The World Wide Web became available to the public on August 6, 1991.
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giovedì 19 gennaio 2012
mercoledì 18 gennaio 2012
martedì 17 gennaio 2012
Optimizing Workouts
Planning a new fitness regimen? While working out for hours a day every day seems like a winning strategy for most celebrities, it’s not actually the most healthy exercise plan – but neither is sitting idly on the couch, admiring the dust-gathering treadmill. So what does it take to get the optimal amount of exercise?�
When it comes to working out, it’s important to exercise smarter – not longer or harder – and more consistently. Dr. Pietro Tonino, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at Loyola University Hospital, says the ideal workout is 30-60 minutes a day to avoid the degenerative damage to tendons and muscles that can follow overexercising while still giving your body the challenge it needs to build muscle and burn fat.�
To get the best fitness results, start your workout with anaerobic strength training before moving on to aerobic activities like running or cycling. By depleting some carbohydrates stores during the initial weights session, you’ll put your body in the fat-burning zone before even starting cardio. Plus, extra muscle requires extra calories to maintain – meaning you’ll burn extra calories while sitting at your desk the next day. �
Of course, exercise alone isn’t the answer. The age-old answer of “eat less, exercise more” has been empirically proven true. A study by the University of Pittsburgh found that of 191 overweight or obese women who were required to lose 10 percent of their initial body weight and maintain the loss for two years, the 47 women who had the most success were those who combined a reduced caloric intake (1200-1500 calories a day) with 4-5 hours of exercise a week.
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Getting the Right Landmarks on Your Success Roadmap
Picture this: you’re heading off on a road trip to exciting – but unfamiliar – territory. Do you just set off on the open road and hope you eventually somehow reach your destination?�
While some adventurers might take this approach, most people start out a journey with a roadmap, complete with landmarks that help them identify they’re on the right track, whether it be roadside attractions or cities that are along the way from Point A to Point B. �
The same principle applies in life – and especially in sales, where success is determined by our ability to bring together skills, business processes, resources, and natural talents in order to help customers and contacts buy into our vision of value within whatever product or service we’re selling. �
Here are some benchmarking landmarks to include on your roadmap to the destination of success:
- The essentials – Your trip won’t go too far if you don’t include some gas stations and pit stops along the path, right? Similarly, it’s critical to focus on the essentials from the get-go. These would include any metrics and benchmarks that are reasonable to expect when looking at one’s skills and effectiveness. While the specifics will vary by industry and objective, they generally will include a strategy for growth, basic sales processes and systems, personal competencies, management practices, and skills development.
- Goals and objectives – If you think you’re driving to California and your passenger thinks you’re off to Calgary, there’s a problem. Sharing common goals and objectives helps everyone involved understand how to get to your overarching organizational vision. These goals and objectives should be specific and measurable, with intermediary expectations set along the way (i.e. quarterly performance goals of a certain dollar amount or number of sales conversions that will show progress toward the annual goal).
- Values and principles – What’s the purpose behind your journey? Undertaking a long trip to see a close friend or ailing relative will drive you with more meaning than traveling for an obligatory appointment. Likewise, these values and principles breathe life and heart into your sales journey. How do the two differ? Values are broad fundamental beliefs– things like acting with integrity, exceeding expectations, or serving the community. Principles are more a part of the everyday tactical business execution, like nurturing client relationships, knowing the competition, or proactively managing risks and promoting awards.
- Reward systems – Remember asking “are we there yet?!” on childhood road trips? The promise of a cookie or some other tangible reward at the next gas station can work wonders for encouraging patient behavior for a child. The same idea applies to adults in a sales environment. Acknowledgement for reaching a certain goal, exceeding performance expectations, or winning a competition gives team members an added boost that helps them drive on in their sales efforts. The best rewards are those that are outlined in advance, giving all team members something to work toward, and align closely with your overall business strategy.
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Happy travels along your sales journey!�
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lunedì 16 gennaio 2012
Baby Steps Toward Social Media Prowess
Recently I was talking with a friend whose baby girl has just started to crawl. While watching footage of this little gal get around – hesitantly and haltingly at first – it made me think of how important it is to progress strategically and methodically toward any destination or goal, including in social media. �
While it’s important to begin with the end in sight, we also need to take joy in the journey to get to that end. If you want to be a social media pro, remember to value and savor the steps along the way as you engage with the various tools and methods to tell a story. Make sure you learn to walk before you run:�
- Crawl – When entering the world of social media, it’s vital to remember that you’re still dealing with individuals interested in human stories. Don’t get distracted by the tools and platforms. Take the time to first understand what your (or your institution’s) inherent systems and processes, resources, and culture are. What are institutional barriers you may face in going social? Public companies face different issues than private companies, and different platforms make more sense for different audiences (e.g. a LinkedIn group vs. Facebook, depending on if you’re B2B or B2C). Thinking through what makes the most sense before starting will increase your chances for success – and decrease the chances your institution will write off social media as a fad or flop.
