Success

Thought for Today 2/13/11

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Get Your Goals Back on Track – Heidi Grant Halvorson – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review

I think it’s important to distinguish between specificity and inflexibility. While I can’t think of a single study where specificity hurt performance, I can think of many where a dogged insistence on staying the original course proved harmful. People need to be able to respond to changing conditions. So one qualification might be “clarity is helpful when it does not rule out flexibility and responsiveness.” 

Second, I think a lack of specificity at the organizational level isn’t quite the same thing as a lack at the individual level. Even in the instances you mentioned, the individual employees probably had some specific shorter-term goals they set for themselves. If you are trying out different strategies and exploring possibilities, you still benefit from having a clear idea what “successful” looks like, so you’ll know when a strategy is promising and when to switch to something else.

Great short post on goal setting and motivation.  Be sure to read the comments section of this post for an interesting exchange between the author and a reader.  You’ll note the quote above comes from the comment section and not the post itself.

Expert Life Underwriter Opinion – Create Jobs…Hire Somebody

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The Yawning of a New Era | workforce.com

America’s workforce is weary. Employees of all ages report feeling fatigued, stressed, burned out or depressed, brought down by a heavier workload, layoffs and an assortment of other adverse conditions workers feel they have little or no power to control.

The hamsters are starting to fall off their wheels.

All kidding aside, this is a serious management issue.  So what’s a little fatigue.  A plane crash here, a truck crash there right?

All we do is put risk on the books.

So what’s a little higher error ratio?

Think Brand Strategy NOT Social Media Strategy

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Sanders Says – You don’t need a social media strategy

Sanders Says – Brand strategy first, social media tactics second

You don’t need a social media strategy – You need a brand strategy that leverages social media.  Don’t get off the brand strategy just because there’s a new communications channel, that’s how you lose the plot as a brand.  Technology is the tail, not the dog.

Here are two links to two blog posts by Tim Sanders.  If your company is struggling with social media these articles will help.

Train Your Brain

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Underwriters love stuff like this!

How Your Brain Connects the Future to the Past – Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske – Your Health at Work – Harvard Business Review

In the business world, it’s a distinct advantage to have a brain that anticipates future demands and negotiates them well. Accurate predictions typically translate to success. Being able to envision future scenarios helps foster strategic planning and resist immediate rewards in favor of longer-term gains. The proactive brain flexibly recombines details from past experiences that, by analogy with your current surroundings, help you make sense of where you are, anticipate what will come next, and successfully navigate the transition.

Kindle Ebooks Outselling Dead Tree Versions

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I am still holding out for lower prices on my Ebook reader of choice.  Besides I like dead tree versions of books.

Amazon: Kindle Books Now Outselling Hardcovers

E-books have hit a significant milestone. In each of the last three months, Amazon reports that sales of books for Kindle have outpaced the sale of hardcover books, and that growth is only accelerating.

In a statement, Amazon says that, “over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.”