Star War Roles & eliminating “busy” – this week’s most interesting articles

No, we're not mistaking Star Wars & Star Trek.  We're just letting Captain Kirk have his coffee while he reads the Star Wars leadership article

No, we’re not mistaking Star Wars & Star Trek. We’re just letting Captain Kirk have his coffee while he reads the Star Wars leadership article

 

Lots of good articles recently.  Here are a few hand selected that stand above the pack.

What Roles Would “Star Wars” Characters Have in Meetings?

Ever feel like you’re in an alien environment?  Does it sometimes seem you’re in a galaxy far, far away?  Then you’ll love this article from Connect Association about the roles various Star Wars people would have in your meetings – from keynote speaker to third-party negotiator.  Can you guess who would play which role?

 

Being Busy is a Waste of Time

Here’s an essay by Morgan Spurlock, President & Founder of Warrior Poets Entertainment, showing how he eliminated “busy” from his vocabulary and turned it into productive.

 

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More of this week’s most interesting articles — including psychology & mind tricks and an inside view of leadership lessons from Procter & Gamble in my Pulse article.

 

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David Radin is a business veteran who has helped Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs launch products, become more effective, and grow teams.  He has founded and grown several companies (two of which were acquired); and he has visited the White House by invitation. 

Currently, David helps match Dale Carnegie training, coaching & mentoring programs to organizations in Western PA & Eastern OH.  His most recent productivity-producing product is Confirmed™ Instant Scheduler™ (www.ConfirmedApp.com), which helps mobile professionals such as sales people, service providers, and travelling executives.  He offers a free 30 day trial for Confirmed Instant Scheduler.

David on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dradin

David on Twitter: @dradin

Confirmed Instant Scheduler on Twitter: @confirmedapp

 

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Updated W. PA schedule (5/15/16) of leadership, skills, and sales training from Dale Carnegie

Contact me to examine your personal, team or organization needs for leadership or team training & development

Contact @dradin to examine your personal, team or organization needs for leadership or team training & development

Here’s an updated list of Dale Carnegie Courses in Western PA available for open enrollment.  The best way to enroll is to  contact me so we can make sure you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck.  We can also take a look at your departmental team needs or entire organizations needs to determine whether a custom program is more appropriate.

Open enrollment courses & events in Greater Pittsburgh – updated May 15, 2016:

Tue May 17 – Dale Carnegie Skills for Success – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • This is a free preview for the highly popular adult course which starts on May 31.

Thu May 19 – Dale Carnegie Skills for Success – Sharon PA

  • This is a free workshop, which leads up to the course in north western PA that starts on June 30

Thu May 26 – High Impact Presentations – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • o This is a free workshop to introduce you to one of the most-popular, longest running presentation skills courses in the world.  If you subsequently enroll in the course, you will learn in two consecutive full day sessions how to better get your point across and be more commanding when you present to larger or small groups.  You’ll also get to see yourself in action as we record your presentations to give you positive feedback.

Fri May 27 – The Dale Carnegie Sales Course: Winning with Relationships – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • This is a free Preview session to introduce you to the standard in Sales Training.  If you enroll in this class, you’ll learn how to more effectively conduct your sales activities in a non-manipulative way.  The class is three full day sessions, once weekly for three weeks in June.

Thu June 2 – Leading Across Generations – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • Leading Across Generations tackles one of the most often-cited challenges for both young and old managers: how to effectively deal with team members who are not from your own generation.
  • This is a full day Workshop, and requires a paid enrollment

July 13 – Leadership for Managers – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • This is a free workshop to introduce you to the course hailed as way to focus on leadership skills that are so important in any managerial role, getting participants beyond being mere managers.

While it’s fine to go to these workshops alone, it’s often more effective to bring your team.  Feel free to contact me to determine who should attend which session, and how Dale Carnegie can most effectively meet your specific organization’s needs.

——————–

David Radin is a business veteran who has helped Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs launch products, become more effective, and grow teams.  He has founded and grown several companies (two of which were acquired); and he has visited the White House by invitation.  

Currently, David helps match Dale Carnegie training, coaching & mentoring programs to organizations in Western PA & Eastern OH.  His most recent productivity-producing product is Confirmed™ Instant Scheduler™ (www.ConfirmedApp.com), which helps mobile professionals such as sales people, service providers, and travelling executives.  He offers a free 30 day trial for Confirmed Instant Scheduler.

