Gallup Pollsters are Not Business Consultants | team building tips

Every few years a new training fad will become very popular and be all the rage, but these fads are often short lived. The fads are typically introduced to the business world by a charismatic speaker or a well publicized book, but they all have a single aspect in common ? the results that they develop are anecdotal so the tips and techniques may work in some situations, but often fall flat generally. The newest fad is being propagated by the Gallup Organization, so before you do what they suggest and ?break the rules? or ?find your secret strengths? be weary. The biggest test for the tips and techniques is to ask the author, ?Before you actually wrote your book, what businesses did you build?? The reason why this test works is because after the book is published, thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of readers may have attempted to implement the tips. If only one of these millions succeed, then guess which one is going to be talked about by the author? You can bet it won?t be the hundreds of thousand who wasted a bunch of time and money chasing the elusive success.

Below are a few of the past fads. This is in no way comprehensive, because these new fads come and go and are soon forgotten, but the ones below will give an example of how these work.

In Search of Excellence ? Tom Peters

First published in 1982, this book took the business world by storm. Tom Peters made a name for himself as a business consultant, but this book was his masterpiece. In it, he identified 60 companies that were ?successful,? and he identified the characteristics of these great companies. If you just do what these successful companies do, your company will become successful as well. However, by the end of the 1980?s many of these successful companies ? using their own techniques ? had gone bankrupt and others were anything but ?excellent? within a decade. Names that you may recognize are IBM, National Cash Register (NCR), Xerox, Eastman Kodak, Delta Airlines, Hughes Aircraft, American Airlines, Atari, General Motors, Kmart, and more. These were the companies that Peters chose to tout as excellent and successful. Where are they now?

Good to Great ? Jim Collins

In 2001, Jim Collins wrote this book using the same strategy Peters. He identified eleven ?good? companies who did certain strategies that moved them into the ?great? category, and he identified eleven other ?good? companies that didn?t make the jump to ?great?. Again, just do what these ?great? companies did, and your company will be ?great? as well. One of Collin?s ?great? companies were Circuit City which went bankrupt in 2009 (I lost a bunch of money on that stock). Another of the companies was Fannie Mae, which in 2007 and 2008 was reaped in scandal for being poorly run and being a major factor in the current recession and the fall of dozens (if not hundreds) of banks. Just as an aside, the ?good? bank who hadn?t made the leap according to Collins was Great Western Bank (not sure exactly why he chose this company) who survived the downturn and has doubled their net assets during the recession ? primarily by buying out other failed banks.

First Break All the Rules ? Marcus Buckingham

One of the challenges with fad books is that there is often just enough truth in the text to make readers believe that everything in the book is true, and this particular book has a lot of fantastic information ? and a lot of stuff that is just dead wrong. Buckingham is not an industry leader or even a consultant. He is a manager at the Gallup organization, and the entire book is filled with conclusions drawn from hundreds and hundreds of Gallup polls and no practical experience in the real world. Gallup is considered to be one of the best polling companies in the world, but this is the company who, in 2004 published polls just two months before the presidential election were predicting Bush would beat Kerry by 13 points, two weeks later, they had Kerry up by two points, and two weeks later they had Bush up by eight points. Bush ended up winning the election by just two points. In 2008, Gallup was ranked the 20th most accurate polling company (out of 23) in the presidential election, so they were third from last. Because of the success of this book, though, Gallup has created a whole consulting company to help companies implement some of the suggestions that they made based on survey data. A follow up book called Strength Finder is now out. It has similar challenges.

There are a lot of ?experts? who are good speakers or good writers, but they don?t really have the fruit on the tree. Before you invest thousands of dollars in team training or organizational consulting or before you read some tips out of a book and make them a policy, do some research on the author or speaker. Most good consultants will have their success first, and then they write a book about it. If the book is first, it will often have flaws.

Doug Staneart is the CEO of The Leader?s Institute? and creator of the Fearless Presentations? public speaking course. He is based in Dallas, Texas, but the class is taught in cities all over the world.

Keywords: break all the rules | gallup | good to great | in search of excellence | strength finder

Source: http://www.leadersinstitute.com/gallup-pollsters-are-not-business-consultants/

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As governments look to growth, some jobs worth more: World Bank

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Creating jobs can help governments improve the lot of their citizens, but some jobs have more impact than others when it comes to helping societies move ahead, the World Bank said in a report on Monday.

