Act On Tips

LASIC optical surgery is going to take the visual aid market by surprise. One of the reasons for that is vanity. Another is convenience. In this blog, we can explore how some gossips by celebrities will shape how we view ourselves viewing ourselves - if you know what I mean.

It is absorbing to note that when Dorothy Parker famously uttered those words - "men don’t make passes at girls who went glasses", not only was she practicing speech rhythm to return a famous catchphrase, but she was also reverberating an absorbing observation that females who don glasses are not seen as sexually bewitching mate prospects, rather than worldly-wise work challenger/threat type individuals.

One thing to say is that that certain females (cute ones at that) are starting to don their glasses as a style statement and so this sentiment may, and hopefully will, become more outdated. Still a pass is a pass and a date is a date and clearly women and men will opt to be encountered as magnetic rather than homely to boost their ego and feed their internal needs.

One way of addressing with this trouble is to keep converting your prescription specs. This can become very expensive. Nevertheless, if you have your prescription, it is actually very easy to purchase cheap glasses online.

However, if you have the money and the braveness, laser surgery, in its various guises and differing peddlars may offer you the final solution.

Comments Off

Label printers have become a necessity when it comes to product management. Most stores use labels for security reason, management of content, and it’s simple ease of use. While bar codes are the new thing, some label makers are still behind. But that is all gonna change. Accuplace has revolutionized the industry with it’s latest label printer/maker, called the AEvo. The AEvo offers the highest possible speed, precision, and quality possibly. There is no other industrial label printer that does what the Aevo does. The AEvo is an easy to use piece of hardware, that also has as a web based interface, for user friendly access. The roller less equipment gives it better accuracy, for the smallest printing. The device also comes with a longer life span than most commercial label printer/makers. The device doesn’t require high maintenance, just simple bare hands once in a while, no tools necessary. The AEvo’s label printer offers the best precision in the industry, with the placement of repeatability of 0.05 mm, this machine speaks state-of-the-art. With the 600 DPI (Dots Per Inch) the printer can make labels as small as 0.03mm while still keeping them very clear! This is the device to have if your label maker/printer just doesn’t do the job, or doesn’t do it fast enough.

Comments Off

How Anyone Can Pass a Drug Test

Tips on how to pass a drug test.

Workout

Toxins are stashed away in body fat for many days. It only makes sense to take in an exercise program, but not just any work routine. Focus in on cardiovascular exercise, about 30-40 minutes first thing in the morning before breakfast. This little trick will burn 300% more body fat than cardio work at any other time because your body is applying its own fat stores to fuel the work. Pass a drug test by breaking a sweat! Exercise is a nice alternative to a bad thing–related to finding abotox alternative–and should be organized into a healthy lifestyle.

Water Detox

Most detox pills, drinks, and teas incorporate herbal diuretics. Diuretics flush the body of excess (and perhaps too much) water, causing an electrolyte dissymmetry. This flushing process aids expedite as many drug metabolites from the body. H2O is in and of itself a diuretic, too! Devour about 2 gallons of distilled H2O per day, and you’ll experience a significant diuresis. The problem one must be aware of is too much H2O loss can be detected by a urine drug test (the sample will come back as adulterated). The test measures pH and creatinine levels, both of which are directly tied to water consumption. Too much water and your creatinine drops below normal. This is why most detoxify drinks sold for passing a drug test incorporate creatine; the byproduct being crseatinine upon metabolization.

too much dehydration (e.g. H20 loss) can be dangerous, but not as dangerous as using Hydroxycut, to put it into real world terms.

Cranberry Extract

Cranberry extract is an excellent detoxification herb as it helps in urine / kidney function. Drinking cranberry juice prior to a drug test for a couple days will aid in you passing a drug test.

Comments Off

You couldn’t describe me as pleasantly happy being bored with most men (who isn’t?) and not be lying. However, I’m not unsatisfied in that way, either. I just bring it up in this blog as an appetizing piece of info setting up the story I am about to discuss honestly.

