Video conferencing is among those things that all of us generally endorse but is in fact new enough that many of us haven’t fully adjusted to it. We’re not yet sure exactly where to look. We’re not sure when you speak. We’re not used to seeing precisely what we look like when we’re pretending to be interested.

And that’s the difficulty: Video conferencing assumes that seeing people (and ourselves, if we want) is definitely a virtue. We would argue against this. We could debate that seeing people is extremely overrated. But we’ll do that some other time. Anyway, video conferencing allows us to experience things, too. Which happens to be extremely helpful. Particularly if the item is a product we’re attempting to get anyone to buy. Or a handy chart on an easel. Or a thumb in the up position.

The Best Way to Behave

Video conferencing isn’t a blend of talking on the phone and meeting in a live setting. It’s its own thing, having its own set of rules, which pretty much result from this: “If you’re not speaking, you have to remember that the other five, six, seven or eight people participating are also watching you,” says Bob Kirk, CEO of Avistar, a visual communications provider based in San Mateo, Calif. “People tend to forget that if they’re not speaking, they’re also still being viewed.”

Which in turn: “Video has a multiplier effect,” says Lew Epstein, general manager of advanced applications at Steelcase, a furniture products company in Grand Rapids, Mich. “When you add a multisite call, you’re looking into several rooms simultaneously and vice versa, so each impression you make when you enter that room is magnified and multiplied.”

Video makes everyone a subject. Regardless if we’re not speaking. So, consider some rules about just being within a video conference:

It’s an instinct to check out the man or woman you’re talking to, naturally, but on a video call, it usually makes you look squirrelly. Acknowledge just what video-ergonomists call “focal difference.” When you’re not speaking, look at the screen on your desktop. When you’re speaking, look at the camera. In case you don’t, you look like you’re looking off in the distance, which is certainly what folks do when they’re lying.

And no multitasking. “Multitasking is painfully obvious,” says Avistar’s Kirk. “You can tell because their eyes are wandering across the screen.” You are able to tell because you have the ability to hear the sound of clicks, inidicating mouse, typing an IM or practicing a tap routine–none of which connote respect for your subject at hand.

If you’re in your home, maybe don’t rest on the couch. Or lie in bed using the computer on your chest. Both of those positions create just what painters call a “foreshortening,” which isn’t flattering. Our form should not intended to be gazed upon in this manner. Nostrils become involved. And chins.

Your Environment

Quite possibly the most underrated part of a video call will probably be the area surrounding you–your immediate milieu, if you will, in case you’re pretentious–because your setting says just as much in regards to you as the points you’re making. Prior to a call, take a quick look at what’s inside the camera’s field of view–especially if you’re videoconferencing from home. Or if the meeting is actually a momentous one. Tidy up a bit more. Train the camera on an area free of plush toys. Maybe throw Self-Hypnosis for Dummies in a drawer. Move the Oreo Shake a few inches to the left, and out of the way.

For advice on staging a background for video, we ought to turn to the presidents. Take the Oval Office address, for one example. The president will not be sitting in a heavy-traffic area, to begin with. And behind him you just see curtains, maybe a little lawn and a credenza with a well-considered variety of objects–emblems that suggest certain values: framed family photos (Obama, both Bushes, Clinton, Reagan); small busts of other presidents (Clinton); a pair of metal objects resembling andirons‚ . . . possibly trophies . . . possibly bowling trophies (Ford); or nothing at all (Carter).

The point is this: Think of your environment. Know what’s on your credenza. Maybe throw some framed family photos on it. Of course if you know you don’t have a credenza, you do. We all have a credenza.

To conclude, the video call is a painless situation to master, due to the expectations are really low. You only need to look for the picture-in-picture to see what others see. You have to be aware of what you look and sound like, as well as what your environment says all about you. And once all that’s dealt with, maybe say something really smart–after a pause of exactly two seconds.

Key Technical Matters

1. The smaller the headset, the better, although a headset will always make you look like Control-era Janet Jackson. There’s just no way of getting around it.

