Looking to others for advice and guidance can save you from making some serious snafus. Leading is tough stuff, especially if you’ve been thrust into the role with little preparation.

We came across this video, “The Biggest Mistake a Leader Can Make,” from the Harvard Business Review with some excellent points from various professors. They point out leader mistakes like betraying trust; putting self-interest over the interests of the organization; not being authentic and consistent; being arrogant; and not living up to values.

Harvard Business Review has an entire blog series on “Imagining the Future of Leadership.” You might want to bookmark that site for inspiration and ideas. A good leader is one who is willing to learn, eager to make self-improvements and not above admitting his or her shortcomings and desiring to rise above those.

What is the biggest mistake a leader can make? As a leader, have you made mistakes? Have you worked for leaders who made mistakes and how did it impact you as an employee?

It’s not too late to tackle those goals you made for this year. Take a look at your calendar and mark off an hour for goal regrouping. Make it an appointment so you’re more likely to stick with it and not schedule something else at the same time.

Pick two of the most important goals you had for the year. Sure you may have 10 goals but at this point, it may not be realistic to tackle all 10, so prioritize.

For each goal, lay out a list of what needs to be done to achieve that goal. For example, if you’d like to obtain an advanced degree to further your career, you might list out: research financial aid opportunities, obtain a sample course schedule, set a meeting with your boss to find out how you can make this fit with your work schedule.

Then create a timeline for each goal so you have deadlines and can approach each step in the process with some organization.

Finally, give your timeline to a co-worker, friend or spouse – anyone who will hold you accountable. If you’re not comfortable sharing all the details at this point, just give the person the deadlines and ask her to check with you on those dates to see if you’re accomplished a task toward your overall goal. Knowing someone’s going to be checking up on you will provide an extra level of motivation.

How are your goals progressing for 2010? Are you trying to get back on track?

This article from ComputerWorld highlights the low IT worker morale and sinking job satisfaction. A 2009 job satisfaction survey by advisory firm Corporate Executive Board found job satisfaction among all workers continues to decrease. And among the IT workers it surveyed, it’s just as bad.

From an article citing the survey:

The CEB’s latest survey found that the willingness of IT employees to “exert high levels of discretionary effort” – put in extra hours to solve a problem, make suggestions for improving processes, and generally seek to play a key role in an organization – has plummeted to its lowest levels since the survey was launched 10 years ago.

IT workers typically work way more than 40 hours and are on call to handle problems – even on days off or vacations. One of the best ways to improve morale is to reduce the hours. People are less productive when they’re maxed out, stressed out and tired, so pushing for 60- and 70-hour work weeks isn’t effective.

Look for ways to become more efficient by streamlining processes, automating reporting functions or offering more training so employees can do their jobs better.

Check out this article for some more tips on boosting morale and let us know what suggestions you have.

But we love this column from Dan and Chip Heath (authors of “Made to Stick”) about using your presentations to “show, don’t tell.” They point out how painful presentations can be for the speaker as well as the audience. (Great line: “It’s like a breakup talk with fewer tears and more clip art.”)

The “show” aspect of presentations is about bringing real examples and demonstrations into your presentation – much more powerful than reading text from some slides.

Have you done a great “show, don’t tell” presentation? Let’s hear about how you made it work.

For most parents, the beginning of a new school year is a relief from juggling summer camps and childcare, but it also means added tasks of helping with homework, driving carpools, shuttling kids to practices and rehearsals, attending parent-teacher conferences and dealing with sick children after they pick up the germ de jour at school.

As a business, you may think this has nothing to do with you, but it certainly does. Even your most committed workers will find themselves needing to be away during the day for some function, meeting or issue related to their children. How you handle these times says a lot about your business and how you value your employees.

While it’s certainly not reasonable for employees to be out every other day for two or three hours, do recognize their role as parents and allow for that. Support the dad who needs to leave 30 minutes early on Thursdays to coach softball or understand the mom who wants to come in an hour late so she can attend her first-grader’s Christmas play.

As long as your employees are getting their work done, there’s no reason they can’t they have some time here and there to be parents. In fact, they’ll probably be more efficient because they won’t be so stressed about missing important functions.

One word of caution: be sensitive to employees who don’t have children. They may be resentful if a co-worker is constantly giving them extra work to head out to little Suzie’s basketball games. And don’t penalize employees without children by not understanding their non-work commitments and interests. Give a little for them, too, when they want to leave early for a nephew’s football game or take their dog to the vet.

As a business, how do you handle these sorts of situations? Do you make some reasonable allowances for family commitments?

