Natural, environment friendly Rugs to accent your home.

Rugs are a nice way to decorate the interior of any home. With variety of shapes, sizes, colors, patterns and high quality materials, Rugs can really bring out the comfort, beauty, style and touch of luxury to any room. They look great on tile, stone or even wood flooring. While most homes are still furnished in synthetic, mass-produced materials, you can make difference with natural, environment friendly materials. Variety of natural materials you can choose from: Sisal, Wool, Seagrass, Coir, Jute, Sisool. Natural Rugs are simply produced without the use of toxic chemicals or materials, and perfect for families that are prone to allergies. They are biodegradable, andt breaks down into the soil and creates additional vitamins and minerals, thus help save the environment. Natural rug can trap in air contaminants to purify the air too. The durable and rigid material of natural rugs makes them naturally fire-resistant. Natural Rugs are often used for their durability and low-maintenance, as well as their comforting appearance. In addition, Natural Rugs tend to deaden sound, which makes for quiet footsteps throughout the house.

When buying high quality Natural Rug, try Natural Rug Company. They offer wide range of high quality designer and custom made natural rugs and runners. All rugs are created from finest quality natural materials and meticulously hand woven by professional craftsmen. You can choose from sisal rugs, wool rugs, seagrass rugs, coir rugs, jute rugs, and many more. You can also design your own rug using the Rug Builder. Their Natural Rug offer comfort, warmth and elegance that enrich any room.

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Natural, environment friendly Rugs to accent your home.

The danger of Market Timing. Market Timing doesn't work. Stock Trading and Mutual Fund Lessons.

Market Timing: The Most Dangerous Game

With all of the research that shows humans—even experts—have pretty terrible predictive abilities when it comes to economic and stock market issues, you'd think that people would refrain from trying to predict the market's short‐term movements. They don't. Every day, millions of investors try to discern where the market will head tomorrow, next week, or next month. And the way this manifests itself is the doomed practice of market timing.

Market timing occurs when people move in and out of the stock market with the intent of taking advantage of anticipated short‐term price movements. Market timing can be as simple as you want it—maybe you've heard from a friend that the market is about to take off, so you invest in stocks—or as complex as you want it—perhaps you've developed an elaborate model that uses various economic indicators to predict which way the market will go in the next month. Whatever way you go about it, though, it's not likely to end well, because the market is simply too complex and irrational in the short‐term for anyone to correctly and reliably predict its movements.

Want proof that market timing doesn't work? There's plenty. Take, for example, the research performed by Dalbar, Inc. In its “2 Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior,” the firm notes that the S&P has grown an average of 11.8 percent per year from 1987 through 2006, an impressive gain. During this period, however, the average equity investor averaged a return of just 4.3 percent. The reason? As markets rise, the data shows that investors “pour cash” into mutual funds, and when a decline starts, a “selling frenzy” begins. In other words, the research shows that investors tend to do the opposite of the old stock market adage, “Buy low, sell high.”

Dalbar isn't the only firm that's found that investors do a pretty awful job at trying to time the market's short‐term moves. A few years ago, the investment research company Morningstar began tracking mutual fund performance in a new way. Normally, mutual fund returns are reported as though an investor remained invested in the fund throughout the full reporting period. A fund's three‐year return, for example, is reported as the percentage increase or decrease an investor would have seen if he had been invested in the fund for the entire three previous years.

In a methodology paper (“Morningstar Investor Return”), Morningstar says it found that this “total return” percentage doesn't accurately portray how well investors in a particular fund really fare. The reason: While the “total return” percentage measures how a fund does over a specific period, people often don't stick with the fund for that entire period; instead, they jump in and out of it. And, according to Morningstar, the returns that the typical investor in a particular fund actually realizes (the “investor returns”) tend to be lower than the fund's total return—implying that people pick the wrong times to jump in and out of the fund (or the market).

While investors themselves deserve some of the blame for this, mutual funds sometimes don't help. In its investor returns methodology paper, Morningstar states that if firms encourage short‐term trading and trendy funds, or if they advertise short‐term returns and promote high‐risk funds, they may not be looking out for their investors' long‐term interests. Their investors' actual returns will likely be lower than the fund's total return. (The fees mutual funds charge also don't help, something Bogle stresses; those costs make it so that the fund manager has to beat the market just for his client to net market‐matching returns.)

The danger of Market Timing. Market Timing doesn't work. Stock Trading and Mutual Fund Lessons.

Energy efficient, durable, stylist Ceiling fans

Ceiling Fans are traditionally used as a cheap source of energy-efficient climate control to your home. Compared to air conditioning, you can save more energy all year long with fan at fraction of cost. In the summer, they effectively reduce energy consumption while still creating a cool breeze. In warmer weather, they cool your room by up to seven degrees with its wind chill effect. In the winter, it can recirculate the hot air trapped near the ceiling, thus creating warmer atmosphere to your room. Ceiling fans and accessories comes in a wide variety of design, function, and form that bring beauty, comfort and elegance to your home for years of enjoyment. When buying a ceiling fan, you should look for powerful and durable ceiling fan Motor, and superior quality Blades that bring exceptionally quiet air movement and efficient operation. For maximum performance and efficient air distribution, choose the right fan size for your room. For long or large rooms, consider more than one fan to handle your cooling requirements. For maximum comfort, the fan should be placed as close to the center of the room as possible. Blade tips should be at least 18 inches from any wall. You should puts the blades seven feet from the floor for the best air movement and clearance.

If you plan to improve your home decor with high quality, energy efficient, durable, stylist Ceiling fans, you should try Minka Aire products. The Mika Aire Concept II fan is one of Minka Aire's most popular fans. It is easy to install and has efficient air distribution. The meticulous workmanship and the finest materials deliver highest quality Minka Aire fans that are popular for bringing maximum comfort and performance to every home.


