Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

RNIB (supporting blind and partially sighted people) has a great culmination of Excel (and other program) keyboard shortcuts.

Excel Keyboard Shortcuts on RNIB

Brand Aid Author Praises Johnson & Johnson for Uniting Branding and Technology

ConsultingMag.com just did an interview with Allen Adamson, managing director of Landor Associates and author of Brand Aid.

His main theme focuses around uniting brand experts and technology experts. I whole heartedly agree and I'm looking forward to reading the book.

In his interview with consultingmag.com, he praises Johnson & Johnson and their baby care division:

Most marketers are finally getting up to speed. I think Johnson & Johnson is doing some of it very well, particularly for their baby division. They have known for years that moms talking to each other are a key vehicle to getting their brand message into that marketplace. They have the [YouTube] baby channel, and they really created a whole platform for new moms to talk to each other.

Managers: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Two great essays by Scott Berkun listing the attributes of great managers vs. those that suck.

Click here to read the Good.

Click here to read the Bad and the Ugly.

Websites and Books Mentioned at the Future of Web Apps

You know when you go to conferences there are many references to websites and books. Here is a list of websites and books from the Future of Web Apps that occured last week in Miami.

Websites

AListApart
“For people who make websites” - A List Apart Magazine (ISSN: 1534-0295) explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

Atlas
Yea, you just gotta check this out, trust me you won't regret it.

BriteKite
Brightkite is a location-based social network. In real time you can see where your friends are and what they're up to. Depending on your privacy settings you can also meet others nearby.

CMSReview.com/Stages
Content Management is a complex business and is best understood by breaking it down into the major stages or phases involved in managing the content lifecycle.

Delivr
Interesting ways to share URLs

Domainr
Domainr helps you explore hundreds of domain names.

FaceBook Connect
Facebook Connect is the next evolution of Facebook Platform - enabling you to integrate the power of Facebook Platform into your own site.

Jott
Capture thoughts, create to-dos and set reminders with a simple phone call

Kallow
Kallow is a product recommendation site built specifically to give you the nerd-

stamp-of-approval on common electronics that are usually confusing.

Mashville
Maybe sometimes you took turns drawing something together with another person. This is the best way to explain how the work displayed here was made.

MindMeister
Free web-based collaborative mind mapping tool for brainstorming and project-managment.

Ning
Create your own social network for anything

OpenTable
Make restaurant reservations the easy way. Find a restaurant » Choose a table » Book online. Trusted by 10,000 restaurants & 90 million diners

PatternTap
A collection of interface design solutions from all over the web, where users can mark patterns they like, and learn from other's design solutions.

Picnik
Photo editing made fun

PipelineDeals
Simple CRM for big business: Organize your deals and prospects, Track the entire sales process, Report on your sales pipeline, and Close more deals, more efficiently. $15/ month.

Sifter
Sifter is designed to be a bug and issue tracker for non-technical people. We're passionate about making bug and issue tracking simple enough to get everyone involved and working together.

Truvay
I dunno yet. Sign up and find out with the rest of us.

TweetDeck
An application that aims to evolve existing functionality of Twitter by breaking down Twitter feeds into more manageable bite sized pieces.

Ubiquity
Ubiquity is a Mozilla Labs experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.



Books

Crossing the Chasm
Author Geoffrey Moore makes the case that high-tech products require marketing strategies that differ from those in other industries. His chasm theory describes how high-tech products initially sell well, mainly to a technically literate customer base, but then hit a lull as marketing professionals try to cross the chasm to mainstream buyers. This pattern, says Moore, is unique to the high-tech industry.

Getting Real
Getting Real is the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals — a developer of web-based software used by over 1 million people and businesses in 70 countries.

Letting Go of the Words
"Redish has done her homework and created a thorough overview of the issues in writing for the Web. Ironically, I must recommend that you read her every word so that you can find out why your customers won't read very many words on your website -- and what to do about it." -- Jakob Nielsen, Principal, Nielsen Norman Group

I know there were more so if I missed anything shoot me an email at pkathiari@localwisdom.com or add a comment.

Quality, Fast, & Cheap

Quality, fast, and cheap: 2 yes, but not all three.

FreelanceFolder has a good article on pricing models around these attributes.

If you allow your clients to have fast, good, cheap work designed by yourself then most likely you are working your butt off for very little return

ELS American Eduation Center (ELS-AEC.com) is Live!

Today we officially launched ELS American Education Centers Website (ELS-AEC.com).

The ELS American Education Centers support international students in pursuing their higher education studies in the USA. We programmed page transitions onto the site so pages don't have to reload and site visitors are wooed by transitions of content adding to the site's memorability and experience. Portions of the website are also being fed by the AEC blog making the frequently updated portions of the site a breeze.

Big congratulations to the project team.

Michael Alfaro – Account Manager
Christine Robinson – Project Manager
Barry Jabloner – Developer
Pinaki Kathiari – Web Designer

6 Tips To Effective Delegation

Greetings!:

As an executive, supervisor, manager or team leader, you make daily decisions about everyone's workload. Delegation is an excellent management tool to maximize your team's performance; however, it is a skill that needs to be learned. To help maximize your delegation skills, we have put together 6 tips and 5 core competencies to improve your delegation skills.