2. Be a bit more or less like a news anchor: Sit up straight, smile, attempt not to seem vacuous.

3. The news anchor rule notwithstanding, never say, “Over to you, Jack.” Or “Take it away, Debbie”

4. Particularly if not anyone on your call is named or Jack or Debbie.

5. Easy on the stripes. Striped clothing can create a “strobing” effect for you personally on the other side end.

6. Jokes are approximately 30 percent less funny while videoconferencing.

7. Stifling a yawn is usually as obvious and demoralizing to others on a video call as it is in a live setting.

8. Maybe don’t place your head in your hands. Or on your desk. Or between your knees.

9. Eating is prohibited.

10. Gum chewing is prohibited.

11. Smoking is prohibited. Unless you’re videoconferencing along with the French. In which case, it’s encouraged.

12. And not to mention if you don’t think it is important for you to, always wear pants.

The Thing About Lag

Allow us to all collectively accept to wait two seconds before speaking on a video call. Except if you have an advanced system, there’s always a little bit of lag. That lag causes problems.

Leadership is amongst the areas that many entrepreneurs will usually overlook, according leadership coach John C. Maxwell, whose books include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Thomas Nelson, 1998) and Developing the Leader Within You (Thomas Nelson, 1993).

“You work hard to develop your product or service. You fight to solve your financial issues. You go out and promote your business and sell your product. But you don’t think enough about leading your own people and finding the best staff,” Maxwell says.

I discovered, the abilities and talents necessary to guide your team in the right direction can easily be simple, and anyone with the determination can develop them. Here’s a collection of 10 tips drawn from the secrets of successful leaders.

1. Assemble a passionate team.
Your team has to be devoted to you and the business. Successful entrepreneurs haven’t only social and selling smarts, but in addition the know-how to hire effectively, says leadership trainer Harvey Mackay, who wrote Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive (Ivy Books, 1995). “A colossal business idea simply isn’t enough. You have to be competent to identify, retain and attract talent who can turn your concept into a register-ringing success,” he says.Related: What’s Your Leadership Style? (Quiz)When putting your team together, look for people whose values are aligned together with the purpose and mission of your company. Suzanne Bates, a Wellesley, Mass.-based leadership consultant and author of Speak Like a CEO (McGraw Hill, 2005), says her team members rallied around each other during the worst part of the recession due to the fact they all believed in what they were doing. “Having people on your team who have tenacity and a candid spirit is really important,\” she says.

2. Overcommunicate.
This one’s a biggie. Even with the use of a staff of only five or 10, it can be tough to know what’s happening with everyone. In an effort to overcommunicate, Bates compiles a weekly news update she calls a Friday Forecast, and emails it to her staff. “My team is always surprised at all the good news I send out each week,” Bates says. “It makes everyone feel like you really have a lot of momentum, even in difficult times.”

3. Don’t assume.
Any time you run a small business, you may assume your team understands your objectives and mission — and these people may. But, everybody needs to be reminded of exactly where the company’s going and exactly what things will look like as soon as you get there. Your staff may ask, “What’s in it for me?” It’s vital to paint that picture for your team. Don’t forget to really understand the people who are helping you build your small business.“Entrepreneurs have the vision, the energy, and they’re out there trying to make it happen. But, so often with their staff, they are assuming too much,” says Beverly Flaxington, creator of The Collaborative, a business-advising company in Medfield, Mass. “It’s almost like they think their enthusiasm by extension will be infectious — but it’s not. You have to bring people into your world and communicate really proactively.”

4. Be authentic.
Good leaders instill their personality and beliefs straight into the fabric for their organization, Flaxington says. If you happen to be yourself, and never try to act like somebody else, and surround yourself with people who are aligned with all your values, your small business is more likely to succeed, she says.Related: Tips on Loyalty and Leadership“Every business is different and every entrepreneur has her own personality,” Flaxington says. “If you’re authentic, you attract the right people to your organization — employees and customers.”

5. Understand Your Obstacles.
Most entrepreneurs are optimistic and certain that they’re driving toward their goals. But, Flaxington says, it’s a short-sighted leader who doesn’t take time to understand his obstacles.“You need to know what you’re up against and be able to plan around those things,” she says. “It’s folly to believe that merely because you’ve got this energy and enthusiasm that you’re likely going to be in a position to conquer all. It’s much smarter to move one step back and figure out what your obstacles are, so the plan that you’re putting into place takes that into account.”

6. Create a ‘Team Charter.’
A great number of new teams race down the road before they even figure out who they are, where they’re going, along with what will guide their journey, says Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One-Minute Manager (William Morrow & Co., 1982) and creator The Ken Blanchard Cos., a workplace- and leadership-training firm. Just calling together a team and producing them a clear charge will not mean the team will succeed.“It’s important to create a set of agreements that clearly states what the team is to accomplish, why it is important and how the team will work together to achieve the desired results,” says Blanchard, who is based in Escondido, Calif. “The charter creates a record of common agreements and may be modified when the business grows and the team’s needs change.”

