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Hints on How to Lose the Fear of Public Speaking

Public speaking is a gift when it’s done correctly but you may need a few tips to achieve it.

Why are people so afraid to get up in front of an audience and give a speech?

Basically, people are afraid of being humiliated in front of others. Some may have negative experiences in the past, such as having been laughed at by the other kids in school when in front of the class. But, for most people, it’s the generalized fear that they are going to get up on stage and tank; that people won’t like them.

Now, many of the above are quite normal reactions. In fact, some experts say a mild level of anxiety is good before you give a speech as it gives you a burst of energy, resulting in a more dynamic presentation. But, if the fear of public speaking is such that it is keeping you from advancing in your career, or keeping you away from certain social situations, then it’s time for you to act.

The fear of public speaking can manifest itself in many ways:

You get “butterflies” in your stomach.
Your palms sweat.
Your hands shake.
Your knees also shake and you feel as if your legs are about to collapse.
Your heart beats much faster than normal.
You experience a “fainting” feeling.
You have panicky thoughts.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Most people don’t want to hear this, but the best way to conquer a fear of public speaking is practice, practice, practice. Facing any fear head on allows us to control it, rather than let it control us. Our over-reactions to our fears is really our brains trying to protect us from what it perceives as a threatening situation. Feeling faint is a good way to keep us off a stage, saving us from
the threat of humiliation. But, the more we experience the “threatening” situation without the harm (humiliation), the more we’re able to extinguish that fear.

A good way to begin feeling comfortable presenting publicly is to start small. Start sharing stories with friends and co-workers. This could be something you read about in the news, or something you did over the weekend. The point is to practice speaking in front of others, and feeling successful at it.

If you have no problem speaking socially in front of friends, but shake at the thought of getting behind a podium and speaking in front of strangers, then practicing behind a podium is what you must do. Lucky for you there exists speaking clubs such as Toastmaster’s International, which meet weekly in cities all over the world. For a nominal fee, you can join a club in your area and practice speaking in public, as well as hearing speeches on a weekly basis. You will also receive feedback on your weaknesses as well as your strengths. You’ll probably be surprised to find out that you’re better than you thought you were.

But I’m too Afraid to Practice Public Speaking

For those whose anxiety level or social phobia is so great that they’re having extreme trouble getting into the practice phase, there is some hope for you as well. Psychotherapy as well as hypnosis has been used by people who need to learn ways of coping with fear of public speaking. With hypnosis, you can help desensitize yourself to your fear, as well as visualize success speaking before an audience. Hypnosis is also helpful with managing anxiety.

For extreme anxiety, there are also medications such as beta blockers which can provide some temporary relief; enough to possibly help you gain a positive speaking experience. If that don’t help imagien yourself play the scary maze game or what the Brady Bunch taught us about imagining your audience.

The point is, you don’t have to allow your fear to rule your life. For some, the ability to give a speech in public can mean closing a sale, getting a promotion, or charting a new career path. It would be a shame, with all the resources now available to help you conquer your fear, to allow that fear to win.

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Be an Excellent Leader. Learn How to Build Leadership Messaging

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Exceptional leaders build the content of their messaging to present it in a more compelling manner.

They recognize that in order to Build Leadership Messaging a follower comprehension of their direction develops in stages. Build your message with information that moves from the simple and familiar to the more complex and less familiar.

For example, saying ‘‘We need to improve our website to make it more user-friendly’’ defines a leader’s direction in simple and familiar terms. The leader would then go into a more complex description of how and why this improvement is possible and necessary and would identify less familiar components, such as a new software package and how to use it, that are vital for achieving the end result the leader wants.

leadership messaging Think through the content of your leadership direction. Identify the most simple and familiar words and phrases that describe the purpose or bottom-line outcome of your course of action. Present evidence and examples to flesh out the more complex and less familiar territory you want people to accept. Build from simple and familiar to establish points of agreement. Recall that willing followers must be committed, not simply convinced.

Agreement points give followers time to warm up to your viewpoint. Simple-familiar to complex-unfamiliar also works because it explains how people learn. That is, comprehension comes by building on what people already know and accept. Build your message by repeating key refrains. Recall how the repetition of ‘‘I have a dream,’’ in Martin Luther King’s famous March on Washington speech, catalyzed the crowd.

Remember Ronald Reagan’s effective use of ‘‘There you go again’’ when debating Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential race. Jesse Jackson used the word ‘‘rocks’’ each time he offered another statistic about how many people did not vote in the 1980 election.

Develop a number of phrases and sentences to use as answers to questions such as: What is special about my direction? What do people get as a result of following my lead? Repeat the phrases you develop to reinforce your message. Use contrasting phrases to build your message.

John F. Kennedy brilliantly applied this method with statements such as, ‘‘We shall never negotiate out of fear, and we shall never fear to negotiate.’’ Franklin Roosevelt’s ‘‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’’ also demonstrates this skill. Consider the enhanced impact of the statement, ‘‘We need to improve our website to make it more user-friendly,’’ when it becomes ‘‘Webfriendly sites make friendly web customers.’’

Use a timeline to build your message.

Consider John F. Kennedy’s speech at the BerlinWall in 1963. He drew a timeline from the past to the present and into the future. He told the crowd that in the days of the Roman Empire, the ‘‘proudest boast’’ one could make was to be from Rome. He then told them how they, the citizens of Berlin, could proudly today stand as the pioneers in the fight against communism. In the future, he argued, history would look back on those in the audience as the defenders of freedom who outlasted Communist oppression.

Create a bridge of personal connection between yourself and followers. Kennedy used this technique in Berlin also. He said, ‘‘All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin.

So as a free man, I take pride in the words, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’ ’’ Kennedy conveyed that he was a man of Berlin, just like them. Recognize that the order in which people are given information determines how they think. Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster, first uncovered this fact while working for Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential campaign.

Luntz conducted a Detroit focus group test of three Perot television ads. Perot was unstoppably popular at that time; however, the focus group members indicated they did not like him. Luntz learned this by accident. He intended to show ads of a Perot biography, a Perot speech, and testimonials from other people about Perot. He inadvertently ran the ads in the reverse order: testimonials, speech, biography.

The focus group saw Perot’s opinions as extreme when his ideas were not presented with the biography first, which outlined his impressive rags-to-riches life story. Luntz’s findings8 indicate that if your message produces a strong opinion, no subsequent information will get people to change their minds.

