in “better” talent at higher salaries. No doubt your employees are stretched tight, but many of your top performers would probably admit to feeling underutilized. Their workloads may be at capacity, but they’re sitting on a stockpile of untapped—or, even worse, thwarted—ideas, skills, and interests.

So while you may think you can’t ask for more from your people in these tumultuous times, it turns out you can. But only if you are willing to shift the responsibility for thinking from yourself to your employees. Our research suggests you can get much more from your team (even twice as much), without adding resources or overhead, if you lead like a multiplier—something you can achieve no matter where you are on the spectrum of leadership styles.

Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Bringing Out the Best in Your People" by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown.

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FastCompany: Iris Scanners - the EYES have it - will "Little Brothers" allow it? The future is now!

Iris Scanners Create the Most Secure City in the World, Welcome Big Brother

BY AUSTIN CARRToday

Original Post: http://www.fastcompany.com/1683302/iris-scanners-create-the-most-secure-city-in-the-world-welcomes-big-brother?partner=homepage_newsletter

We've all seen and obsessively referenced Minority Report, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's dystopian future, when the public is tracked everywhere they go, from shopping malls to work to mass transit to the privacy of their own homes. The technology is here--I've seen it myself. And it's seen me--and scanned my irises.

Announced today, biometrics R&D firm Global Rainmakers Inc. (GRI) is rolling out its iris scanning technology to create "the most secure city in the world," according to the company. In a partnership with Leon, one of the largest cities in Mexico with a population of more than 1 million, GRI will fill the city with eye-scanners that will help law enforcement--and soon marketers--revolutionize the way we live.

"In the future, whether it's entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris," says Jeff Carter, CDO of Global Rainmakers, who, before coming to GRI, headed a think tank partnership between Bank of America, Harvard, and MIT. "Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected within the next 10 years."

Leon is the first step. To implement the system, the city is creating a database of irises. Criminals will automatically be enrolled, their irises scanned once convicted, while law-abiding citizens will have the option to voluntarily opt-in.

Soon, when residents of Leon catch a train or bus, or take out money from an ATM, they will scan their irises, rather than swiping a bank or metro card. Police officers will monitor these scans, and track the movements of watch-listed individuals. "I'm not sure about violent crime, but fraud, which is a $50 billion problem, will be completely eradicated," explains Carter. "If you've been convicted of a crime, in essence, this will act as a digital scarlet letter. If you're a known shoplifter, for example, you won't be able to go into a store without being flagged. Certainly for others, boarding a plane will be impossible."

GRI's scanning devices are currently shipping to the city, where integration with infrastructure will begin with law enforcement facilities and security check-points, police stations, and detention areas. Phase II will focus more on commercial enterprises, with scanners rolling out to mass transit, medical centers, banks, and many more public and private locations.

The devices range from large-scale scanners like the Hbox, which is featured in the above airport-security prototype and can snap up to 50 people per minute in motion, to smaller scanners like the EyeSwipe and EyeSwipe Mini, which can capture the irises of between 15 to 30 people per minute. 

Last week, I tested these devices at GRI's R&D facilities in New York City. It took less than a second for my irises to be scanned and registered in the company's database. After, every time I went through the scanners--even when running through (everybody runs, right Tom Cruise?)--my eyes were scanned and identified correctly. (You can see me getting scanned on the Hbox in the video below. "Welcome Austin," the robotic voice chimes.)

For such a Big Brother-esque system, why would any law-abiding resident ever volunteer to scan their irises into a public database, and sacrifice their privacy? GRI hopes that the immediate value the system creates will alleviate any concern. "There's a lot of convenience to this--you'll have nothing to carry except your eyes," says Carter. "And it's interesting: When you get masses of people opting-in, opting out does not help. Opting out actually puts more of a flag on you than just being part of the system. We believe everyone will opt-in."

This vision of the future eerily matches Minority Report, and GRI knows it. "Minority Report is one possible outcome," admits Carter. "I don't think that's our company aim, but I think what we're going to see is an enviroment well beyond what you see in that movie."