- Walk – After you’ve made a strategy, begin engaging with one tool at a time. It’s important to take a note from the Johnson & Johnson playbook and get a presence in one platform launched and running well before branching out into another. Also, don’t discount the importance of building on your own real estate first. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook may be buzzing upon everyone’s lips, but they could be supplanted by the next big thing – remember MySpace and Friendster, after all? If you start an in-house blog on your own website, you’ll have control over it regardless of external forces. Be flexible as you try new things, remembering that nothing is permanent, but also be committed to the overall purpose behind social media: connecting with your audience. See what works, changing and adjusting as you go.
- Run – Once you’ve mastered getting a social media presence launched, you’ll hit that prized end point of having a fully integrated social business, complete with measurable tracking and analytics that help you better understand the impact communicating with customers has on your business. Remember, the connection between social media and ROI may not be measurable in strict numbers, but social breeds customer loyalty, and that’s something that can’t be slapped with a price tag.
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The process of implementing a winning social media strategy takes patience, but as you enjoy each milestone on the way to running with the best-practice examples, you’ll be able to savor the successes along the way with your lasting audience.
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LEARNING YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE
Have you ever encountered a boss whose approach to power and leadership baffled you?�
According to Harvard Business Review, one’s instincts where power is concerned – both giving and receiving it – stem from conditioning in one’s life since childhood, particularly within the family unit. In researching power styles, author Maggie Craddock observed that “the building blocks of anyone's signature power style are rooted in the ways they have been conditioned to respond emotionally and behaviorally to the first authority figures they encountered in life, namely, their caregivers.”�
In other words, those whose caregivers asked for the child’s opinion in making family decisions are likely to be adults who appreciate when colleagues take time to connect and build a trust-based relationship. Conversely, those raised by authoritarian caregivers usually build their power relationships based in fear, which can lead to disliking consensus building and preferring independent leadership. �
Most people’s power styles are a blend of the following four profiles, according to Craddock. Where do you fit into the mix? �
- The Pleaser – These are the folks who, lacking the attention they craved early in life, are hardwired to care for others. They hunger for validation and connect with others at a personal level as a means of gaining power.
- The Charmer – As a child, these individuals often had to care for a parent’s emotional needs. Consequently, these individuals have little respect for formal authority and may resort to manipulating others to get their needs met. Charmers have an intense focus that both intimidates and seduces others into compliance.
- The Commander – Sports, religion, military, or any larger system that reinforces discipline or a strict code of conduct has often featured strongly in the family of a Commander. Accustomed to that active scope of thinking, Commanders tend to foster a sense of urgency as they focus on results.
- The Inspirer – Self-expression is more important than conformity in the families of Inspirers. These innovative thinkers operate with a consistent commitment to the greater good, an example set by parents who made sacrifices to achieve excellence.
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Remember, no power style is inherently good or bad – each has its share of strengths and challenges. Recognizing how you react to power will help you to react accordingly, strengthening the advantages while minimizing the drawbacks.
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MAINTAINING AN OFFICE ON THE RUN
A large chunk of sales professionals are “road warriors,” always on the go from client to client. In a world where constant connection is the norm, how can you set up your office for grab-and-go portability that works as well on the road as in a home office or cubicle? Here are some ideas:�
- Get smart(phone) – Whether you’re a loyal iPhone, Android, or Blackberry user, there’s no underemphasizing the benefit of a smartphone when you’re on the go. With one device, you can make calls, send texts and emails, and search the Internet for information (including maps and directions). It’s an invaluable business asset – and the fun apps like Angry Birds are pretty great, too, especially when stuck in an airport security line.
- Lighten up – Having a good laptop is another essential to conducting business on the go, but when buying, make sure you weigh your options – literally. If you’re going for portability, it’s important to select a machine that’s lightweight. Most brands have good options for light laptops that still pack a punch. If you don’t need heavy-duty programs, a netbook may be the way to go. Otherwise, look into options like the MacBook Air.
- Just in case – Carting around an office on the go requires a quality carrying case. While most consumers go for shoulder bags, backpacks designed for laptops are also a great option. Whatever you select in terms of style, be sure it will be comfortable and has plenty of nooks and crannies for all the office essentials, from pens and notebooks to power adaptors and cords aplenty.