Build your message to ensure you first stake out the key factor you want to resonate in the followers’ minds. You can also build your message by using the fact that people remember the beginning and the end of a message. The middle gets muddled for most people. Build your message with several beginnings and endings. Chunk your message into parts. Start and end each part in a definitive manner.

Phrases such as ‘‘Let me make another important point’’ signal to the listener that something new is coming.

Conclude by saying, ‘‘This is an important issue.’’ The best leaders also build their message with emotion. They pull emotional levers that influence followers. They know people need more than the simple logic. Your course of action may meet important business needs such as increased profits, improved service, or reduced turnover, but you need to add the emotional hook to influence others. Instead of only putting more profits in front of followers, present your idea by adding, ‘‘We will be the company Wall Street cries to own.’’

In addition to stating that your direction improves customer service, add, ‘‘We are going to serve people in ways that cause them to love us!’’ Present the ‘‘feeling’’ your direction provides. Add the element of intense passion. Demonstrate a level of oratory excellence and inspired rhetoric to take your message far above the nonspecific, bland, and sometimes unintelligible comments given by many about their vision or where they stand on certain issues.

Address key emotional forces that speak to how people want to be treated at work. People want to feel that they are in on things and fully appreciated for their work participation and results, and they like sympathy for personal problems. These factors represent ‘‘soft’’ incentives that influence action.

Demonstrate how following your lead will meet these needs. Translate your direction into an emotional appeal that strikes that inner chord followers frequently seek. Vary your message between feelings and the cold facts. ‘‘This course of action will reduce 99.99 percent of accidents’’ makes a solid case.

Consider the additional genuine emotion reflected in the statement, ‘‘We will all sleep much better at night knowing we work in a safe environment.’’ Facts provide information that people logically analyze before they follow. Emotion provides the internal interpretation people use to get comfortable with a course of action.

How to Build Leadership Influence Skills

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The capacity to gain willing followers at any moment in time often depends on Leadership Influence Skills. Followers will attach to those who have an established base of credibility and power.

In 2000, Jeffrey Immlet landed the CEO position at General Electric because of his success as head of GE Medical Systems. In contrast, Jill Barad, the feisty former CEO of Mattel Inc., lost the support of many by making ambitious promises for growth and then failing to deliver. Followers commit to those already close to them and with whom they have an established alliance.

Recall the Leadership Influence Skill comment by Rudy, one of the summer 2000 participants in the television show Survivor, during the final vote. He supported Richard “because we had an alliance, and I am going to honor it.”

Building Leadership Skills Followers also offer their support to those who have supported them. Groups of voters, such as a union, commit in blocks to candidates who have demonstrated concern for their particular needs. Exceptional leadership influencers build their commitment base with every action they take.

Followers observe the leader’s model and use it to gauge their return commitment of support. The head of a large hospital spent several hours each week walking through the hallways, talking to staff, and meeting patients.

He learned each of the 1,400 staff members’ names and would give them a personal hello when he saw them. He would take the time to sit with nurses and support service personnel to encourage them to work together more effectively.

The hospital president did not have to ask twice when he called on hospital personnel to dedicate themselves to improve customer relations or improve processes that affected patient care. Those who skillfully establish a firm base of commitment are perceived as natural born leaders.

Create the conditions necessary to gain commitment.
Enhance your credibility as a leader.
Position yourself to have more influence.
Maximize your flexibility and responsiveness to followers.

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Top Merchant Account Payment Processing Systems For Your Website

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Researching a topic can be frustrating sometimes. You search the web for information only to find much of it not exactly related to the topic you are searching for. This has prompted our experts to help provide better information for people like you. This article will try to help you by providing information that you can actually use.

Let’s be honest. Profit is what Business is all about. And profit can be derived from the payments we secure from our customers. How then do we boost the receipt of payments? An efficient payment processing system should provide the answer. Payment processing is what converts sales into realized profits. Without payment processing, your business could not collect payments, and thus will most likely fail. Without efficient payment processing, your business would needlessly suffer. It’s better than a Paypal debit card. Continue reading →

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Can ITIL and SaaS Exist Well In The Same Environment?

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Follow ITIL best practices and your SaaS implementation soars

Open skies policies have broadened the competitive landscape and consumer choices for air travel. Similarly, the Software as a Service (SaaS) model of delivering applications increases competition among software suppliers by giving business customers more options.
With the increasing availability of on-demand technologies, local managers within a company can very quickly and directly get applications delivered through SaaS. But with its vast knowledge base, IT should be involved to make sure that customers get the best possible service.

The flexibility of SaaS works if participants have rules to play by. Many IT organizations already have adopted best-practice processes, such as those defined in the ITIL V3 Training, to manage the IT services they provide. Now those processes can provide some rules and control for managing SaaS. But with new approaches like job scheduling software, come misconceptions about technologies and best practices. The sections that follow will dispel some common misconceptions about combining SaaS and ITIL.

Misconception 1: ITIL is old school. SaaS is modern.

They’re incompatible. During the last 20 years, SaaS has revolutionized some businesses. SaaS is more sophisticated now, but it isn’t that much younger than ITIL. As today’s SaaS becomes more widely used, the ITIL processes still apply. However, organizations must apply them a bit differently. To manage SaaS, the IT organization needs feedback from those using SaaS applications. In the past, IT provided the technology for the customers’ use, and IT recorded details about every incident, who
called to report it, when they called, and what they did. With SaaS, IT doesn’t always know the details. Now, business managers can easily opt for their own SaaS solutions, but IT still needs to be involved in supporting, integrating, and managing those solutions. Take, for example, a SaaS consumer who repeatedly encounters a problem when using a sales force automation tool that integrates with internal systems. Each incident will be logged, and the root cause can be identified and eliminated using problem management and workload automation practices. However, if these incidents are logged by the SaaS supplier, the IT organization will not be able to perform proactive problem management itself unless the SaaS supplier collects the correct data and makes that data available.
All the basic tenets of IT service management and ITIL still exist today with SaaS, but the form of communication with the supplier is different. The compatibility of information between SaaS suppliers and consumers must be absolutely precise, so that both sides know what the other is doing. If both the IT organization and the SaaS supplier are using ITIL terminology and processes, then both All the basic tenets of IT service management and ITIL still exist today with SaaS.