A week ago today I was talking to Trisha, considering signing up for the Phoenix Great Expectations dating service. Today, I sit to the blogosphere as a surprisingly pleased member of the dating service. No kidding, I am. It’s full of fun, attractive people! If you know me at all, you’re probably thinking, “Stop blabbering and tell me about it already.”

Here’s how it went down, I saw this Great Expectations Dating site and liked what I saw. They’re for the honest singles who care enough to know dating should mean something.

‘Cause I’d never been a fan of what my friends and my family so aptly entitled “dating.” I got it more than anyone should. Each night they nagg, “Are you two serious yet?” and “Please tell me you two are dating.”

“Baloney!” I say to them, and playfully so. “There’s nothing to date!”

“You’re as ridiculous as you are hilarious,” they say. “You have no way to know that!”

Thankfully, that’s my friend The One-And-Only hah! Patty Feldman. She pours reality to my mind to put me back on course. People you can trust to offer perspective. No countering that, and I joined.

Back to the message of this post. As I browsed from more than three hundred combinations of outfits for my first date with Great Expectations, I acknowledged something deep. For the longest time, I hadn’t allowed myself too many literal great expectations for dating and myself in the serendipitous winding course of being alive. Being single isn’t so bad, specifically if you use the freedom to date. Holding great expectations does wonders for those who believe.

–Monica Palmer

Comments Off

How many devices do we take for granted in our daily lives? How many inventions do we assume will always be there when we need them? Probably more than we think. After all, don’t we assume the car will start for us in the morning; the water will come out of the sink when we turn the faucet on; the light will shine for us when we flick the switch; the phone will dial when we press the right keys, and so on? We obviously do, but none of those inventions even existed 150 years ago, and somehow our species still survived. Now, of course, we cannot imagine our lives without them.

Probably the most significant invention of those mentioned above is the telephone. We may not immediately realize it (because we take it for granted so much), but the telephone truly revolutionized our world. Before the telephone was developed and put into everyday use, it could take days, weeks, or even months for news to travel across the country. While that may not seem all that significant to us now, we can look back at the Battle of New Orleans for a prime example of how the lack of ability to translate information can be a major problem.

When America went back to war against the British in 1812, skirmishes were fought all across the country, including Louisiana. It was there that General Andrew Jackson engaged British forces and led his American troops to a resounding victory. There was only one problem: the war had been over for almost two weeks. Because it took so long for messages to make their way across the country, word did not reach General Jackson that a peace treaty had been reached until two weeks after it had been signed. The Battle of New Orleans was completely unnecessary, and it is just one example of how telephones have changed our world, and how even reliable residential phone service from our phone company is important for everyday, ordinary communication.

Let’s be honest, all of us, Miami residents included, take our phone company for granted and just assume that cellular and residential phone service will always be there. But it might not, so it is important to cherish the advancements we have today.

Comments Off

Are your meetings generally a waste of time? Do you have trouble getting commitment on the decisions made? The following information is based on “Conference Leadership”, an atypical Marine Corps publication that is no longer available to the public (as it has been incorporated into a sensitive and restricted document.)The publication details a method of achieving results from groups and meetings that was far ahead of its time, originally published in 1947. Veins of “stewardship,” “dialogue” and “servant leadership” can be seen throughout, though not by those names.

This article details eleven affirmations that create powerful facilitators and make up the “Code of the Conference Leader” as found in “Conference Leadership.”

The first affirmation is that “I frankly recognize my own limitations and do my utmost to improve my qualifications.” As conference leader you should not feel like you need know the answer to everything, nor portray yourself to the group as any kind of oracle. However, understanding and having confidence in the processes of effectively leading and managing the group is extremely important. You should strive to get and act upon feedback that will make you a leader and facilitator that the group respects.

The second affirmation in the code is that “I keep confidences under every circumstance.” The best way to keep confidential information and discussions to yourself is not to have them in the first place. Explain to the group (and first to the client if appropriate) that you prefer not to have private conversions. You shouldn’t take sides and the group should have all the information that you have. A detailed discussion of this principle can be found in the excellent facilitation book “The Skilled Facilitator” by Roger Schwarz.