When I asked what he thought of the film, and whether he realized it was intended as a dystopian view of our privacy's future, Carter pointed out that much of our private life is already tracked by telecoms and banks, if not Facebook. "The banks already know more about what we do in our daily life--they know what we eat, where we go, what we purchase--our deepest secrets," he says. "We're not talking about anything different here--just a system that's good for all of us.

GRI also predicts that iris scanners will help marketers. "Digital signage," for example, could enable advertisers to track behavior and emotion. "In 10 years, you may just have one sensor that is literally able to identify hundreds of people in motion at a distance and determine their geo-location, their intent--you'll be able to see how many eyeballs looked at a billboard," Carter explains. "For the first time you can start to track from the point a person is browsing on Google and finds something they want to purchase, to the point they cross the threshold in a Target or Walmart, and actually make the purchase. You start to see the entire life cycle of marketing."

So will we live the future under iris scanners and constant Big Brother monitoring? According to Carter, eye scanners will soon be so cost-effective--between $50-$100 each--that in the not-too-distant future we'll have "billions and billions of sensors" across the globe.

Goodbye 2010. Hello 1984.

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SmartBrief on Leadership: Unlimited Paid Time Off?! No Strings Attached?!!! Yes Really!!!

Original Post:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129137542

Unlimited Vacation Time Not A Dream For Some

by JENNIFER LUDDEN

August 12, 2010

Rosemary O'Neill's employees weren't sure whether to believe her when she announced a change in vacation policy early this year.

"When I said, 'Unlimited paid leave, no strings attached,' there was a moment of, 'Are you punking us? Is this a joke?' " O'Neill says.

It was not a joke. O'Neill and her husband, Ted, own Social Strata, a small social media outfit in Seattle. Their business has joined a tiny but growing group: For the first time this year, 1 percent of U.S. businesses say they offer unlimited paid vacation.

For the O'Neills, the change started with an effort to help an employee in crisis. Their financial officer was struggling to care for a badly injured husband while also keeping up with her work. The O'Neills talked about letting her take off whatever time she needed. After all, she was a hard worker, and they trusted her. Then, they realized that was the case with all of their 10 employees.

"My husband said, 'Well, why don't we just do it for everybody!' "

That was a Friday. They called a Monday morning meeting, and, as Rosemary puts it, dropped the bombshell. O'Neill says the new policy aims to go far beyond just letting employees spend August on the beach.

"People have lives," she says. "We want them to be able to, I don't know, take a pottery class or go to their child's play or help a relative who's sick."

World at Work, a human resources group, has been polling businesses about benefits practices since 2002. This year, for the first time ever, 1 percent of companies report that they offer unlimited paid leave.

Read The Survey

"Everybody's a doubter, like, 'That can't really be true!' " says Brian Lenz, Social Strata's senior software engineer. He says friends still can't believe he's got it so good.

One of the biggest changes he sees as a result of the policy is that if co-workers are sick now, they're more likely to actually take a sick day, since it no longer cuts into a set chunk of paid time off. Lenz was also grateful for the new policy when he became a father in February.

"I took six weeks off for that," Lenz says. "So that was a real blessing just to be able to have that time with my wife and daughter, that bonding experience."

Why the uptick in unlimited paid leave now? Studies have long shown that — believe it or not — such flexibility actually makes workers more productive and engaged. But Lenny Sanicola, with the human resources group World at Work, which surveys company benefits, suspects something more. Sanicola notes that with all the perks being cut during the recession, vacation time has held its own.

"Perhaps not being able to provide other rewards," he says, "some companies said as long as the work gets done and the productivity that we are looking for is achieved, you don't have to track your time and you can take unlimited leave."

Of course, Sanicola says this is limited to white-collar professionals. He's never heard of it for hourly employees; you can imagine a factory shutting down without a steady stream of workers. In fact, the U.S. is alone in the industrialized world in that millions of mainly low-wage workers have no paid vacation at all.

Some critics worry that in a culture of workaholics, unlimited vacation might really mean no vacation; that without a specified time to be "off" employees might feel pressure to always be "on."