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Energy efficient, durable, stylist Ceiling fans

Identify Process that support Workplace Learning. Be the Champion of Learning. Knowledge Management and Learning Guide for Enterprise.

When you take on the role of champion of learning, identify the company’s goals for profit, productivity, equal opportunity, career development, product development, customer service, hiring, downsizing, partnering, and so on. Look at your current training—and the training that you envision—against the company’s broader goals. Look around to identify the processes already in place that support workplace learning. Ask other managers, team leaders, and supervisors for their training data. For example:
 Examine the organizations or departments represented at training seminars over the last six months to see if a broad representation of groups received training. Seek out middle managers for this information. Look for fairness.
 Examine attendance records at short courses run by various departments to see if there was diversity in the employees who attended these courses. Collect data on equality of opportunity represented by recent training. See training as a benefit of employment. Sit down and talk with team leaders and supervisors; ask them for their impressions of the diversity of employees that were trained. Look for equal opportunity.
 Identify categories of employees and levels of employees who seem to have received more—or less—training. Get a current organization chart and find out who reports to whom, and what the job titles are. Then check the current training list of courses and types of employees who attended. Ask the personnel or human resources staff to help you out by identifying persons who did or did not get training if supervisors don’t have this information. Look for balance.
 Examine the career development opportunities represented by the titles of courses given. Look at repeat enrollments in courses to see who had more advantages through training. Talk to people who got promotions shortly after attending training courses; ask them how training contributed to their career development. Talk to those responsible for hiring qualified employees to see if the current training furthers career development. Look for training that leads to quality of product and service and to competent performance.
 Interview supervisors for information about the incidence of both formal and informal on-the-job learning among their organizations’ employees; ask about coaching and mentoring. Don’t forget to include self-study and e-learning at office computers on company time. Look for good examples of nontraditional learning successes.
 Ask for and compare department training budgets. Check with all managers in the company for their training budget bottom line figure. Some managers might have no money allocated for training, and you’ll want to note that. Don’t worry about the budget details; just collect totals budgeted for training in each manager’s line of responsibility. Look for system consistency across departments throughout the company.

Identify Process that support Workplace Learning. Be the Champion of Learning. Knowledge Management and Learning Guide for Enterprise.

Earn Money from Blogging. Balance your monetizing technique to maintain your reputation.

Many people like to blog for various reasons. From Personal bloggers who love writing interesting, useful and informative short posts for private purpose to Business bloggers who blog for money. Serious bloggers usually have the following characteristics:

• Write in a natural, original, authentic blog posts that is interesting, useful, informative, educative, entertaining and engaging.
• Dedicate to posting items at least a couple times a week. Frequently updated blog with fresh content draw loyal followers.
• Regularly monitor comments and shape the blog into a engaging conversation with readers.
• Focus the blog on a theme and an audience.

For those who wish to make money from blogging, there are many ways to monetize your blog as a revenue generating machine: from advertising, write reviews, joining affiliate programs to sell other's goods and services, accepting donation, to promote and sell your own products and services. You can endorse or earn money from the sales of complementary products which benefit your readers. To be effective, advertise relevant products or services to your blog theme. While you try to profit from your blog, some people may feel that making money from your blog cheapens the content if you don't do properly. So, balance your blog's theme and usefulness with appropriate monetizing techniques. Blogging for Money must be consistent with your blogging theme and mission such that it doesn't weaken your reputation and brand.

Building blog reputation takes time and effort. It takes at least 6 months to get average Google PageRank. So, if you are still new to blogging or want to learn How to Make Money Blogging, you can earn income right away with advertising revenue sharing sites Yousaytoo.com ( from Google AdSense and/or Amazon affiliate ). With Yousaytoo, and you'll get 50/50 revenue sharing. You can add your blog to their site (or start new one there), create unique and quality content and add Google AdSense and/or Amazon affiliate IDs. After your blog is added, all new posts from it will be imported into your YouSayToo blog and your blog will be featured in YouSayToo's blogs list. In that way, you'll gain more revenues and readers.

Earn Money from Blogging. Balance your monetizing technique to maintain your reputation.

Leadership Competencies and People Management skills. Attributes, Skills, Qualities and Competencies for successful Leadership and People Management.

Leadership and people management

Leadership competencies and people management skills are the Soft Skills that we can all learn to develop and improve throughout our working lives, given self-belief, time and commitment.

Here are the attributes, skills, qualities and competencies that are most often associated with successful leadership and people management, and these can be developed and enhanced. These include the following:
 self-awareness and self-discipline,
 competence and credibility,
 a mixture of several kinds of intelligence,
 great self-motivation and the capacity for hard work, combined with a good understanding of their physical and psychological limitations,
 exceptional two-way communication skills, combined with an ability to lead, direct and focus dialogues with others,
 the ability to engage with the minds and hearts of others and, as a result, a capacity to motivate and inspire their followers,
 the capacity to question 'common-sense' ways of doing things combined with the ability to make fast practical day-to-day decisions with incomplete information or knowledge,
 an ability to learn and unlearn quickly, while not discarding good leadership and people management practices that have stood the test of time,
 the ability to use power effectively, based on an understanding of the art of organizational politics,
 increasingly, a hybrid blend of what have been traditionally regarded as 'male' and 'female' leadership and people management styles,
 self-confidence and resolve in adverse or uncertain situations, with-out resorting to autocratic or domineering behaviour,
 the ability to think beyond the present and envision the future,
 the capacity to initiate, lead and manage the complex processes of perpetual organizational change, innovation and learning, without becoming reactive 'fad-surfers',
 an appreciation of the role that employee knowledge and intellectual capital now play as key drivers of organizational success and profitability,
 an understanding of both the potential and the limitations of new and emergent technologies in organizations, and an awareness of the profound impacts these will have on the management of organizations during the first two decades of the 21st century,
 high ethical standards, combined with a pragmatic understanding of doing business in the real world.

Leadership Competencies and People Management skills. Attributes, Skills, Qualities and Competencies for successful Leadership and People Management.