As today’s SaaS becomes more widely used, the ITIL processes still apply. However, organizations must apply them a bit differently. To manage SaaS, the IT organization needs feedback from those using SaaS applications. In the past, IT provided the
technology for the customers’ use, and IT recorded details about every incident, who called to report it, when they called, and what they did. With SaaS, IT doesn’t always know the details. Now, business managers can easily opt for their own SaaS solutions, but IT still needs to be involved in supporting, integrating, and managing those solutions. Take, for example, a SaaS consumer who repeatedly encounters a problem when using a sales force automation tool that integrates with internal systems. Each incident will be logged, and the root cause can be identified and eliminated using problem management. However, if these incidents are logged by the SaaS supplier, the IT organization will not be able to perform proactive problem management itself unless the SaaS supplier collects the correct data and makes that data available.

Conclusion: SaaS and ITIL are compatible. They go together like James Bond and fast cars.

Misconception 2: ITIL doesn’t matter with SaaS.

Organizations that have spent years establishing ITIL processes and getting ITIL certifications probably will want to use a SaaS solution that is also ITIL focused. In particular, if you are buying a service management SaaS product, ITIL certification shows commitment to the industry and commitment to the product. ITIL-compatible products are more likely to be adaptable with other products that you might use to support internal service management. For a service management tool, look for a solution with built-in ITIL-based best practices and an embedded cross-function process model.

If the SaaS supplier is providing another type of business tool, then be sure that the supplier is prepared to work with you even if the tool and supplier are not ITIL focused. When putting together a service portfolio, clearly describe the services and
the rules that must be followed. Even if the SaaS supplier is not ITIL focused, your IT organization should be. Follow good
ITIL processes; you’ll still need to implement changes and adhere to processes, and you’ll need to make sure you impose the right
regulations from your end.

Conclusion: Just as it is critical for an airplane pilot to complete a checklist before takeoff, following ITIL processes is critical to success with SaaS.

Misconception 3: SaaS should not affect how you manage ITIL processes.

It’s tempting to think that if you use SaaS, you will not need to adjust how you manage ITIL processes. But you do. For example, with SaaS, who will be in charge of the ITIL process of change management? If the SaaS supplier must make a change, how does the
customer get involved in change management? In those circumstances, you can’t have the same kind of change advisory board (CAB) that ITIL recommends. When incidents, problems, and changes occur to a SaaS application, IT needs to know that the SaaS supplier will resolve problems and implement changes. Ask the supplier questions such as: How do you manage your changes? How do I know your changes are going to be successful? What’s the process if the change fails? How will you notify us of proposed changes? How do you manage incidents?

The answers to these questions will differentiate SaaS suppliers. If SaaS suppliers don’t have good service management processes
behind their applications, then this is cause for concern. Clear lines of responsibility and stringent controls will help you know exactly what is happening and where. Bottom line: IT is no longer the owner of changes. So, in addition to rethinking the way it handles change management with a SaaS supplier, IT might include something about change management in the service contract.

Conclusion: Clarify how SaaS suppliers follow ITIL processes and how their own processes integrate with yours. You may also need to evaluate your processes to ensure they are effective in a SaaS environment.

Misconception 4: ITIL gets in the way of SaaS agility.

The on-demand nature of SaaS can offer tremendous agility to IT organizations and business users, and they may not want to stifle that agility with processes such as those in ITIL. But agility without discipline is dangerous. If you make changes too quickly, without considering the ramifications to your strategy, design, and operations, you might inadvertently create tremendous problems that affect service availability. You can compare ITIL processes to the high performance brakes on a sports car; those brakes give you the confidence to be more agile and take a turn at a faster speed. In many cases, having established processes will actually streamline the accomplishment of your goals. ITIL brings the discipline. It will tell you where to set your parameters, how to manage those parameters, and so on. It’s about having the right agility in the right place. Controlling the agility in all directions is important. IT professionals know that doing things quickly without proper planning and without proper notification is a road to disaster.

Conclusion: Following ITIL best practices actually will increase agility.

A framework for flexibility SaaS offers IT organizations and business users more choices and greater flexibility when selecting applications, but agility without discipline can be a problem. And unless your organization uses SaaS exclusively, you will need to integrate old and new IT solutions. The ITIL processes you already use for managing your IT systems can provide some rules and control for also managing SaaS. Follow ITIL best practices and watch your SaaS implementation soar.

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How I Improve Microsoft SharePoint Performance

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[pullquote]I receive lots of comments and questions about performance recommendations for Microsoft SharePoint on a regular basis.[/pullquote]

I could be approached at conferences or even get asked for my advice in everyday conversations in the hallways or on the streets. In light of all the inquiries I have received thus far I decided to compile an short, easy to read list of recommendations for increasing performance for SharePoint that can be verbally related in as little as five minutes.

SharePoint Governance

Decrease how many content database and site collections you use. I prefer the “accounting model” of managing databases over the “airline booking model.” If you know what the allowable maximum quota of site collections is, which is 5GB, and wish to contain your current databases at 100GB, you cannot host any more than 20 site collections on a single database. This can result in a significant amount of content databases, although avoid any huge increases in site collection.

When using this model, take into consideration the amount of growth your account will receive and put 5% to 10% aside for the support of changes in schema among other things. Keep your databases at a realistic size and the original size it was designed for. Microsoft SharePoint technologies and products will stipulate the content database at a certain number of MB and will be able to automatically provide account growth in 1MB increments. Having a miniscule number of site collections in a single content database will increase operations efficiency and can alleviate exposure to computer and database locking that may occur; this can happen to a smaller amount of users within the database more so than a larger population.

SharePoint Caching and Compression

Encourage BLOB caching, HTTP compression, and site output caching as deemed appropriate. When using an HTTP compression, you must monitor closely the processor utilization.

Windows Server 2008

Everyone should consider upgrading to Windows Server 2008. The newest generation in IP/TCP stacks can bring many benefits to enhance performance for the following functions: compound TCP, system recover, receiving window auto-tuning, and improving routing paths. One extremely informative resource available, “Enhanced Network Performance with Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008” is a must have. Microsoft is constantly producing new data and results about their Windows SharePoint technology and products. Make sure you check in with Microsoft to obtain all the latest information on a regular basis.