One way women can get more business, particularly in terms of government contracts, is to become certified as a Woman’s Business Enterprise. A business can go through local or state agencies or third parties to achieve certification.

The application process can be lengthy and time consuming but worth it in the end.

A key requirement is the company must be 51 percent owned or controlled by a woman. Also, the woman owner must have the highest position in the company on a day-to-day basis.

Women’s Business Enterprise National Council has a number of resources about becoming certified.

Also, check out this article from Inc. magazine that lays out the certification process and tips for getting the paperwork in order.

Has your business earned the Woman’s Business Enterprise certification? Was it worth it? Tell us about the process and the benefits.

A 2006 New York Times article on the topic cites a study from research group The Conference Board that found that, at the beginning of the summer, only 40 percent of people had plans for a vacation in the next six month, and that’s the lowest percentage in almost three decades.

And that was reported long before a recession hit the U.S. economy, leaving people without jobs and paychecks to afford a vacation or too concerned about keeping their jobs to risk taking some time off.

A recent article at SmartMoney.com takes a look at two studies that show people actually begin to feel happier a couple of weeks before their vacation. It’s probably those same feelings we had in elementary school a few days before school was out for the summer.

Unfortunately those warm and fuzzy feelings fade as fast as our summer tan when we return to work, the studies report. In fact, just a week after returning from vacation, workers reported a big drop in happiness than before going on vacation.

We’re not sure we needed a study to tell us this. All you have to do is return to work after a week off and find a towering stack of paperwork, a phone blinking furiously with voicemails and an e-mail Inbox — well, you get the picture. That’s enough to zap anyone’s happiness quota.

The author of the SmartMoney.com article suggests the best way to deal with post-vacation blues is to immediately start planning another vacation to revive that pre-vacation happiness. We agree. Now, where’d we put those travel guides?

This is a great article on how 16 companies selected their names. I can guarantee you’ll be familiar with all of them. In fact, some company names have become a part of our everyday language (think “Google” as the catchall for searching online).

We’d love to hear how you came up with your company name. Share your story and we’ll pick one random person to receive a Spirit Telecom goodie.

So, do e-mail newsletters still have a place, a role in marketing? This interesting opinion piece on ITBusinessEdge.com takes Ben & Jerry’s to task for announcing it would eliminate its e-mail marketing in favor of social media. It points to the idea that social media isn’t a replacement for e-mail and people – 1.3 million in Ben & Jerry’s case – have selected e-mail as a way they like to receive news about the ice cream icon.

Yes, e-mail marketing can be expensive, especially if you’re sending to millions of people. But, it can be effective, giving customers specials and deals, information and simply keeping your brand top of mind. This particular piece highlights recent research from ExactTarget, an e-mail marketing firm based in Indianapolis, noting that when people are interacting with brands, 62 percent will sign up for an e-mail versus 17 percent looking to Facebook for deals.

Does your business use e-mail marketing? Have you considered giving it up and focusing only on social media? Or do you believe each form of marketing plays a role in your overall campaign?

Our neighbors to the north shouldn’t be smug, though, as North Carolina came in No. 4 on the BusinessWeek list. States in the South overall were well represented on the list with Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas taking the top three spots.

This article from The Post and Courier in Charleston refutes the ranking, with officials pointing to new business and industry (Boeing) coming to the state (why would they come if workers are lazy?) and tossing some blame on the heat. True. It’s tough to be productive when the heat index is triple digits.

Another article from The State in Columbia, S.C., paints the story as more of a wake-up call to South Carolinians, particularly in the physical education department (as in, we need some).

We looked for the story on some North Carolina newspaper websites, but didn’t find it. Not sure if that means they’re embarrassed or too lazy to write the story. Just kidding, Tar Heel State!

What do you think? Are the Carolinas lazy or is this listing a misrepresentation?

It doesn’t take long to identify these people, especially in the workplace. The early risers are in the office by 7 a.m. , start the coffee pot and knock out a dozen e-mails.

The night owls come strolling in at 9:30 a.m. (or later), but will still be hanging around when the early risers are home making dinner.

Unless your company does shift work in which people have to show up at a certain time, most businesses can be a little flexible, letting people determine what times of day they’re most productive. No sense forcing the night owl to come in at 8 a.m. if he can’t do a good job at that hour.

So, that means morning people and evening people are basically the same except for their alarm clock settings, right? Not exactly. Here’s a story from Inc. magazine highlighting new research from Christoph Randler, a professor in Germany, which reveals morning people are more productive.

