Monkeys on your back

Do you often find yourself feeling overwhelmed? Do you feel like your list of things to do is never ending? When looking back on your workday do you feel like you have done mountains for other people and yet you haven’t accomplished what you really wanted to do? If you answered yes to any of these questions chances are you have too many monkey stealing your time.

Most of us are familiar with the phrase “monkey on your back” which refers to some type of problem that you are dealing with. In the workplace, a monkey is not so much as a problem that you are dealing with, but a task that you have suddenly taken on that somebody else was responsible for.

Remember that person who stopped you in the hall and told you about a huge problem that was going on. As soon as you heard the words “we have a problem,” you decided to take action and get involved. What you did not stop to think about was that you now allowed that monkey to climb onto your back, your colleague just successfully sifted responsibility for the problem onto your shoulders.

Just Say No!

While it is great to help your colleagues, there comes a time when you just have to say no. Taking on too many tasks makes it nearly impossible to do your own job; you are constantly running out of time to get everything done. What people with ‘monkey issues’ need to learn is effective management or put another way find a smarter way to say “No” to picking up other people’s issues, it is the only way to stop taking on so many monkeys! [Easier said than done as I spent the weekend fixing my daughters' computers, completing my wife's tax return and chasing the builders working on the apartment upstairs to come and fix the overflow pipe that's overflowing constantly onto my window frame!].

Effective management not only gets rid of those time consuming monkeys, giving you back the time you need to do your own job, but it also helps better your colleagues. By not taking on your colleagues’ monkeys, you are forcing your colleagues to deal with the problem. This can mean giving your colleagues new skills allowing them to learn and grow for themselves.

How to get the Monkeys back where they belong

Not sure how to stop accepting those monkeys, want to make sure they stay with their rightful owners. If so following these three effective management tips will ensure you no longer accept any more time consuming monkeys!

• Make Appointments – One of the worst things that you can do is stop and talk about any problems your employees might have in random places, such as hallways. Instead, make an appointment with them to come into your office to discuss what is going on.
• Get employees Involved – Effective management means getting your employees involved, but only you can specific to what level. When your employees come into to discuss the issue at hand specify how involved you want them to be. Employees can sit back and wait until they are told what to do, they can be given the freedom to solve the issue on their own or they can be involved at some level in between, but you as a manager must inform them of how involved they should be and never let them sit back and do nothing!
• Look At Your Motives – Make sure you look at your own motives. Many managers tend to limit the amount of responsibility their employees have because they are afraid it will make them as a manager look bad and useless. This is mainly due to insecurities. Effective management plans involves giving up direct control, giving your employees a chance to grow and become a better employee from that growth!

Ridding yourself of monkeys will allow you to regain proper use of your time, as well as lower your stress levels. So what are you waiting for, the sooner you put these effective management tips to use the better!

These days facial recognition software is everywhere

iPhoto

iPhoto, one of the more popular photo management software programmes, now comes equipped with facial recognition software. However, iPhoto is not the only programme, more photo management software programmes are coming with facial recognition tools aimed to make things easier for you. Facebook is a perfect example; the software used to upload your photos also allows you to easily tag people in your photos using facial recognition software. Moreover, we all know how much people enjoy tagging photos of themselves and others on Facebook!

Have you ever wondered who might be using the data on Facebook to track you?

The question most of has is how does it work and is it any good?

Facial recognition

Facial recognition software makes tagging photos on Facebook easier, but it also does so much more than that. A perfect example is Daon’s IdentityX technology. This technology is used to improve the security of any mobile transaction, lowering your risk of falling victim to identity theft!

IdentityX technology allows you to verify your identity for mobile transaction through a combination of biometrics, PIN entry, encryption, and technology that verifies your current location. It is the biometrics technology that has so many people talking. This technology allows for voice matching, facial recognition, and palm image matching. How this programme works is when you are making a secure transaction with your mobile phone a request is sent to the IdentityX’s server to verify your identity. You must provide the information required, which is then sent back to the server for verification. Once your identity has been verified the server will send a onetime use password for your transactions or the validation will be communicated directly with the company you are dealing with.

