Business

5 Mentors Every Entrepreneur Should Have. Image credit: Star Wars Editor's note: A version of this column previously appeared at JoannaLord.com.

Apple Takes Cue From Google, Encourages Employees to Work on Pet Projects [REPORT] Apple has launched an initiative called "Blue Sky," which encourages employees to devote some of their time to personal pet projects.

Not much is known about the program except that it allows a "small group of staffers" to spend "a few weeks" on their pet engineering projects, the Wall Street Journal reports. Apple's Blue Sky is similar to Google's "20% Time" policy, which lets employees spend a fifth of their time working on personal projects. Google, however, is a very different company from Apple; the latter is known for being focused and tightly organized, with upper management controlling all important projects. 6 Exercises To Strengthen Compassionate Leadership. Disney has been known for its litigious nature in the past, going so far as to change copyright law in order to keep Mickey Mouse out of public domain. The Lost Art of Encouragement. We’ve all heard of American literary great Walt Whitman.

But did you know that Whitman struggled through years of obscurity to get anyone interested in his poetry? One day, in the midst of crippling discouragement, Whitman received a life-changing letter from an admirer of his work. The note read: “Dear sir, I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass. The Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Leadership Style. There are many leadership styles and a cottage industry has cropped up around defining them.

Gayle Lantz, president of WorkMatters, Inc., a human resources consulting firm in Birmingham, Ala., uses the popular DISC assessment tool to as part of her practice to identify leadership styles. DISC, an acronym for dominance, influencing, steadiness, and compliance, uses a series of questions each with four answers. Cultivating Workplace Culture. Workplace culture is a hard thing to get right.

It’s a moving target that means something different to everyone. It grows and evolves over time and is the result of action and reaction. Mismanagement and Bad Communication. Most of you know that I lead a team of AMAZING people at SHIFT Digital.

They are some of the most talented, creative, and intelligent people in our industry. I tell them often: “I would put you up against any other creative agency out there!” And it is true, I would, but that is for another day. What you may not know is that my background is in the “Not For Profit” world. I got into marketing there and saw success helping many of the organizations I worked with use “social media” to build brand awareness. 5 Maneuvers The Tech Biz Should Steal From The Fashion Industry.

Let’s face it.

Technology is fashion. We don’t update our operating systems to get tighter Twitter integration, or buy a new phone for the opportunity to display four more icons. We update them because the new one makes our present one look a bit, well, last season. Why Your Company Needs A Chief Collaboration Officer. Collaboration.

It’s a $1 billion industry, according to an ABI Research study on worker mobility and enterprise social collaboration. And it's projected to grow to $3.5 billion by 2016. No wonder lots of ink has been spilled on this business buzzword on everything from how to start (hint: build trust) to doing it better with social platforms, to using it as a way to achieve that holy grail of business: innovation. Two years ago, the Harvard Business Review even touted the need for another C-suite executive: the CCO. A chief collaboration officer would be charged with integrating the enterprise as companies scramble to innovate from within. Why Employees' Big Dreams Should Be Your Company's Top Priority. As a manager, you can create a tremendous amount of loyalty just by listening to your employees.

And loyalty matters--a lot. When Kelley Lindberg became a manager at a software company several years ago, she inherited some employees who were confused about where they were headed. She sat down with the project managers individually to learn more about their job questions, career goals, and ideas. Free Infographic: How to Solve Online Registration Challenges. How often have you become frustrated filling out online registration forms?

There is a better way. Janrain has compiled data on some of the most challenging aspects of online registration forms and simple solutions to improve the user experience…and conversion rates. Click here to download the full infographic [PDF]. Why Your Company Needs A Full-Time, Idea-Killing Chief Dissent Officer. Big companies get a bad rap. We think of them as creativity-killing machines that constantly crush the world-changing ideas of their hardworking employees. To Achieve Your Goals, Learn How To Hack Your Brain. During the Major League Baseball playoffs over the next few weeks, you’ll likely hear a comment about a pitcher having a bad outing. Bikes Aren't Just Good For You, They're Good For The Economy, Too. By now, we all know that cycling is good for health, fitness, cutting road accidents, reducing carbon emissions, and increasing energy security (and so on, and on).

But what about biking’s economic impact--its cyclonomics, if you will? This graphic, from the League of American Bicyclists, highlights studies from across the country showing the positive benefits. You can see, for example, that bike recreation and tourism contributes an estimated $924 million a year to Wisconsin, plus $409 million in health benefits. Or that biking generates $400 million for Iowa, according to the University of Northern Iowa, and the Iowa Bicycle Coalition. Or that bike tourism brings in $60 million for North Carolina’s Outer Banks area. The League put the map together to publicize a recent report by its policy director Darren Flusche. How To Manage Thinkers, And Feelers, Effectively. Being Funny Can Get You A Raise. Instapaper. 3 Ways to Amplify Small-Business Marketing with Crowdsourcing.

Twitter Launches Self-Serve Advertising for Small Businesses. Twitter announced on Tuesday that a select group of small business can begin using its self-serve advertising platform to create promoted tweets and promoted accounts. All of the companies with initial access to these promoted products will be American Express merchants and cardmembers. The credit card company partnered with Twitter to launch the new platform, offering early access to its customers and a $100 credit for free advertising to the first 10,000 businesses to sign up. American Express will notify the first batch of small business who have access to the platform starting Tuesday, and the number of eligible businesses will increase throughout the next weeks. Three Secrets to Using Google Analytics for Measuring Your Website's ROI. Google Analytics can provide a wealth of information about your website's usage and traffic. The Creators Of "Workaholics" On Keeping The Stupid And Weird In Your Creative Process.

Apple v. Samsung: Why the Future of Ideas Is at Stake. 6 Obstacles of an Internal Community Manager. The primary role of an Internal Community Manager is to establish and maintain an environment where employees participate fully, becoming actively engaged in contributing and reaping the benefits of collaborating within the online community. How to Host a Google+ Hangout on Air. Social Media Requires a Cross-Functional Team.

Social Media Is Now a $16.9 Billion Business. Global revenues from social media are projected to hit $16.9 billion in 2012, a 43.1% jump over the previous year, according to Gartner. The State of Women-Owned Businesses [INFOGRAPHIC]