Are you in the box?
I love to read. More specifically I love to read fiction. But I recently read a non-fiction book that I truly enjoyed and found extremely helpful both personally and professionally. This book is called Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute and explains a fundamental concept of all relationships. In a nutshell, this book highlights how mistaken views of people cause us to misread situations and react in a way that makes it difficult Read more 
Sales 101 – A Buyer’s Perspective
Recently, I lead a research project where I was investigating software company partners. What I ended up learning was my own definition of truly good and not so good sales people! I was amazed at how many professionals in sales positions don’t appeal to my personality type. Don’t get me wrong, I actually LOVE sales people (I married one, afterall!) and I have a lot of respect for the challenges they face. I also understand sales people deal with many people every day who drain their scarce time and resources only to walk away from them leaving no return for their investment. However, as a legitimate “buyer” I have a top 10 list of tips for how to appeal to me: Read more
Technology and Business, Yesterday and Today
Note: This is part 2 of a 3 part blog post.
Albert Einstein once said that, “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once”. Who am I to challenge the brilliance of Einstein, but apparently he never worked in IT.
(Before I go any further, it’s best to mention that these opinions are mine alone and not sanctioned, nor possibly shared by my peers and colleagues– especially those who provide my paycheck.)
When I was just getting my feet wet in IT, the demands at first seemed pretty straight-forward; my bosses wanted websites and email to connect with the world, end-users wanted computers and applications to always work, and everyone wanted passwords adhered to their computer monitors for “convenience”. Suffice to say, our costs for office supplies (especially Post-it notes) were considerably higher back then.
Du•ty: Noun. A service, function, or task and the compulsion felt to meet such obligation.
I knew my Jury Duty summons was coming, I had postponed a previous summons due to a scheduling conflict so it wasn’t a surprise, but when I saw the oh-so-distinct envelope in the mail box I couldn’t help but feel a bit of trepidation.
Isn’t it funny that they call it Jury “Duty”? I don’t think the naming convention was a mistake by any means – it’s one of those things that you know you should do, whether you want to or not. But like most individuals, I didn’t want to serve. I have a family, a job and most importantly a schedule that I don’t like having disrupted and this would most certainly put a bit of a kink in things.
Book Lovers Alert!
For book lovers, it is the best time of the year. The lists are out! Books we loved the most in 2011 are compiled by library systems, publishing houses, newspapers, magazines and bookstores. Read more
If An Attorney Falls in the Woods…Can You Tweet About It?
So, you have a social media presence and you’ve established a routine for engaging your community, your social media strategy is complete, right? Not so much! It used to be that organizations feared taking the plunge into the social world because someone might say something bad about them. They worried that they might not recover from such a public blow to their reputation.
Unfortunately, associations and B2B organizations have more to worry about then just negative publicity on their social networks. If your organization is like most, you have your associates, members, volunteers, suppliers and more, all engaging in online communities. While the majority of the interactions are favorable, are you poised to respond when someone represents your organization in less than favorable terms? Do those representing your organization understand what types of communication is acceptable and what is not? Has your organization formally communicated what is acceptable to share pubically and what is considered confidential information? In other words, does your association or business have a social policy in place?
If you’re thinking, “How much harm can a 140 character tweet bring to my organization?” Read more
10 Amazing Dining Highlights from MRA Services’ Travelers
MRA Services’ crew travels broadly throughout the U.S. and several have the opportunity to travel to exotic foreign places like Adelaide, South Australia, or Singapore or Leeds. One of the positives of travel, domestic and international, is the opportunity for searching out amazing places to dine.
I have my own favorites, one of which I share below, but I thought it might be interesting to poll our folks for their favorite on-the-road dining experiences. I asked each to name one best standout place, why they thought so, what they enjoyed most.
As you can see, limiting to one was a problem, so this got a little long. I’ll add a part 2 some other time. I’m building a directory of our favorite places so that we can make recommendations when clients, exhibitors or just plain friends ask us “What’s good in Show Town?”
You can help. If you have a really great dining experience you want to share let me know so I can put it in our directory. And, who knows, maybe you’ll see it on one of my future blog articles.
Here are the results for this post in alpha sequence by city name:
You and Your Calendar, BFF?
Meeting planners have always had a close relationship with a calendar whether paper or electronic. A calendar is the backbone to being organized. The meeting planning world is all about the details and the worry of remembering each and every one of those details. Every meeting planner has their own tried and true system for maintaining their calendar. Read more
Why a W-9?
Why do I have to fill out all these forms when I work with another companies accounting department? What is a W-9 anyway? Do you ever ask yourself these questions when you are trying to get your customer to pay membership dues, registration fees, or sponsorship deposits?
Every company requires unique information when processing payments, but one standard piece of information requested is a W-9 or a Substitute W-9 form, which includes the standard W-9 requested information plus requested information that is unique to the individual requesting company. The “Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification” communicates necessary information between payors and payees. Think of it as an introduction from one company to another. The information on the W-9 serves two basic purposes: Read more
How To Find The Time
Are your work days filled with scheduled meetings, appointments and tasks? If so, how do you handle interruptions and the unexpected problems that arrive at your door? To accommodate a thoughtful, careful response to the unexpected, you need time to process your options. To understand a problem and formulate a plan, you need time to think of solutions for the best possible outcome. A good decision made with thoughtful consideration and confidence can resolve a problem. A bad decision may create a bigger problem. Having a bit of unscheduled time in your very busy work life could make a significant and positive impact not only in your professional life but perhaps in your personal life also.
So how do you find the time? Time management is crucial to get the most out of your work day. There are multitudes of suggestions for managing your time, and you probably have tried many. My fail proof recommendation is to implement the 80-20 rule to managing time. Scheduling eighty percent of your day but leaving twenty percent open for the unexpected may be of help to you. The thought of actually scheduling open time may seem unrealistic; especially in the current world of technology and social media that encourages instant interaction. Give it a try once or twice per week for starters. A block of empty space on your calendar certainly doesn’t mean you will be sitting around waiting for trouble to knock on your door. This is an opportunity to manage your time in the moment as you see fit. Embrace it! Whether you prefer the 80-20 or have your own method to managing your time, the key is to make the time to problem solve and confer with others, which may just save you time in the end.