DIY – Identity Protection at UPS

IdentityX

In the USA, Daon have teamed up with UPS to enable you to capture your identity at a local UPS Store, as banks and ecommerce stores start to deploy more sophisticated identity verification within their financial transaction authorisation processes, these individuals will significantly reduce the opportunity of fraudsters to abuse their bank accounts and credit cards. Even more secure will be integration with mobile phones that will enable GPS and time stamped photographs to be taken making it exceptionally difficult for the criminals.

For many people IdentityX sounds too good to be true, but Daon recently won the honour of the “Best ofs” award in Cyber Security & Authentication from the American Technology Awards. If that doesn’t convince you, nothing will!

Sleep deprivation

Are you sleeping less than eight hours a night? Do you find yourself feeling groggy in the morning, and finding it a little more of a struggle than usual to be at your perfect best through your day? If you answered yes to these two questions chances are you are depriving yourself of sleep, which is sheer torture.

Many people deprive themselves of food; look at all of the religions that require you to fast for several days at a time. Fasting is one thing, sure, by the end of a few days, you are going to be tired, a bit weak, and usually a bit slimmer, but no lasting harm is done. Depriving yourself of sleep is simply a form of torture. Just after two days of no sleep, your body will not be able to function, so just imagine what is happening when you deprive yourself of a full night’s sleep every night.

How many hours sleep do you really need?

Relaxed

Studies done show that 95% of people need anywhere from seven to eight hours of sleep a night, while 2.5% need more than eight hours. That means only 2.5% of people need less than seven hours of sleep. Therefore, the question is why so many people deprive themselves of sleep, especially when it affects how they function the next day. [It's great research but totally undermined by a straw poll of the members of the Corr  family .. 3 of the family are angels first thing of the morning with hardly any sleep and two of us are completely wrecked if we don't get at least 8 hours... I'm not revealing who's who ]
Unfortunately, many people are under the impression that by getting one less hour of sleep each night they will have one more hour of productivity the next day. This is a MYTH! Sleeping less does not make you more productive, it makes you less productive due to how hard it is to focus. Memory, performance, and attitude are also affected by the amount of sleep you get. Having a hard time remebering what you are doing, want to get back to peak performance, what you need is to get more sleep.

Top tips for a great night’s sleep

Here are three great tips you can easily follow to ensure you are getting the sleep you need:

• Set an earlier bedtime– This one sounds pretty obvious, but it is amazing how many people do not do it. Nobody wants to get up any earlier then they have to, hence why so many of us rely on the snooze button in the morning. Therefore, setting an earlier bedtime and then going to bed at that time ensures we are getting the hours we need. Bedtime routines are important, if you do not start one now you will find even more reasons to stay up late! [I need to remember this!!!! I couldn't resist last night getting up to speed with some new video editing software I'm planning to use to record one of the girls' forthcoming concerts with a combination of our video camera and a 4 track quadrophonic sound recording gizmo I've just bought]
• Wind Down – The worst thing to try to do is jump into bed when you are wound up, your mind will not slow down long enough for you to fall asleep. About 45 minutes before crawling into bed you need to start winding down, drink something warm, read a boring book, listen to music, and do anything that will help your mind start to relax. Avoid anything stimulating, no matter how tempting it is! [Big mistake last night listening to the late night political debate on the radio my heart beat and blood pressure was getting higher and higher]
• Jot Down A Few Notes –If you have too much stuff on your mind you will never be able to wind down, no matter how much you try. Rather than fighting your mind, take a few minutes to jot down what is on your mind. This takes it away from your mind, making it easier to fall asleep and lessens your chance of mulling over the problems when you wake up in the middle of the night. [Strangely enough I get my most creative thoughts just as I'm dropping off, thank heaven for post-it notes and my Macbook Air!]