SharePoint 64-bit

The benefits of the 64-bit are abundant, although consider larger IP address space and larger chunks of data processing to make this effective. Actively consider sending garbage to 64-bit machines as many external factors can clog up IP address space with permanent memory portions; most systems automatically have a managed memory although you may still face situations where there is a delay in your web server response until the one thing or many things causing the delay can be moved to the memory.
In addition to this, consider monitoring loading performance, .NET CLR exceptions, and memory which will force you to consistently manage the collection activity of garbage files; these files can then be eaten up through scheduling a recycling function to run or programming garbage collection recycling when it has reached a certain point. The latter requires that you configure a random memory inception as well as requiring you to fully understand the requirements of your Web server; some of those requirements include hardware, loading of software, and residential services. Following this method is perfect as it will automatically maximize memory availability; at the same time this ensures that your servers for the Web continue to respond effectively and efficiently. This process also justifies any issues related to availability that may come into play. This may result in frequent recycling when designating or configuring an inception.

SharePoint and Wide Area Networks

When managing traffic that is generated by a remote office or satellite, consider accelerating WAN to assist in data replications. To accommodate large files being uploaded on a consistent basis by remote users using slower computer applications, adjust the settings on you IIS timeout program.

SharePoint Storage Design and Database Architecture

Other potential holdups that can affect performance are poor database architecture and the design of your store applications. Consider database distribution and, along with any hidden storage, provide as many linkages you can to data LUN’s. The database distribution is where database clustering is distributed between two or more situations.

SharePoint Authentication

Reduce the number of repeated visits you make to websites and take into consideration Kerberos authentication when available. If at all possible, avoid NTLM applications for authentication purposes.

Shout out to Steve and his history of SharePoint post through shirts

How to Find That $100k Job

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Looking for a new job and want to make $100,000? You got to get past the recruiter and phone screener first. You met with a recruiter, but now she’s not responding to your e-mails. Maybe your background is perfect but you don’t make it past the phone screen. How could it be that you’re “not a good fit” when you’re so clearly made for the position?

Job hunters tend to view recruiters as an unfortunate necessity in the search process, regarding them as the people who don’t respond and don’t really know what the hiring company is looking for.

It turns out that many job seekers have misconceptions about the most basic role of a recruiter. “They don’t understand that we don’t work for them,” said Greg Bennett, a headhunter at the Mergis Group in Cary, N.C. “We work for the client” — the hiring company.

Below are some typical scenarios in which job seekers may find themselves. We asked the recruiters what’s happening at their end.

Scenario One: You think you’re a perfect fit for the position, yet the recruiter isn’t responding to your application or your follow-up calls and e-mails. Potential red flags may include:

You’re not qualified for the job.

* Like it or not, your work experience may not fit the bill. It could be that the hiring company is looking for 10 years of sales experience and that your 15 years in sales is not attractive. It’s also possible that you didn’t read the posting closely, or at all. “When a job seeker ignores certain stipulations such as a listing that requests local candidates only or has degree requirements that don’t match, it becomes evident that they are answering postings without reading them,” said Sherry Brickman, a partner at Martin Partners, a retained search firm in Chicago. “This is a waste of time for everyone involved as well as frustrating for a recruiter.”

You’re a good fit but not an ideal fit.

* “[Third-party recruiting] agencies get paid a lot of money to find people that a corporation in need of staff can’t,” according to Michael Rosenberg, manager of sales, productivity and performance at TheLadders. “And with a 15 to 25 percent fee going to the recruiter, corporations want to make sure they hire the exact right person.” In plenty of cases, almost isn’t good enough, especially now that recruiters are pulling from a larger applicant pool.

Your recruiter — or the hiring company — isn’t effectively communicating the job specifications.

* Sometimes recruiters aren’t able effectively to express what their client is looking for, a result of their own limitations or their client’s lack of specificity. The larger the organization, the more red tape there is, according to Rosenberg.

Your e-mail subject line could be slowing down the process.

* Effective subject lines in e-mails should reference the position you’re applying for, rather than “Hello” or “Intro,” Rosenberg said. If a recruiter is sorting through hundreds of e-mails a day, it makes her life easier if she receives a cue about the contents of the e-mail.

Your resume may not be conveying your story at a glance.

* With so little time to devote to each resume, make it easy for recruiters to find what they’re looking for: your last employer and position, your tenure there, and the three most relevant bullet points based on the job you’re applying for. If a quick scan doesn’t yield a compelling career narrative, Rosenberg said it’s possible that your application will never make it beyond the inbox.

Misspellings of any kind turn off some recruiters.

* Typos may leave the impression that you don’t pay attention to details. Double- and triple-check your cover letter and resume. Better still, have someone with an eye for detail proof it.

A generic cover letter could be your undoing.

* Recruiters may read the lack of specificity as lazy and/or uncaring, Rosenberg said. Tailor each letter to the particular company, industry and position to which you’re applying.

Superlatives may be getting in your way.

* For instance, calling yourself the “best” or “greatest” CPA without supporting evidence can be perceived as cocky. “It suggests the job seeker is way too sure of himself and may be tough to work for,” Rosenberg observed. “A recruiter could build a story in their head before they even get you on the phone.”

What can you do? Not much if you’re not qualified, but applying for a specific job and making sure that you’ve dotted all your “I’s” and customized your cover letter will at least ensure you’re getting the attention you deserve.

Scenario Two: You didn’t make it past the recruiter’s phone screener.

Your general attitude could be a mismatch with the hiring company.

* For instance, your professional-yet-serious demeanor may not work in a setting where a sense of lightness and humor is considered a priority for managers, said Harold Laslo, a staffing specialist at the Aldan Troy Group in New York. Don’t take it personally. The longer a recruiter has worked with the hiring company, the better he’s able to evaluate your candidacy.

You didn’t listen to the questions.

* During phone screens and interviews, less is often more. Whether the cause is nervousness, self-absorption or other limitations, candidates sometimes provide far more information than a question warrants, according to Marian Rich, a recruiter with Bonell Ryan, a retained search firm in New York. Rich said she often asks candidates to give a quick overview of their careers, probing for details later in the process. “I’m always dismayed at how many candidates launch into an in-depth and very lengthy response,” Rich said. “It can put me off and will certainly raise the question of whether or not this candidate will interview well with a client.”

