Kamis, 28 Oktober 2010

Survival Guide - Managing Stress

Banking, accounting, Employment

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Organize its work to combat stress


In small doses, stress pushes us to excel. Work overload can cause stress, however, harmful to health. Here are some tips to make your life easier.

1. Do the most difficult tasks first. If you put off until later, a difficult task or unpleasant it will bother you, even if it is just a phone call. By cons, once the task, your mind will be released.

2. Bring order to your tasks and folders. "When we're busy, we forget. Therefore write all your task in a diary, clearly indicating the priorities of the day, "says Charbonneau. It is also important to classify documents. "Some people lose only five hours a week looking for records." To avoid this situation, make a big household every two weeks, or a smaller every day.

3. Do not be too perfectionist. As your boss impose tight deadlines, it is rarely possible to refine your work until absolute perfection. We need to know to allocate a realistic time for each task.

4. Respect your limits. If the boss assigns you a task while you're already overwhelmed, show him your schedule. Let him decide whether this new request is more urgent than your other responsibilities.

5. Give yourself small pleasures. When your concentration decreases after an hour of work, you often take short breaks. You can just look outside, to breathe fresh air or eat a piece of chocolate! Also apply this principle to your holiday. "Instead of taking a month each summer, divide your weeks of vacation during the year," says Charbonneau. So you'll have a short-term goal, which helps to manage stress and maintain their enthusiasm for work.

How to expand your network

Banking, accounting, Employment

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Today knowledge intelligently expand his circle of relations is no longer the monopoly of seasoned networkers but also the fact that everyone, through situations of everyday life.

Opportunities not to miss method to approach your target contacts, not to make mistakes ... Here are tips to enrich their address book. A significant weapon at a time when you may need to meet the challenges of a job search or starting a business.
Expand its network

Today knowledge intelligently expand his circle of relations is no longer the monopoly of seasoned networkers but also the fact that everyone, through situations of everyday life.

Opportunities not to miss method to approach your target contacts, not to make mistakes ... Here are tips to enrich their address book. A significant weapon at a time when you may need to meet the challenges of a job search or starting a business.


Be ready at all times

It must be borne in mind that any situation can be an opportunity to enlarge its network. Travel, meals, parties and a fortiori, conferences are so many opportunities available to you. To not let your opportunity gone with the wind, always think that you must have business cards. When we meet someone, and we don't have business card is actually harmful. In 90% of cases, when you do not have your own business card, then you meet people you said you will send it, but the fact you do not send your card. It's huge mistakes. Prepare your self to have your own business card.


Decompartmentalise personal and professional relationships

People tend to separate their personal from their professional relationships and it is a mistake. Do not hesitate to open up the personal and professional relationships. Share your interests with your professional relationships. by collaborating your personal and professional life, you can open doors unsuspected, the personal circle can become a relay exceptional.


Establish your image as an expert

One way to integrate your self related to your workplace is to establish your image as an expert in the field where you have jurisdiction. The way can be done by participating in discussion circles, intervening in seminars or conferences, exchanging on expert forums .

If such an activity can quickly become time consuming, both in terms of travel or time spent on the blogosphere, it is nevertheless an excellent showcase and therefore an ideal way to meet new people, increase their network quality.

Selasa, 26 Oktober 2010

Ten Tips to Reduce Stress

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As people are working harder but taking less time off than ever before, the level of their stress continues to increase in proportion. Also, the days are gone when people worked for the same company for 30 years with the guarantee of receiving a solid gold watch at their retirement party.

Job changes are more frequent now, and that's an additional source of stress.

How do you know if you're overstressed? Ask yourself the following stress management questions.

Do you:

  • Rush in a panic to work every morning?
  • Eat lunch at your desk to get as much work done as possible?
  • Feel too exhausted at the end of the day to enjoy activities at night?
  • Ruminate as you try to fall asleep about what needs to be done the next day?
  • Dream (or have nightmares) about work related issues?
  • Put off vacations or other family activities because you're too busy with work?