Stable and secure investment with Gold

Diversified investment portfolio help to minimize your investment risk. Apart from stocks, bonds, and real estate, you can include precious metals investment. Gold investment help to protect yourself against fluctuation in the stock market. Because, during economic or political turmoil, people tend to shift their investment into safer option. And, Gold is the preferred safe haven investment option, thus it can increase in value during those turbulent times. Historically, when stock and bond markets have fallen, the price of gold and other precious metals has tended to increase.

Gold Investment
Investor can build gold investment portfolio; sell and buy gold; check the real-time gold prices easily through the internet. GoldCoinsGain is an Aurum Advisors online resource for gold coin and gold bullion investment. Aurum Advisors is one of the respected gold brokerage houses in the country. They help you build gold and precious metals investment portfolio that suits your investment objectives, risk appetite, budget and other requirements. They provide expert guidance on whether to buy gold coin, buy bullion, or other precious metals.

Gold bullion coins are coins minted and guaranteed by various different governments. You can choose from: American Buffalo, Australian Gold Nugget, Gold American Eagle, Chinese Gold Panda, Gold Canadian Maple Leaf, Gold South African Kruggerrand, Austrian Gold Philharmonic.
Certified gold coins, as a general rule, are coins minted prior to 1933. You can choose from: $20 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle and $2.5 Liberty Quarter Eagle
Apart from gold coins and bullion, other precious metals like silver and platinum are good choices. You can choose: Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, American Silver Eagle, American Platinum Eagle, Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf, Silver Rounds.

With healthy performance of gold investment, it is good to build your gold investment portfolio now. Gold investment give security and stable protection during period of economic uncertainties. So start investing in gold with goldcoinsgain now.

Stable and secure investment with Gold

3 Principles and 9 Actions for Life Success. Shine and Radiate Energy, Innovation, and Success.

The Secrets of Glowing - Shine and Radiate Energy, Innovation, and Success.

In this ever-changing world, you must stay ahead of the curve and be the first point of call when new opportunities arise.
You do this by Glowing—by radiating positive energy that fosters a great working experience for yourself, that excites and ignites others through your inspiration, and that reflects the innovation and enthusiasm that deliver superior value in your work.
The challenge is that sometimes the very actions you think will make you indispensable are exactly those that make you disposable. You forget that there is always someone, somewhere, who will do it faster, quicker, and cheaper.

When you Glow, you design your working life around three principles:

The First Principle: A Cooperative Mindset
You have a warm and positive attitude toward others and choose to work where cooperation flourishes. You have developed conversational and relationship skills and habits.

The Second Principle: Jumping Across Worlds
You have jumped across into other worlds and have learned to appreciate and learn from people who are very different from you.

The Third Principle: Igniting Latent Energy
You are able to ignite your own energy and the energy of those around you by discovering sources of ignition.

You live these principles on a daily basis through nine actions:
Action 1 You practice the daily habits of cooperation.
Action 2 You master the art of great conversation.
Action 3 You act on the “smell of the place.”
Action 4 You know how to increase the value of your network.
Action 5 You are skilled at escaping the boundaries that constrain you.
Action 6 You find and move to boundaryless places.
Action 7 You ask questions that spark energy.
Action 8 You create visions that compel.
Action 9 You craft meaningful and exciting work.

3 Principles and 9 Actions for Life Success. Shine and Radiate Energy, Innovation, and Success.

High quality residential mailboxes and business mailboxes.

Apart from its primary function of collecting mail, Mailboxes are also serving as a stylish decoration to your home and landscape. Modern and decorative mailbox looks attractive with its variety of designs, materials, colors, shapes and sizes. You can choose your own mailbox from variety of height (10" - 70"+), width (5" - 14.9") and depth (5" - 19.9"). Different materials from Aluminum, Brass, Copper, Stainless Steel or Steel with modern manufacturing techniques give you choices of durable and reliable mailboxes. Stylish Designs from Contemporary to Victorian come with variety of colors - Green, White, Black, Brown, Silver, Copper, Grey, Bronze, Brass, Antique Copper, Black Pewter, Satin Brass, Nickel.

You should choose your residential or business mailboxes that have secure locks, which ensure that your letters, checks, orders or bills are safe. Your Mailboxes need to have adequate storage capacity to hold over several weeks’ worth of incoming mails, thus making it convenient for you who travel for long holiday. If you like, some mailboxes are large enough to collect parcel delivery. Heavy Duty, Durable and Built-to-Last with weather resistant, rust free, rugged construction to resist heavy rains/snow storms and withstand typical vandal abuse from baseball bats, rocks, or bricks would be an important consideration. Importantly, your mailboxes should be USPS approved (Postal Certified).

If you are looking for high quality residential mailboxes and business mailboxes, visit EccoMailbox. It is the best source for Ecco Mailboxes. Huge selection of Ecco wall mount mailbox or post mounted mailbox with heavily discounted prices, free shipping on mailboxes, and full service customer service would be irresistible for homeowners and businesses. Importantly, if you find the mailbox not suitable for you, Ecco mailbox is easily returnable within 30 days, without restocking fees.

High quality residential mailboxes and business mailboxes.

27 Traits of Top Persuaders. Persuasiveness is a learned skill. Increase your persuasive abilities for greater success.

We have all seen great persuaders in action. We have been in the presence of persuasive experts who automatically attract everyone to them. Wherever they go, people are captivated and influenced by such individuals’ radiant energy and dynamic personality. People just naturally want to be persuaded by them.

Here are 27 Traits of Top Persuaders:
Informed Great communicator Determined
Educated Hardworking Accurate
Knowledgeable Punctual Humble
Honest Solution-oriented Admits mistakes
Organized Empathic Sincere
Cooperative Candid Creative
Adaptable Dependable Pleasant disposition
Good listener Friendly Great personality
Resilient Proactive Continuous learner

Anyone would love to possess all these talents or traits. The shocking news is most great persuaders don’t possess all these talents or traits. What consumers define as a great persuader, or what you think constitutes a great persuader, could be far from reality.