What can you do? Follow up with the recruiter to ask her why you’re not a good fit. She should be able to provide a concrete reason. If she can do that — and you trust her assessment — let her know you’d like to be considered for future positions.

Scenario Three: You met the recruiter in person, but now he doesn’t think you’re right for the job.

Your work style may not be suited to the position.

* For example, the recruiter may determine that you thrive in structured work settings, but the hiring company is looking for someone who functions best in an unstructured environment. Once again, recruiters who have placed candidates with the hiring company have a good sense of who would succeed there. It is well within a job seeker’s rights to ask how long the recruiter has worked with a certain company, said Laslo of Aldan Troy.

Your personality may not be a match for certain company or department cultures.

* For instance, you may think your ambition and assertive personality could only be an asset, but it could signal potential challenges at some firms. “If a candidate has career aspirations and I pick up that they may not have patience before they see advancement or will be badgering HR in regards to advancement, they may not be right for certain companies,” Laslo said, adding that small companies tend to be more focused on personality than large ones.

What can you do? Talk to your recruiter and find out exactly why you’re no longer in the running. Gather as much information as you can and ask if there’s anything about your personal performance that you could improve.

Scenario Four: The recruiter is being vague about why the hiring company doesn’t want to proceed with your application.

She may not have all the information.

* Recruiters agree that at each point in the application process your recruiter should be able to cite specific reasons why she (or the hiring company) doesn’t think you’re a suitable candidate for the job. But recruiters don’t always have that information if the hiring company is reticent to disclose it for legal or other reasons, said Rosenberg.

She may be reluctant to talk about personal quirks.

* If the hiring company is troubled by your lack of personal hygiene, for example, the recruiter may withhold the information if she thinks it’s not constructive.

What can you do? Strike a friendly tone when probing for details. Help the recruiter understand that you value his feedback and would appreciate any information he’s able to supply.

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Companies Aren’t Archiving Emails. Are You Archiving Your Own Emails?

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Remember that email you got with that password you needed?

Where is that email with your bank information or vacation itinerary?

We’ve all seen Microsoft Outlook email archiving pop up and often they hit yes to archive old emails without knowing what it does. What is email archiving and how does it help? Is it worth it for the average person to archive emails? Does it save space or make it quicker to open emails? Many users have these questions when they first hear the term email archiving. Email archiving is an amazing tool for businesses, although for personal use email archiving may not offer many benefits.

Boston Mayor Isn’t Archiving his Emails

In the case of Boston City Hall, a close advisor to Mayor Menino has been reported to have deleted items from his inbox, sent box and the deleted/trash folder on a daily basis prior to traditional end-of-day tape backup. Now the Massachusetts Secretary of State has forced the hiring of an independent expert to retrieve City Hall emails that were “improperly deleted.” If a Microsoft Exchange archiving solution had been implemented, these email records, including email, calendar items and records of email deletions, would have been captured immediately as they happened, regardless of what was stored on backup tapes at the end of the day.

UPDATE:
Metalogix has just released an email archiving product that is soooo much better than even other company’s solutions like Symantec. And their offering Microsoft Exchange email archiving at only $15 per mailbox. Microsoft Exchange Administrators use Metalogix Professional Archive Manager for Exchange to dramatically improve Exchange performance and:

* Decrease the mail store by 80% and provide an unlimited mailbox
* Cut backup and—more importantly—RESTORES by 50%
* Get one-click disaster recovery
* Respond to E-discovery requests in minutes, without IT assistance
Check out their free trial here.

Email archiving allows a company to store emails on a private server for its employees to refer back too at a later time. Many companies often will send out updates on a new procedure, which can be missed if a person that works for the company was not in the office that day. Email archiving can also be an excellent tool for training new employees on current and new procedures. Once you access the server files, it is easy to direct an employee to a certain file or old email that is in the system saving someone hours looking for it and resending it to single or multiple users.

Why is Archiving Emails Important?

One example of this is, imagine you run into a problem at work that only happens every 2 months, you remember getting the email on the proper procedure, although you have had so many emails since the update you just cannot find it. Rather than spending hours looking for one single email, often times a company server is available with file named procedures in email archives, for that problem, and you can just open, read it or you can re-email it to yourself and flag it for later use. Email archiving saves time and space on employee’s personal computer for that reason alone.

Personal email archiving may not seem to make much since when it is easy to simply store important emails in a private folder; however, many users often forget to move an email that they need until it is too late. Making auto email archiving a nice feature, it is also very useful with so many professional email users now working from home as much as from work. Smart phone users are very used to synchronizing emails at home as well as work, and email archiving those emails to home can be as much of a time saver while working at home too, although they do take up space on your personal computer.

Email archiving may not seem like it is very useful when you haven’t had a need for it, until you need an important email and find that you do not have it. The pop up from Microsoft may have convinced many users to use email archiving without knowing what email archiving can do. Now knowing you possibly still have those emails you thought you lost can now be a major cause for a sigh of relief. Go check that email archive folder and see if you can find what you are looking for, and never forget where it is again.

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Some People Cheat and Others Can’t. Why?

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Sometimes cheaters do get caught. New York financier Bernie Madoff faces a possible life sentence after pleading guilty to 11 felony counts in one of history’s largest investment frauds. Unfortunately, this is just one of many recent stories about captains of industry and finance behaving badly with other people’s money. In fact there have been so many revelations like this recently, it’s enough to make the average tax-paying citizen wonder whether anyone actually plays by the rules any more. And if people who already have plenty of money can’t help skimming (or just hauling away wads of cash), it’s fair to ask how an ordinary person is supposed to resist the temptation to skim on their taxes or pad their time sheets at work when times are tight or even cheat on Facebook.

Bernie Madoff Guilty of Cheating

So why do some people cheat and others don’t? The classical explanation is that it’s a rational choice, a cold calculation of cost and benefit. Can I get away with it, and how much can I get away with before I risk getting caught? But some scientists have begun questioning this cynical view of human ethics and suggest that the decision is much more complex than this simple calculation.

Three psychologists recently decided to explore these knotty ethical questions in the laboratory. Francesca Gino of the University of North Carolina and Shahar Ayal and Dan Ariely of Duke University set up an elaborate hoax to see if they could actually make people cheat—in order to illuminate the psychological forces at work in the dishonest mind.