7. Trust In Your People.
Entrepreneurial leaders must help their people develop confidence, especially during tough times. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Leaders are dealers in hope.” That confidence will come in part from believing in your team, says Maxwell, who is operating out of West Palm Beach, Fla. “I think of my people as 10s, I treat them like 10s, and as a result, they try to perform like 10s,” he says. “But believing in people alone isn’t enough. You will need to help them win.”

8. Fork Out Credit.
Mackay says a fantastic salesperson knows precisely what the sweetest sound in the world is: The sound of their own name on another person’s lips. But a lot of entrepreneurs think it’s either the crinkle of freshly minted currency, or maybe the dull thud of any competitor’s body hitting the pavement.“Many entrepreneurs are too in love with their own ideas and don’t know how to distribute credit,” Mackay says. “A good quarterback always gives props to his offensive line.”

9. Keep Your Team Engaged.
Great leaders give their teams challenges and get them enthusiastic about them, says leadership expert Stephen Covey, writer of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989). He pointed to the example of a nice pizza shop in a moderate-sized town which was a killing an enormous fast-food chain in sales. The key difference separating the chain and the small pizza joint was the leader, he says.Every week he gathered his teenage employees inside a huddle and excitedly asked them: “What can we do this week that we’ve never done before?” The kids loved the challenge. They started texting their personal friends whenever a pizza special was on. They took the credit-card machine to the curb so passing motorists could buy pizza right off the street. They loaded up a truck with hot pizzas and sold them at high-school games. The money poured in and you will find that the store owner never had troubles with employee turnover, says Covey, who is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

10. Stay Calm.
A business owner must backstop the team from overreacting to short-term situations, says Mackay, who is operating out of Minneapolis. This is often particularly important now, when news of the sour economic environment is everywhere.“The media has been hanging black crepe paper since 2008,” according to him. “But look at all the phenomenal companies and brands that were born in downturns, names like iPod, GE and Federal Express.”

Although you might think a million dollars provides you with financial security, it will not. Because of the volatility in economies, governments and financial markets around the globe, it’s no longer safe to believe a million dollars can provide you and your family with true security. The fact is, a Fidelity Investments’ study of millionaires last year discovered that 42 percent of them don’t feel wealthy and they would need $7.5 million of investable assets to start feeling rich.

This isn’t a how-to around the accumulation of wealth coming from a lifetime of saving and pinching pennies. This really is about generating multimillion-dollar wealth and enjoying it in the course of the creation process. To get going, think about these seven secrets of multimillionaires.

No. 1: Choose to Become a Multimillionaire

You first have to decide you are going to become a self-made millionaire. I went from nothing‚Äîno money, just ideas plus a lot of hard work‚Äîto create a net worth that probably can’t be destroyed within my lifetime. Your first step making a decision and setting a target.

No. 2: Eliminate Poverty Thinking

There’s no shortage of money on planet Earth, merely a shortage of people who think correctly about this. To become a millionaire from scratch, you will need to end the poverty thinking.

No. 3: Treat it Like a Duty

Self-made multimillionaires are motivated not merely by money, but by the need for the marketplace to validate their contributions. While I have always wanted wealth, I was driven more by my need to have to contribute based on my potential. Multimillionaires don’t lower their targets when things get tough. Rather, they raise expectations for their own reasons as they quite simply see the difference they could make with their families, company, community and charities.

No. 4: Surround Yourself with Multimillionaires

I’ve already been studying wealthy people since I was 18 years old. I read their stories and see the work that they went through. You will see these are my mentors and educators who inspire me. There’s no way to learn how to generate money from an individual that doesn’t have much. Who says, “Money won’t make you happy?” People without money are who says, “All rich people are greedy.” Wealthy people don’t talk like that. It’s important to know what a lot of people are doing to create wealth and adhere to their example: What do they read? How do they invest? What drives them? How do they stay motivated and excited?

No. 5: Work Like a Millionaire

Rich people treat time differently. They buy it, while poor people offer it. The rich know time is significantly more valuable than money itself, which means they’ll hire people for things they are not good at or don not find as a productive use of their time, which includes household chores. But don’t kid yourself that those who hit it big don’t work hard. Financially successful individuals are consumed by their hunt for success and work to the moment that they feel they’re winning and not just working.