Why are the majority of individuals not persuasive? For most people, persuasiveness is not innate. It is a learned skill. Unfortunately, many of the major universities don’t teach persuasion, sales, or interpersonal relations, so it is hard to turn to formal education to help reinforce these most fundamental business necessities, even in a business program!

How can you be ready for success, life, and business without being trained in these basic skills? The ability to sell, market, close deals, communicate your ideas effectively, understand consumer behavior, give presentations, influence people, get clients, or raise money is the ticket to success. If you are good at persuasion you can write your own ticket.

If you can hone your persuasive abilities, your natural gifts and abilities will emerge and blossom even more because your persuasiveness will help get more people and more resources on your side. When this happens, your hard work won’t feel so hard anymore. Instead of killing yourself to make things happen, you’ll find that your work becomes fun.

So, discover the skills you need to become more persuasive, (2) begin to embody these skills so that they are a natural part of who you are, and (3) create massive success.

27 Traits of Top Persuaders. Persuasiveness is a learned skill. Increase your persuasive abilities for greater success.

Test your stock trading skills without risking any of your own money.

A large percentage of stock traders employ a top-down approach when making an investment in stocks. This involves three steps: Making a prediction about the future, discerning its effect on the investment, and Making the trade. But nobody can accurately predict interest rates, the future direction of the economy, or the stock market. Unpredictable stock market fluctuations are full of uncertainty. The ups and downs is beyond comprehension. The market is completely irrational and overreacts to just about everything. Also, market activity consists overwhelmingly of noise with a very small trend component. That's why; even seasoned investors can get burned with their stock investment. In today's highly competitive world of finance and investing, stock trader need to revisit their existing strategy and develop practical and profitable strategies for surviving and thriving on Wall Street. Try to learn from Warren Buffett, today’s best-known and greatest value investor. His main principle is to buy businesses that are selling below their underlying value. He sticks to quality companies and hold them for the long term. The big money is made by sitting not trading.

Use diversification on a small scale. You don’t need 30 to 40 different stocks; less than 10 is ideal and certainly no more than 20. Diversification is best applied in the small realm of businesses you understand thoroughly. You need to integrate fundamental, technical, and sentiment analysis into a real-world trading approach that enables you to best understand market performance. Never act on anything you don't thoroughly understand. You need to understand every step and every aspect of your research.

So, as trader, you need to acquire the knowledge on how the markets truly work, then test and retest your ideas and concepts until you feel confident. You need to give yourself the winner's edge by always continuing to actively pursue the learning process. You can accomplish this with Wall Street Survivor. By joining the Wall Street Survivor community, you'll be able to learn to trade with their In-depth Research Center; play on stock market simulation to test your trading skills with real time prices; collaborate with other 100,000 active traders to share and discuss your trading lessons and experience. It is like trading a real brokerage account without risking any of your own money.

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Test your stock trading skills without risking any of your own money.

Why Training Is Often Undervalued by Management. Failure Factors for Effective Training and Learning.

Understanding Why Training Is Often Undervalued

It is important to understand that the realities faced by learning executives and other training professionals can be daunting:
 Learning is not seen as a bottom-line-producing investment. Senior business executives and other top decision makers often do not know how to link learning to organizational success. It becomes your job to make that link for them.
 Training executives are not often invited to participate in budget discussions because they are perceived as lacking enterprise knowledge, a strategic mind-set, ever-changing organizational knowledge, business skills, communication skills, or understanding the need to be proactive.
 Solid metrics to measure the true value of learning have not been clearly defined and tracked. Consequently, top management does not see the value.
 Training courses, events, and activities are often scheduled as a reaction to assessed gaps in performance, resulting in training being seen as reactive rather than proactive. From this perspective, management often sees training as a cost and a possible drain on resources, rather than as a strategic value- added investment to achieve its goals. Ask yourself: How often are your individual development plans (IDPs) linked to the business plan and the strategic goals?

Along with these challenges, there are additional factors, which I call failure factors, that left unaddressed will lead to major problems in establishing the value of learning with decision makers in the organization.

Failure Factors
 Limited or no knowledge of the enterprise strategic plan
 Limited business acumen among learning professionals
 Training courses or events that have no tie-in to enterprise strategy
 Weak business relationships with senior decision makers
 Workforce development team members who do not attend enterprise strategy sessions
 Little or no alignment with the training needs of every part of the enterprise
 No workforce development plan with evaluation and metrics tied to ROI
 Doing things the same way because that’s what has been done before
 Failure to communicate the value and impact of learning to the bottom line
 Lack of effective persuasion and presentation skills
 No buy-in from senior leaders for workforce development plan
 Lack of effective planning, evaluation, and measurement impact to the bottom line

Why Training Is Often Undervalued by Management. Failure Factors for Effective Training and Learning.

Protect your personal belongings and properties with Effective Home Security System.

Security camera or video surveillance system has been widely popular for both public and personal use. Government use security camera to maintain law and order, reduce crimes and vandalism, and ensure public safety and security. Security camera or video surveillance system are installed in many public places such as hospitals, airports, shopping malls, sport stadiums. Footage of crime captured from security camera is admissible in court as evidence. Business use security camera to Prevent Employee Theft, Reduce Insurance Premiums and Taxes, Prevent Workplace Harassment, Prevent Shoplifting, Prevent Vandalism, or Monitor suspicious activities.

