Bloggertone

A few years ago I was introduced to Mind Maps by a colleague as a way of organising and structuring my thoughts. It took me some time, but eventually I’ve got to a place where I am using Mind Maps consistently both in my professional and personal life. For those of you who have never come across Mind Maps before it’s worth having a quick look at an overview on this Wikipedia page, before reading the rest of my post. I will now share with you some thoughts I have about where Mind Maps can be…

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I hate business meetings. I know I’m not supposed to say that… but I do. You know those meetings that are a complete waste of time; where you leave feeling like nothing was accomplished; and nobody said what needed to be said. Yeah… those! On the other hand, I’ve been in meetings where the opposite happened: There was conflict during the meetings but closeness after At the end of the day there were real solutions to real problems It was worth the time and…

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I’ve worked from home for the last 5 years and earlier this week I read an excellent article from fellow Bloggertoner Sian Philips, over on her personal blog about getting away from the office and working from home. Sian gives some great reasons why it’s more beneficial at times to work from home than go into the office.  As I live at least 90 minutes drive from our nearest office, I can testify that in terms of being productive and on top of my game, working from home has been…

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Is it enough to simply have a job, an office or organization to work in, and get a get a cheque and the end of the week? Not anymore. A workplace however large or small has to be driven by efficiency and achievement that manifests itself in the form of tangible results for the organization, and is rewarding for the employee. Less productive inputs and lower efficiency levels are bound to affect the business and jeopardize its sustainability and survival. Employee productivity is a major concern…

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In life failure is inevitable. Sure it hurts, it’s made fun of, it’s pushed to the side to find the “success stories”, and its generally not welcome. But it’s unavoidable. Especially for the entrepreneur. It’s no secret that half of firms started are extinct by year 5. And though the numbers do vary by industry, the truth of the matter is, many entrepreneurs do not realize their dream. But failure, when leveraged correctly, is actually a good thing. What…

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I’ve been keeping an eye on an interesting conversation taking place on the Social Media Ireland LinkedIn group (which I manage). Fellow Bloggertoner Derbhile Dromey posted this question: A pretty reasonable point of view from Derbhile, don’t you think? If you want to connect with someone on LinkedIn, send a a little personal note outlining why they should connect with you. As to why someone would indicate that they are a friend when they are not? well I’m not sure but it seems…

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In my last Bloggertone article I talked about what makes a good conference call, and gave some tips from my experience over the last 8 years. In this post I want to stay on the subject of communicating over the phone, however I want to focus a little more on the topic of body language. Professor Albert Mehrabian, a pioneer behind the understanding of communications, since the 1960s, is responsible for the widely quoted statistic which says that in any form of communication only 7% of the…

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Sometimes in our professional life we get stuck doing things that we have always done, aren’t creative in our thinking or are just doing what everyone else is doing. STOP! Making your business the best it can be won’t come from being the same as everyone else or doing the status quo. It may be time to take a hard look at what you are offering, how you offer it and what your goals are to be where you really want to be. Step One: Take an honest assessment of your products: Whether you…

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Do you really love your business? Be honest. Do you get up every morning and think ‘YESSS!!’ as you punch the air, leap from your bed and throw open the windows—filling your lungs with the fresh morning air of another business day? Or is your main priority to justify another five minutes to catch up on your sleep before you pull on yesterday’s underwear…again. Working for yourself. It all started as a dream, a vision, an inspiration, didn’t it? Freedom from office politics, other…

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You’d probably be hard-pressed to find a business owner that set out to have a “mediocre” or “marginally successful” business. Even so, the prospect of trying to create that amazing business we all strive for may seem daunting, or downright impossible. Until now. Implementing change is never easy; a fact that is only further complicated if you are considering making multiple changes at once.Instead of treating the goal of an amazing business as a single large task, I encourage you to…

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