No. 6: Shift Your Focus from Spending to Investing

The rich don’t spend money; they invest it. They have knowledge of the U.S. tax laws and how they favor investing over spending. You buy a house and can’t write it off. The rich, in contrast, buy an apartment building that produces income, appreciates and offers write-offs year after year. You purchase cars for comfort and style. The rich buy cars for their company which happens to be a deductible because they are used to produce revenue.

No. 7: Create Multiple Flows of Income

The truly rich never depend on one flow of income but instead produce a number of revenue streams.

Lastly, you may be surprised to learn that wealthy people wish you were wealthy, too. It’s actually a mystery to them why others don’t get rich. They know they aren’t special and that wealth is obtainable to anyone who chooses to focus and persist. Rich people want others to be rich for two reasons: First, so you could buy their products and services, and second, because they want to hang out with other rich people.

Get rich — it’s American.

Matt Smith, a freshman at Georgia Tech already launched two startups to his credit, GoRankem.com and, now in beta, Insightpool.com. Smith was 13 when he realized he planned to learn something different from what has been being fed to him as “important” from school. He knew that if he ever stood the chance of learning about entrepreneurship, he was going to ought to cook up an extracurricular program for himself.

A self-professed nerd, Smith was attracted to technology from a very young age. Barely into his teens, he was already devouring tech-related blogs and news feeds and attending Atlanta tech conferences. The real key, he says, was getting out there and meeting people. Many encouraged him, and he never got the impression that others believed he was too young as being taken seriously.

When asked about his experiences and also just how parents and potential mentors may help bridge the knowledge gap for kids who may have an entrepreneurial bent. “High schools are focused on the next step, which is usually college,” Smith says. “But they’re not preparing you for the real world. They’re making you live inside this bubble of secondary education. It doesn’t have to be that way.”Do you want to help kids get traction on the entrepreneurial path? Smith recommends encouraging them to:

Read. Most kids know where their passions lie. You find a wealth of printed and digital information readily available for every industry sector and every level of understanding.

Develop relationships. Help entrepreneurial kids get out into their communities and acquire relationships with people who can assist them in clarifying, then attaining, their goals.

Hunt for and create opportunities. Motivate kids to explore options which include finding teachers who can act as advisors. Also, many universities offer internships and summer programs for high school students.

Build something. Encourage kids to get their hands dirty by writing a computer program or launching a small business</a>. Help them understand that you will find no guarantees that their plans will work. Indeed, just about the most influential ways parents and mentors can assist kids is by steering them toward new thinking about The Big F: Failure. “Anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur has to learn to accept failure. That’s not something we’re taught in school,” Smith says.

Adults can break the taboo of The Big F by rewarding kids for taking risks and trying new things, then reinforcing the lessons learned from those efforts.

Smith’s final words of advice for adults? “Don’t undervalue what people can do just because of their age. And that goes for people who are older or younger than what you perceive as the norm. We should be more interested in great minds and solutions than the age of the people who are bringing those to the table.”

Active social networkers throughout office — those that spend about one third or even more during their time while working participating on social networking sites — possess a more tolerant attitude than their coworkers toward a range of questionable workplace behaviors, as described by a new report that came from the Ethics Resource Center (ERC), an ethics researcher in Arlington, Va.

One example is, 50 % active social networkers say it’s just fine to hold onto confidential work documents for possible use in future jobs. Only 15 percent of their non-social networking peers believe that’s acceptable. On top of that, by a five-to-one margin, social networkers think it’s acceptable to carry out less work in order to compensate for cuts in benefits or pay. They as well gossip about their workplace and coworkers more often than their less social peers.

Socially adept employees can be very likely to slack off and engage in traditionally unethical behavior caused by the fact of job dissatisfaction, as seven in 10 employees reported having plans to switch jobs within the next five years. That was compared with four in 10 of their non-active social networking colleagues. Web-savvy employees aren’t the only ethics violators nowadays. The number of employees who report feeling pushed to compromise his or her own standards as a way to perform their jobs is also on the rise.

Thirteen percent of employees said they felt pressure to break the rules. That’s the highest level since 2000. As well as the percentage of employees who think their company possesses a weak ethics culture increased to 42 percent in 2011 — up 7 percent over two years ago and attaining the highest level since 2000.

Why the boost in workplace wrongdoing? More than 75% of those surveyed said their companies are beginning to employ or restore salaries, and are also seeing fewer belt-tightening measures when compared to 2009. As a result, some employees are losing their fear of dismissal and returning to risky behaviors along the lines of sexual harassment, substance abuse, stealing and health or safety violations.

So what’s the resolution to a work world where tolerance for bad behavior has been growing? The ERC study suggests companies commit to constructing a strong ethics and compliance program and commit leadership to spend time on ethics in business culture. Its findings demonstrate that raising behavioral issues internally — and early — is essential to reducing this growing culture.
How have you already dealt with ethical violations at your company? Leave a comment and let us know.

First off, how can you tell if they are able to do the job? If you’re a subject-matter expert, ask for for samples of work and evaluate them. Provide them with hypothetical challenges to unravel and pay as much attention to how they address the problem as the solution they come up with. Provide them homework between interviews. You can also ask them to complete a project before the first interview, if you like.

What might you do if you don’t have the foggiest idea about their field? How can an engineer hire a marketer? How can a salesman hire a technical expert? In a word, by scrounging.

One entrepreneur friend of ours mashed up engineers’ resumes to create a job description and realized he didn’t quite obtain the background to interview candidates intelligently at first. When the first candidate came in, he started by describing the web application he needed to build and asked the candidate how he’d achieve it. The interviewer took furious notes.

As soon as the second and third candidates came in, he asked the very same questions, and used what he’d learned from the very first interview to challenge their ideas. By the time he reached the 25th or 30th candidate, he will possibly not have known everything about the area but he knew much more than when he began. By this point he knew enough to hire an excellent employee.

Closely following consider is: Would they finish the work? Here, you desire motivation.How committed are the potential candidates? Why are they excited to work for or together with you? You want to learn about their work ethic, their honesty as well as their attitude. Ask them tough questions. Force them to be able to express their likes and dislikes, the things they’re excited about and also the things they want nothing to do with.

For example, you could possibly describe three hypothetical projects and request them to be able to rank which they’d most and least like to try, and why. If the project they say they’d least enjoy occurs to be a task you want this candidate to complete, maybe it’ll lead you to decide they’d be happier elsewhere.You’ll be wanting to verify references, needless to say, but not just the ones the candidate provides. You can contact their old employers and colleagues, even their old teachers or professors. The federal government investigates 10 or more years into an applicant’s past for even just about the most routine jobs. Shouldn’t you do a similar check on individuals you’re trusting with your new venture’s future? Conducting this type of due diligence on potential employees might surprise a few candidates, however the ones you desperately want within your team is going impressed.

Finally, will they fit in? Right here is the most difficult part of the search to guage. It’s a challenge to describe inside of a checklist because you should view your candidate in many situations. Often, it is really not until someone has truly gone through the interview process, accepted the job, come aboard and worked with you for a short while that you truly begin to learn who they are. Still, you have to get the maximum amount of information as you can ahead of time.

Matt Szulik, former CEO of Raligh, N.C.-based open source software company Red Hat, follows an intriguing technique to obtain this sort of information before hand. He’s convinced that people decide early in their lives what level of success they desire to arive at.

“For some people, it’s academic,” he explained. “They want to get a Ph.D. from Cal-Berkeley. For others, it’s athletic. They want to be team captain or they want to be a pro athlete. Others, it could be they want to be the CEO of Google. And along the way, they make decisions at every step that would re-affirm the commitment to themselves and the pursuit of those goals.\”
As we go through the interview, Szulik asks the man or woman what she or he thinks “successful” means, and exactly how that person has made their attempts to achieve it.

“It’s amazing how fast 60 minutes can get filled, as an interviewer, by keeping your mouth shut and asking people to tell you their life’s journey as they’ve created their success model,” Szulik said.” I find that to be completely binary. The ones that have it can take you on a fantastic journey. The ones that don’t — who say, ‘You know what, I never really thought about that,’ — cannot.”
It seems so simple, but merely asking questions genuinely should help job candidates aid you, by making your hiring decisions much simpler.

This is what the psychologists, management experts and neurologists think when someone in a position of power tells individuals they’re performing a great job: “Hell, yeah!” (That in fact, is the dopamine talking.)Just how crucial is praise in business? Vitally important.Extremely important. Research happens to be done. Analytics, even.A 2010 study issued in Harvard Business Review discovered that at Best Buy, a 0.1 percent increase in employee involvement drove $100,000 in operating revenue into the bottom line for every store per year. Right now, employee involvement involves a lot of elements, of course: personal fulfillment, career advancement, free coffee. But as suggested by Chester Elton–speaker, motivation expert and co-author of best-selling management book The Carrot Principle–at Best Buy and many other organizations the Harvard study looked at, straightforward praise seemed to be the only most imperative factor.
“The number one driver of engagement is opportunity and well-being,” he says. “The number one driver of opportunity and well-being is recognition and appreciation. The Harvard study showed that you don’t just want employees satisfied, you want them engaged, because an engaged employee gives you their discretionary efforts.”

For psychologists, the knowlgedge of that investment is obvious. “Praising people for what they do right seems to be more effective, regardless of whether you think it’s nice or not,” says Dr. Laura Carstensen, a professor of psychology at Stanford University whose work focuses on motivation. “People buy lottery tickets, and mathematicians often say, How can you waste that money? Psychologists have a slightly different view, and that is, if buying a ticket for a fairly small amount of money allows you to dream and to think you might get to savor the anticipation of what that reward might look like, that’s probably worth the money.\”Positive reviews is like that. It requires little or no effort and produces a lot in return. It’s a no-brainer, perhaps even for anyone who tend to be otherwise ingrates.For that reason that’s the reason you should yield praise. But how?

HOW TO GIVE IT
Most management experts stress the importance about specificity. “You want to balance praise with constructive feedback,\” says psychologist Dr. Wayne Nemeroff, CEO and co-founder of PsyMax Solutions, a Cleveland-based provider of “integrated human capital management tools.” Nemeroff suggests, “Recall a particular situation and describe a specific behavior; acknowledge the impact the behavior or action had on the group or the project or the action or on you.”Here is what Elton implies in his book: Do it at the moment. The earlier the recognition is to the behavior, the more probable it is going to be repeated. Do it repeatedly. The more consistently you message what exactly is very important to you, the more consistently people will focus on that. And ultimately, be detailed. Specificity is effective, without a doubt, on the other hand seems to us that everything flows from sincerity. Sincerity will instantly cause praise–and, most certainly, impromptu praise. Which is the best praise of all, given that it’s instantly thought as sincere. It simply normally takes advantage of a moment that is already happening: an e-mail that you find yourself sending anyway, the beginning of a meeting that’s happening anyway, a team-building exercise. (“Bob, never has anyone so elegantly held an orange with his chin.”)It really is hard to come up with praise on the fly. And the one being praised knows that. If you take advantage of a chance encounter–if a way to praise another person was in no way even expected to happen–then everything you are saying is perceived as authentic. The situation is just an vehicle for appreciation. (Essential note: By no means make use of the phrase “outlet for gratitude” as you are praising a given person, or at any other time.)

HOW TO RECEIVE IT

Presenting praise will be the easy part. You just should be aware of other people’s outlook and be in tune with what’s going on in your business. Receiving praise is trickier–ulterior motives and all that.In relation to receiving praise, you should subscribe to the gymnastics rule: Throw away the highest and lowest scores. Never place too much stock in someone telling you that you’re amazing, and never put too much stock in another person telling you that you suck. Pay attention to the stuff in between. (This also works well with reviews.) And respond like this: “Thank you,” or something merely as straightforward. Anything else is able to spoil the moment. Praise should be as sensitively received while it is being concisely noted.The principle of positive reinforcement tells us that in fact manners that are awarded will be practices that is going to be continual. But this might be bad. When we keep repeating practices, we lose sight of the most important element of what we do, which is innovate. Praise will establish a absolutely new bar. We must always fully grasp the praise and then try to forget about it. We must always repeat the effort that was praised, but instantaneously proceed to conducting a even better version of it.What praise most importantly does is hold up a mirror. It credits what folks already think of themselves: that they’re talented at what they do. You will be making that person pleased and gratified and more thrilled to work with you. And for almost no effort at all.Good work.

TECHNICAL MATTERS

1. Praise must not begin with the phrase, “You da . . .”
2. Finishing an expression of praise with, “. . . and stuff” nullifies the praise.
3. Finishing an expression of praise with ” . . . now get back to work” often nullifies the praise.
4. In escalating order of forcefulness: e-mail, face-to-face conversation, handwritten note, bear hug.
5. No bear hugs.
6. A handwritten note may well be worth more than a $100 gift card.
7. But probably not more than a $200 gift card.
8. Easy on the superlatives: “hardest-working,” “most wonderful,” “awesomest,” “best-smelling,” etc.
9. Praise followed by objection will never be praise.
10. Praise followed by praise is likely a tad too much praise.
11. Praise leading to criticism followed by praise is a squash.

Outline for a small, handwritten word of praise:
_______,

I couldn’t be more impressed with the manner in which you _______ the [hell/heck] out of _______. Not only did you _______, but you _______. Beautiful.

Best,
_______

Created with the requirements of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the site asks users to input basic information regarding location, type of coverage needed (for up to 50 employees) and the individuals who would be insured. After that it provides a list of options, with estimated prices and provisions. Users can filter results based on whether the plans are Health Savings Account eligible; have prescription drug, mental health or maternity coverage; or offer coverage for domestic partners.

Benefits consultant Pat Haraden, principal of Longfellow Benefits in Boston, gives the tool a thumbs-up, but suggests comparing notes with an insurance broker who is knowledgeable about each state’s options and can provide more accurate pricing compared to estimates provided by HealthCare.gov.

“They could give you the sort of back story on the plan, letting you know whether the doctors and hospitals your employees need are in the plan, or whether there’s something else about the plan that you need to know to make the right decision. The broker can help you match the plan to your company’s needs,” he says.

Keep in mind that brokers may have loyalties to certain brands, so their guidance should be just one part of the information-gathering process.

As Copyblogger’s Sonia Simone recently commented, “When multiple times a month, I get an auto-reply saying ‘I’m in an all-day meeting,’ your company is broken.”Not everybody loves to go to meetings, except maybe deadwood employees who’re looking for a way to avoid their objectives. The primary fact is that while employees are in meetings, they are not accomplishing their work. Still, we can’t kick the meeting habit. Despite all the statistics that show how meetings are a enormous waste of time, they continue to be planned — some three billion of them annually, by some estimates. And yet sometimes we need groups of people to coordinate what they’re doing, or to organize something that needs to happen.

The best part is, there are ways to get this done while spending a lot less time in meetings. Here are seven suggestions:1. Have a limited, focused agenda. Meetings that wander on or try to tackle too much end up a confusing, unproductive, overlong mess. Don’t try to resolve all your company’s problems at one meeting. Instead, keep it to one issue and leave other topics for another time.

2. Rethink regularly scheduled meetings. Maybe that regular weekly staff meeting could be a biweekly or monthly meeting, if there aren’t so many pressing issues to discuss.

3. Reduce the attendee list. Consider who really needs to be at a meeting, and let everyone else skip it. Give them a memo soon after if they really need to be in the loop.

4. Shorten the timeframe. Think hard before scheduling a meeting to run more than an hour. Most participants will be completely glazed at that point and won’t absorb much more.

5. Use the internet. Instead of bringing together everyone at once, which is bound to be inconvenient for some participants, use a platform such as Campfire to collaborate and present views. Many training meetings can be eliminated in favor of online-based trainings employees take when it fits their schedule.

6. Send a memo. If the meeting is simply to impart new guidelines or projects, make a video explaining it, write a post for the company blog or send a good old-fashioned memo.

7. Reinvent your meetings. If workers are snoozing at your meetings, you can learn to make your meetings engaging and useful. There’s even a new book, Culture Game, on how to make meetings highly effective.

It wasn’t Abraham Lincoln’s strengths but the self-discipline with which he used those strengths for the right purpose.

There is much we can learn by studying Abraham Lincoln’s journey from being just another politician to becoming America’s greatest president.  (Wikipedia provides a compilation of “Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States” which makes it clear that in the eyes of many experts, and the public, Lincoln has consistently held this status).  A key to this transformation was how Lincoln, whose birthday is today, developed the self-discipline to take one of his signature strengths—his mastery of language—and used it to serve the interests of the American people rather than his own.

One of the best communicators of all time

Lincoln was undoubtedly one of the greatest communicators among all American presidents.  His words—as a public speaker, writer, debater, humorist, and conversationalist—continue to entertain, educate, and inspire us to this day.  With only one year of formal schooling, Lincoln consciously cultivated this mastery of language and expression.  As a young boy he would practice public speaking by gathering his friends together and stepping onto a stump to address them.  During his days as a lawyer in Illinois, Lincoln would frequently meet up in the evening with friends at a tavern where they would engage in story-telling contests.  And he gleaned valuable lessons in rhetoric by diligently studying Shakespeare.

As he began forging his political ambitions, Lincoln recognized the power of words to weaken and even destroy his opponents, and so he started to attack them with powerful volleys of criticism and mockery.  Upon provocation at a political gathering in 1840, Lincoln mimicked and ridiculed his opponent, Jess Thomas, to uproarious cheering of the crowd.  Thomas, who was present at the event, was reduced to tears, and for years afterwards, the people referred to it as “the skinning of Thomas.”

