Boss Hating and Reader Baiting

Stop moaning about the boss. Use these five time-tested strategies to create the best possible situation for you and your employer:

Mindset (Part 2.5) How to Find Out Who You Are

Picking up on yesterday’s post and if we’ve done our homework assignments, we’re ready to get down to the task of figuring out what the market thinks of us, and how to make something good come from that.

The way people think about us determines whether or not we are promoted, make a big sale, secure investors, and yes — get a date, a decent table at a restaurant, and the list goes on.

People who get that warm and fuzzy feeling every time they come into contact with us choose us over others. It’s not necessarily fair but it’s reality, and we can influence the outcome.

Mindset (part 2): How to Find Out Who You Are

Strange title for a post — How to Find Out Who You Are? Maybe, but when you understand where I’m going with this, I think you’ll realize the relevance.

I led a training session for the Chamber of Commerce today that focused on streetsmart marketing strategies, guiding about 50 people through exercises to increase their awareness of their personal market standing. One of the questions was “Who are you?”

I’m not sure that anyone was on the same page with me as I started, but they quickly picked it up. The answer lies in the minds of the people we market to — whether that marketing is external (customers and vendors) or internal (support staff and other coworkers).

Everybody has an opinion of us in both a personal and work-related sense and, like it or not, that’s who we are so far as the market is concerned. We don’t have to agree with how people see us but, as the saying goes, perception is reality.

Hail the New Texting Champion!

There’s a contest for seemingly everything these days so I wasn’t surprised when I caught the news that we had crowned a new texting champion. That’s right, America has a new text message superstar, 15-year-old Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa.

Moore outpaced 20 finalists from around the country over two days of challenges such as texting blindfolded and texting while maneuvering through a moving obstacle course. Okay, there’s some creativity involved with that.

Let’s make it more meaningful

Maybe they should have added adult activities such as …

The Power of (Re)creation

I have trained a lot of people over the years and the courses I originally wrote and produced have held up well throughout continual change.

Truth be known, I’ve changed a lot as well. Because I’m not the same person I was almost a decade ago when I created the initial materials, I prefer not to present some of those courses. The information is still solid and value is high, but I’ve moved on and…

It’s Time to Say Goodbye to Hello

Every year it is suggested that certain words be retired from our language. If it hasn’t already been nominated, I suggest we stop using “hello.”

No, I haven’t lost my mind.

This is actually a contextual thing.

I don’t want to take such a warm and wonderful word out of general use, one we use umpteen times a day when greeting people on the phone, in e-mails, or in person.

“Hello” has a permanent place in our language (and in my heart).

What I want to see become quick history is the other version: