A big thank you to the Robb who worked very diligently on the problem with Microsoft.

The Problem: The network shares were lost (disappeared) on a volume that was hosted on a SAN when the host server (Windows 2003 in our case) was rebooted.  It happened every time when the server was rebooted from script, but only happen occasionally when the server was rebooted via a logged in console. So each time we rebooted the server from script, we had to to recreate the network shares.

A Solution: We made sure that we were using the latest version of the Microsoft ISCSI client and configured it correctly per the Microsoft documentation.  We completed all the steps in setting the ISCSI dependency (MS Knowledge Base: File shares on iSCSI devices may not be re-created when you restart the computer)

Open Registry Editor 

Disclaimer: This worked for us in our particular situation, and it should not be completed by anyone without an understanding of the impact of these changes. This may not help you in your situation, and it could even make your problem worse, so use this information as a discussion topic with your SAN vendor or Microsoft. It is highly recommended that you consult with your vendor and Microsoft before making changes to your registry. You should always backup up your entire server before making any modification - as well as making an extra local backup of your registry - just in case you OS is damaged or rendered inoperable. Remember Andy Grove’s book, Only the Paranoid Survive. 

This is for Windows 2003 server and I have no idea if it applies to any other version or release of Windows.

Navigate to the following registry sub-keys and create the following DECIMAL values if not already present:

1) HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ISCSI\Discovery
     VolumeRetryCount REG_DWORD 160
     VolumeRetryTimer REG_DWORD 1100
 
2) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
     MaxRequestHoldTime  REG_DWORD 120
 
3) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Disk
     TimeOutValue REG_DWORD 60
 
4) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
     ServicesPipeTimeout REG_DWORD 60000

Reboot via your preferred method and hope for the best!  It worked like a charm for us, and we have had zero issues with shares disappearing after a manual or scripted reboot.

I can not take credit for any new insights in to this area.  These are just couple of thoughts and regurgitated learning from the past several years.  I give the professional writers and management gurus their all due respect, for they have taught me much about life and how to be successful.

I have always told my staff that our goal is to be come critically valuable to a company.  In the past, my team would often ear me going on and on about one of my favorite phrases.

“We must get our claws so deep into our clients, that it is incredibly painful for them to be extracted.”

This roughly translates to the idea that I want to be considered so valuable that a client (or employer) would not even image replacing me or my team.  I want all aspects of the company to become reliant on the services that we provide.  That is not to say that we to do not train and empower people to become self-sufficient.  Trust me, I have been there and done that…it is no fun.

I want the company to be able to count on us to get a job done no matter what the odds that must be overcome. I want my team to go the extra mile every single time.  We always over deliver, and when we have a problem, we are the first to identify it, accept responsibility (regardless of who/what is at fault), and develop the plan to solve the issue.  I want the company to see us way more then just “IT”.  Our goal is become integrated into every department and as many aspects of the business has possible.

We listen, anticipate needs, and come up with good solutions on short notice.  We can not be prepared for everything that will come our way, but how long it takes us to respond to a new challenge goes a very long way in peoples mindset.  We strive to always manage client expectations and come out slightly on top. 

I do not have an issue with keeping what we do a bit of a secret.  I want accountants to be accountants…not spending time trying to understanding how to deploy a Storage Area Network.  We are happy to train staff on how to use the systems provided, but I do prefer that IT is a bit of a mystery to them.  I liken it to a car, most people know how to drive one, but a relative few understand how to build or fix it when they have problems.

Ultimately, I want our team to be considered vitally needed. We do what it takes to drive that message into our clients’ minds by delivering on what they never thought we could, and by helping them achieve their highest priorities.  Many times, this is done by just making their jobs a little easier.  The value of that little effort goes such a long way.

I would challenge every single person to think about the concept of their long-term value and look at how valuable they really are to their organization.  What could you do to make yourself more valuable and get your claws in just a little deeper?

Update:  When I got back to a computer and checked the post, I found that it looked fine. The application worked just as it stated. But I just had to fix some of the typos, wording errors, and add a link.  My writing is bad enough without all the extra damage the little keyboard and my big thumbs were doing to the English language.

Note: This post is being created from my Blackberry Storm. Oh how I miss spellcheck right now.

I found an application on the Blackberry online store that says it is for “mobile blogging”. It is called CellSpin and it is free - you just got to love that price!

The download and setup was quick and easy. The application allows you to post pictures, video, and audio directly to your blog or other social sites.

Text editing is a challenge on a Blackberry Storm, as moving back and forth in text is just plain hard. I never thought I would say that I miss the scroll wheel.  This is one feature of the Blackberry Curve that I miss so very much. The text navigation problems of a Storm will reduce my desire to write “on the run”. It is not a short fall in the application, but with the device. The lack of a spellcheck solution is a shortfall of the program. As you can see by now, I have a hard time spelling kat without a spellcheck program.

Is mobile blogging useful? Sure, for the right type of blog. CellSpin allows for postings to multiple sites, which I found impressive. I can see this being very popular for Facebook and Myspace users. They can snap some video or picture and post it in seconds with the appropriate commentary. That is a very cool feature. 

But I must say that it has more limited application when you leave the social site arena, unless you are very good at writing on your mobile device.  I am not, so I will have to give up on mobile blogging or get an fold-up keyboard for my Storm.

Extreme views attract extreme people, and dumb things get said and done.  I live and work on the Microsoft side of the world, and I make no apologies for the support I give the company.  I am not an Apple or Mac hater, just a realist. Microsoft is the dominate OS provider in business and will remain so for the many years to come.  I need to work and support my family, and I want my skills to be in the area with the highest demand.

Now that I have clearly stated by bias, I have been disappointed with Microsoft’s marketing department for a long time.  They seem to have gotten so over confident in their market position that they forgot how to compete for the hearts and minds of their consumers.  This has been the problem with Microsoft for a long, long time. And it seems to me that it is a common failing in most companies that reach a market dominating position.

The recent “Laptop Hunter” ads, I believe, will prove to be one of the most effective marketing programs that Microsoft has engaged in to-date.  Apple has the upscale, artistic, image locked in and I am not sure what could be done to change that consumer mindset.  That being said, Microsoft is targeting the other 98% of people who make up the rest of the world, and cost is a key driver for most of them.

This is a bit refreshing from Microsoft.  It goes directly to a key issue for most consumers - cost.  The average laptop will work great for the average consumer.  Is it the latest and greatest?  No of course not, but then again, most people do not need cutting edge performance levels, not to mention the cost that exists at the bleeding edge.  People need their computers to work at a reasonable performance levels to get the tasks they are working on done. More features or performance than that is hardly ever used.

Does Mac have a role?  Absolutely, just not the dominate one.  If I was interested in video production or other artistic endeavors, I would seriously look at a Mac.  I do not have desires in that direction, and neither do my children at this point.  I want my children to work on PCs because they need the skills that dominate in the real business world.  If they change to more artistic endeavors, then we may change our position.

I saw the new Mac ad the other night and found it be a bit petulant.  I find it amusing that Mac attempts to portray their computers as worry free.  No viruses or crashes..really…never??  That is truly a bold statement.  And what is wrong with the large choices in PCs anyway? 

What is your take on the Mac ad?

Enter Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com)

Is it different from the rest?  From what I can tell so far - Yes! 

How is it to be used in relation to other search engines?   Not a clue yet…

Update 1:

I have been doing some additional searches on Wolfram Alpha and I have found some interesting results.  So far one of the best has been putting two stocks in as a search query and seeing the quick comparison.  This is very cool.

This site will require some getting used to, as far as learning how to write great search statements, but do not let that be a deterrent.  The examples sections is very helpful for getting started (http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/). 

Wolfram Alpha is worth checking out, but it is not a replacement for your daily searches at Google or Yahoo at this time.

Update 2:

I am not the only one who likes it for investing…”Using Wolfram Alpha in researching investments“

What does that say about the value we place on superficial first impressions?

I have been doing a little reading about her, and she is not your typical 40 something.  I found many stories posted online, many from major publications, which go a bit into her background.  Do a Google search and read a little bit about her. 

Watch Susan Boyle on YouTube

As of this posting, the video had been viewed over 16 million times on YouTube.

I sleep better knowing that my documents are stored on some of the best storage arrays, operated by some the the best admins, located in good data-centers.  If my house burns down, or is broken into, my data is safe and accessible.

It is critical that you practice very good password management and keep your computer clean from (x)ware.  I do understand that these large companies can loose data as well or even shutdown the service all together.  It is just a lot less likely they will suffer a loss verses an individual person.  As a precaution, every other month, I change all of my passwords and download all my files that I then burn on to a couple of DVDs.  I trust the platforms of Google and Microsoft more then I trust any single computer.

I have moved all of my “Office” type documents to Microsoft Office Live Workspace.  I was using Google Docs for a while, but I did not like some of the minor formatting changes that happened to my historical Microsoft Office documents.  I still strongly feel that Google Docs would make a good choice for a smaller start-up that had limited resources.  That being said, I have found that Office Live Workspace is really suited to my personal and family needs.  I use Microsoft Office extensively and it integrates perfectly with Office 2007.  I can see many uses of Office Live Workplace in smaller companies that have investment in Microsoft Office, collaborative groups, or companies that have a field presense.

I have access to all of my documents no matter where I am or the computer that I am working on, obviously Internet access is required. I can use a web browser or access documents or right from the open menu in Office.  I may not be able to edit some of the documents if I am on a computer that does not have Microsoft Office (or OpenOffice) installed, but I can certainly view them all.  And really, this works just fine for most situations.  

Microsoft recently increased the storage of Live Workplace to 5 GB, and this easily handles all of my personal documents.  You create document workspaces, folders, and can share the workspaces with other people.  Right now, my wife and I share a couple of workspaces that contain the common household documents.  I have other workspaces for personal research, blog ideas, old work files from my consulting days, etc. 

This is by far one of the most productive, FREE, services that Microsoft has released.  If you take Office Live Workspace with Microsoft’s SkyDrive service, which includes 25GB of free storage, you can really start storing massive amounts of information online. Obviously you want to use some common sense about what you store online, but I have found it to be incredibly useful.

I am about simplifying my life, and my computing needs.  This is just one person’s honest appreciation for quality services.

1. The World Trade Center has a whole new meaning now that I have seen the sights.  The last time I was in New York, they were still standing.
2. I am glad I picked a good hotel (Marriott Downtown), the stay has been great!
3. I like taking cabs. We had some bad drivers, but we also had some great drivers that were very interesting.
4. The flowers in Macy’s were impressive.
5. Lunch at Maxie’s deli was huge!
6. Virgin America is a good airline and the entertainment system makes these long flights go by in a snap.
7. I do not think that I have ever walked so much in my entire life, I am beat.
8. This place is crowded

I know, a lame post, but I am on vacation…

This is the first time the girls have been to the “big city” and they are looking forward to it.  I must say that I can not wait to go as well as it has been a long, long, time since my last visit.  We do not have family, or any other personal tie to the city, but a desire to see the sites.

In the wonderful world of IT, sales must seriously be slowing if the volume of sales calls I am receiving is any indication.  Talk about the desperate calling…and calling. If it is not someone calling to sell me something, it is a recruiter calling, near begging, me to interview their candidate.  I am not currently hiring, or considering hiring, but that does not seem to matter that much to the callers.  I guess they need to show some sort of action to their clients and any interview, even an unproductive one, is action.

<<A bit of a rant>>
I think what is bugging me the most is the attitude that I get from sales people that I owe them a return call, or 5 minutes of my time.  I love the calls that start out with “I am not calling to sell you anything, but I just want to get an understanding of your internal structure to see if we have a possible fit.”  Let me see, I do not know you from Adam, and you want to me to go into detail about my internal operations and configuration…ya, I will get right on that.  Wait, how about I just send you all of our internal documentation as well.  They just want to understand my operation so they can determine if they can sell me something later…hmmm.

I understand they have a job to do, and are stressed about their own sales quotas, but I have a job to do as well and can not do it if I spend all day chatting with sales people. I am not sure that the average sales person realizes that they are one of many people who call each day trying to get me to “setup a time” to chat with an account manager about xyz product or service.  It has got to the point that the phone is clutter, and the communication is noise most of the time.  Sales people do not spend 5 minutes pre-screening targets, and all that does is waist time.

OK, I am done ranting about something I can not change…

•  First off, I am not going to post daily.  I just do not have the time, but I should post a couple times a week.
• I am going to post about a greater verity of topics that interest me.  It is my blog after all.
• I am not going to be monitoring the web stats as much and try hard to drive traffic.  This is going to be fun…and stay fun.

Oh, and this is test as I had to get Wordpress and all assoicated software updated and happy.  I have to upgrade the theme, but I am no rush as it does not appear to be broken currently.

Life is good.

Below is the dialog box that appears when you click “New” from the “Office button” menu.

When I selected the “New blog Post” document a wizard opened for me to register my WordPress, or other blog provider, account information. I have a self-hosted WordPress site and had no problems with the account setup. I was surprised that I did not have to make a single change in my WordPress admin panel to get this to work correctly.

Current, Microsoft Word 2007 supports the following list of blog providers. I have only tested it with a self-hosted WordPress site.

Once you have selected your provider, you will need to enter your blog URL and log-in information. Be sure to change only the “<Enter your blog URL here>” text. Then enter your blog’s username and password.  This information is passed in clear text to the blog.  If you have concerns about your blog’s security, you should consider setting up an SSL certificate as the default log-in is most likely completed in clear text.  I have not set my blog to use SSL, but I see no reason why I would not be able to use SSL with Word 2007 by simply changing the “Http” to “Https” in the below URL.

I left the “Picture Options” information as default and had no problems have my images being displayed correctly or having Word 2007 automatically uploading the images to my server. Click “OK” when you have filled out the information, and If it is able to access your blog, it will give you a conformation dialog box.

Outstanding! You are now able to create posts and publish them directly to your blog from Word 2007.

I was able to add multiple categories from the “Insert Category” icon on the Word 2007 Ribbon menu, but not post tags. You are able to open and edit prior posts using the “Open Existing” icon in the Word 2007 Ribbon. The “Manage Accounts” icon will allow you to setup multiple blogs to work with Word 2007.

Once I completed my post, I publish it to my blog by simply using the ”Publish” button. I opened the post in the default WordPress editor and added image titles and post tags. I will look around to see if i can find a way to do this from Word, but so far, no luck. 

I was surprised by how clean the code was in the HTML view.

This is not a bad option for creating posts for a blog. Most of the more advanced formatting worked just fine, which I was very pleased about. Even my image placement worked as designed.  While this is the not the prefect blog post publisher, it is one of the better ones that I have used.

What do you use to create your blog posts? Have a recommendation for an alternative software?

The results from effort that is put into self development are greatly improved by adding a feedback process. When the feedback process is completed correctly, it will be provide valuable insight and be an important skill builder. However if it is not done correctly, it will have the effect of reinforcing wrong messages all the way to completely demoralizing a person.

People, especially in management positions, can directly ask for peer feedback.  I have found this process to be enlightening, and hard to hear at times. No one is perfect, and we all have areas that we need to improve; it is just unpleasant to hear about them in a direct, matter-of-fact, manor. However, if I do not know the areas of weakness then how can I improve?

When asking for peer feedback, I explain to the person, that I am requesting feedback from, what are my goals of the conversation, and I ask them to be completely honest with me. 

I start off by asking what they feel are my strengths, and what aspects of my responsibilities I truly excel. With every topic I ask for examples to make sure I have a reference to draw upon, and to be sure that I really understand what they are saying in real-world context.

Next, I move to aspects of my leadership, management, and job responsibilities that they feel I operate at an average level.  These are areas that are most easily improved upon with just a little bit of additional focus. I ask for more examples and their input on what/how I should improve.

Lastly, I want to know the areas that are below expectations. This is the hardest to hear, and the hardest for most people to give.  As the recipient of feedback, I make an earnest effort to instill trust, security, and be non-confrontational. I detach from my emotional side, the best that I can, and embrace my logical side.

I inquire in non-threatening ways to better understand where I have not met expectations.  Examples are important, and I ask for input on specific situations so I can get their perspective on what must be improved.  It may take effort and coaxing to get them to open up, but it is well worth the effort. It is very import not get defensive or engage in ‘setting the record straight’. This will lower trust and reduce the likelihood anyone will participate in the process in the future.

Working with peers to get direct feedback takes effort and trust. If you are not accustomed to hearing direct feedback, then the first few times will be uncomfortable.

Everything that has worth has a price, and self development is no different.

Don’t like reading? Read on…

• “Just because you don’t enjoy reading a good book, doesn’t mean there aren’t many other uses for all of those books piled up in the attic.”

How to Win Friends and Influence People

•  ”This is Dale Carnegie’s summary of his book, from 1936″

Be creative with Sumo Paint

•  A free web-based image editing software

How to Write With Style

•  ”Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stained wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers.”

10 (More) Bizarre Deaths in History

• “If you find the first part interesting, here are 10 more unusual deaths that have occurred throughout history.”

Did you find an interesting site or post this week that you would like to share?  If so, feel free to leave a comment with the link and tell us a little bit about what you found.

As part of a mentoring program that I am participating in, we completed a survey that helped to identify our individual strengths.  The timed online survey is part of the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton.  I am still reading the book and it has been enlightening.

I must admit that the survey was spot on in its assessment of me, and I am not sure how I feel about how it was able to summarize aspects of my personality so quickly.

Here is what the survey identified as my top five strengths with abbreviated versions of the supporting text.

•1.    Focus

…Guided by this theme of Focus, you need a clear destination. Lacking one, your life and your work can quickly become frustrating. And so each year, each month, and even each week you set goals. These goals then serve as your compass, helping you determine priorities and make the necessary corrections to get back on course. Your Focus is powerful because it forces you to filter; you instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular action will help you move toward your goal…

•2.    Achiever

Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself…It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving…

•3.    Responsibility

Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it…

•4.    Significance

You want to be very significant in the eyes of other people. In the truest sense of the word you want to be recognized. You want to be heard. You want to stand out. You want to be known. In particular, you want to be known and appreciated for the unique strengths you bring…

•5.    Connectedness

Things happen for a reason. You are sure of it. You are sure of it because in your soul you know that we are all connected. Yes, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgments and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger…

I find the whole process of self discovery intriguing and empowering. If you have never completed any personality, strength, or weakness surveys, I would encourage you to complete one or two.

The information these tests can give you is priceless, if you use it wisely.  I have found these types of tests have given me a foundation by which I can make improvements in my life, and have helped me to better understand the people around me.

If you have any personality tests or surveys that you have taken, please leave a comment with what your thoughts were about the test and results –Thank you.

Time, but not the theoretical Steven Hawkins type of time, but instead a detailed inventory of how time is spent.  Once this information is accurately captured, it allows an individual to make evaluations on how time was spent.  Hindsight is not 20/20 when trying to track time, only a real-time capturing will be accurate enough. 

A time log is incredibly revealing, and an accurate log with show exactly the time and activities spent throughout the day.  This is one of the most critical pieces of understanding needed to help one get organized, and reclaim that sense of control.

A simple log, like a tablet with the date at the top of each page will do just fine.  Write the start, stop and actions for all time spent.  Track time 24/7 for 2 weeks, two or three times per year to really keep yourself on track.  Do not review the logs until the two weeks have passed, and then take a real hard look at where all the time was spent.

The magic comes from the realization of how much unproductive time was spent on low priority activities, or activities that should have been delegated.  We often work on tasks that should be completed by someone else; we tell ourselves we can do it faster or better, but look at what we gave up.  All that time is now lost forever.

What is worse, we see time spent on tasks that did not provide long-term value.  These actions should have never been completed at all.  How much of the time spent could have been re-purposed to more productive long-term value building actions?  Serious questions must be asked and answered.

The process is not easy, but the rewards are well worth the irritation of writing down every little bit of time.  I mean, every little bit.  Take an inventory of time and understand it.  It will provide the foundation to make serious choices about how, what, and where time is spent.

 Time is a resource that once spent can never be recovered.  Use it wisely.

I do not profess to be all knowing or all seeing, so I trust they have more information than I do to come to such a conclusion. It does not matter if it is in politics or business; most decisions are late in coming and go to one extreme or another. As a whole, we are lacking good quality decision makers and those that prove they have this skill are rewarded hansomly for it.

Many sources are available to assist you with making good decisions. I found consulting companies, seminars, courses, books, articles, and software in abundance with just a few Google searches.

I scraped my article I wrote on this topic because of the sheer amount of information that I found in just moments. I really did not have anything new to add after I spent a few hours reading.  I must admit this was a humbling realization.

I have included a few links to some of the better articles I found.

• Leadership Decision Making
• Beyond Data: Bringing judgment, intuition, and gut to the workplace
• We will discuss the steps a team can follow to reach a high-quality decision
• How to make good decisions
• Decision Making Techniques

Related Post: Everything starts by making a decision

Last month, I wrote a post discussing the potential dangers that social-networking sites can have on future employment. 

In my morning reading, I came across the below news story written by Nate Anderson on ars technica.

Every teacher wants to be the cool guy, the Robin-Williams-in-Dead-Poet’s-Society friend to students, but a court case from Connecticut offers a lesson to teachers-in-training: be careful when you buddy up to students online. While sites like MySpace make it easy to engage in casual contact with students, they also make it easy for the contact to cross professional red lines.

While this teacher clearly stepped over the line with his students, it does illustrate some of the dangers of social-networking sites and conflicts of interest that may have an effect on employment status.

The greater position of authority, or likely hood of promotion, that someone is in, the greater the level of scrutiny that people will be under. If someone is going to be considered for promotion, management and HR will review not only the work ethic and achievements of the candidate, but may review public information to be sure that the person is truly ready for the position.

It is simple, people checkout the people that are in positions of trust. At the beginning of each school year, I search the Internet for any information about my daughters’ teachers and principal. As a parent, I want to “know” the people that have influence over my children. I am fortunate that I have never found anything that was disturbing, but that does not mean that I do not continue to check. And if I find something, you bet I will bring it to the attention of the principal or school board.

Be aware of your online identify - It Matters!

I have always tried to keep the performance reviews as honest and fair as possible, all the while knowing they are inevitably biased out of the shear human condition. With my last team, I completed mini review sessions quarterly, and after every major project.  This kept the dialog going, and I tried not to spend the majority of time focused on areas of weaknesses. I would address weaknesses only if they caused department/productivity issues, or were preventing the individual from moving forward with their career plan.

The below excerpt is an article from the Wall Street Journal written by Dr. Samuel Culbert from UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles, and he has an interesting take on the annual review process. It is worth a read.

And yet in a performance review, employees are supposed to be measured along some predetermined checklist. In almost every instance what’s being “measured” has less to do with what an individual was focusing on in attempting to perform competently and more to do with a checklist expert’s assumptions about what competent people do. This is why pleasing the boss so often becomes more important than doing a good job. Create a positive impression and the boss will score you high on any dimension presented.

Worse, bosses apply the same rating scale to people with different functions. They don’t redo the checklist for every different activity. As a result, bosses reduce their global sentiments to a set of metrics that captures the unique qualities of neither the person nor the job.

The process he is a proponent for is proactive and continual throughout the year, which is very positive. It focuses on the strengths of people, and places management in a more accountable and active role in the success of employees. However, I have concerns around the potential lack of accountability this model has for the employees who under-perform.

The article’s model would work great in an ”Ideal” world, but humans are far from ideal. I believe, from what I have read and my personal experiences, that it would work for most employees, but you would have abuses on both sides that would be difficult to manage. Very clear policies around corrective action plans would need to be developed and enforced. Management would have to be truly accountable to their peer group to ensure compliance in the feedback and support mechanisms.

This type of process would take dedication and serious effort.  I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has seen this type of management style put into practice.

The lack of decision making and follow-through hold many people back in both personal and professional life. It is a “career killer” for anyone in management.

Good quality decision making starts small and is developed over time by frequent use. People do not become great decision makers overnight. With each decision comes increased confidence and comfort at being near or outside their comfort zone.

At the core, a decision is choice to engage, or discontinue, an action, or series of actions, in order to generate a desirable result. Simply put, a choice to do something, even if that something is to stop.

Two areas come to mind when thinking about successful decision making. The first is follow-through, and the second is making quality decisions. Follow-through, in many ways, can be more critical then quality decisions. An “OK” decision that is implemented produces some positive results. A great decision that is never acted on does not produce any positive results, but instead produces lower credibility and destroy trust.

Follow-through: Making a decision requires action.  If no action follows a decision, then nothing really has been decided. The only thing that has been achieved is the abdication of free will to someone or something else.

Failure to follow-through on a decision lowers credibility and motivation. People are judged on their ability to follow-through on a decision, and it can be a huge team motivator or moral killer based on the follow-through, not necessary the results of the actions. Follow-through demonstrates consistency and engagement.

One method to assist in creating the motivation, and the energy required to start the action phase of a decision, is to create a contract. When I have made a decision, that I was not extremely motivated to carry out, I would hand-write (never type) a contract with myself. I would then sign the contract, and leave it on my desk. I start each week by reading through my contracts, I tend to have a few, and this helps me in my weekly and monthly planning.

My contracts are short in length, but clearly state what I must do, or not do as the case may be, and why I need to do it. If the method of execution is critical to the decision, I will include it the contract. A good contract should include what must be done and why.

If a decision requires a longer series of actions, always include revaluation points. Decisions are not set in stone and should be evaluated throughout the action, or implementation, phases. New information and changing conditions require changes in positions all the time, and being flexible in decision making is critical to long term success.

It really does not matter what the decision is, it can be large (such as goals), intermediate, or minor. All decisions require actions and follow-through. Start small and follow-through with whatever is decided. This will build confidence and integrity.

Related Post: Making Quality Decisions Takes Effort

If you are giving your product away free, while incurring costs, how exactly is this great for your business long-term? The only thing I can think of, is that you use the consumer base as a breeding ground for future business or complementary product sales. This strategy seems risky to say the least. Consumers will move to free online applications over paid applications, and will then move amongst the various free applications at will. I do not believe in consumer online loyalty in the software space, as everything is just a click away. 

Companies that move in this direction may be protecting their brand and customer base, but if the customer base does not generate revenue, are they really worth having? The idea of “making it up in volume” or “ad revenue” is a design for slowly going broke. Intuit is no Google in regards to PPC revenue sources.

I came across a review of Quicken Online and Mint.com on ARS.  This is worth a read and made me think about if I am going to upgrade my local Quicken installation or move to a free online product.

“Online financial organization have just grown more robust as Mint.com and offline incumbent Quicken both introduced new features to their web-based products. Since Mint.com and Quicken Online have similar purposes and functionality in mind, we thought it was time to take a comparative look at how a company from the new social media realm stacks up against a desktop software giant when it comes to online money management.“

Both retail and business consumers are expecting more for less, and sooner or later this will bring the downfall of many smaller companies.

I have been a huge fan of VMWare. This company sold its Virtual Server software (called GSX at the time) for over a thousand dollars per license. Microsoft reduced its product to free, and VMware had to respond in kind. Now they have moved the ante up again with VMWare giving away one of their enterprise solutions.

I do not know if the model of giving software away free and making it up in service or complementary sales will survive. I feel this trend is terrible for the long-term health of the software industry. We may end up with Microsoft and a few other huge corporations, as the small developers will be priced out of existence.  Venture capital will only last for so long before the small companies will have to find a way to make a profit or discontinue opperations.

The below quote is from one of my favorite authors, Terry Goodkind, and is very appropriate in today’s world.

“People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”

I try to keep this in mind as I read and listen to the news. How much of what is being said is really true or factual? I have no idea any more.  Everyone blames everyone else for the world’s problems, and says that so-in-so did, or did not, do something.  They argue voting records and spin their actions to ad nauseam.

Is their a purveyor of truth these days or is the public at lost in a sea of spin and slick marketing?

My old manager loved to remind us that if you do not get frustrated while bug hunting or troubleshooting, you just weren’t thinking hard enough.  At times I agree with him, and at times the hard thinking is the crux of the problem.

If the principles of “KISS” (Keep It Simple Stupid) are forgotten, it could cost you a Saturday or something much more important, like a bit of pride.

My not-so incredible powers of observation tell me that as we advance in our technical ability and years of experience, we like to make mountains out of mole hills. I do not know if it is ego or what, but we just cannot admit that we could possibly be hindered by minor “issues”, they must all be complex demons.

After we exhaust all of the complex and rare causes of problems, we will finally, albeit reluctantly, check for basic causes out of sheer desperation. As we go through the process, we silently pray that the basic possible causes do not prove to be the source, just for the sense of vindication.  I am sorry, we work in IT and are just not that lucky.

My KISS reminder was this weekend.

Waves of emotions come over me as I confirmed that a two dollar piece of failed cable was the source of my grief.  Anger, frustration, relief and irritation all washed over me at the “Ah Ha” moment. I spent an entire Saturday looking for a complex problem that did not exist, because I failed to look for simple causes.

The embarrassment I felt was magnified during my drive home by the simple fact that I would have admonished anyone on my team for not checking the basic causes of a problem before looking for elegant or complex sources.  This is a bit of a humbling experience for me, and now a source of mirth for others.

   Crime:    Supreeme Ego
 Verdict:    Convicted by my own actions
Sentence:    One Saturday spent doing pointless research
Analysis:    Lesson reinforced: Keep It Simple Stupid

We live, we learn, and we move forward.

Take this time for what it is…Time. After all, Time is the the most valuable commodity we have at our disposal, and one that is spent by most people like it comes from a never ending source.

Most states look down on the use of your vehicle as a mobile office, and it never really was a great place to conduct business in the first place.  I have never spoken to anyone during my commute and felt I made great decisions or had meaningful dialog.

However, your vehicle can be a great place to educate oneself. Take the time that you have, 15 minutes or an hour, and use it to the fullest possibility.

Audio-books, podcast and radio news are the most common educational and informational sources that can be used while commuting. An Apple iPod can be loaded with audio-books from sites like Audible.com or podcasts from your favorite website or magazine. You do not have time to read the Wall Street Journal, why not listen to it while driving to work?

An iPod can play through almost every single car radio with an adapter. Alternatively, you can burn audio-books and podcasts back to CD if nothing else works. 

I find that I listen to local radio new on Monday and Thursday mornings and listen to audio-books during my commute through the end of Thursday.  Friday morning, I listen to a podcast or two and the way home I listen to music.  This works very well, and helps break up the information sources.

I have a long daily commute and I am able to listen to one or two books a month.  Most of the books I listen to are on management or self-development topics. The last couple of books have been on history and astronomy. You really can learn just about anything!

Believe it or not, you can greatly increase your exposure to great literature; increase your knowledge on any topic; and absorb powerful life changing information all by using the time that would otherwise be lost in the grind of a daily commute.

I heard a clip from Jim Cramer who stated that if you need the money that is in market during the next five years, it is time to get it out with all due haste. This is some sage advice.

I regret not taking action sixty days ago when I wrote myself a note to move all assets into bond funds and out of the markets. But I failed to do so for fear of missing a rebound. What did my fear/greed cost me? An additional 30% of my holdings are now wiped out. The market has me stressed, and I am just a tiny little investor with a small portfolio, actually must smaller now.

I have not given up on the markets, just moved into something safe until this blows over. I will watch the markets and each night I will look for the best opportunities.  All I can do is start trudging my way back to break-even, then focus on the future.

I wanted to build the best IT support group the world had ever known; one they would write songs about. We implemented many changes with the intention of keeping the staff as functional as possible. We went out of our way, I mean way out of our way, to help people and accommodate their requests. I wanted the employees working, and not thinking about computers, that was IT’s job.

This worked very well for the first six to eight months. Everyone loved the changes and IT was hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but over time, people started to change. The change was slow, which made it hard to detect at the time.

The company employees stopped requesting and started demanding. Our scheduling flexibility was abused and our team was taken for granted. Almost all IT policies were broken beyond belief. When we could not comply to a demand, with an unrealistic time table, the complaints started to roll in with vigor. The employees had forgotten what it is like in most other companies, and taken our exceptional service, as the new minimum standard. 

This had to change. I could see the pressure cracks and resentment building in my staff. I invested time and training in my staff, and I did not want to lose my team. They delivered for me, and I had to deliver for them.

Over the next six months, we changed the course of events. We wrote new IT policies that were based on exceptional service but had clearly defined user requirements. We followed them to the letter, and did not comply with employee requests if they did not hold up their end.

Shrill demands by employees were met with calm explanations of reality. And when push came to shove, I would make the requester of a new project get signed authorization from the manager of the project that was to get bumped because of requester’s new project. This took many difficult situations out of IT.

At times, I felt like my office was a revolving door of complaints, but I explained the situation to every single person who came to my door and I felt they understood our situation when they left.

We found the correct balance between exceptional service, employee pampering, and realistic expectations.

Every department must find this balance and it is hard keeping people’s expectations in check with reality, especially if you can exceed them frequently.

I have spent weeks searching for a new design for my blog. I do not know if this is the look for me, but I like this design better then my last one. Still, I do not know if this is really “me”.

So what do you think? Should I keep this design, go back to the old one, or keep searching for something new?

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As blog owners, we have the right to moderate our blog comments as we see fit. We have the commenting feature enabled so our readers can interact with us, the blog author, as well as, each other. This is the ideal world, but the “ideal” seldom resembles reality.

It is appropriate to remove or prevent comments that are off topic, rude, spam, or contain unacceptable language.

It is not wise to remove or prevent comments based on a difference of opinion. This behavior destroys your blogs credibility and is counter to why we have a commenting system in the first place. 

As I have expanded my reading and commenting, I have come across more frequent occurrences of bad commenting and terrible comment management. Over the last two weeks, a full 20% of my comments have never been released from moderation by the blog authors. 

I take time to write thoughtful comments, but my comments are not released for posting because they are not in agreement with the blog author’s opinion.

I do not attack or make things “personal” in my comments. I offer a different, but respectful, opinion to the mater that was posted. All should follow the commenting golden rule: “comment on other blogs, as you wish your blog to be commented on”. I do not feel that comments should only reflect the blog author’s opinion to be valid, included and beneficial to a blog.

The only thing that I hate worse then over moderation of comments is the engagement in personal attacks amongst blog authors and commenters.

I find this mainly on political sites. I recently read an excellently written political post, that I totally disagreed with, and the associated comments. A commenter wrote and very good and respectful counter point to the post. The blog author called the commenter a “a hate filled ignorant troll of a human for thinking that way”. I posted my support for the commenter, not is opinion, and my disgust at the blog author, which after six days, still has not been released from moderation. I reviewed a few other posts and comments on the blog, and found that this behavior was a pattern by the blog author.

As blog authors and commenters, we should write and engage in respectful dialogs. This is the power of the Internet and the blogging system. We should not eliminate comments from people that are critical of our writing or our views. However, we should not tolerate any derogatory comments directed towards us or other readers. We are able to set a positive standard in our comments, by how we respond to our commenters.

We help by spurring ideas and dialog, we should never stifle it!

If you must have a “free-spirit” MySpace page (or one of the other social sites), then take a few precautions to protect yourself. You should restrict access to these sites and use a nickname rather then your real name. Make sure the pictures you upload and the captions used do not use your real name or other obvious identifiers.

Reviewers tend to go back through the last 5-10 posting and then view posts by topic cloud, categories or complete site searches. You do not want words like “Drunk”, “Partying”, “Cheating”, “Fired” or other negative words to be in your tag cloud, or categories, if it displays you in a negative light. Watch your language as well! This can be a huge turn off for potential employers.

Really it comes down to this: if after you reviewed the site, would you trust that person with your livelihood?

A better idea is to use these tools to promote yourself. Turn social-network sites and blogs into sites that you want potential employers or admissions counselors to visit. Keep this in the front of your mind, especially when blogging, as you frequently post on varied topics.

Write about your industry or other areas that might interest potential employers or admissions counselors. You can have your site show off areas of personal interest, community and positive self growth. If your passion is of a more divisive area like politics, then be fair in your writing and do not demean people that do not share your vision.

Again, potential employers or admissions counselors are not looking for people that will polarize their environments.

Take time to write your “about” or “profile” page carefully. This is another great area to capture the interest of potential employers or admissions counselors. Do not regurgitate your resume or work history. Use this space to do a bit of “personal promotion”, but keep it realistic.

Since I have been reading more blogs, I have come across posting of people who received job inquires solely, or partially, based on their blog. This is not common but the trend in increasing.  Combine a sold blog, or other social-networking site, with well written profiles on job sites (if applicable), and you have a good foundation for someone to gauge your online life.

Remember that once posted on the Internet, you should assume that it will always be on the Internet. What you post is your responsibility, so exercise it wisely and to your advantage.

I am not sure how the marketing team allowed the below ad to air as it seems a complete waste of air time. The ad strikes me as a desperate attempt to reach for “anything”, but came up grasping nothing but air, in the face of the very impactful Apple ad campaign.

“If a book about failures doesn’t sell, is it a success?” Perhaps not, but Microsoft hopes that a new $300 million ad campaign about the flailing Windows Vista will somehow turn it into a success with the help of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The campaign will be one of the largest in Microsoft’s history, and is expected to begin on September 4.

Did the Microsoft ad agency actually forget to talk, much less sing, the praises of Vista?  I have a hard time calling this ad campaign anything other then a mistake and a waste of money. Vista is still on the rocks with consumers, both business and personal, and Microsoft can ill afford additional marketing blunders.

So whats next for Microsoft? A new ad campaign that will focus on people staying in touch, sharing ideas with each other, and a more direct response to Apple’s marketing machine. The idea of “sharing of ideas or information” have been successful campaigns in the past for both IBM and Cisco, and Microsoft hopes to capture the spirit of these past marketing successes.

So far, the first ad I have seen is a great improvement over the Seinfeld ads. Microsoft is taking a stand and looks like they will actually start to compete with Apple for the minds of consumers. This is long overdue as most of the problems with Vista seem to be marketing (user mindset), at this point, and not technical. The below ad is on the defensive, and almost, to the point of justifying “PC’s” right to exist in the market.

For the last few years, Microsoft has not taken an aggressive marketing position. With the market power of Microsoft, they should shift to a more aggressive stance with Apple and not allow Apple to lead the marketing conversation.

In this business, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone. –Bill Gates

I think it is time for the Microsoft management, their board, and the marketing department to take Bill’s own words to heart before Microsoft gets trounced again. Windows and Microsoft’s market position is not set in stone and can be lost if not attended to properly.

“Considering a switch to the freelance side of the work force? The FreelanceSwitch blog has a great roundup of legal resources for freelancers, including standard and specialized contracts, links to find legal help and representation, and books to check out.”

Be sure to check out FreelanceSwitch blog’s post ”101 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads“. This post has some great tips on the all import area of generating new work.

IT departments have been battling working with staff to keep email under corporate control. Often employees want the increased ease and flexibility that the free email services like Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail provide, but these often come with a hidden price in terms of security and control.

The questions that most online accounts ask to authenticate the “account owner” are weak at best, and not that difficult for a motivated individual to find out the likely responses. This is how Sarah’s account was compromised. People are beginning to wake up and realize just how much of their personal information is on the Net.

I have been told more times then I care to remember that ‘no one would want to read my email’, which I always respond to with “oh really, you know that for certain?. It only takes one irritated customer or disgruntled employee to make a “motivated individual” who might just take action.” Most likely the information is already on the Internet, and it does not take long to dig it out.

A few years ago, I saw this happen to a colleague. His personal email account was hacked and his personal and some business email was faxed to him as proof. Needless to say, this was an unpleasant situation for him and his employer.

Lessons to be learned:

• Take your account security seriously!
  Choose questions and answers that are difficult or impossible to for anyone to answer. I do not use real answers for any account authentication questions. I pick any of the default questions and use a LONG and random answer. In case I should ever need to use these questions to authenticate my account, I print the questions and answers and store them in a locked cabinet.
• Do not use free email services for work.
  When your corporate account is being probed by a hacker it will most likely get lockout, and a valued member of the IT department will need to unlock it. This can act as a red flag that someone is poking around your account.
• Never mix personal and business email.
  As a general rule, business email is monitored by your employer, so you really do not want personal email mixed in that may put you in an uncomfortable position. Do not use your personal email to move files to and from the office. There are much better ways to do this, just ask your IT department.
• Email is never gone, only archived.
  Do not think just because you delete an email that it is gone forever. Most everything is backed up and can be retrieved with enough effort. Do not think that you can email from a free web-mail service and your identity is protected.

Additional Articles

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Email as a medium of communication has leaped from purely business to a social communication vehicle. Corporations must deal with excessive amounts of spam, personal and business related e-mail that all directly impacts employee productivity. A study found that ”nearly a quarter of all corporate e-mail is personal in nature“.

Frequently checking your email breaks your concentration and elevates e-mail messages to your highest priority task regardless of what is, or should be, your real highest priority. Under most circumstances email should be checked once an hour to once every other hour.  Making this change will have a huge impact in your productivity.

Do not fear in making this change. Do not let your email become the master of your day. It is a tool and should be used for effective communication.

Don’t believe me? I found a research case study authored by Thomas Jackson of Loughborough University. It is titled “Case Study: evaluating the effect of email interruptions within the workplace.“

The study found that 70% of arriving emails were reacted to within 6 seconds, and once the email was addressed, it took the employees on average 64 seconds to resume working at the same rate they were before the interruption. 

I think of the multitude of managers, middle and senior management that can receive a hundred or more messages in a day.

If an employee has set up the email application to check for email every 5 minutes then it is possible, if (s)he is a heavy user of email, that there could be 96 interruptions in a normal 8-hour working day. However, if the email application was set up to check for email every 45 minutes then the number of possible interruptions is reduced to 11 per day.

Think of all the lost productivity with 96 interruptions in a day. Did all those interruptions warrant immediate responses and what of your highest priority tasks? Did they receive your real focus? 

Can you make a change in your email habits? Sure you can, but it will require a little planning and communication with your peers.

You must get through the initial cut that will introduce 80% of the resume pile to the green recycle bin. Only those who make it past the first stage of cuts will be invited to participate in an interview with a prospective employer. Your resume must speak loud and clear for you, as no one else will at this early stage of the game.

I spent time reviewing a friend’s resume, and while it was a good first draft, it needed polish and refinement. I completed several Google searches for tips on good resume writing, and found vast amounts of common, and not so common, sense tips.

Websites like CareerBuilder.com and TheLadders.com have great information on solid resume writing practices, and it made me think about the impact of word choice in resumes.  With a little more digging, I found information on both “good words” (image building) that should be included in a resume, as well as, the “bad words” (over used) that should be avoided in a resume. 

This is not a comprehensive list, by far, and I would encourage you to review the wealth of information that is online before you send out your next resume. 

Please understand that careful choice of words in your resume will dramatically help, or hurt, your attempt to standout in a packed crowd.  

Words that should be included in a resume:

• Strategic planning
• Change management
• Cost reduction
• Organizational development
• Team building and staff development
• Leadership
• Product positioning and life-cycle
• Project planning or project management
• Performance and productivity improvement

General style and content that should be avoided in a resume:

• Long passive phases
  • These tend to put your audience asleep, so write your resume in the present tense.
• Unrealistic accomplishments
  • This is really important as it goes to credibility.  If you have a truly unbelievable achievement, be prepared to offer supporting documentation
• Appearance and age descriptors
  • You do not know what the employer is looking for, so don’t guess and sell yourself short. Make sure you dress appropriately for the interview by knowing the environment you are about to enter.
• Overly technical information and jargon
  • This is a common problem for the technical people.  You need to include what you know, but do not make it a list of every single acronym that you can find. 
• Personal unrelated activities
  • You have no idea how personal activities will be received by the person who is reviewing the resume. It is not worth the risk at this stage.  Be observant in the interview and bring it up, if the interest is shared.

Words that should not appear in a resume:

• Excellent communication skills
• Goal driven
• Flexible
• Motivated
• Strong work ethic
• Reliable
• Multi-tasker
• Independent
• Detail oriented
• Self motivated

Most of the words that are in the ‘do not use in your resume’ list are resume cliche words. They have been used for so long that they no longer carry any weight, and frankly these attributes are taken for granted as the price of admission to the modern work force.

Your resume should convey a message of excitement and energy. The use of active and positive words help to bring out the correct tone and message.  Take time to thoroughly review, and re-review your resume before you send it out.  Remember, you have one shot to get past the first round of cuts, so make it count by using the rights words in your resume.

Do you have any words that you feel should be included or excluded from a resume? Share your knowledge and experiences.

The best way to predict your future, is for you to create it!

Your personal vision of the future governs how you currently spend your time and the thoughts that dominate your mind. It’s important to have a vision of yourself and your future, as these will act as your road map for your life’s direction. Without them, time will march on, but you will still be lost and floating on the current.

It all starts in your head. You need to develop richly detailed and creative mental images of your future, as they are the key building blocks of a strong personal vision. Your mental pictures help you to create what does not exist in your current reality. They help you stay on track with your plan, and are huge motivators.

A personal vision is not a day dream! Plans or desires without supporting actions are day dreams, visions are driven by action.

Do not fear to envision your ideal future, as the higher your goals, the less competition you will have in their attainment. This does not mean they are easier to achieve then so called “realistic goals”, but why sell your future short? After all, do you want to fight 2,000 people for a particular goal, or 5? Aim High! Even if the goal is harder to achieve, you have better odds of success. 

When you have a strong vision of your future, you will be impassioned to stretch beyond your current boundaries. It is the fire that fuels your decisions and actions to bring you to new heights.

With a strong personal vision, you will live out of your imagination and not just your memories and regrets of missed opportunities.

What you dream, you can envision
What you envision, you can plan
What you plan, you can act on
What you act on, you can achieve
What you achieve, allows you to dream bigger dreams

I violated one of my first tips on improving productivity…I answered the phone. I was expecting a call from the caller’s area code, so I picked up the call…darn it…a sales call.

I sighed to myself, and told him he had 30 seconds to make his pitch. He was taken aback by this, but recovered quickly. He was another me-too computer hardware reseller. At the end of his one minute speech, and right before he started into his second minute, I interrupted.

I asked point blank, “What makes you any different than the three companies that I currently use to purchase my hardware?“

A long pause ensued, so I thought I would help him out a bit, “is it your pricing, shipping, technical expertise in pre-sales, partnerships…what?” The pause continued for a few more moments, and as if he came up with the perfect answer he said “ME, I care.“

Slightly annoyed with his response, I asked “Are you implying that my current vendors do not care about me?“

“Well, umm” he stammered.

“Sorry, but try again with a better pitch” I replied, and followed it up with a click of the phone.

If you are in sales, you must know what makes you better or different then your competitors. Especially in saturated markets, like computer hardware sales. If the best answer you can give to that question is “Me, I care”, you have a serious problem. You have to be able to convey your message in thirty seconds to one minute. Your prospect must understand the basics of what you do, and how you are better or different than your competitors.

I could spend all day, every day, talking with sales people that call and want my business. I think sales people forget just how many calls companies get each and every day from sales people.

Most sales people do not have an answer to that basic question of what makes them different than the last twenty resellers or providers of xyz product that just called. It is not a certifications, partnerships or other such nonsense, as everyone has those, but what makes YOUR company DIFFERENT than ALL the OTHER companies in your space?

If you are running a small business, have school age children, or are searching for similar tools that you use at the office, but want to avoid the cost, then I have a few suggestions.

I get asked this question all of the time. People want to know how they can use familiar office applications at home, but want to avoid paying for it, or their employer will not fork over the software license. I do not recommend stealing it (software piracy) under any circumstances, as the nice folks that write software deserve their payday.

The answer: Use Open Source or Freeware software and straightforward bargain hunting.

Productivity

OpenOffice.org
A replacement to Microsoft Office that will work with most Microsoft Office files.  The file conversions are not always 100% accurate in the formatting, but I have yet to experience anything but minor formatting issues.  OpenOffice is working on a new release, currently in beta, that looks to further increase compatibility with Microsoft Office and will add additional new features. If you need a full integrated productivity suite then this is an excellent choice.
Cost: Free

Google Docs
I have written several posts on Google Apps and have a post dedicated to Google Docs.  The post is linked here. Google Docs is an excellent choice for new home offices and personal use. For high school and college students, Open Office would be a better choice as it has additional features and supports more complex formatting.
Cost: Free for individuals and small groups.

StarOffice
A cousin of Open Office.  I have never used this application but I have read that it is commercialized version of Open Office and includes some phone support.
Cost: $69.95

Internet

Firefox
A powerful feature packed browser powered by Mozilla. This browser is gaining market share and is a great alternative to Internet Explorer.
Cost: Free

Internet Explorer
Default browser for every Microsoft XP and Vista installation. This browser has the lion share of the market.
Cost: Free

Chorme
This is Google’s new beta web browser. I have used this browser for three days and it is an acceptable browser that has promise. It is still beta so you can expect some glitches and a lack of add-on features. You will find more features and add-ons for Firefox, but Chrome is still worth a look.
Cost: Free

E-mail

Their are several major providers of free e-mail services. I prefer Google’s service but I have not heard of any real issues from any of the most popular providers.

Gmail

Yahoo

Hotmail

Antivirus

Avast! Antivirus Protection
This is my preferred personal antivirus product. I have been using this personally for the last few years. I have had great success with the product and have had no stability problems.
Cost: Free for personal home use; Professional edition is $39.95

AVG
This is a popular antivirus and I know many people who love this product. I have not heard of any stability issues with this product and from what my friends tell me, it does its job very well.
Cost: Free (basic version); Complete version $54.95

Trend Micro HouseCall
This is an after-the-fact web based virus scanner. This will not prevent a virus from getting on your computer but it can remove it once it is on your system. If I am working on a computer with a virus, I scan it once with the installed antivirus and then scan it with HouseCall to be 100% sure that it is clean.
Cost: Free

Media Players

This space has many (actually to many to list) free applications that are very good. Most developers have more feature packed versions for sale that are below $50, in addition to, their free versions. I use the free versions as I am not a media nut.

Audio
Media Jukebox
WinAmp

Multimedia
Video Lan - VLC Media Player
Windows Media Player
QuickTime

A few other applications and services that are very useful

Google Reader and iGoogle (Free)
Quicken for all your personal finance management ($49.99)
Exalead Desktop Search (Free)
PDF995 for printing a document to a PDF file (Free with ads or $9.95 to register and remove the ads)

Have a program that should be on the list? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts!

The truth hurts at times, doesn’t it? I have stressed a good work life balance to my team over the years, and have on many occasion told my staff to go home when I feel they are working too much. I do not need or want stressed/burned out staff working. We have times when we must burn the midnight oil, but they are few and far between.  I want my staff at 100% when those crunch times occur.

Why am I a hypocrite? I do not take my own advice. I work many nights and weekends when it is not necessary. I get concerned if my Blackberry is more then 10 feet away from me. I even have the phantom feeling of the device vibrating when it has been more then 10 minutes between e-mails.

I had a life lesson this weekend. The family attended our six year old daughter’s soccer game. The game was fun with all these little girls running around kicking the ball up and down the field. Afterwards we went to lunch to celebrate the game (her team lost the game, but at six, they do not even care).

At lunch, I realized that I had left my Blackberry at the house as we left in a rush to get to the game on time. I was a mildly upset with myself, and a little concerned, that I had left it at the house.

My daughter told me not to worry, and that it was OK that I had left it at home. When I asked why, she told me that way I could watch the game.

My world was shattered…I am disappointed with myself. It is overdue for me to take my own advice and unplug.  Things are going to change and change quickly.

As adults we take to much for granted, and do not realize that children are more perceptive then we realize.

I do not consider myself a neglectful father or husband.  My wife says I am dedicated and responsible employee, and I agree. She also tells me that I am a good father and husband, and I believe her. How do my children feel? They wish I would work less and spend more time playing with them.

I have sent, albeit unintentionally, that I prioritize work equal with or over family. I do not feel that I do, addicts seldom see the addition, but that is what my daughter relayed to me in her simple comment. Kids know when adults are focused on them and when they are not.  We may tell ourselves that we are spending time with family, but it we cannot go 5 minutes without our mobile fix, then it is time for an intervention.

My wake up call was mild as I am only mildly addicted. I know people who would have left lunch to get their Blackberry. What is the message we are sending to our loved ones when we reach for the little devices every time that it buzzes? Who, or better yet, what has the priority in our lives? Who is the servant, the device or the user?

I know that issues come up and require attention. We did not get to middle or upper management by mistake. However, you must support the people that got you where you are today and they are your family. No one on their dying bed says they wished they spent more time at work. Work will be their and you can go two hours between message checks when you are off work.

You owe it to your family! I know I do.

The way you carry yourself and how you speak to others directly affect your results and career progression. For years, this has been talked, written and trained about in both sales and personal development settings. Unfortunately, many people still do not get it.

The image that people have in their mind of you is the reality by which they will operate (and judge you), and once it is set, it becomes difficult to change. It is a hard road to climb up in people estimation, but it is a quick easy slide down.

It does not matter if you are in sales, accounting or IT, if you take your career seriously, then you are in Sales. You are selling yourself, and your skills, to management, coworkers and clients.

This series will give you some ideas that on how you should present and conduct yourself when interacting with others in a business situation. It really does not matter with whom you are dealing with, as building strong images in other people’s minds about yourself is critical for long-term career growth. We do not work in a vacuum, and we need others to support our climb up the ladders of success.

The suggestions that will be covered over the next several parts are not unique.  I have read or heard them time and time again in multiple books and lectures and they work. I have included what I perceive are some of the most impactful recommendations and have done my best to reduce them down to bullet point form. 

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the various posting over the next week.