Lincoln was also in the habit of writing anonymous letters to newspapers to sharply criticize his adversaries.  On one occasion in 1842, for instance, he used the fictitious identity of “Rebecca” to castigate and deride the state auditor, James Shields, calling him “a fool and a liar” in a letter, and making mock-allegations of an unflattering conversation that James had had with Rebecca.

How Lincoln began to use words for a higher purpose

But the Lincoln we know as president was not this brash, impulsive politician who launched personal attacks on his opponents.  What made him change?  All along, something had been stirring within him.  Right after the “skinning of Thomas” in 1840, one of his friends reported that “…the recollection of his own conduct that evening filled [Lincoln] with the deepest chagrin.  He felt he had gone too far and to rid his good nature of a load, hunted up Thomas and made ample apology,” according to an excerpt in Benjamin Thomas, Lincoln’s Humor:  An Analysis.

This inner stirring intensified when some of his verbal attacks drew unfavorable consequences for Lincoln himself.  In fact, when the letter he signed as “Rebecca” was published, the recipient of his reproach, Shields, was so enraged that he forced the newspaper to divulge the writer’s identity, and, when he was told that it was Lincoln, accosted Lincoln and challenged him to a duel.  Good sense prevailed on both men just moments before they were to commence this fight-unto-death.  Having learned a lesson by coming so close to an inglorious death, Lincoln never wrote such anonymous letters again.

Gradually molding his character this way, Lincoln also became highly attuned to the feelings of others, including his enemies, and highly measured in the way he communicated in adversarial situations.  This was a crucial quality for leading America at a time when the nation was so divided, and the wounds of a Civil War had to be rapidly healed. Once, as he and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln were approaching Washington in a carriage, she remarked, “This city is full of enemies,” Lincoln injected, “Enemies? Never again must we repeat that word,” as told in Lincoln As I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes, and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies.

On an earlier occasion Lincoln had explained about Southerners: “They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist amongst them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up,” as recorded in Lincoln-Douglas Debates.  And, in a stirring testimony to his power over words, the President pleaded, in his first inaugural address, “We are not enemies, but friends.  We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”

Lincoln had not lost his propensity for ridicule, but now it was mostly directed at his own self, in a self-effacing manner.  When, during one of their debates, Stephen Douglas called Lincoln two-faced, Lincoln responded, wryly, “I leave it to my audience.  If I had another face, why would I be wearing this one?”  (This is fromPresidential Anecdotes.)

How Lincoln masterfully handled criticism

Lincoln by now was also showing remarkable self-mastery in gracefully fending off the frequent attacks hurled on him by critics, even those within his inner circle.  On one occasion, he was informed that the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, had refused to execute a presidential order—and further, had called the president a “damn fool.”  “He called me a damn fool?” Lincoln asked.  ”Yes!  Not once, sir, but twice!” replied the excited congressman, who had brought him this news.  “Well, Stanton speaks what is on his mind, and he is usually right about what he speaks, so if he called me a damn fool, I must be a damn fool.  I will go to him now and find out why,” according to a 2005 Time magazine article The Master of the Game.

But changing oneself isn’t easy, so even as president, Lincoln’s anger occasionally consumed him, making him pour it out in letters to critics, errant generals, and others.  He had the self-discipline though to not dispatch these “hot” letters; they were later discovered, unsigned, in a drawer in the president’s desk.  In this way, one small step at a time, Lincoln built his self-discipline, and through it, the character of his presidency.

Lincoln’s journey suggests that the true measure of a leader lies not in how much we cultivate and exploit our strengths, but in how we work on tapping, in Lincoln’s words, the “better angels of our nature” to use our strengths in the service of a cause much higher than our own personal gain.

Do you have the discipline to sculpt your character?

Do you view yourself solely as who you are today—some good, some bad—or do you see the potential for gradually sculpting your character further, the way Lincoln did?

How aware are you of your strengths?  What have you been doing to nurture them?  Are there times when you have misused these strengths? Has this led to any inner stirring in you, and have you been striving to discipline yourself to use your strengths in more and more purposeful ways?  What kind of life story could you craft for yourself if you chose to do that?

In the comments section below, I invite you to share reflections from your own journey in life and leadership.  Some executives and MBA students in my Personal Leadership & Success classes and workshops have shared remarkable stories of their own personal transformation and growth—in wisdom, character, and life direction.  If you have experienced a similar turning point, do describe it below, for your story may inspire us just as much as Lincoln’s.