6 Tips To Effective Delegation:

1. Give The Person A Whole Task To Do - People prefer to get the job done and not wait for someone else to hand-off a component of it. Likewise, connect everyone who is actively working on the project so they can all see the big picture.

2. Make Sure They Understand Exactly What You Want Them To Do - Take the time to manage expectations so things are done correctly. Establish performance standards with SMART goals. That way, it is crystal clear what and how the task or project needs to be done.

3. Share Your Vision With Them - People like to know what your vision is on a project so share it with them. If they understand the big picture and how the task or project they are delegated fits into that big picture, they are more likely to be committed to it.

4. Set Project Due Dates - Most people need to know due dates so they can effectively manage a project. By setting specific dates and milestones you will help your team better manage a project that has been delegated to them.

5. Give Them The Right Tools - Make sure your team has the right tools to do the job. This can range from computers to software and everything in between.

6. Reward Your Team - Rewarding people for their individual and group performance is a great way to motivate them. Although financial consideration is great, best-in-class leaders find creative ways to reward their team.

Effective Delegation Can Strengthen Any Organization

Delegating tasks not only fosters a team environment but can help individuals increase their level of performance. Doing so, you will find individuals increasing their responsibility, leadership skills and project management skills. Plus, it's an excellent way for them to feel important to your organization.

The 5 Competencies To Help Maximize Your Delegation Skills Are:

1. Make Your Team Accountable - Leaders who delegate well demonstrate personal responsibility and hold everyone accountable for organizational outcomes.

2. Human Resource Management - Leaders who delegate well make sure there are resources available to meet the team's goals and objectives.

3. Solid Interpersonal Skills - Leaders who delegate well build solid relationships of trust and respect inside and outside the organization.

4. Leveraging Diversity - Leaders who delegate well find ways to leverage capabilities, insights and ideas across diverse cultures, styles and ability.

5. Strong Leadership - Leaders who delegate know how to enhance their organization's value, while tapping into their team's skills and abilities, to help achieve the desired results.

SUMMARY - Effective delegation is all about sharing the workload, with the added bonus of developing skills and responsibility in others. A leader not only needs to look at the "final result" but also who worked, who didn't work and what they should do differently next time. The 6 tips and the 5 competencies above will not only help you achieve a work-life balance but also become more productive.

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
--General George Smith Patton, Jr.


If you want to find out more about how Dale Carnegie's® Competency Based Development Solutions can make your business more effective, or need more information on this subject, please contact us.

Anita Zinsmeister, President
Dale Carnegie® Training of Central and Southern NJ
(609) 324-9200
success@dalecarnegie.com
www.southjersey.dalecarnegie.com

6 Tips For Completing An Intimidating Project

Great article by Anita Zinsmeister, President of Dale Carnegie Training of Central & Southern NJ.

Greetings!:
 
One of our clients was given the opportunity to head up a complex and high visibility project.  Although he was excited about the opportunity he also found it daunting.  He found himself not sure of which way to turn to get the project started and how to execute it most efficiently or productively.
 

Many people let fear get in the way of progressing in at least one area of their lives.  Don't let fear of an intimidating project at work cripple your chance to get ahead at the workplace and take on additional responsibilities. Tackle that project head on and everyone will be better off.  We've put together a list of tips to make this easier for you.

The 6 Tips For Completing An Intimidating Project Are:

Tip # 1. Make Sure You Are Organized - If you are not organized you will find yourself  floundering, making the project seem more difficult than it is.  Create a list of things that need to be done in order to bring your project to completion.  Organize the list by what needs to be done first as well as order of difficulty.
 
Tip #2. Get Started Now - Look at the task list you created and decide whether you want to tackle the most difficult parts first or just get the easy parts over with.  This will help you start momentum on the project.  Looking at a large project in smaller steps will help you get over your fear of a "huge" project.  Prioritizing what is most important and needs to be done first can give you a sense of self direction.
 
Tip #3. Set Deadlines - Set appropriate deadlines for milestones in the project (hourly, daily or weekly).  Check your progress against your deadlines at least once a day to be sure you are on track.  Make adjustments if necessary and continue on your path.  Don't allow yourself to get flustered if you get stuck on something - move on and come back to that part later with fresh eyes.
 
Tip #4. Take Breaks To Keep Yourself Working At Peak Performance - If you are tired or hungry your productivity will slow down immensely.  Do yourself a favor and schedule in lunch and snack breaks and do not skip them.  Invest a few minutes to take a short walk or get some fresh air.  It can invigorate you.  If the project is being completed over the span of a few days, choose a time to leave work for the day and stick with it. Overworking yourself is not an efficient way to get your project completed.
 
Tip #5. Ask For Help If Necessary - If you get stuck on something, ask for help or feedback from your co-workers.  This will help give you another perspective on something you may have overlooked.  If the project is truly more than you can handle or you are falling behind on deadlines, see if you can delegate parts of the project to others.  Further increase efficiency by matching each task to the person who is most likely to do the best job on that particular item.
 