With increasing threat of burglary, individuals are securing their home residence with security camera, alarm system, remote monitoring system or high-tech computerized surveillance systems to protect their personal belongings and properties. Effective Home Security System is required to deter theft and vandalism. It may include a control panel, keypad, sensors on the doors and windows, siren, motion detectors, and close circuit TV (CCTV) camera, and many more. Home security alarm with loud siren is used to frighten away a burglar or intruder. Remote monitoring system allows you to receive alert notification in remote location via sms, computer, cellphone or other web-enabled devices. At the same time, the security system will try contact the security company and police for further actions. However, thieves are smart enough. They always look for security cameras and commit their crimes off-camera and try to steal or destroy them if located within reachable range or height. That’s why, covert or hidden security cameras should be used to catch such smart thieves. They can be concealed or hidden on many different forms – within alarm clocks, within Tissue Box, within Air Ionizer, or within Smoke Detector.

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Protect your personal belongings and properties with Effective Home Security System.

Working with Emotional Intelligence. Women Have More Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence Is Not Fixed at Birth.

Rather than simply being nice, emotional intelligence means being real, open, and honest regarding our feelings. This can take courage as it is often easier to skirt around issues than to confront them directly. Rather, we need to be real in our interactions with others. While we should be sensitive to other people’s feelings, ignoring or overlooking their negative or destructive behavior does them no favors. If we truly care about someone, we must be forthright and honest even though it may be uncomfortable for us at the time and not appreciated. True friends will end up appreciating that we had the courage, and cared enough, to be honest with them.

“Emotional intelligence does not mean giving free rein to feelings—‘letting it all hang out.’ Rather, it means managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively, enabling people to work together smoothly toward common goals.”

Women Have More Emotional Intelligence
Another aspect of EI that is frequently misunderstood is the differences between the genders’ natural ability to express it. Women in our society have always had a great deal more freedom and permission to express and show their emotions than men. This is slowly starting to change as Western culture has been waking up to the negative consequences of not allowing men to openly express their emotions. Because women have been much more open and expressive in general with their emotions, it is assumed by some that they will be better in all areas of EI than men. Daniel Goleman tried to clear up misconceptions regarding gender differences when he wrote that “women are not ‘smarter’ than men when it comes to emotional intelligence, nor are men superior to women. Each of us has a personal profile of strengths and weaknesses in these capacities. Some of us may be highly empathic but lack some abilities to handle our own distress; others may be quite aware of the subtlest shift in our own moods, yet be inept socially.”
When we add up male/female profiles, we find that women on the whole are more aware of their emotions and are better at forming relationships with others while men adapt more easily and handle stress better. However, it is important to remember that this finding does not account for individual variations where these differences could be reversed. There are men who are very aware of their emotions and are able to form strong relationships, just as there are women who adapt easily and are good at handling stress.

Emotional Intelligence Is Not Fixed at Birth
The most exciting and promising aspect of emotional intelligence is that we are able to change it. In other words, unlike our IQ, we are not stuck with what we are born with. The great news about EQ is that it is not fixed or only developed at a certain stage in life. It has been shown that life experiences can be used to increase EQ and that we can continue to develop our capacity to learn and adapt as we grow older. The EQ realm is one area that does reward us for successfully having gone through stages of our lives.

Working with Emotional Intelligence. Women Have More Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence Is Not Fixed at Birth.

Identity Theft Prevention. Basic Rules for Preventing Identity Theft and Identity Fraud.

Preventing Identity Theft: 2 Basic Rules You Must Use

1. Safeguard Your Social Security Number
Your Social Security number (SSN) is the key to your personal and financial vault. It provides access to your bank and brokerage accounts, credit reports, medical records, and so much more. The SSN is often the entry point for identity theft. Do not carry your Social Security card in your wallet or purse. Do not write your SSN on a piece of paper in your wallet or purse either. Guard it always and do not give it out unless absolutely necessary. Do not be afraid to strongly question why anyone needs to know your SSN. Also protect your other personal information, such as your passport, birth certificate, voter registration card, alien registration card, and other forms of identification.

2. Protect Your Other Personal Information
Locking down your SSN is the first step in protecting your personal information. The same safeguards are needed for your credit card numbers, bank and brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, and others. Do not give your credit card number or other personal information to people who call you, no matter how legitimate or enticing the offer may sound. Always limit to whom you give your date of birth, mother’s maiden name, or other confidential personal information. Again, do not be afraid to question why someone needs this information.

Minimize the amount of information you carry with you. Do not carry more than two credit cards at any one time. Do not write your personal identification number (PIN) on your automated teller machine (ATM) card. Go through your wallet or purse and remove old deposit slips, blank checks, and other information that you may not need to carry. Do not keep account information or passwords in your cell phone or personal digital assistant. Cancel credit cards that you do not need.

Check your credit card after each use. Always check that you have received your own credit card back after making a purchase, although this is not a frequent problem. In some instances, corrupt clerks have switched credit cards. The clerk knows that the particular credit card is good since it was approved for the purchase; criminally minded clerks can use the card or sell it to others.

Always guard your other passwords and PINs. Do not provide your address or telephone number on credit card transaction slips. Some states actually prohibit retailers from asking you for this information. When purchasing from online retailers, do not allow them to maintain your credit card number or other personal information for future transactions. The less information that you allow them to store, the less information can be adversely impacted if a data breach occurs.

Keep unnecessary information off your checks. I have seen people print their SSNs and home telephone numbers on their checks. There is no need to do this; it only exposes more personal information. Limit the information to your name and address. Rather than having new or additional checks for your checking account mailed to your home address, consider having them delivered to your bank for pickup. This is especially recommended if you do not have a locking mailbox.

Some credit card issuers allow card holders to place their photograph on their cards. This can be a good if the card is lost and then used by a thief. Of course, we have to assume that whoever receives the card for purchases will actually look at the face of the card and compare the signature on the back of the card with the signature provided at time of use. In some cases, people have signed ‘‘Mickey Mouse’’ on their credit card receipts without the cashiers ever noticing.