The third and fourth affirmations are “I always consider other people’s point of view” and “I will be open-minded about the other’s job, view-point and experience.” It is very important to recognize and appreciate the fact that your group are adults with varied histories and experiences through which they will filter the entire group experience. Adults learn most by association and we’ve all heard that “Where you stand is where you sit.” Regardless of whether or not you personally agree with all of the points of views and agendas present, you must not ignore this dynamic.

The fifth affirmation is “I believe in the duties of conference leader.” The job of the conference leader is not an intuitive one for most people. Most people want to be responsible for something, or not, and are not used to being on a real team. Real teams are more like soccer teams versus wrestling “teams” where a real collective effort is required versus a combination of individual efforts. An effective conference is where everyone is helping to pick up one big rock versus everyone breaking it up and picking up their own little piece. Additionally, as leader, you need to lead by example in the front but also be in the background. You’re a facilitator, not a savior…

The sixth affirmation is that “I give credit where credit is due” which is mainly to the members of your group. Throughout the conference, it is most useful to simply respect and acknowledge contributions from members without agreeing, disagreeing or otherwise judging them. For example, just say “thanks” not “right.” Let the group evaluate comments. You cannot afford to be perceived as being in one camp or the other and sacrifice your position as an impartial leader and facilitator.

The sixth affirmation is “I remember constantly, that the people in the conference groups are worthy of every consideration and respect, and deal with them as fellow men and women.” Similar in intent to some of the previous affirmations, it is very important to truly respect the people in your group. Only through their efforts and commitment to follow through will anything be accomplished. If you don’t honestly respect them, then it will be hard to believe that THEY have the answers they need and with your help, will discover them themselves.

The seventh affirmation is “I stimulate and develop thinking and
expression.” Your group needs to discover and experience its own
answers AND share and express them. Google both “critical thinking” and “emotional intelligence” to understand the breadth and depth of this deceptively simple statement.

The eighth affirmation is “I listen more than talk.” Remember, your job is not to “instruct” or to “lecture.” You can lead and facilitate best by understanding what’s going on with your group. You do this mainly by watching and listening. Even if you could lead them somewhere they didn’t want to go by force of your personality and style, this only creates an unhealthy dependency. As soon as you leave, they’ll be lost. Some interesting facts about listening can be found at www.listen.org/pages/factoids.html.

The ninth affirmation is “I avoid prejudice.” This is one of the
hardest ones. We all “pre-judge” a lot of stuff in our lives to save valuable time and not re-invent the wheel every time we need to make a decision. I pre-judge most of the my food and do not normally order red-wine. I do not particularly care for lima beans nor pig-brains (though since I’ve never tried the latter, how would I really know?) Pre-judging people often is a useful practice too. When I see someone I view as a threat, I may decide to lock my car doors or choose not to walk down an alley. Unfortunately we pre-judge people more than is useful, especially if our job is to help them help themselves. Do not
let that first impression become concrete. Stay open to the fact that you do not know them, their history nor their motivations and you will learn far, far more that you can use to help them think and express their own solutions.

The tenth affirmation is “I minimize my own personal experience and achievement.” This overlaps appropriately with several other
affirmations. The focus of any meeting or conference should be on the members and not the leader. The best conference leader is in the background or else the group may become dependent on him or her. While your personal experience and achievement may be important in justifying your role as leader, once it is determined to be your responsibility, further advertisement of your own credentials should not be necessary. The group should not be concerned with your credentials since you will not be providing the “answers” but rather themselves (and there may be some work to do to get the group to believe in themselves.) Do not portray yourself as a knight in shining white armor to lead the way, but rather a seasoned stable hand who will work beside them and help shovel the manure to discover their own solutions.

The last affirmation is “I remember that the success or failure of the entire training program rests with its leader.” This does not contradict the previous affirmation. Left to their own devices, the group will likely continue to get what its been getting. You need to help them raise their thinking (if not even thier “being”) to a higher level at which time they can carry on by themselves. But they will need your help or nothing will change.