If all else fails, what to do?

Counting Sheep

If all else fails you can always count sheep. Though as they say these days “there’s an app for that!”

See http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sheep-counting/id381471354?mt=8

This weekend my daughter Florence had to get to her audition for the National Youth Orchestra. It’s her absolute highlight of her year participating in the NYO orchestra training and big events like performing in the summer Proms season in the Royal Albert Hall. Competition is intense so you need to be relaxed to perform at your very best.

London roads in gridlock preparing for the Olympics

Stephen Elop

Making decisions is a constant challenge whether at home or at work. Whether you are Steve Elop as the incoming CEO of Nokia choosing which operating system to bet your business on, or choosing the perfect present for someone you love, when the stakes are high making the right decision is never easy.

In fact the more important the decision is the harder it is, then the greater the danger that you might fall into one of the three most deadly decision making traps.  So here’s the top 3 deadly mistakes and some advice to help you make great decisions no matter how high the stakes.

• Confirming Evidence – While it is natural to gather evidence that supports your point of view, it can also cause problems in the decision making process. Talk to a friend or colleague to find out what their perspective is, hopefully it will shed more light onto the subject. You also want to avoid just seeking advice from working with people who always agree with you, if they always agree with you who is going to play devil’s advocate?
• Status Quo – Nobody likes dealing with change, but change is often necessary in order to grow. It is always easier to make decisions that allow things to remain the same, but those are not always the right decisions. Avoiding this mistake is as simple as asking yourself if the old way is best for your goals, you must downplay your desire to keep things the same though. Get out of that comfort zone!
• Anchoring – Accepting the first information you find is normal, but can leads to some dreadful decisions. While it is OK to be incorporate this information, you must also remain open minded for additional perspectives. Even if the information is screaming at you that it is right, never settle on that information without first checking other sources. Gather as much information as needed and you can rest assured that you will always make the right decision!

Some books that you might find helpful

Decision making can be tough

• Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney and Howard Raiffa
• Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time by J. Edward Russo and Paul J.H. Schoemaker

• The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making (McGraw-Hill Series in Social Psychology) by Scott Plous
• Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen by James G. March
• Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary A. Klein
• Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and
  How to Keep it From Happening to You by Sydney Finkelstein

So will things work out for Stephen Elsop and Nokia?

Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia announced their new range of Windows powered smartphones today. So we’ll find out soon if Stephen Elop (ex-Microsoft senior insider) was guilty of the ‘Confirming evidence’ trap when choosing to bet the farm at Nokia on going with Microsoft, rather than the Android, smartphone operating system. Take a look at the first reviews of their new Lumia 800 and Lumia 700 phones at Engadget and see what you think?

The ewallet is banking through a phone. So who would have thought that the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation would be at the cutting edge of such technology.

In its incarnation as Safari.com (a Vodafone affiliate) the company serves millions of customers. They use a pin and password to access their banking, which lets them receive money, make transfers and get physical cash from agent outlets and ATMs within the network.

eWallet

Transactions are all passed through the phone (not a cash card). The ewallet can make money transfers with a few text messages. To withdraw cash from an agent (usually a shop) the customer inputs an agent number, amount to withdraw, and PIN. A screen confirms the transaction then both the customer and the agent get an SMS recording it. The agent hands over the cash.

No plastic, no ATM

WIll the ewallet spell more trendy wine bars?

Essentially the phone is a cash card and cash machine in one. Banking this way grew up in Kenya because there was no money (and a high risk factor) for banks to set up branches.

Now the service in this third world country is cutting edge and has been expanded to Tanzinia, Afghanistan and South Africa.

Which begs the question of what a reasonable ewallet system would do to the developed world’s banks. As we know, half of them are already trendy wine bars.

A wave and you’re away

Western banks have good internet and telephone banking for customers to manage their existing bank accounts, but the e wallet isn’t yet prevalent. What people are getting excited about is Near Field Communication (NFC) through mobile phones, which will let us simply wave our wallet in a shop to pay for goods.