Protect personal information that you leave in your car. Do not leave any items with personal information, such as insurance cards, vehicle registration, wallets, purses, or laptops in your vehicle, especially in plain view. Thieves will break into vehicles to obtain this information. In addition, remove or hide from view your garage door opener. The garage door opener and vehicle registration with your home address provides thieves with the tools they needed to locate and easily enter your house while you are away. Properly secure financial instruments and important documents in your residence or business, or bank safety deposit box. Better yet, install a home alarm system for further protection. Residential and commercial burglaries have been carried out to obtain SSNs, birth certificates, and account information.

Identity Theft Prevention. Basic Rules for Preventing Identity Theft and Identity Fraud.

Ten Ways to Grow Your Client List. Client Acquisition and Lead Generation.

Ten Ways to Grow Your Client List

It is easiest to start networking with people you already know. Here is a checklist of places to look for names to add to your list.
1. Old client files: Look through all your old client files to get the names of people you have worked with, even briefly, on a case or project.
2. Old prospect files: Do the same with old prospect files. That a person considered hiring you is strong evidence that he or she is a good contact.
3. Stacks of old business cards: You have been saving them all these years for a purpose. The time has come!
4. Phone directories from employers: Your current and former colleagues can be good referral sources.
5. School alumni directories: People you went to school with are often interested in meeting people and developing business contacts.
6. Colleagues: Other people who work for your firm can be great sources of referrals.
7. Affinity group directories: People you know from memberships in special-interest organizations can be good contacts, especially those in professional organizations.
8. Alliance partners: Put your contacts from these important organizations on your list.
9. Others serving your clients: Your clients' accountants, lawyers, investment bankers, and other professionals who serve them should be added to your list.
10. Friends and family: Some people aren't comfortable doing business with this group. If you are, add them to your list.

Ten Ways to Grow Your Client List. Client Acquisition and Lead Generation.

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The main drawback: Unlike other independent review sites, they have only 10 sites to review on their website, has no Advanced Search feature, and no in-depth review. Probably it is because Wpdesigner is a blog with main focus on developing WordPress themes and improving your blog’s performance through code and design tweaks. But they have plenty of Hosting Resources and Wordpress Resources to learn about.


The above is a sponsored.

Quick comparison on Web Host Sites

Business Networking Guide. Do's and Don'ts of Developing Trust with your contacts. Maintaining a high level of Trust.

Business Networking is Maintaining Trust

The biggest inhibitor to networking is the fear that someone will take advantage of you or embarrass you. You can help overcome this fear in others by extending a hand when they need it, but that is not enough. Maintaining a high level of trust is essential to developing a network.

Maintaining trust requires several things. First, it means that you will provide a high-quality service. It doesn't pay to network with hacks because your reputation will be sullied by theirs. It also means that you will go the extra mile to clear up any problems that you might have with a client or in some other relationship.

This is good practice in any event, but by itself it is not enough to maintain trust in networking; you must also be forthright with your contacts. If client confidentiality or some other obligation prohibits you from providing a contact with the help that he desires in a specific instance, you must tell him so. If he understands networking, he will accept your explanation. If he does not, you will want to cut him out of your network anyway.

This rule further means that you, yourself, will hold off pursuing an opportunity if pursuing it might embarrass your contact. This can be very hard to do when you are under pressure to make a sale.

Maintaining trust also means that you do not help one business contact by placing a burden on another unless you are in a position to request an outright favor. Rather, your objective is to help all parties involved. This means, among other things, that you shouldn't feel an obligation to introduce a member of your network to a client unless you think it will be beneficial to both and you can convince both of a meeting's potential value.

Do's and Don'ts of Developing Trust with your contacts.

Do's
 Ask a contact how confidential his information is. If you have any doubt, it is better to ask than to violate a confidence.
 Always ask permission before mentioning a contact's name as a source of information.
 Call the contact who provided a lead to let him know the results of your pursuit.
 Show gratitude. This applies especially when you win a job that a contact helped you win. Call. Write. Take him to lunch.
 Help a contact who has helped you win a job by getting him a chance with the new client. For architects and some other professionals, this means putting the contact on your team. In other fields, it means an introduction later.
 Tell a contact when you cannot help him because of a prior commitment to a competitor. If you take a contact's information, but you plan to work with a competitor, you are using your contact. Users get a bad reputation in a network.

Don'ts
 Don't share confidential information. This is the most commonly violated networking rule. You will be strongly tempted to use any information at your disposal in the bartering of networking, but you will get the reputation of being untrustworthy if you violate confidences.
 Don't ask where information comes from if a contact is providing it hesitatingly.
 Don't share information provided by a contact with his competitor.
 Don't go around a contact to his boss when you wish to share information with his firm. People help you, not companies. Return help to those who give it so that your contact gets credit for generating a lead.

Business Networking Guide. Do's and Don'ts of Developing Trust with your contacts. Maintaining a high level of Trust.

Sales training and development. Aligning sales capacity with sales competence.

The Power of Alignment

To create and sustain an environment for world-class sales performance, the training and development of sales teams must be holistic, all-encompassing, and proactive. There must be a paradigm shift in thinking. Sales training must evolve quickly and deliberately from an occasional activity by sales managers to an intentional effort that is directly tied to business strategy and measured according to business outcomes. Sales professionals must be knowledgeable, dedicated, and guided by a competency-based approach to develop and hone their skills.

A quantum shift to a competency-based approach will help sales trainers align their efforts with the real needs of the business and the roles that salespeople play. Sales trainers will be more effective in helping their organizations attain business outcomes and results by focusing on sales team member knowledge, skills, and abilities that are closely linked to workplace demands. Sales training and development staff will be able to work proactively with hiring managers to select new employees who demonstrate the predetermined competencies and expertise required for success in each position. These competencies then become part of the performance management system that monitors and evaluates each employee's performance on the job. Finally, these competencies will lay out clearly what each worker needs for possible promotions and the assumption of new roles and responsibilities.