- A powerful connection – There are a lot of computer essentials that can be taken for granted while in the office and forgotten on the road. While traveling, be sure to pack an extra power strip. It’s worth its weight in gold when plugging in the multiple devices that have become part of daily life. Also be sure to keep an Ethernet cable on hand for the locales where you can’t get a wireless signal.�
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domenica 15 gennaio 2012
Activate Your Metabolism with the Right Foods
All calories are created equal where the numbers game of weight loss is concerned, right? Wrong, according to a new eating plan, The Active Calorie Diet. Based on new research, this plan works off the premise that certain types of food can affect metabolism and appetite. Eat the right ones, and you’ll be able to boost your body’s weight-loss abilities. �
What makes those foods stronger for getting slim? Certain foods take more work to eat and digest, making your body work harder to process. This means your body burns more calories in the digestive process. Even something as simple as chewing fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains can up your calorie burn by as much as 30 percent. �
Here’s a look at the diet’s four “active calorie” groups and how each gets your body burning calories:
- Chewy – These foods make your body work from the moment they cross your lips, chewing items like lean meats, nuts, and whole produce. The foods with the greatest impact are those in a whole state, like apples instead of applesauce, or peanuts instead of peanut butter. The higher the protein, the better the effect – high-protein foods take more effort to chew and more time to leave your stomach, which means you’ll eat more slowly and feel full sooner than with empty carbohydrates.
- Hearty – Fiber is your friend in the quest for weight loss. While that’s nothing new, categorizing it in this way is a fresh take. Fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, brown rice, whole grains, and cereal take up more space in the stomach, leaving less room for seconds. They also tend to take more effort to chew and to burn, increasing the food’s thermic effect.
- Energizing – Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, and this boost carries over to your metabolism. Coffee and black tea include enough of this energizer to ramp up your metabolism by 5-8 percent. Green tea has less caffeine, but it offers the benefit of catechins, an antioxidant that ups your resting metabolism by about 4 percent. Dark chocolate boasts of both caffeine and catechins, making it a sweet addition to any diet – but in moderation, of course, since it also has plenty of sugar and fat.
- Warming – Spice up your diet with peppers, cinnamon, vinegar, bay leaves, mustard, cloves, garlic, and ginger. Not only do these add tons of flavor, but they also include chemicals that boost the body’s calorie-burning ability. For instance, capsaicin, the chemical that provides peppers’ heat, has been found to double dieters’ energy expenditure for several hours after eating. Adding these spices will fully activate the calories from all of the chewy, hearty, and energizing foods you’re consuming.
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For more information about The Active Calorie Diet, visit www.activecaloriediet.com.�
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How to Work a Room
Have you ever wondered how to master the art of mingling? At social functions, you can always spot a person or two who seem to effortlessly work the room, weaving in and out of conversations as they connect with almost everyone in their path. Networking with that kind of social finesse doesn’t come naturally to most – but thankfully it’s a skill that can, in fact, be learned and mastered through practice and preparation. Here are some tips to develop the skill set to catch the attention of those who will benefit your professional network:�
- Be positive – When you meet new people, what runs through your head? Your instinctive reaction may speak volumes in terms of the return you receive. Attitude often guides behavior, and what you think before you walk through the door will influence the “vibes” you give off to those you meet. Are you prone to negative self-talk? (“Why would they want to talk to me anyway?” “There’s no way I’ll stick out from the crowd.” “Meeting people just isn’t my strength because of _____.”) Believe it or not, many – if not most – people have the same reaction in group settings. When you shift from thinking you can’t to thinking you can, however, you can take the lead and bring others out of their shells. That kind of initiative radiates positivity and will make an impact on those you meet.
- Make it all about them – In his seminal How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie emphasized the importance of sincerely showing interest in other people. A person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language, according to Carnegie, and remembering it works wonders to win a good first impression. Try to find ways to make the other person feel important, like talking to them about their interests. It’s easy to find common ground with most people if you listen actively when asking where they’re from, where they went to college, asking about why they chose their career path or enjoy certain hobbies. Be sure that you do so sincerely, though – there’s nothing more off-putting than faked interest. Sincere interest is usually met with reciprocal sincere interest, however.
- Identify clear goals – What is it that you’re hoping to take away from the event? Defining even one or two objectives for a networking event or situation will help you hone in on what you need to do to meet those as well as to measure success after the fact. Are you looking to learn more about a particular field? Develop prospective sales contacts? Meet a particular person about whom you’ve heard good things? When you have your objectives in place, work backwards and prepare how to meet those, thinking of what questions to ask, how to approach a new contact, etc. This will help you avoid being tongue-tied and uncertain when in the moment, instead coming off as confident and natural.
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After you’ve done all your preparation, make sure that you physically work the room – moving around increases the number of people with whom your path will cross, after all. Get out there and show them all you’ve got!
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