The movie subscription service Netflix has had unlimited leave for a decade.

People have lives. We want them to be able to ... take a pottery class or go to their child's play or help a relative who's sick.

- Rosemary O'Neill, small-business owner

"I personally am enthusiastic about my job," says Steve Swasey, vice president for corporate communications, "and I don't mind checking my BlackBerry when I'm climbing ruins in Guatemala and Honduras, which I've done."

But Swasey says Netflix does not require its workers do that. He calls traditional vacation, in fact the whole 9-to-5 workday, a "relic of the industrial age." Swasey says Netflix values workers who can manage their own time.

"We have engineers who work pretty much around the clock because that's the way they work," Swasey says. "And then they take two months to go visit family in India. We have people who never take a vacation for three years and then take a 90-day trip someplace. But they've earned it."

At Social Strata, vacation season hasn't changed as dramatically as you might imagine. People must still manage time off around deadlines and work that needs to get done. Rosemary O'Neill says no one seems to be taking off much more time than last year. That is, almost no one.

"Well," she says with a laugh, "I took a longer vacation than normal!"

After years of devoting themselves to their business, O'Neill and her husband took their three young children on a monthlong, cross-country road trip. She says she hopes it will inspire employees to set off on their own adventures.

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Denise Austin: Simple Steps for Living Stress Free! (It's Friday - That Is A Start!)

Original Post:  morningstretch@newsletters.deniseaustin.com

Simple Steps

Live Stress-Free!

Had a run-in with your boss or a fight with your sister — and can't stop thinking about it? Are you overloaded with projects at work and errands at home? Our lives are jam-packed with stress — and that can take a toll on our body and health. Long-term uncontrolled stress can cause chronic conditions like high blood pressure, headaches, and ulcers. Stress can also weaken your body's natural defenses so you're likely to get sick more often.

You don't have to live with stress! There are so many simple ways to cut stress and take back control of your life.

• Say no! If you don't have time for or can't realistically accomplish someone's request without straining yourself, do not agree to it. In most cases, people will understand that you need to put yourself first. If you can't say no to your boss, for example, try not to take on more than you know you can handle.
• Set priorities. We don't always have the luxury of saying no to daily tasks, so stay organized by making a list of everything you need to do. Prioritize your list so you can take care of the most vital items first.
• Stay positive! Stress is not inevitable; it's the way your body reacts to the situation you're in, so it's completely controllable. Keep yourself calm by maintaining a positive attitude. It helps to choose an inspiriting mantra that you can repeat to yourself or image that you can visualize.
• Burn off your stress! Go for a brisk walk or bike ride, or lift weights to let off some steam. Exercise causes the body to release endorphins — chemicals that help you feel better — which help reduce your stress level.
• Practice deep breathing. When we get stressed out, our breathing tends to speed up. So take a break and sit somewhere comfortable and quiet to focus on taking deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling slowly. Playing soft music can enhance the calming effect.
• Treat yourself! If you had an unusually stressful day or just finished a big, stressful project, go ahead and reward yourself! Not with food, of course, but with something that will help you relax. How about a pedicure or massage, a long bubble bath, or a great book you can curl up with?
• Reach out to others. We can't do it all alone, so don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. A co-worker or supervisor may be able to shed light on a work problem, while your spouse or kids can pitch in to help with household stresses. Even if you must take care of some task or problem yourself, it still helps to talk it over with a friend.

There's no reason to be bogged down by stress for another day. There are seven stress-busting strategies here — put one of them to work every day in the coming week!

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Harvard Business Review Daily Stat: How many homes are now CELL only phones?

Original Post:  http://www.dailymarkets.com/economy/2010/05/12/cell-phone-only-use-hits-new-high-of-245-in-us/

A Quarter of U.S. Households Are Cell-Only

24.5% of U.S. households are cellphone-only, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 1.8 percentage points, according to the National Health Interview Survey. Young people, renters, roommates, and lower-income individuals are the most likely to be cell-only users.

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