Alignment Balances Competence and Capacity

An organization often will build its sales team to support revenue generation. Frequently, leaders will work hard to build a sustainable model that helps optimize the customer experience. Sales team member efforts support customer service actions, and sales managers interact with leadership teams in other departments. The efforts of the leadership team to create and sustain revenue generation activities are therefore directly affected by how well everyone in the organization works together to support revenue generation, no matter their role. It is every person's job to support the mission of the organization; every employee should understand his or her potential impact on the overall sales effort. Organizations can ensure that understanding by aligning sales capacity with sales competence.

Sales capacity. Sales capacity is an easy concept to understand, but a difficult one to execute. It rests on the premise that the more sales capacity an organization has, the easier it is to sell products and solutions. Conversely, the less sales capacity that exists, the harder it will be. Sales capacity can be measured by leadership position, market share, and customer loyalty. Solid performance in these areas is built upon an organization's business strategy, processes, tools, and innovation. Sales capacity can "create space" for sales professionals to occupy and allows them to produce the desired outputs. Without sales capacity, even the highest performing sales professional will have difficulty achieving results.

Sales competence. Sales competence comprises the knowledge, skills, and abilities of salespeople. By understanding what it takes to achieve sales competence, organizations can effectively address the challenge of executing higher-level strategies with tactical finesse and successful revenue generation. More important, sales competence helps organizations focus on what customers want and need despite rapid changes in the market. World-Class Selling: New Sales Competencies contains the validated definition of world-class sales competence and provides a solid foundation for sales excellence.

Sales training and development. Aligning sales capacity with sales competence.

12 Functions of Information Security. New model for Information Security.

12 Functions of Information Security

The new model for information security has 12 security functions instead of the 3 (prevention, detection, and recovery) included in previous models. These functions describe the activities that information security practitioners and information owners engage in to protect information as well as the objectives of the security controls that they use. Every control serves one or more of these functions.

Although some security specialists add other functions to the list, such as quality assurance and reliability, I consider these to be outside the scope of information security; other specialized fields deal with them. Reliability is difficult to relate to security except as endangerment when perpetrators destroy the reliability of information and systems, which is a violation of security. Thus, security must preserve a state of reliability but need not necessarily attempt to improve it. Security must protect the auditability of information and systems while, at the same time, security itself must be reliable and auditable. I believe that this security definitions include destruction of the reliability and auditability of information at a high level of abstraction. For example, reliability is reduced when the authenticity of information is put into question by changing it from a correct representation of fact.

Similarly, we do not include such functions as authentication of users and verification in my lists, since we consider these to be control objectives to achieve the 12 functions of information security.

There is a definite logic to the order in which we present the 12 security functions. A methodical information security practitioner is likely to apply the functions in this order when resolving security vulnerabilities.

1. Information security must first be independently audited in an adversarial manner in order to document its state and to identify its weaknesses and strengths.
2. The practitioner must determine if a security problem can be avoided altogether.
3. If the problem cannot be avoided, the practitioner needs to try to deter potential abusers or forces from misbehaving.
4. If the threat cannot be avoided or deterred, the practitioner attempts to detect its activation.
5. If detection is not assured, then the practitioner tries to prevent the act from occurring.
6. If prevention fails and an act occurs, then the practitioner needs to stop it or minimize its harmful effects through mitigation.
7. The practitioner needs to determine if transferring the responsibility to another individual or department might be more effective at resolving the situation resulting from the attack, or if another party (e.g., an insurer) might be held accountable for the cost of the loss.
8. After a loss occurs, the practitioner needs to investigate and search for the individual(s) or force(s) that caused or contributed to the incident as well as for any parties that played a role in it—positively or negatively.
9. When identified, all parties should be sanctioned or rewarded as appropriate.
10. After an incident is concluded, the victim needs to recover or assist with recovery.
11. The stakeholders should take corrective actions to prevent the same type of incident from occurring again.
12. The stakeholders must learn from the experience in order to advance their knowledge of information security and educate others.

12 Functions of Information Security. New model for Information Security.

Legal representation for accident, negligence and personal injury cases.

Personal injury can become serious matter because it can devastate your health, earning potential, and future. Have you experienced any wrong or damage done to you in person, property, rights, or reputation? If you get injured in accidents, or have been victimized by professional and medical malpractice, or getting hurt by negligent or reckless conduct, or suffered damage from corporate wrongdoing, you should know your legal right and get legal representation that help to fight and secure appropriate compensation you deserve.

Lopez Law Firm, P.A. is a Minnesota personal injury law firm with proven track record of experience and success. The professional Minnesota attorneys will represent you in many types of accident, negligence and personal injury cases to secure maximum settlement for pain, suffering and loss of income.

If you cannot travel to their offices due to serious conditions, you can call them for legal representation, and they will visit your home, hospital, office, or any other convenient location for a free, no-obligation consultation. As needed, highly capable lawyers will speak with witnesses, obtain records, and consult with experts to determine if a legal suit should be brought. If they feel that your case is valid, they will explain to you how to move forward. Importantly, they do not collect any fees or costs unless they win the case and recover money for you. They are committed to professional excellence, aggressive litigation and bringing serious results.

The above is a sponsored.

Legal representation for accident, negligence and personal injury cases.

E-business Model Ontology. Criterias and Characteristics of e-business model.

e-business model ontology can be defined as a rigorous definition of the e-business issues and their interdependencies in a company’s business model. The e-business model ontology focuses on four aspects of the organization: product innovation, infrastructure management, customer relationship, and financials.

Dimensions of product innovation are target customer segment, value proposition, and capabilities. Dimensions of customer relationship are information strategy, feel and serve, and trust and loyalty. Dimensions of infrastructure management are resources, activity configuration, and partner network, while dimensions of financials are revenue model, cost structure, and profit/loss.

e-business model can be assessed with the following characteristics: economic control, supply chain integration, functional integration, innovation, and input sourcing:

 Economic control refers to the degree to which a market is hierarchical or self-organizing. This characteristic can be measured in terms of the extent of regulatory bodies, government policy, customers, asset specificity, switching costs, proprietary products, capital requirements, and access to necessary inputs for new entrants in this industry.