If you answered yes to at least two of these stress management questions, stress is probably affecting your life more than you realize. You may benefit a great deal by utilizing some basic stress management tools.

It's not uncommon for overstressed people to either ignore or fail to recognize the signs that they're over-committed to their work. However, the physical and emotional consequences of working as hard and as fast as you can every day are serious, and include increased risk of a heart attack, decreased resistance to infections, anxiety and more.

Let’s focus now on some good news about effective stress management techniques?

Fortunately, the process of redesigning an overstressed life can be relatively straightforward, and includes a full assessment of stress-related activities in ones daily and weekly routine.

Stress management actions require an awareness that there is a problem to begin with and a personal commitment to identify and change the stress-related behavior.

Here are Ten Stress Management Tips you can use to reduce your workplace stress:

  1. Prioritize! Don't try to get everything done at the same time. Attack the most important items first.
  2. When you get interrupted by someone at work, put them on your schedule and tell them you'll get back to them at an agreed-upon time. Maintain ownership of your own time.
  3. Don't eat lunch at your desk, and don't bring work with you to lunch. Schedule some down time.
  4. Use deep-breathing exercises or relaxation techniques to de-stress during the day. Go for a 20 minute walk every day.
  5. Reduce the noise in your environment by shutting your office door if you have one. Take control of your environment.
  6. Don't keep things bottled up. Let co-workers know if something they're doing is causing you stress. Address things calmly and professionally.
  7. Eat right, sleep right and exercise regularly (with your doctor's permission).
  8. Try leaving the radio off in your car on the way home. Many people find that the quiet helps them unwind and is a basic stress management practice.
  9. When at home, don't dwell on work-related problems. Write them down, put them out of your mind and add them to your schedule the next day. Understand that there is a time and a place for everything.
  10. Use peers and associates as a sounding board for discussing work-related issues and minimize bringing issues into the family home.

Even if you're not feeling particularly stressed right now by your work life, these stress management ideas can help you continue to enjoy your work life to its fullest and protect you against future stresses.

Five Tips for starting an e-business

Jobs Vacancy, Job Vacancies, Employment Jobs

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Thinking of launching your existing business on the World Wide Web? Or, perhaps, finally pulling the trigger on your great idea for a web-based business? Either way, you better get busy because there just so happens to be an e-commerce revolution taking place while you're thinking about it.

But before you take the plunge into the new world of e-business, you'll need to do quite a bit of homework in order to ensure it's right for you and your company. Following are five things you'll want to consider before hanging your shingle out on the information superhighway.

1. Identify your customers/market. Knowledge of your e-business customers and assessment of their future needs will be your first priority and should correspond to your company's abilities, goals and marketing objectives. Ask yourself who are your potential customers? Where are the best places to reach potential customers? Determine what your customers want and need from your company and your products. Are they comfortable using computers and accessing the Internet? Does your product cater to any particular niche?

2. Evaluate your e-business readiness. Analyze your infrastructure and create a sound business plan. Get in touch with the local Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Development Center for assistance and information on tax laws, industry, business planning and patents. Determine how your company will handle the Internet-generated revenue. Do your homework regarding the international tax laws for each country that you will be active within commerce. Ask yourself, what method is most effective in getting the product to the customer? How will you insure payment?

3. Solidify your marketing messages. What message do you wish to portray to potential customers? What do you want your customers to feel when they hear your company name, see your web site and view your products? Brainstorm. Get some imaginative people involved, and then create your image. Create a marketing plan to promote your site and your products. Stay consistent with that message throughout every medium, whether it is traditional print, radio, web site banners, search engines or newsgroups.