David on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dradin

David on Twitter: @dradin

Confirmed Instant Scheduler on Twitter: @confirmedapp

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ThingCHARGER – a unique twist on powering your devices

ThingCHARGER puts new spin on charging stations for portable devices

ThingCHARGER puts new spin on charging stations for portable devices

 

Over the years, I’ve been presented with a lot of charging devices that have been positioned as innovative, and most of the time they’re not.  Occasionally I see one that does offer some advantages — and ThingCHARGER is one of the more interesting.

ThingCHARGER is like a wall plate that you plug into your duplex 3-prong power outlets in your wall, and it gives you additional ports for your devices.  The unique slant on this one is that you can sit your phone right on top of it to charge (either Android or iPhone) and you can add two more via cable from the bottom.

It works well.

Sometimes better than others.  In my family room, the previous owner of the house installed the power outlets upside down (with the ground on top instead of bottom), and in these cases, you can’t sit the phone on top (meaning you have two additional usable USB ports instead of three).  And in some homes and offices where the power strips have the duplex outlets sideways (like in many cubicles), the same issue arises.

Here's what ThingCHARGER looks like from front & back

Here’s what ThingCHARGER looks like from front & back

It’s still valuable in these two cases, but 1/3 less valuable than when the outlets are upright as designed.

In any case, if you need additional places to plug in your phone — so you don’t have to remove your lamps or other devices, ThingCHARGER does the trick — either with two additional USB cabled ports or with three total when you can sit your phone on top.

 

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Sharks, Emails, Innovation, Piracy & a few sentences from Warren Buffet — interesting recent articles

Marlon Brando drinks coffee at meetings in movies

Marlon Brando drinks coffee at meetings in movies

Shark Tank – the real & not-so real aspects

Ever wonder wether ABC’s Shark Tank is really what venture capital is all about?  From my experiences pitching investors, there are a lot of similarities.  I also know a few people who had the opportunity to pitch for funding on Shark Tank.  One got funded; the other left without a deal.  The one that didn’t get funded believes it’s all for TV reality ratings.  The other one doesn’t.  There’s one aspects that satisfy both views: what you see on TV is only a small portion of a longer discussion.  Of course, that means the decisions are not made with the limited info the TV network shares with you.

Here are some more insights, courtesy of Inquisitr:

 

Software Piracy – Then & Now

Tim O’Reilly wrote a candid piece 14 years ago about DRM – digital rights management – the technology used to keep you from copying files on the Internet and from computers.  This month, he looks back at it and tells us his main points still ring true.

 

Becoming a Morning Person

We’re told there are morning people; and there are evening people.  This week, we share an essay by Sam Shank, CEO of HotelTonight about changing to the early rising variety.

 

Warren Buffett on Leadership in Two Sentences

One of the richest men in the world, and one of the most famous successful people who took full advantage of Dale Carnegie Training, Warren Buffett has written volumes about leadership issues – and we listen, because he gives such great advice.  But he doesn’t have to be verbose to be helpful.  Thanks to Betty Liu, CEO of Radiate for sharing this.

Is Getting Off the Grid Too Stressful?

We’ve all imagined putting away our electronics to concentrate on other things; yet most of us haven’t even attempted it.  I started checking my email on a schedule and not frequently, which helped my productivity a lot.  And I totally put away my laptop, telephones, TV one week a summer, which is wonderful for my psyche – not to mention how much my family loves it.  This week, Derek Handley, a venture capitalist in Brooklyn (with cool track record as entrepreneur) shares how he gets off the grid.

 

14 Leadership Lessons In Business Creativity

Finally, Madanmohan Rao shares with us 14 tips for business creativity and growth that can help you sharpen your leadership skills as he reviews Dr Amantha Imbur’s book, The Innovation Formula: The 14 Keys for Creating a Culture where Innovation Thrives

——————–

David Radin is a business veteran who has helped Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs launch products, become more effective, and grow teams.  He has founded and grown several companies (two of which were acquired); and he has visited the White House by invitation. 