Here, briefly, is what they did: They asked a large group of university students to solve a set of complex math problems in a very short time. They made it hard enough that none could realistically solve all the problems, and they paid them for whatever ones they did solve. The math exercise was just a pretense for the real experiment: shortly after the students began on the math problems, one of them (actually a paid actor) loudly announced to the room: “I’ve solved everything. What should I do?” Everyone in the room knew this was impossible, so the student-actor was a clear example of blatant cheating. He also took all of the cash, as if he had a perfect score and—very important—left without any consequences. He might as well have gone online and done some Facebook cheating too. Jerk!

The idea was to see how many of the students followed the cheater’s example—to see if blatant dishonesty boosted cheating among students generally. And it did, dramatically. But the psychologists added another twist to the experiment: sometimes they had the actor wear the T shirt of a rival university, other times not. They wanted to see if the cheater’s group identity—classmate or outsider—influenced the level of copycat cheating. That is, would students cheat more (or less) when they saw a rival cheat, as compared to seeing a compatriot cheat?

The results were unambiguous. As reported in the March issue of Psychological Science, fellow classmates had much more influence than outsiders. Indeed, seeing a rival cheat actually lowered the level of overall cheating slightly—compared to students who simply cheated on their own initiative, without any prodding. These findings argue against the “cold calculation” theory of cheating. After all, if the students only weighed the can-I-get-away-with-it factor, then they would have been influenced equally by the successful cheating of both compatriot and outsider. And they weren’t.

The psychologists decided to double-check these findings with another small experiment. It was basically the same setup, but in this scenario the actor didn’t do anything; he simply asked out loud of the proctor: “Is it OK to cheat?” I know, stupid question. Nobody would really do that. But the idea was simply to nudge the inner moralist in the students’ minds, to bring the issues of cheating and dishonesty front and center. And when they did this, the students cheated noticeably less. No role models, good or bad, just priming the idea of unethical behavior—that was enough to keep the students honest.

So it appears our inner moralist doesn’t really want to cheat. Yet it also appears that dishonesty can be contagious—if we witness one of our own committing the public act of dishonesty. These findings point to a possible strategy for preventing a wave of unethical contagion. If cheating in general declines when cheaters are perceived as outlaws, then it should help to stigmatize public cheaters as just that—outlaws, bad apples. Of course, Bernie Madoff and the rest of Wall Street’s alleged fraudsters have already done a lot of that work for us.

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Local Post Offices Are Closing. Is Yours on the List?

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As the United States Postal Service, weighed down by a crippling multibillion-dollar deficit, shrinks its operations, post offices across the country are on the chopping block. Each year, hundreds of postal operations shutter, but this coming fall could be the single biggest consolidation in Postal Service history.

Over the next three months, more than 3,200 post offices and retail outlets out of 34,000 will be reviewed for possible closure or consolidation.

Downsizing is a business imperative, says Linda Welch, acting vice president of delivery and post office operations at the Postal Service. “Revenues have declined, and mail volume continues to decline,” she says.

Do you want to see the whole list?

I’ve been working a few hours each day since the announcement to build this list of post office closings so people can look up and see if their local post office will be closing. If you want to be notified of updates to the Most Recent Announcements and to Download the list, subscribe below:

Can We Get A List Of The Post Offices That Are Closing?

If you know of any other post offices that are closing because of this please contact me. Partial list that I have got so far:

Kansas
New Albany, KS, Post Office, 101 2nd Street, New Albany, KS, 66759

Louisiana
Cameron Post Office (70631) is closed. Residents can pick their mail up at the Lake Charles Drew Station.

New York
The South Kortright, NY, Post Office 10675 County Highway 18, 13842 is temporarily closed. The mail is being redirected to Hobart, NY 13788 located at 698 Main St, Suite #1

Ohio
Birmingham, OH, Post Office 44816 is closed. All customers will be serviced at Wakeman Post Office, 16 W Main St. Wakeman, OH 44889

Are These Post Offices Closing Because of the Recession?

Not only have e-mail and electronic bill paying made for a skinnier mail stream, but the recession has caused a sharp pullback in advertising mail that has hurt the Postal Service even more.

In March, Postmaster General John Potter asked Congress for the right to reduce the mail week from six days to five, for a savings of $3.5 billion. Shutting down post offices will have similar cost-saving effects. And most Americans say they’re OK with the cutbacks, as long as they don’t have to pay more to send mail. A recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that more Americans would rather the Postal Service curtail services than seek a bailout or raise stamp prices.

At least, that’s what everyone says until it’s their beloved post office at stake. For various reasons, people tend to react with great fervor when their local offices are endangered.

Consider the case of the Hawleyville Post Office. After years of negotiations, the Postal Service in January notified the Connecticut community that its 166-year-old post office would close Feb. 14. An article in the local newspaper poignantly noted, “The long love affair between the Hawleyville post office and its loyal customers will come to an end on, of all days, Valentine’s Day.”

Its post office was rickety, but the community embraced it as a gathering place. One resident told the Newtown Bee, “The Hawleyville Post Office is like Cheers in Hawleyville.”

In fear of losing its precious haunt, the community mobilized. A Web site and online petition drive were created. Members got Congress involved. And lo and behold, the community won approval for a new post office, to be opened this summer.

Every time a post office is slated for closure or consolidation, the Postal Service is legally obligated to inform its customers well in advance. “There’s a very long process that they have to go through,” says Mario Principe, the post office continuance consultant at the National League of Postmasters. That gives the communities plenty of time, usually at least two months, to stage a rescue.

Your Post Office is Closing. Get Used to It

The Postal Service will typically send out a survey or host a town hall meeting before an endangered office closes. Perhaps the closing of a post office means too many lost jobs for an already-hurting community. The office might house the bulletin board that posts important community announcements. Or the next-closest post office may be really far away. If customers alert officials to such concerns, there’s a better chance that their office will be spared. Appealing the closure decision to the Postal Regulatory Commission often works, too, though it’s a step many communities don’t know to take.

It’s also important to check out why a post office is on the chopping block in the first place. Those under review this summer are mostly metropolitan branches or stations. But in the case of small post offices, federal law states that the reason can’t be just that the office isn’t bringing in enough revenue. If that’s the only explanation given, then the Postal Service can’t legally shut it down.

Oftentimes, post offices face closure because their leases expire. That’s the case in Deer Harbor, Wash. After attempts to find a new location for the post office failed, the community decided “in desperation” to buy the property just to keep it in business. If the community can raise the $250,000 purchase price by the June 30, the Postal Service says it will continue operations there.

