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The Science of a Happy Startup. E – Engagement (flow, the sense of being lost in an activity) R – [Positive] Relationships (strong connections to others) M – Meaning (impact, a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves) A – Accomplishment (achievement of specific goals) Unlike life satisfaction, these five elements can be measured by a combination of objective (directly measured, externally validated) as well as subjective (self-reported) metrics. So… how can these findings be best applied to build a happy startup?

First, I think the shift amongst the Positive Psychology movement away from its singular focus on life satisfaction to multiple measurable objectives under the construct of well-being is an insightful idea. Interestingly, researchers at Penn have found that the age old adage “money doesn’t buy happiness” turns out to be largely wrong. P – Positive Emotions In some ways, this is the most obvious one. E – Engagement Engagement in this context refers to the sense of flow, of being lost in an activity. The single best change your IT department could make—what is it? In IT, there's reality, and then there's whatever the boss/project lead/stakeholder wants. Today, we're hosting a community discussion about what you, the IT guru, think is the single most powerful change your department could adopt, short of replacing your end users with robots.

We'll be highlighting the best feedback next week, and returning to the topic in a series of reports we have in store for you over the next month or so. Here are the key questions: What are the most productive changes IT departments today can make, based on your experience? What worked best at your company—and how did it help? If you are imagining a bold new direction, what obstacles do you expect? Here's my take. The so-called "consumerization of IT" (as in the Intel example above) stands out as one of the biggest user-facing improvements IT shops can make. For one thing, giving employees what they want prevents them from circumventing IT policy. And the process goes both ways.

Tales from the trenches. The Winners of the Management 2.0 Challenge: How They Are Reinventing Management - Polly LaBarre. How to Evaluate Teamwork in a Business. Edit Article Edited by CBK, Flickety, Zareen, Tvvanavond and 4 others Your business's employees are like a team - if they're willing to work together, rather than against each other, your business is more likely to succeed. Evaluating teamwork your business's teamwork means finding existing problems in communication and workflow and resolving them as quickly as possible. Start evaluating the teamwork of your business's employees today. Ad Steps 1Start with the basics. 12Make changes as required and continue to monitor. Video Tips For a manager, there are two extremes to avoid. Warnings Quite often it is not possible to re-train any team member who feels they are entitled to work as they see fit, regardless of what the customer or other co-workers may feel.

Things You'll Need Notebook or Word document to note down your goals and for comparisonTime set aside for discussion, consultation and review. The Art of Asking Questions - Ron Ashkenas. By Ron Ashkenas | 1:39 PM August 30, 2011 How well do you ask questions? From my experience, most managers don’t think about this issue. After all, you don’t usually find “the ability to ask questions” on any list of managerial competencies; nor is it an explicit part of the curriculum of business schools or executive education programs.

But asking questions effectively is a major underlying part of a manager’s job — which suggests that it might be worth giving this skill a little more focus. We’ve all experienced times when we’ve failed at being good questioners, perhaps without realizing it. For example, not long ago I sat in on a meeting where a project team was reviewing its progress with a senior executive sponsor. During the presentation it was clear from his body language that the executive was uncomfortable with the direction that the team was taking. This is not an isolated incident. First is the ability to ask questions about yourself. 4 Important Considerations for Creating a Remote Work Policy. The Digital Careers Series is supported by Elance, the world’s leading site for online work. Check out Startup Cloud for tips on how to build a remote team.

It's important for employers to put formal policies in place for remote workers so that employees are equipped with clear guidelines, enabling them to focus on the most important thing — doing their jobs. Formal policies also give companies some rules and structure. One expert warns against sacrificing flexibility though, which is all-important when dealing with a remote workforce. "One of the keys to having an effective remote work policy is flexibility.

Because you are not going to have identical situations in remote workers' circumstances, you have to allow for flexibility of time and place," advises Michael D. Haberman, SPHR, VP & director of HR services at Omega HR Solutions. "The policy needs to focus on outcomes and results. 1. A remote work policy should be drafted in addition to a standard employee contract. 2. 3. 4. SEO Tools. Content Strategy: 7 Tips to Make Your Blog Stickier. Shane Snow is co-founder of Contently.com, a marketplace for freelance journalists and brands-turned-publishers. Bounce rates are the bane of a blog's existence. The higher the number, the less engaged the reader (and the more depressed the blogger). A sticky blog means more engaged users. It means more opportunities to turn them into advocates who then share your content. The following seven tips will help you increase the time visitors spend on your blog and the chances they'll return often. 1. Mix Stock and Flow Content According to Noah Brier of Percolate, one key to a sticky blog is having a balance between "stock" and "flow" content.

"Stock" content is the bedrock of a blog. "Flow" content is shorter, curated links and excerpts from related content around the web. This mix between meatier content and quick-hit aggregation helps you to stay top-of-mind with readers, increase your refresh rate and also develop your own reputation. 2. 3. 4. Want people to keep coming back to your blog? 5 Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages for Better Conversions. Google I/O 2010 - SEO site advice from the experts. Google Says Mobile Optimized Sites Will Factor Into Landing Page Quality And Perform Better In AdWords. Google is announcing today that websites that are optimized for mobile will now factor into ad quality.

The company says that last year it began to limit ad serving on smartphone devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content, in order to improve the experience for users. Now the search giant will be considering the mobile optimization of a website as a new factor of mobile ads quality for all AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile traffic. As a result of this change, ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords and drive more traffic. The core guidelines for landing page quality apply across devices (on desktop and on mobile) but this consideration will only affect AdWords on mobile devices. For background, Google’s landing page quality for mobile sites factors in site navigability, simple layout, content prioritization, mobile features, touch features, minimal flash, landing page load time.

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