 Supply chain integration is considered to be a measure of the degree to which the business functions and processes of an organization are integrated with those of their supply chain partners. This characteristic can be measured in terms of shipping scheduling, transportation management, tax reporting, negotiating customer credit terms, negotiating supplier credit terms, determining freight charges and terms, resource planning, and inventory control.

 Functional integration refers to the degree to which multiple functions are integrated in a business model. In order to measure the degree to which functions within an organization are integrated, a scale that considers a detailed list of processes can be applied. Examples of process integrations are purchase order processing with servicing functions, shipping scheduling with manufacturing, transportation management with financial functions, tax reporting with financial functions, negotiating customer credit terms with distribution, and negotiating supplier credit terms with distribution.

 Innovation is the degree of innovation of an e-business model, which can be defined as the extent to which processes can be performed via the Internet that were not previously possible. Innovation can be divided into internal and external components based on the firm’s ability (internal) to innovate or assimilate innovations within the innovative environment of the industrial sector (external).

 Sourcing refers to the way in which inputs are sourced by the organization, either systematically from a long-term supplier or through spot markets. The issue of sourcing raw materials is more straightforward as manufacturing and operating inputs are either sourced systematically or on spot markets.

In determining an appropriate e-business model, several criteria can be used, such as:
 Involved parties, such as business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and/or consumer-to-consumer.
 Revenue sources, such as transaction fee, product price, and/or exposure fee.
 Value configuration, such as value chain, value shop, and/or value network.
 Integration with customers and/or partners.
 Relationships, such as one-to-many, many-to-many, and/or many-to-one.
 Knowledge, such as know-how, know-what, and know-why.

E-business Model Ontology. Criterias and Characteristics of e-business model.

Top 10 Entrecard Droppers - July 09

I like to thank to all droppers for their continued support.
My special appreciation for the following Top 10 Droppers for July 2009:

Everyday Living
Yummy-as-can-be
The Modern Mom
Take a coffee break...
A Simple Life
Mommy's Little Corner
Life's Tricky Situations
moms..... check nyo
Life's sweets and spices
NARESH


Please visit their great sites.

Top 10 Entrecard Droppers - July 09

Strategic Career Planning. Six Career Development Strategies. Career Management Guide.

Career planning is an individual's lifelong process of establishing personal career objectives and acting in a manner intended to bring them about.

Career management is the process of deciding what work opportunities to accept or reject, depending on their perceived value in helping achieve career objectives. It includes not only decisions made by an individual but also those made about the individual by managers and others who control what work opportunities can be made available.

Career development is the process of improving an individual's abilities in anticipation of future opportunities for achieving career objectives. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a career consists of the organized structure and sequence of patterns in an individual's work life.

Strategic Career Planning
Instead of devoting so much attention to explaining or describing why people decide on the careers they do, individuals and career counselors probably need to devote more attention to strategic career planning. Using this framework, individuals focus on such issues as:
1. Who am I? Where am I going?
2. What are my present personal strengths and weaknesses?
3. What conditions inside and outside the organization—as well as occupation—will create future opportunities or pose future threats for me in my occupation or job?
4. What choices for long-term career strategy are available to me?
5. Which choice is likely to do the best job of maximizing my present strengths and future opportunities while, at the same time, minimizing my present weaknesses and future threats?
6. How can my long-term career strategy be implemented? In particular, what skills will I need over time? What is the role of family and personal life in my career?
7. How can the relative success of my career strategy be evaluated? When should it be evaluated?
Career strategies include:
1. Growth in the occupation or the organization, meaning simply doing more of what one has been doing.
? Build present skills
? Build expertise in the occupation
? Prepare for more responsibility
? Learn to supervise others
? Enter new occupation
? Build skills in a new occupation
? Move to a different organization but in same job
? Build existing skills/ knowledge for use in unrelated occupation and different type of organization

2. Retrenchment: This translates to mean "cutting back to weather a storm of unfavorable conditions." It is rarely effective as a long-term career strategy, but might be useful in anticipation of retirement, during a search for another employer, or during preparation for entry to another occupation.
? Move to a lower level job in the same occupation and in the same organization
? Move into a lower level job in a different occupation in the same organization
? Move into a lower level job in a different organization
? Cut back on work
? Seek satisfaction through avocations and hobbies
? Prepare for new occupation

3. Diversification: Branch out to an utterly new and more promising occupation, job, or employer.
? Branch out into a more promising area within one's present occupation (increase emphasis on a new area of work)
? Branch out into a more promising line of work in the organization (one with major differences from past occupation)
? Make a move into an organization with more promise, but remain in the same occupation
? Branch out into a more promising occupation in an organization with more promising long-term prospects than present employer

4. Integration: Make a move to a related occupation, job, or employer.
? Branch out into a more promising area within one's present job (but an area of work like what has been done in the past)
? Branch out into a related line of work in the same organization
? Make a move into a new organization that is related to the present employer (supplier, distributor, wholesaler, retailer)
? Branch out into a related occupation in an organization somehow related (supplier, distributor, wholesaler, retailer) to present employer
5. Turnabout: Retrench and select another strategy.
? Retrench (slow down on activities/outputs)
? Follow retrenchment with a new strategy: growth, diversification, integration, or combination
? Retrench (move out of organization)
? Use a new strategy: growth, diversification, integration, or combination
? Retrench (move out of occupation)
? Use a new strategy: growth, diversification, integration, or combination
? Build new skills (perhaps return to school) for entry into an entirely new line of work. Grow in the new occupation.

6. Combination: Pursue one strategy in a present job or occupation while simultaneously pursuing a second strategy by preparing for a completely new job or occupation.
? Apply two or more strategies at once: one to organizational status, another to occupational status

Strategic Career Planning. Six Career Development Strategies. Career Management Guide.