The Postal Service seems willing to negotiate, and it’s not really bothered by the protests. “It actually it makes us very proud to know that we are a valuable member of the community,” says Welch. She says that the Postal Service appreciates the great lengths that some communities will go to just to ensure that their services continue.

What the Postal Service would appreciate even more: If those people would show their appreciation by taking the simple step of sending more mail. Oddly enough, that seems to be the unthinkable last resort.

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Employees Calling In Sick With Seasonal Absence Syndrome SAS

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Since when did wanting a nice, sunny afternoon to work in the garden become a Seasonal Absence Syndrome?

With the arrival of summer, 30% of employees may call in sick this summer to enjoy a day off. Sunny skies and warmer temperatures also brings Seasonal Absence Syndrome (SAS), which will plague organizations in epic portions this summer season. If you have ever felt like calling in sick on a warm summer day, you are not alone.

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How To Make Real Money On Ebay

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How many times have you heard this line? Unfortunately there are hundreds of people selling the “best” ways to make a ton of money on eBay. The truth is you can make a lot of money on eBay. There is not some secret formula or one way to do it.

In this article I will offer tips that could help your eBay selling. I believe the single most important thing you can do is to sell something you know. If you have a hobby or job that is related to your items, you would be very knowledgeable about your product and reduce research time.

get-rich-on-ebay If you do not have a hobby or job that is related to anything you can sell, do a search with the completed auction listings in the categories that are of interest to you and see how these things are doing. You can also check the Hot List on eBay that will give you a break down of the hot selling items.

Research articles on auction forums or auction information websites. There is a wealth of information out there that is free. Check out the forums that are on eBay. These can give you information just by reading what other sellers are talking about. Continue reading →

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Defining Automated Time and Attendance Goals

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At this point, your task force has defined your manual time and attendance process, has identified problems and opportunities, and is working to ensure the uniform enforcement of your payroll policies. You’ve probably also uncovered some areas for cost savings.

The next step is to develop goals or criteria for your automated system. These goals will guide your choice of products, services, and vendors. You will evaluate vendors’ proposals based on their ability to help you meet your goals. Goals might be stated in terms of system capabilities and features or in terms of benefits your company expects to derive from the new system. Here are some typical goals that may be relevant to your organization.

Corporate Time and Attendance Goals

• Decrease overall labor costs
• Shrink the gap between payroll policy and actual practice
• Comply with government and/or union regulations
• Reduce administrative overhead by eliminating time spent on manual timecard calculations
• Find a solution that can expand as the business grows
• Solve anticipated downstream challenges, such as absence management or scheduling Technology goals
• Leverage the company’s existing IT investment
• Interface with payroll program (or service bureau) as well as other systems such as HR or ERP
• Provide audit trails
• Produce timely and accurate management reports by employee, department, and pay-rate class for all pay periods
• Improve data security
• Be easy to install and maintain with current staff

Automated Process Goals

• Reduce time spent on overall process
• Eliminate redundant data entry
• Apply complex pay rules consistently and accurately across all functional departments
• Accurately record, collect, and report time and rates for standard and incentive pay-rate classes, shift differentials, and productive and nonproductive time
• Provide an effective means of distributing reports for departmental review and editing Other goals
• Enable the organization to shift responsibility for managing labor costs from payroll to department managers
• Gain universal acceptance of the solution by making it easy

In addition to specific automation goals, you will have many requirements related to the vendor. For example, you may require that the vendor have a local presence or be experienced in your industry.

Identifying the potential for savings

To evaluate the project financially and prioritize it against other projects your company wants to invest in, the task force should determine the potential for savings. Most of our customers find that automating time and attendance brings a very fast return. The key areas of savings are listed below. Where can savings come from?

• Reducing payroll errors
• Reducing total payroll processing time
• Reducing unauthorized leave time
• Eliminating unplanned overtime and nonproductive hours
• Reducing payroll inflation
• Improving labor reporting

Why do companies automate their Time and Attendance?

Our research shows that companies are initially motivated to automate their time and attendance processes not for the potential cost savings, but because of frustrations with their manual systems. These frustrations are impossible to quantify, but at the top of the list are a lack of accurate, timely reports and a lack of data integration with payroll and other systems. Companies also mention that they face increasing complexity due to a growing employee population and other business changes.

When you evaluate time and attendance solutions, remember that the least expensive system will not be the best system for you if it fails to meet your business needs. You need a solution that can easily and cost effectively be adapted to address changes in your business. It’s important to look down the road. Many organizations automate but soon realize that the vendor’s solution has major feature limitations, does not integrate well with other systems, or requires additional customization as business changes — all of which increase the total cost of owning the solution. The moral of the story: Try to anticipate your future business needs.

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Defining Your Current Time and Attendance Process

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The first step for your task force is to conduct a comprehensive review of your current time and attendance processes. This is often called a situation analysis. There are three basic goals for a situation analysis:

Learn exactly how the Time and Attendance system works now
Pinpoint problem areas that automation can correct
Identify opportunities for direct time- and cost- savings benefits.

When you examine the processes, you’re looking for indications of:

Redundant data entry
Inefficiencies
Employee and/or manager dissatisfaction with the processes
Unacceptable error rates in payroll
Rising administrative costs

When you research the current manual processes, be sure that you capture the entire picture. Don’t forget remote operations and individual work environments. Do you have on-site and off-site workers? The best way to conduct this research is to interview department heads and payroll staff.

Then create a detailed written document or flow chart detailing your current time and attendance process and specific problem areas. Next, the task force should talk with hourly employees to gain an understanding of the problems they are experiencing under the manual system. How time consuming is the process of recording hours? How often are paychecks late or incorrect? Ask for suggestions about features they think should be included in the new automated system. For example, they might want visibility of accrued vacation time. This employee feedback serves two worthwhile purposes:

It provides practical frontline information that can help you assess the potential for cost savings and improved employee satisfaction.
It creates a sense of real participation in the selection process, which can foster acceptance of the solution after it is implemented

By asking the right questions, the task force will come away with important information about the current manual system and suggestions for an automated system — information you’ll refer to often throughout the vendor selection process.