4. Analyze your financial investments and return. Do your best to determine all costs ahead of time. The era of the single page web site has long since passed. Today even the most basic e-commerce web sites integrate a variety of scripts, databases and several tools that make processing transactions easy and secure. But add to this the cost of design, hosting and the purchase of additional software. Consider shipping costs if your product can't be sent through the Internet. Calculate your costs and investments to help determine your rate of return. A well-run e-business is worth the effort. Several costs are minimized or eliminated, such as printing, mailing and handling costs for paper catalogs. An e-commerce site will compliment your distribution channels by bringing in customers from previously untapped regions without the overhead expense of running a mail order business.

5. Determine the level of your e-commerce solution. Depending on the nature of your business, you can set up your storefront in a number of ways. The more involved your online store, the bigger the investment. But, the benefits that arise with a bigger online store are bigger as well.

Here are 3 examples:

The Content Only Approach: Think of this as an electronic brochure that publishes information about your company and products. It is easy to set up and maintain but lacks interaction, hence customers have to order offline.

The Dynamic Catalog Approach: Your online business is set up to operate 24x7 and fill orders over the web. With this approach you will have to incorporate a scalable e-commerce solution. This will allow you to further integrate it with your business model in the future, without placing extra burden on your operations.

The Total Integration Approach: Plan well in advance in terms of time and money. This solution will fully integrate your web site with all aspects of your business-payment systems, order fulfillment, inventory control and all of your traditional business functions. The end result is a web presence that truly is a cohesive extension of your company.

Regardless of the approach, it is important to select the plan that meets the needs of your e-business in the near term. As your business grows, any good service provider will grow along with you, offering an easy migration path to enhanced services and support.

After you have done your homework and selected the best e-commerce plan for your company, you?ll be on your way to joining the thousands of other e-businesses competing in the new world of business.

Verio (nasdaq: VRIO - news - people), based in Englewood, Colo., provides web-hosting and other Internet services.

Jumat, 22 Oktober 2010

What Television’s First Woman President Has To Teach Us (Part 11)


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Many women naturally have high likeability factors and can ramp up their authority and not lose all their likeability.

I worked with a young woman in her twenties whose public relations career had derailed due to her poor presentation skills. When she stood up to present, she acted like a little girl, losing all credibility and authority.

I asked her to pretend she was a tough-talking member of a women’s motorcycle gang. “Spit out the words!” I demanded. As she did, her voice got louder and deeper.

By getting in touch with her anger, the timid, little girl was transformed into a powerful woman.
Her coworkers were impressed and their positive feedback helped her overcome her discomfort in acting out her authority. From then on, she remembered the “motorcycle mama” whenever she presented and reclaimed the authority she already possessed.

Along with attitude, stance, eye contact, pausing, and vocal quality signal authority. When they present, many women I coach assume a dancer’s pose with one toe pointed out at a ninety-degree angle. While this stance may be pretty and feminine, it holds no authority. I counsel both men and women to stand in their full power by placing their feet shoulder-width apart and equally distributing their weight.

The eyes have been called the “windows of the soul.” As such, they are one of our greatest assets in winning audiences. I coach executives to begin their presentations by standing in silence, finding a friendly face, establishing eye contact, taking a deep breath, and then beginning their talk. This simple tip helps speakers become grounded and start their presentations with authority.

Many presenters talk while moving their heads from person to person like a sprinkler system, or worse they lose all connection with their audience by staring at one person, the slide screen, or into space. I train presenters to pick one person and maintain steady eye contact with that person until they have delivered a complete thought.

Like intensive eye contact, pausing signals authority. I teach students that there is power in the pause and recommend that pauses be used to emphasize important points.

Thirty-eight percent of our power as a presenter is determined by vocal quality. To maximize vocal quality, I suggest that women consider:
1. Raising the volume and projecting their voice.
2. Lowering the pitch of their voice, if needed.
3. Avoiding letting the intonation rise at the end of a sentence, or what Jerry Seinfeld termed “up-talking.” Up-talkers often appear uncertain about what they are saying, thus losing all authority and credibility.