As countries around the world struggle with high unemployment, especially among youth, the World Bank cautioned that economic growth alone cannot create jobs that improve people's lives and reduce conflict, contrary to conventional wisdom.

"It is not just the number of jobs, it is also what people do," said Martin Rama, the director of the World Bank's annual World Development Report. This year, the report focused on how employment impacts overall well-being for societies, looking at examples culled from more than 800 surveys and censuses.

As an example, Rama pointed to Mozambique, where a commodities boom has fueled one of the highest growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa. But more than 80 percent of the country's citizens work in agriculture, where poverty rates remain stubbornly high.

Governments should focus on boosting employment in areas that would have the most positive spillover effects on society as a whole. For example, more jobs for women has been tied to greater investment in education and health, while reducing employment barriers for young men could improve social cohesion.

"Jobs themselves are a driver of development," said Kaushik Basu, who on Monday began his job as World Bank chief economist.

In Tunisia, a high growth rate did not translate into more jobs for young people, as bureaucratic red tape and unequal treatment limited the creation of new businesses. The country erupted into turmoil in 2010, which later sparked revolts across North Africa and the Middle East.

The World Bank said a prescription for job growth depended on the particular issues facing each country, and labor policies were not always the best way to help -- particularly because 90 percent of all jobs in the developing world come from the private sector.

Agrarian societies like Mozambique would do well to focus on boosting agricultural productivity, which has kick-started poverty reduction in nearly every country in the world for the past 300 years.

And high youth unemployment in places like Tunisia is often more about limited business competition rather than young people's lack of skills. To foster the creation of more jobs, such countries should reduce the importance of political connections for business success.

Unemployment is a huge issue around the world, with 200 million people jobless and trying to find work. The World Bank estimates that another 621 million young people are unemployed and not looking for work.

Just to keep the same proportion of the population employed, the world will have to create 600 million jobs in the next 15 years, as populations balloon in Asia and Africa.

The pool of labor has also become more global, and macroeconomic, labor or migration policies in one country can spill over to its neighbors, the World Bank said. Governments should work together in setting policies and labor standards.

"The scope for a global cooperation is there in virtually every economic field," said Basu, the chief economist. "The need is there. The world is a very, very open place."

(Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/governments-look-growth-jobs-worth-more-world-bank-230235007--business.html

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It Seems Like All Chinese Restaurants Use This Hilarious Photoshop Trick [Humor]

College Humor wondered why all Chinese food menus looked the same from all those different Chinese food takeout restaurants that all somehow taste the same and it's so obvious! They all must use the same Photoshop technique! What you know about the peeling laminant and saucy fingerprints filter? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/9I-tX71fB24/it-seems-like-all-chinese-restaurants-use-this-hilarious-photoshop-trick

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Felix for App.net for iPhone review

Felix is an iPhone client for the Twitter-like social network called App.net. There may not be very many iPhone apps available for the service, yet, but even with little competition, the folks at tigerbears have done a beautifully phenomenal job with Felix.

Felix features five main tabs: My Stream, Mentions, new post, Global, and Dashboard. Each post that appears in My Stream and Mentions displays the user's avatar, username, and buttons to reply, repost, and mark as favorite. The default for the reply button is to reply to everyone mentioned in the post, but if you want to only reply to the poster, tap and hold the reply button to get the option to "reply" or "reply all". Similarly, tapping the recycle icon will repost with the method you've chosen in the app's settings, but tapping and holding will give the choice to "repost" or "repost with comment". My favorite gesture on the My Stream and Mentions tabs is that swiping to the left on a post will open up its conversation. If you want to save the conversation for later reference, just tap the star at the top of the page.

The middle tab that looks like a signal is where you go to post to App.net. As soon as you tap it, the post creation screen will slide in. It super fast and easy. The Global tab will show posts by all App.net users.

Your Dashboard is where you go to access your profile and settings. The animations on the Dashboard (and profile pages) are really fun. At the top of the screen you'll see your cover image, profile picture, and name, but as you scroll down, these three elements collapse into one bar with a smaller version of your profile pic and your name displayed over a very skinny section of your cover image.

In Settings, you can enable push notifications, change the default repost style, login to the droplr, CloudApp, Pocket, Instapaper, and Readability, and more.

The good

• Push notifications for mentions
• Save (mark as favorite) entire conversations for easy reference later
• Support for "starring" posts - mark your favorites, and see who else likes them
• Drafts
• Username and hashtag completion when posting.
• Support for the new "native reposts" App.net feature.
• Gap detection in streams - if it's been a while since you refreshed a feed, you can easily fill in what you missed.
• Upload media to Droplr or CloudApp and add their links to your posts.
• Save web pages for later reading to Pocket, Instapaper and Readability.

The bad

• No auto refresh

The bottom line

Felix is a beautiful App.net client for the iPhone. It's fully-featured with a gorgeous UI, intuitive gestures, support for other media and read-later services, and push notifications that have a very nice sound. I have downloaded a few different App.net clients on the iPhone, but I keep coming back to Felix.

Do you use App.net? If so, make sure you follow the iMore and Mobile Nations crew (I'm @llofte) and include a link to your @name in the comments below!

$4.99 - Download now

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/T601o--nFgk/story01.htm

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Former Dolan coach named Rippowam assistant principal

STAMFORD -- The city school board unanimously approved Chrystal Perry, a former literacy coach at Dolan Middle School, as the new assistant principal at Rippowam Middle School.

Perry returns to the district after spending a little more than a year working in the Norwalk public school system. She was named assistant principal at Norwalk's West Rocks Middle School last school year, but due to budget cuts was switched to assistant principal at two of the district's elementary schools this school year.

Before beginning her Norwalk career, Perry was a literacy coach at Dolan Middle School. She is a graduate of the Stamford public school system, and has also worked at Rippowam and Cloonan Middle School as an English teacher and drama coach during her 16-year career, according to Superintendent Winifred Hamilton.

The assistant principal position at Rippowam was opened up over the summer after Bryan Olkowski left the district to pursue a principal opportunity in Windham public schools. He had been named to the Rippowam assistant principal position in the spring after holding the same post at Scofield Magnet Middle School for several years.

After her approval Thursday night, Perry said she was excited to begin working in Stamford, but still needed time to tie up loose ends in Norwalk after a whirlwind application process was completed on Tuesday. The board has not yet announced when Perry will begin acting in her new role.

maggie.gordon@scni.com; 203-964-2229; http://twitter.com/MagEGordon

Source: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Former-Dolan-coach-named-Rippowam-assistant-3905303.php

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Difficulty With Internet Marketing? Take This Advice! | Christopher ...

Internet marketing can increase the profitability of a business. The advantage is that when you market on the Internet, you have access to potential customers from the entire world. It is important to use effective strategies for Internet marketing, and you can learn them easily. The following article will give you some great information.

By having a good internet marketing plan, it will be easy for you to know what type of products are profitable. Using these profitable products can help you convince consumers to buy other products you market. For example, if you sell a lot of a certain mobile phone, try selling accessories like phone cases or applications that go with that type of phone. Each of these other products will get more attention because of their relation to your best sellers, and they won?t require the same amount of advertising as other, unrelated products.

TIP! While a flashy site looks great, try to make sure it is not too distracting. When someone comes to your website you have about five seconds to capture their attention and make them want to stay.

Put effort into your internet marketing, and pay special attention to the kind of information you are giving your customers. Strive to make your content valuable and unique. Keeping your information fresh and updated is extremely helpful for visitors to your website.

One effective marketing technique is to gain an interview with an expert in your niche or industry. Just be sure to get their permission before you publish anything online. Convert interviews into simple articles, then submit them to directories on E-zine. This can get you sales, credibility and more traffic.

If you want to promote your product, a FAQ should be created. Offer answers about your products and solutions that will help. Write your questions with this in mind, giving yourself the subtle opportunity to promote your wares.

TIP! Use your website tag to define you and your site. Located very prominently in the window of your browser, the website tag is one of the first things people see.

Online marketing copy can be used to create some sort of emotional attachment for your readers and the products you are trying to sell. Get your reader to think about how much easier their life would be when they use your product. Your advertising copy should read as if the customer is enjoying the special features and benefits of the product, even as they are reading the ad.

You should figure out whom you are trying to reach, and what content you need to produce to attract them to your site. Once you figure this out, finding the content to convince these people to constantly come to your site should be simple.

You might not know it, but you are already equipped with all the resources you need in order to be successful in internet marketing. All you need to have is you. No expensive software or other tricks are needed. Just work diligently and choose your marketing strategies carefully.

TIP! To entice visitors to click on your ads, use a small image with a link to your item?s description or sales page. The text should coordinate with the main font used in your article and should be positioned near the end of the article.

When using Internet marketing, use the word ?guarantee? in your ad. Customers want to know that your product is a sure bet before they part with their hard-earned cash. You can offer a variety of guarantees or warranties for different items. Depending on the product, you can offer various lengths to the guarantees. The guarantee you choose to offer should be based off the type of product it applies to.

After reading this article, you should have a good grasp on ideas that will help you improve your internet business. Next you will need to apply them to your specific business to determine how well they suit you. It may be necessary to make small adjustments to the approach. Just remember to keep learning and be daring enough to try new techniques.

If you thought this article was helpful to you, please
click on the appropriate floating social buttons to Like and Share.

To get your hands on the system I use to generate
my leads and sales,
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Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/contino/blog/difficulty-with-internet-marketing-take-this-advice/

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Opinion: Happiness is not about Spending - by Maryam Hedayat

It is human nature or human tendency of having no satisfaction. We get more still we crave for further more. We are never gratified with what we have at present, instead we always desire for better and upgraded.

How much money do we really need to be happy? And how much do we need to spend to be joyful?

Most of us believe that once we reach a certain financial target we will be happy and not want more, but the fact is that nothing is ever enough for us as human beings.

We are all driven by goals in life. Unfortunately many of the values are given to us by television and advertising.

We no longer strive to be strong or thoughtful, noble or bold but have our identities and status created for us by the car we drive and the brand of face cream we buy.

According to an ancient philosophy, we are living in a culture that is 'doomed to be dissatisfied'.

In fact, spending too much can make us happy for a short time. It is like a festival day when we were nine or ten. We play with that new toy for a day or two then it just becomes one of the many toys we have, nothing special.

In genuine, money works the same way, another day another new toy. Most people spend more than they earn , and at the end they burden themselves with debt and stress, they actually does not know that happiness can never be bought.

Attaining things like houses and cars only have a temporary effect on happiness. People's desires for material possessions turn up at the same, or greater rate, than their salaries. Again, this means that despite considerably more luxurious possessions, people end up no happier

Through the focusing illusion we convince ourselves that satisfaction equals happiness. Unfortunately it does not. Even though we appear to have everything, we are left feeling that something is missing, but are unable to identify what that thing is.

Desire is unending and leads to suffering. Everybody knows that spending more than the making for an extended period of time leads to financial failure.

In the old days people brought their paychecks to the bank, deposited most of the money and pocketed the rest in cash. The cash was supposed to last until the next check. If it didn't, it was an obvious cue that too much money was being spent.

Fast-forward to these days when paychecks are deposited electronically and we stuff our pockets with debit and credit cards. Beaten-up cash bills and heavy coins never dirty our hands. Unfortunately, it makes too easy to bust the budget.

Despite modern conveniences and increased prosperity, happiness individually or as a society, has not increased in any way.

Contrary to popular belief, we don't need more money to spend more to be happy. In fact, spending less can actually make us happier.

Obviously, living carefully, doing away with the expensive and the unnecessary, may? require? giving up any number of attractive, comfortable? extras? such as high-end? new cars, excessively large? homes in exclusive neighborhoods,? designer? clothing, and branded items.?

Further to add,? giving up expensive,? unnecessary lifestyle choices willingly can actually? bring happiness.

Essentially happiness is a state of mind that can be enjoyed, regardless of economic status.?. There is even evidence that?materialism has no guarantee to keep us happy.

In fact, having positive experiences lead to much more happiness than acquiring redundant things. We need to manage our expectations with what resources we have.
To sum up, it is not the mere spending that brings happiness in life rather it is how we manage to spend what we really need that brings aesthetic experiences of accomplished fulfillment.

?

Source: http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=5&i=9232

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