Determining payroll policies

The next step is to examine timekeeping and payroll policies. A complete set of defined and approved pay policies is needed for system installation. If you do this research now, you will have better-informed discussions with potential vendors. Attracting and retaining qualified, highly skilled employees is difficult for any business. As a result, many companies have introduced a wide range of special incentive pay policies and rates to attract and keep quality people. These incentive programs (majority time, differential rules, travel time, etc.) have dramatically complicated the manual payroll preparation process as well as the tracking of labor hours.

The complexity of these incentive pay structures increases the opportunity for inconsistent payroll policy application. Many companies we surveyed noted that once they automated their time and attendance processes, they were able to clearly see where their old manual systems had masked payroll inconsistencies from department to department and from pay class to pay class. These were problems that had gone undetected for months and sometimes even years. Pay policy inconsistencies can result in costly payroll errors, noncompliance with wage and hour regulations, and inefficient use of administrative time.

Companies that successfully implement automated systems tell us that achieving consensus on a common set of payroll policies for all employees is critical. Consensus must be achieved before you proceed with automation. When all departmental inconsistencies are uncovered and resolved, a smooth transition from a manual system to an automated system can begin.

Identifying pay policy inconsistencies

Create a table to identify pay policy inconsistencies. There might be inconsistencies between the ways on-site and off-site employees are treated, or perhaps managers in different departments have interpreted the rules differently. Interview managers and ask, “How do you actually manage your full-time and part-time employees with regard to overtime, leave, etc.?” Experience tells us that you will see many discrepancies in the ways policies are being interpreted.

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Choosing a Time and Attendance Vendor

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Most businesses, regardless of their size, are under pressure to effectively assign time and attendance resources and control labor costs. However, they also need to balance time and attendance complexities, competitive pressures, and limited budgets or IT support. This leaves very little margin for error in identifying a solution.

Participating customers recommended establishing a cross-functional task force as the critical first step selecting an automated system. This allows decision makers to share vital information and feel involved the vendor selection process from the beginning. As logical as this advice seems, many businesses we did not start their selection process by creating a task force, and only after some false starts did they the need.

The task force organizes information about the needs of various departments and the current process. Members also promote understanding within and cooperation from each department, which are vital successfully changing over to automation or updating an outdated system.

Who’s on the team and what do they do?

A typical task force is made up of three to four people. You should appoint a chairperson to coordinate the committee’s activity and oversee all aspects of the selection process. Seek out participants who have the time and motivation to do a good job. And make sure you have a representative cross-section of managers, IT staff, and payroll staff. Some companies augment the task force with an employee advisory group to encourage and incorporate a wide range of ideas from everyday users. This also helps foster acceptance of the solution after it is implemented.

Formulating a project plan

As early as possible, your task force should conduct a kickoff meeting and formulate a project plan for its time and attendance project. The written plan should include due dates and clear definitions of individual responsibilities.

Conduct a situation analysis: Define your current manual time and attendance processes. Determine your current policies
Establish specific goals for the new automated system: Corporate goals. Technology goals. Process goals. Other goals/
Prepare preliminary analysis showing potential cost savings
Go/no-go decision: Do we continue to pursue?
Create a list of potential vendors
Review and compare offerings to pare down the list to three or four competitors
If necessary, solicit proposals with a Request for Proposals
Define detailed product requirements so you can evaluate offerings
Select two or three finalists
Determine the cost of each solution
Determine the potential return on investment
Conduct company background checks
Conduct a services capability survey, including the following: Visit customer sites. Check references. View demos/presentations.
Select a vendor
Develop an implementation plan
Manage implementation
Take the plan live!

Watch The Celebrity Apprentice Tonight

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I just heard that The Celebrity Apprentice is going to feature a cool new video phone on Sunday night’s episode (March 22nd).

I’ve heard that the contestants will have to market this new video phone and that it’s part of a life-changing opportunity in a network marketing company called ACN. I will be sure not to miss this because I want to see what has Donald Trump so excited that he’s not only endorsing the product and the company but featuring it on NBC prime time.

Check out the ACN IRIS 3000

Apprentice Video Phones

Donald Trump Apprentice Video Phone

Donald Trump Endorses the Video Phone

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Dunkin Donuts to Sell Togo’s

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Dunkin’ Donuts plans to sell Togo’s Eateries Inc., the Canton, Mass. coffee giant announced Friday.

Trinity Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment banking firm with extensive experience in the multi-unit retail and food and beverage industries, has been retained to evaluate and market the business to potential buyers.

The restaurant chain specializing in fresh sandwiches, salads and soups. There is no price tag for it; Togo’s system-wide sales were $157 million.

Togo’s was established in 1968 and became part of Dunkin’ Brands in 1997.

Dell Laptops Are Exploding and Catching on Fire

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More than four million Dell laptops are at the center of a global alert over batteries that can overheat and catch fire. Dell issued the biggest product recall in computer history after video footage showed a laptop bursting into flames during a conference in Osaka, Japan.

Similar incidents have been reported across the world. Dell said it had been told of six instances of batteries overheating, causing damage to furniture and belongings but no personal injuries.

Consumers are being urged to stop using the batteries immediately and to get in touch to obtain replacements. The company said today it was recalling 4.1m batteries for use in Latitude, Inspiron and Precision laptops. The batteries are also used by other companies including Apple, which said it was looking into the risk posed.

Dell blames the problem on the lithium-ion batteries made by Sony Energy Devices. This type of battery has been in use since the mid-Nineties and is often found in devices such as mobile phones and digital music players. Continue reading →

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Kronos Buys Workforce Specialist Unicru

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Kronos is buying Beaverton, Oregon-based Unicru for $150 million in cash. The deal is a sign of the growing interest in pre-employment assessment, and further expands Kronos past its roots as a maker of time-and-attendance technology systems. Continue reading →

Kronos Excels in Talent Management

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When the news is full of layoffs every day, how can there be a skills shortage?

As Deloitte & Touche pointedly asks in the title of its future-looking research report on all industries, It’s 2008: Do You Know Where Your Talent Management Is? “The talent shortage is not a theoretical or distant problem,” assures Richard Kleinert, a principal in Deloitte. Speaking of a separate survey Deloitte did with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), Kleinert reports, “eighty-three percent of respondents indicated these shortages currently affect their ability to meet customer demands. More than half reported difficulty achieving necessary production levels, with 43 percent reporting difficulties increasing their productivity.” Continue reading →