Stance, eye contact, pausing, and vocal quality enhance a businesswoman’s authority when she speaks, but nothing creates a more powerful impression than conviction. While many women have strong convictions, they often have a difficult time expressing them. Most women have a conversational style that strives to make others feel comfortable. To accomplish this, many women position their beliefs as opinions and use disclaimers before they speak, such as, “I may be wrong about this, but.…” While this conversational style is extremely effective in building consensus, it can undermine the authority of the speaker.

When women speak with absolute certainty, claiming their full authority, their likeability factor may decrease, but it is worth it if they are able to garner the respect and recognition they deserve.

What Television’s First Woman President Has To Teach Us (Part 1)


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By: Randy Siegel

I have a confession to make: I am addicted to Tuesday night’s new hit series “Commander and Chief.” Sure, Geena Davis is beautiful. She tall, regal, and has the best lips in the business after Angelia Jolie. But, television’s first woman president has captured my attention for another reason: I am fascinated with her communication style.

President Mackenzie Allen commands respect, and yet she is likeable. I would follow her lead and still enjoy throwing back a beer with her after a hard day of work in the White House.

Most women are damned-if-they-do and damned-if-they-don’t when it comes to communicating in the male-dominated worlds of politics, business, and education. In order to compete, they must find a delicate balance between authority and likeability.

All great communicators possess what I call “the terrific triad,” credibility, likeability, and authority. While many women want to claim their authority, they are concerned about appearing too domineering or abrasive, and thus losing likeability. “We are in a double bind,” one female executive shared.

To make matters worse, our culture associates authority with men. When we think of those traits we consider authoritative, we immediately think of tall, solidly built, and a lower pitched voice – all characteristics associated with men, not women.
In today’s world, women are expected to be both authoritative and feminine. “That’s very hard,” most women agree. In my experience as a communications trainer and coach, most women have to sacrifice some likeability for authority, and that is okay.

Women Who Dared to Invent

Job, jobs, career

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As you sip your morning coffee you probably don’t give any thought as to how the actual process of coffee brewing came to be. If it wasn’t for a frustrated housewife in Dresden, Germany, you might have to brew your coffee by wrapping loose coffee grounds in a cloth bag and boil water around it. Suddenly you have a much better appreciation for Melitta Bentz’s invention.

Knowing there had to be a better way, she stuck some blotting paper in the bottom of a pot that she had poked holes in. Then she poured the water over it. This filtered out the bitter taste. It worked, and she started manufacturing her “coffemakers” and selling them at local fairs. They were a hit.

Other women felt the same frustration and started the invention process. Marion Donovan was a young mom who spent her days washing, bleaching and drying cloth baby diapers. She put together some padding and a show curtain and came up with a prototype. She took her product, “The Boater” around to manufacturers who all told her it would be too expensive to make and turned her down.

So she manufactured the product herself and sold them to department stores. Pretty soon the idea caught on. Moms went into the stores asking for the throwaway diaper. Mrs. Donovan sold her company for $1 million dollars and made moms around the world very happy.

Marie Curie was the only person to win two Nobel prizes. She was a scientist and an inventor. She invented a chemical process for extracting radioactive material from ore and she also discovered radium.

Anyone who has used a personal computer can thank Admiral Grace Murray Hopper for inventing the first computer compiler. The way software was written was changed. They no longer had to write time-consuming instructions for each new software package. She developed COBOL, which is the first user-friendly computer software program.

If you take your lunch to work in a brown paper bag you have Martha Knight to thank for it. She invented the machine that produced them. She was also the first woman to fight and win a patent suit after a man stole her design and put his name on it. He couldn’t imagine that a woman could create such a complex machine. She went on to invent several other machines and tools.

As more women are encouraged to invent, the list of women inventors grows. But still today less than 10% of patents belong to women. Necessity is truly the mother of invention.

Copyright (c) 2010 Julie Austin