Currently, David helps match Dale Carnegie training, coaching & mentoring programs to organizations in Western PA & Eastern OH.  His most recent productivity-producing product is Confirmed™ Instant Scheduler™ (www.ConfirmedApp.com), which helps mobile professionals such as sales people, service providers, and travelling executives.  He offers a free 30 day trial for Confirmed Instant Scheduler.

David on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dradin

David on Twitter: @dradin

Confirmed Instant Scheduler on Twitter: @confirmedapp

 

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Schedule of Dale Carnegie Previews & Workshops for Leadership, Sales & Interpersonal Skills Training

Great leadership workshops happening in Western PA

Great leadership workshops happening in Western PA

 

There’s no time like the present to hone your skills to have greater impact on your organization, career and life.  At Dale Carnegie, we provide those skills in a way that helps you turn them into habits.  Better yet, we make it fun as we do it.  (Yes; adults can have fun too!)

If you lead a department or organization, we can work with you to customize a program that will help you get more out of your team and enhance your corporate culture.  Contact me to make that happen.

We’ll determine the method to give you the biggest bang-for-your-buck, and outline an implementation to help you get there effectively – with the lowest drain on your internal resources.  That might include assessments of your group dynamics or individual contributors, group sessions at your facility, enrollments in our public courses, facilitated online sessions – or most likely, a customized combination to optimize the impact.

If you’re not ready for a larger custom program, you can work with us to utilize our public courses to get you started.  Here are several upcoming free public sessions in Western Pennsylvania that will introduce you to the concepts used in specific Dale Carnegie Courses.  Most of these previews and workshops are 90 minutes to 2 hours and can lead into full courses or other options.  You can enroll in the course directly or visit these sessions at no cost and enroll based on your impressions.  Contact me to enroll yourself or members of your team in any of them.

Wed May 11 – Dale Carnegie Skills for Success for Young Adults in Robinson Twp

  • This is a special version aimed at people who are still in school and want to get a fast start on skills that will positively impact their life & careers.  Parents and students can attend this free Preview session or directly enroll in the 8-week summer session which starts June 22.

Tue May 17 – Dale Carnegie Skills for Success – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • This is a free preview for the highly popular adult course which starts on May 31.

Thu May 19 – Dale Carnegie Skills for Success – Sharon PA

  • This is a free workshop, which leads up to the course in north western PA that starts on June 30

Thu May 26 – High Impact Presentations – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • This is a free workshop to introduce you to one of the most-popular, longest running presentation skills courses in the world.  If you subsequently enroll in the course, you will learn in two consecutive full day sessions how to better get your point across and be more commanding when you present to larger or small groups.  You’ll also get to see yourself in action as we record your presentations to give you positive feedback.

Fri May 27 – The Dale Carnegie Sales Course: Winning with Relationships – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • This is a free Preview session to introduce you to the standard in Sales Training.  If you enroll in this class, you’ll learn how to more effectively conduct your sales activities in a non-manipulative way.  The class is three full day sessions, once weekly for three weeks in June.

Thu June 2 – Leading Across Generations – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • Leading Across Generations tackles one of the most often-cited challenges for both young and old managers: how to effectively deal with team members who are not from your own generation.
  • This is a full day Workshop, and requires a paid enrollment

July 13 – Leadership for Managers – Downtown Pittsburgh

  • This is a free workshop to introduce you to the course hailed as way to focus on leadership skills that are so important in any managerial role, getting participants beyond being mere managers.

While it’s fine to go to these workshops alone, it’s often more effective to bring your team.  Feel free to contact me to determine who should attend which session, and how Dale Carnegie can most effectively meet your specific organization’s needs.

——————–

David Radin is a business veteran who has helped Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs launch products, become more effective, and grow teams.  He has founded and grown several companies (two of which were acquired); and he has visited the White House by invitation. 

Currently, David helps match Dale Carnegie training, coaching & mentoring programs to organizations in Western PA & Eastern OH.  His most recent productivity-producing product is Confirmed™ Instant Scheduler™ (www.ConfirmedApp.com), which helps mobile professionals such as sales people, service providers, and travelling executives.  He offers a free 30 day trial for Confirmed Instant Scheduler.

David on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dradin

David on Twitter: @dradin

Confirmed Instant Scheduler on Twitter: @confirmedapp

 

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