Apple will introduce ewallet soon

NFC payments are linked to credit cards. Google Wallet, for example, is working with Visa, American Express, Mastercard and Discover.

Will the big banks will keep up with the technology and ally themselves with the next wave of payment systems? Possibly. Media and retail businesses dismissed the game-changing potential of eCommerce ten years ago and have now gone bust or are on their last legs (for example Circuit City in retail, or newspapers and magazines around the world): the same could happen to banks in the next ten years.

Still, it’s all good news for potential wine bar owners.

Will Gnip make you go mad?

The scream

Imagine being able to hear everyone’s conversation, all the time. The voices in your head would drive you insane.

However there is now a constant stream of chatter available through the web. Using an interesting new technology service, Gnip, it’s possible at low-cost for you to monitor the explosion of social media usage of hundreds of thousands of peoples’ conversations in real time.

What would you listen to, given the choice?

Twitter

The  ‘mini blogging’ social media site Twitter now has over 200 million users with 200 million ‘tweets’ per day and over 1.6 billion searches per day (see Twitter blog for more facts on usage). Users post 140-character updates (‘tweets’) of what they are doing, reading, watching etc. It is much like status updating on Facebook. Think: ‘Eating toast, doesn’t Eammon Holmes’ hair look funny today’.

Twitter has its uses when other communication mechanisms fail

Social Media sites

But not all uses have been so trivial. During the Japanese earthquake earlier this year people on the island communicated via Twitter as mobile networks went down. And elsewhere worried relatives used social media to get in touch and emergency help was set up. The same thing happened during the more recent US earthquake. And in the case of the Arab Spring, Twitter was a powerful communications channel for the masses even in the most repressive of regimes.

Gnip

Enter Gnip, a Boulder, Colorado-based company that has bought the rights to sell data from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and many other social media sites.

Gnip deals in the very serious business of helping companies see what people are saying about them.

Airline JetBlue has taken Twitter seriously for years, using it for such diverse activities as ticket giveaways to seat planning help and it now uses Gnip through its customer experience management partner Attensity.

They can hear you

Can Gnip help you see into the future?

The obvious, direct uses of social media to see what people are saying about you now seem old hat. What is trending can almost be used to forecast the future: to see how people react to news, product launches, sporting and stock market events. You could imagine tracking Twitter comments as a mean of potentially forward predicting movements of betting odds on Betfair or prices on financial markets.

The world may now be having conversations online. But if it’s you Tweeting or posting on Facebook, just be aware that more people than you might think are listening to you.

Kindle Fire

Kindle’s technology means that books can be bought instantly, many of them for 99p and £1.99 instead of the £20 you might pay for a hardback in Waterstone’s. And the fact that the new $199 Kindle is in colour means that users can browse magazines and picture books, giving booksellers yet another reason to worry.

Waterstone’s, the UK’s largest chain of book shops, has experienced similar woes to the US’ Barnes and Noble, losing out to online sellers and supermarkets. New Waterstone’s boss James Daunt acknowledges that Amazon is tough competition but asks: “Why wouldn’t you want to spend half an hour in a really nice bookshop?” His plan is to turn the 300-strong fleet of stores into a collection of friendly, local venues in which readers can comfortably browse and buy.

Waterstone's

The idea has merit. Of course people don’t want to go to another identikit Waterstone’s in Leeds or Birmingham or Manchester. Foyles had the idea of the ‘destination event’ bookshop long ago and its overhaul saw it win bookseller of the year for 2010, among other gongs.

But can chummy staff and a frapuccino work for such a large chain? The job to pull Waterstones’ stores up to standard is a big one in itself, but to do it in so many locations with such tough competition is mammoth. And even those who love browsing through bookshops have to admit that it is much simpler to ping a request through cyberspace to get the latest read sent to them for a fraction of the cost.