Tip #6. Step Back And Review - When you are finished, or almost finished, step back and review the whole project.  Doing this will enable you to correct any mistakes and will help you be sure that the project is cohesive.  The completed version of the smaller tasks that you broke the project into needs to fit together well.
 
Summary - These tips will help you stay on track to complete any large project in a timely manner.  Don't let fear get the better of you at work - take a logical approach to breaking a project down into manageable pieces and you will reap the rewards.

SugarSync is an app that seamlessly syncs files

SugarSync is an online tool that can sync folders over multiple
computers. It's been hailed by our good friend Jakob Neilson as one of
the most usable app interfaces of 2008.

I'm thinking that we can use this to sync our project files aka
LW_Projects folder.

Me thinks it would work better than MS Groove because of those of us
who own Macs.

I'll do some research and see what's up.

www.sugarsync.com

Check out the video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVeDR63w6LU

Jason Fried - Things We’ve Learned at 37Signals

Got this off of twitter from a Kevin Rose Tweet http://kevinrose.com/

This is a great read, from a guy at 37Signals discussing projects at the Web 2.0 conference, link at bottom, here's a preview:

Going to range from collaboration to design, hiring, lots of things without diving into too much detail. 20-25 minutes of talking and then Q&A.

1. Momentum - Has its hands in just about everything and is incredibly important. Esp for morale. Most typical projects are really exciting at the beginning and then people tend to lose interest and fade out. Long projects eat at you and you’re not even looking to do good stuff you just want to finish things and they don’t turn out well. Create a situation where projects are short and there’s excitement and it’s a short 2 week project and it leaves people in excited mode. Break big projects into as many small projects. 2 week rule.

http://www.krisjordan.com/2008/09/17/jason-fried-10-things-weve-learned-at-37signals/

Another Successful LW website Launch

And I think Shaquille O'Neal will be coming to the Launch party to celebrate with all the LW staff!

Please visit the site so we can prove that it's making a difference on day 1 :)

http://www.iweg.com/

Thanks to the whole team for all the work put into it, special shoutouts to Christine (keeping me in check and putting up with me when I'm mean), Pak (for making the PNG's a huge issue) and Barry for final round cleanup!

Brand meeting

Choosing the right projects

Choose whether or not to take on a project can be a daunting and stressful situation. One, that is can be fraught with inner and team conflict and tons of passion and emotion.

We tackle these situations by asking ourselves some fundamental questions.

Can we learn from this project?
Can we work well with these clients?
Is there enough $$$?
Will this bring further opportunities?
Can we do this project?
Is this project interesting to us?
How busy are we at this point?
If we answer "yes" to more than 75% of these questions, we take it.

What's the difference between producing a great website and building great teamwork

It's becoming more and more apparent to me that the world of creating websites is
not a technological endeavor or a design endeavor; instead, I'd like to think of it as a people endeavor.

Without the specific skills of inspiring, leading, and motivating a team with the purpose of producing a top-notch website, we cannot achieve a top-notch website. If the team is continually building on the strengths of the individual team members, and building structure and efficiency in its processes, it will achieve greater and greater success.

Here is some key information that I've recently learned about teamwork:


Creating a Common Purpose: Building teamwork begins with building a shared sense of common purpose. This strengthens the team by establishing direction which leads to more effective decision making, better problem-solving, enhanced ability to work through problems, and clearer communication. Without knowing where you are going, any road will get you there. Ask yourself, What is the team purpose.

Defining Individual Purposes: Understanding the overall purpose and the purpose of the individual members of your team will enable each individual to understand her/his role in the team as well as to value that role as a fundamental component of achieving the common purpose. If everyone doesn't know their role, the chain will weaken. Ask everyone, what is your purpose and why is it critical.

Approaching Situations: Answering the "how" question before getting into the work will help align the team members responsibilities and create greater efficiencies. Each team memeber will have their own way of solving the problem and if the "how" discussion doesn't happen then individuals will begin working on the solution before concentrating on working as a team.

Establishing a Team Vision: Using words in the present-tense to describe your team's situation in the future is a powerful way to inspire the team to live up to the common purpose. Describe your vision for your team by setting a date in the future and establishing what will be the state of affairs on that date. Make sure you are positive, powerful, and writing in the present tense.
Making it a Process: Taking your processes through the 6 sigma process development steps will help to constantly improve them. The steps include: Design, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

Rinse and Repeat: Change management is always a stressful situation for everyone. Team members will flow through the four stages of change: uncertainty, anxiety, clarity, and consistency. As long as the leader stays consistent with her/his actions, the team will follow suite.

Here is an inspirational video regarding teamwork. The Power of Teamwork.

What we do in 4 words

We make websites happy.

How Important is Culture pt.1

Companies With Engaged Employees Outperform Others By 47% To 202%.

According to a 2007 global workforce study, conducted by Towers Perrin, the highest percentage of engaged employees collectively increased:

Operating income 19%.
Earnings per share 28% year-to-year.

Let's put a effin' post up

Yey! We are here!