The One Conversational Tool That Will Make You Better At Absolutely Everything Ask yourself: If you could interview like Walter Cronkite, would you get more value from your meetings? Would your mentors become more valuable? Would your chance encounters with executives in elevators and thought leaders in conferences yield action items and relationships? The answer is yes. “As someone who had little to no experience in business--outside of running my own one-man freelancing operation--all that's really saved me (so far) from madness are the skills I used as a journalist,” says Evan Ratliff, who wrote for magazines like The New Yorker before founding his startup, The Atavist. Good questions can move your business, organization, or career forward. The problem is, most of us ask terrible questions. But we don’t have to. The following advice can make you a much better interrogator, not to mention conversationalist: Don’t Ask Multiple-Choice Questions When people are nervous, they tend to ramble, and their questions tend to trail off into series of possible answers.
The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - Greg McKeown by Greg McKeown | 10:00 AM August 8, 2012 Why don’t successful people and organizations automatically become very successful? One important explanation is due to what I call “the clarity paradox,” which can be summed up in four predictable phases: Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it leads to success. Phase 2: When we have success, it leads to more options and opportunities. Curiously, and overstating the point in order to make it, success is a catalyst for failure. We can see this in companies that were once darlings of Wall Street, but later collapsed. Here’s a more personal example: For years, Enric Sala was a professor at the prestigious Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. What can we do to avoid the clarity paradox and continue our upward momentum? First, use more extreme criteria. By applying tougher criteria we can tap into our brain’s sophisticated search engine. Second, ask “What is essential?” Conducting a life audit.
The Perfect Job Interview in 8 Simple Steps The No. 1 Way to Get Hired Today Does it seem like the resumés you submit online vanish into a black hole? You’re not alone. Most job seekers applying for jobs online never get so much as an email in return. So how exactly are people snagging offers? Well, I’ll let you in on a secret: The people who land positions these days increasingly get them through personal referrals from friends who work for employers with job openings. A 2012 Federal Reserve Bank of New York study found that referred candidates were twice as likely to get interviews and 40 percent more likely to be hired than other candidates. (MORE: The Perfect Elevator Pitch to Land a Job) So if you’re not doing all you can to get a referral, you’re not looking for work effectively. Referrals Are More Important Than Ever Employee referrals have been part of the hiring process for years. Workers at accounting giant Ernst & Young, for example, have been responsible for 45 percent of non-entry-level placements, up from 28 percent in 2010, the article said. 1. 2.
Favorites of 2012: On being wrong about business talks Business talks are boring. Among all the things I was certain of when I started writing for TED, that one was near the top of the list, just under ‘ice is cold’ and ‘brains are gooey.’ I worked as a physicist for a few years before switching over to writing (with a short jaunt in between in comedy), so just never cared much for business. My time as a scientist was spent doing research, talking to people about research, lecturing about research, annoying family members by going on and on about research and, very occasionally, sleeping. My time as a writer is spent doing the dishes as a way of procrastinating. Neither lends itself to thinking about the problems of organizing a corporation, crafting an advertising message or thinking about work/life balance. At TED, I was hired to write about the science talks, and it was wonderful. As I watched more talks, though, one theme started to emerge that I fell in love with — the idea of being wrong.
New Years Resolutions For Business The New Year is a propitious time for businesses to re-prioritize their objectives and start afresh with renewed vigor and a clear mission. Setting – and following through on – thoughtful and apposite resolutions is an effective way to maximize results and impact for your company. In my estimation 2013 will be a year marked by continued economic volatility (through headline risk, inflationary monetary policy, and an ambivalent unemployment rate), the emergence of the micropreneur, increased attention on ROI (return on investment) in social media, and philanthropy as a potent form of marketing. The businesses that win in the New Year will be those that iterate incessantly to define their own innovation curve, that establish strong and unambiguous company cultures, and those that use their data points effectively to minimize wasteful spending and increase their ROIC (return on invested capital.) 1) Iterate – This will be the buzz word of the year.
SnapNFind Indiegogo Project Losing things stinks and there are few gadgets that actually allow you to use your iPhone to recover something you've lost. That's why we we're excited to run across the StickNFind on crowdsourcing site Indiegogo. The StickNFind works by placing a small Bluetooth sticker onto a remote, pet's collar, or even your child's backpack. You can then use your iPhone or Android device to locate the item, causing it to vibrate and light up. The receiver is about the size of a quarter and pretty thin: StickNFind's app is pretty robust. The company seems to be onto something, they've got years of experience with Bluetooth technology and have already raised $300,000 with 29 days to go. To support the company check out their indiegogo page. Here's a pic of the StickNFind app in action: Don't Miss: REVIEW: A Must-Have iPhone Camera Accessory, The Olloclip >
Five top tips to starting a successful business When Networking Isn't Working for Your Job Search Career experts often say that if you’re looking for work, you need to network. (Next Avenue just declared getting a job referral is the No. 1 way to get hired today.) But what if you’ve tried networking — going to industry events, chatting up attendees, following up with LinkedIn invitations — and you’re not getting any nibbles? My advice: Don’t give up. (MORE: How to Make the Most of LinkedIn Endorsements) 4 Ways to Network Strategically Here are four ways to network more effectively: 1. Broadening the types of people you network with will yield more potential job prospects. An easy way to diversify your network is by joining one non-professional group that interests you. By forming relationships with individuals in other fields and social circles, you’ll increase the odds of coming across fresh information that could boost your job search. Keep in mind that everyone has a network. (MORE: 6 Fatal Mistakes Job Seekers Make) 2. Social media offers many easy opportunities to add value.
7 Qualities Of Uber-Productive People Some people get more done than others--a lot more. Sure, they work hard. And they work smart. But they possess other qualities that make a major impact on their performance. They do the work in spite of disapproval or ridicule. Work too hard, strive too hard, appear to be too ambitious, try to stand out from the crowd. Pleasing the (average-performing) crowd is something remarkably productive people don't worry about. They hear the criticism, they take the potshots, they endure the laughter or derision or even hostility--and they keep on measuring themselves and their efforts by their own standards. And, in the process, they achieve what they want to achieve. They see fear the same way other people view lunch. One of my clients is an outstanding--and outstandingly successful--comic. Yet he still has panic attacks before he walks onstage. He's still scared. Anyone hoping to achieve great things gets nervous. They can still do their best on their worst day. Most people wait for an idea.
The One Conversational Tool That Will Make You Better at Absolutely Everything Hi 1) @LoneTruth look for 1) 2) @tearsana look for 2) 3) @TheRab and @Truefire guess (did you not see ChillyPepperz reply?) (Ex 1: please see further below. Ex 2: (*One* = maybe not, and **Two** = bad) 1) What *do you think* of this website's **terrible** commenting system? (Answers might be: "It's not that bad") 2) *Why* does lifehacker's commenting system **suck** so much? 3) WHO **is to blame** for LH commenting system being so **bad**? 1) .... whereas those that begin with "would," "should," "is," "are," and *"do you think"* can limit your answers. 1) Good: *Do you like* Spotify's new discovery feature? (Only good, if you want answers like "yes" or "no" and the same goes for the "bad" sentence below) Bad: What *do you think* of Spotify's **terrible** new discovery feature? I believe following Ex of Qs are more in sync with the article: Ex 2a (For short Web Qs) "Great site and article! Q1: Can you advise me - How do I make sure to see all the replies? Ex 2b (Direct dialog) (Ex 1: (OPTIONAL) Final Q:
19 Brilliant Business Lessons From Moneyball Jobs you may be interested in: Pharmacist - tortoise789 - Gmail