These affirmations have been modified slightly from the original publication in which they were more statements and principles than affirmations however I have found that they are even more powerful if actively used as affirmations - statements consistently made to yourself about how you are and what you believe right now. Not how you will be “in the future” (i.e. “I will…”) or else the creative tension is gone and you let yourself off the hook since all you have to believe is that eventually, some time in the future you will change. Instead, decide and change right now! Be the leader you can be and get the results you and your team needs and deserves right now.

Stephen Pellegrino is a former Marine officer, operations analyst and consultant. A “plank holder” in the Marine Corps Business Enterprise office, he championed various cost and performance management initiatives for the Marine Corps, including leading the largest activity based costing implementation in the world. He is currently most interested in helping people committed to helping themselves get past the hype of the latest fad and get real results from real people.
He can be contacted at stephen@conferenceleadership.com..

Comments Off

When we perceive the simple center in the seemingly complex, we can change our world in powerful new ways.

Albert Einstein perceived the simple E=MC2 in the complexities of physical reality and changed the history of the 20th century.

Big Daddy Lipscomb, the Baltimore Colts 300 pound all-pro tackle in the 1960s perceived the simple center of what was perceived to be the complex game of football. “I just wade into players,” he said, “until I come to the one with the ball. Him I keep!” and changed the way the game was played.

Likewise, human resources, despite its complex activities, should have a fundamentally simple mission, yet it is a mission that is being neglected by many HR professionals. I call that mission the Leadership Imperative helping the organization recruit, retain, and develop good leaders.

Clearly, without good leaders, few organizations can thrive over the long run. What characterizes a good leader? A good leader consistently gets results in ethical and motivational ways. Because they interact with all business functions and usually provide education and training for those functions, human resource professionals should be focused primarily on recruiting, retaining, and developing leaders that get results. Any other focus is a footnote.

Yet working with human resource leaders in a variety of companies for the past two decades, I find that many of them are stumbling. Caught up in the tempests of downsizing, compliance demands, acquisitions, mergers, and reorganizations, they are engaged in activities that have little to do with their central mission. Ignoring or at least giving short shrift to the Leadership Imperative, they are too often viewed, especially by line leaders, as carrying out sideline endeavors.

Many HR leaders have nobody to blame for this situation but themselves. By neglecting the Imperative, they themselves have chosen to be sideline participants.

Here is a three-step action plan to get the HR function off the sidelines and into the thick of the game.

Recognize. Link. Execute.

Before I elaborate each step, let me define leadership as it ought to be. For your misunderstanding leadership will thwart you in applying the Imperative.

The word “leadership” comes from old Norse word-root meaning “to make go.” Indeed, leadership is about making things go making people go, making organizations go. But the misunderstanding comes in when leaders fail to understand who actually makes what go. Leaders often believe that they themselves must make things go, that if people must go from point A to point B, let’s say, that they must order them to go. But order leadership founders today in fast-changing, highly competitive markets.

In this environment, a new kind of leadership must be cultivated leadership that aims not to order others to go from point A to point B but instead that aims to motivate them to want take the leadership in going from A to B.

That “getting others to lead others” is what leadership today should be about. And it is what we should inculcate in our clients. We must challenge them to lead, lead for results with this principle in mind, and accept nothing else from them but this leadership.

Furthermore, leadership today must be universal. To compete successfully in highly competitive, fast changing markets, organizations must be made up of employees who are all leaders in some way. All of us have leadership challenges thrust upon us many times daily. In the very moment that we are trying to persuade somebody to take action, we are a leader even if that person we are trying to persuade is our boss. Persuasion is leadership. Furthermore, the most effective way to succeed in any endeavor is to take a leadership position in that endeavor.

The Imperative applies to all employees. Whatever activities you are being challenged to carry out, make the Imperative a lens through which you view those activities. Have your clients recognize that your work on the behalf of their leadership will pay large dividends toward advancing their careers.

Recognize: Recognize that recruiting, retaining, and developing good leaders ranks with earnings growth (or with nonprofit organizations: mission) in terms of being an organizational necessity. So most of your activities must be in some way tied to the Imperative.