Recent reports from UK publishers suggest digital book sales now account for around 9-10% of their overall book sales compared to 4-5% last year. That still leaves 90% of the book market sold as actual books.

There are takers out there for the ‘book buying’ experience. Daunt has to find a way of get them through his doors, and fast.

Luke Johnson

John Corr interviews Luke Johnson,  a leading UK entrepreneur, and author of the book ‘Start it Up. Why Running Your Own Business is Easier Than You Think.’
Luke’s background includes:
- Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts and former Chairman of Channel 4
- Weekly column in the Financial Times
- One of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs having grown famous businesses such as Pizza Express
- Chairman of Risk Capital Partners with investments in some great businesses such as Giraffe Restaurants, Patisserie Valerie and Gails Artisan Bakery

In this interview  you’ll learn:

- What’s the biggest mistake a hopeful entrepreneur can make and how can you avoid it?
- What’s the one thing you should do first when it comes to evaluating a business idea?
- What you should do differently from other investors that can result in tremendous success?
- 5 quick tips for an entrepreneur on growing their business
- What’s the easiest thing you can do right now to see results to build profitable growth?

To download the interview (in MP3 format) CLICK HERE. I can guarantee that your investment of 25 minutes of your time will enable you to lean and apply invaluable lessons to starting up and growing a great business.

You can also download a transcript (in PDF format) by CLICKING HERE for report format download.

John Corr

John Corr is the Managing Director of Close Quarter, a firm specialising in helping ambitious leaders transform the value of their businesses by helping them accelerate delivery of what matters most to their customers, profits and growth.

John is the current global President of BPGroup.org, a leading global community of professionals interested in sharing best practice in performance improvement, turnarounds and process management.

In this interview with one of the world’s leading Technology experts, Bill McGrath (Global CIO for AOL Inc), by John Corr you’ll learn:

• What’s the biggest mistake  CIOs make in regard to Technology Innovation and how can we avoid it?
• What’s the one thing we should do first when it comes to Technology Innovation?
• What can you do differently to improve the impact of Technology Innovation?
• 5 quick tips on what you can do to significantly increase the impact of your Technology Innovation
• What’s the easiest thing you can do right now to accelerate Technology Innovation in your business?

To download the interview (in MP3 format) CLICK HERE. I can guarantee that your investment of 15 minutes of your time will enable you to learn and apply invaluable lessons to ensure the success of your own Technology Innovation programmes.

You can also download a transcript (in PDF format) by CLICKING HERE for report format  

Why is Technology Innovation so powerful when applied successfully?

Technology Innovation

Professor Clay Christensen described the phenomenon of ‘disruptive innovation’ (see him describe his concept in brief here in video) whereby a new innovative technology disrupts an established industry and most of the existing market leaders go bust.

Why does Technology Innovation matter?

To begin with a technology innovation, such as Google, is not seen as a market threat. However eventually the business models of existing players Yellow Pages, newspapers, magazines and other media businesses are faced with extinction. Technology Innovation is particularly powerful where the new technology is combined with a new business model concept. While Google was a somewhat better search engine than leading competitors such as AltVista, when it was combined with the new business model of ‘paid search’ it became an unstoppable force.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview with Bill McGrath on Technology Innovation, then you can learn more from some of the other interviews with some of the worlds leading CEOs, entrepreneurs and thought leaders on improving business performance and helping your customers be successful by CLICKING HERE. You may also enjoy additional articles related to successful technology innovation on the eWallet and the revolution in mobile banking services and on exploiting social media for business benefit.

John Corr

John Corr is the Managing Director of Close Quarter, a firm specialising in helping ambitious leaders transform the value of their businesses through Technology Innovation. John is the current global President of BPGroup.org, a leading global community of professionals interested in sharing best practice in performance improvement, turnarounds and process management.

If you fell you need to discuss your specific situation, issues and challenges in depth and benefit from expert confidential advice then perhaps you should consider calling John on +44 (0) 20 7748 2225.