For instance: HR executive directors who want to develop courses for enhancing the speaking abilities of their companies’ leaders often blunder in the design phase. Not recognizing the Leadership Imperative, they err by describing them as “presentation courses.” Instead, if they were guided by the Imperative, they would offer courses on “leadership talks.” There is a big difference between presentations and leadership talks.

Presentations communicate information. Presentation courses are a dime a dozen. But leadership talks motivate people to believe in you and follow you. Leaders must speak many times daily to individuals or groups in a variety of settings. When you provide courses to help them learn practical ways for delivering effective talks, to have them speak better so that they can lead better, you are benefitting their job performance and their careers.

Today, in most organizations, the presentation is the conventional method of communication. But when you make the leadership talk the key method by instituting “talk” courses and monitoring and evaluation systems broadly and deeply within the organization, you will help make your company more effective and efficient.

Link: Though such recognition is the first step in getting off the sidelines, it won’t get you into the game. To get into the center of things, you must link your activities with results. Not your results their results.

Clearly, your clients are being challenged to get results: sales’ closes, operations efficiencies, productivity advances, etc. Some results are crucial. But other results are absolutely indispensable. Your job is to help your clients achieve their results, especially the indispensable results. You must be their “results partner.” Furthermore, you must help them get sizable increases in those results. The results that they get with your help should be more than the results that they would have gotten without your help.

For instance, when developing company-wide objectives for leadership talks, you should not aim to have participants win a speaking “beauty contests” but instead to speak so that they motivate others to get increases in measured results. When you change the focus of the courses from speaking appearance to the reality of results, you change the participants’ view of and commitment to the courses and also their view of and commitment to you in providing those courses. So have the participants define their indispensable results and link the principles and processes they learned in the course to getting measured increases in those results.

Execute: It’s not enough to recognize. It’s not enough to link. You must execute. “Execute” comes from a Latin root exsequi meaning “to follow continuously and vigorously to the end or even to ‘the grave.’” Let’s capture if not the letter at least the spirit of this lively root by insuring that your activities on behalf of your clients are well “executed,” that they are carried out vigorously and continuously in their daily work throughout their careers. If those activities are helping them get results, you are truly their “results partner.”

For instance, in regard to the leadership talk courses, HR professionals can lead an “initiative approach.” At the conclusion of the course, each participant selects an initiative to institute back on the job. The aim of each initiative is to get sizable increases in their indispensable results by using the principles and processes that they learned.

The initiatives and their results should be concrete and measurable, such as productivity gains, increases in sales, operations efficiencies, and reduced cycle times.

The participants should be challenged to get increases in results above and beyond what they would have gotten without having taken the course. They should be challenged to get those increases within a mutually agreed upon time, such as quarterly reports.

In fact, if the participants don’t achieve an increase in results that translates to at least ten times what the course costs, they should get their money back.

Don’t stop there. Getting an increase in results is not the end of the course, it should be the beginning the beginning of a new phase of getting results, the stepping up phase. The more results participants achieve, the more opportunities they have created to achieve even more results. The leadership talk course should have methods for instituting results’ step-ups.

One such method can be a quarterly leadership-talk round table. Participants who graduate from the course meet once a quarter to discuss the results they have gotten and provide best practices for getting more. Human resources should organize, direct and facilitate the round tables. In this way, the results the leaders are getting should increase quarter after quarter.

When HR professionals promote such leadership talk courses, courses that are linked to getting increases in indispensable results and that come with the “results guarantee,” those professionals are truly seen as results partners in their organizations.

I have used the leadership talk as an example of how you can greatly enhance your contributions to the company by applying the Leadership Imperative. Don’t just apply the Imperative to such courses alone. Apply it to whatever challenge confronts you.

When you recognize how that challenge can be met through the Imperative, when you link the challenge to getting increases in measured results, and when you execute for results, you can transform your function.

You don’t have to be as distinguished as Einstein or as awesome as Big Daddy Lipscomb, but you will in your individual way perceive the simple, powerful center of things. You’ll be in the thick of the most important game your company is playing helping change your world and the world of your clients.

2004 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

About The Author

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - and has worked with thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at www.actionleadership.com.

Comments Off