Here’s a quote from the article:

“When it comes to business success, morning people hold the important cards,” Randler told the Harvard Business Review of his research, some of which originally appeared in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. “[T]hey tend to get better grades in school, which gets them into better colleges, which then leads to better job opportunities. Morning people also anticipate problems and try to minimize them. They’re proactive.”

The article does point out the benefits of living life in the dark as night owls tend to be more creative and have a better sense of humor.

Which are you? Are you respectful of people who don’t operate on the same daily timetable?

Because we like to have fun, here’s our latest video, giving you some tips – in a playful way – on how to mind your manners while on the phone. Are you guilty of some of these? Or have you been on the other end of the line?

Here’s a great blog post from Econsultancy about “How to Win at Facebook in Three Weeks.” It offers some excellent tips about how to create a successful Facebook page for your business. One of the keys is interaction. You can’t use your Facebook page simply as a place to push out self-promoting posts. If you’re constantly posting about how awesome your company is, why people should buy your product/service or hawking new deals, you’ll turn off Facebook friends faster than a telemarketer calling at dinnertime.

The overall purpose of Facebook is connecting and that applies not only to personal connections with friends and family but also to building relationships with current/potential customers. Facebook can be a powerful tool for your business and an opportunity to bring a whole new level of customer service to your business model.

To do Facebook well, you need to be dedicated to keeping up with your page so you can respond quickly to comments (good or bad), questions or suggestions. Be part of the discussion.

Mix up your posts and think about what you like to read from other businesses on Facebook. It’s fine to drop in info about your business, a new product line or general company news, but mix it with general industry information, business tips or fun links and videos.

By showing people you’re using Facebook for customer service and not strictly for sales, you’re much more likely to build your following into a robust community.

Do you have a Facebook page for your business? Has it been successful? What have you learned?

So, once a business decides to invest in video conferencing, the next step is weeding through the many options for the best solution. Your first reaction may be to go with the free service, but that might not be a good fit for your business and its unique needs.

Before you fire up the webcam, here are five things to look for in a video conferencing service:

1. 24-hour technical support. If you have an important call with a large perspective client scheduled for 6 p.m. and have a technical question, the last thing you want to see is that customer service closed at 5 p.m.
2. Similarly, find out if local support is available. You may need an actual person to come by your office and assist with setup or solve a problem.
3. Look for the ability to add multiple people to the video call – and confirm the quality of the call will be consistent whether you have three people or 30.
4. Can you share documents and computer screens? It’s great to see people face to face and it’s even better to see the website or strategy document they are referencing during the call.
5. Possibly the most important consideration is security. Can the provider guarantee a secure, encrypted connection or is your call floating on the public Internet for any hacker to see?

That’s a stark contrast to baby boomers, many of whom retire from the company they joined in their 20s. Sellers raises this question: “Will this emerging generation of leaders ever care as much as we did about building careers? And, if not, what does that mean for business?”

It’s a great question and one business owners and managers need to consider. They can’t necessarily count on a new generation of employees professing their loyalty to one company for 30+ years. So, what’s a business owner to do?

First, it’s important to understand what Millennials (those born mostly in the 1980s and 90s) want in a job. This group isn’t interested in working 80-hour weeks. They value flexibility, time off and team work. Consider what your business has to offer this generation. If you can provide the right kind of working environment, you may find it easier to build some loyalty.

Second, establish a mentoring program that allows baby boomers to learn from Millennials and vice versa. This is a good way for the younger generation to understand how a professional workplace operates.

Third, give this group some freedom. Don’t disregard their ideas simply because they are young. This is especially important when it comes to technology, which young people are much more comfortable using.

So, we’d like to hear what you think about working with Millennials and Sellers’ question about whether this generation will care about building careers.

The bottom of the barrel is an aol.com e-mail address, which made us chuckle. (No offense to our readers with aol.com addresses, but you have to admit it’s a little funny).

We bet you know someone on this list. We’d love to hear about it (no names needed).

Depending on your industry, productivity may be measured in truly objective standards, such as whether employees produced the assigned number of widgets at the end of the shift. For sales, it may be about achieving quarterly goals. Those in more creative industries certainly measure productivity in financial terms and whether new business is rolling in the door, but it’s also tough to measure the process that leads to good ideas – everything from group brainstorming to sitting outside for two hours thinking through a new idea.

Often increased productivity is achieved through small changes in how you approach your day.

• Spending the last 10 minutes of the day organizing your desk and preparing for the following day.
• Using the “one touch” rule for e-mail so it doesn’t backlog in your Inbox.
• Scheduling only critical meetings and then adhering to the meeting agenda and allotted time.

We found an interesting article in a recent issue of Inc. magazine about Charles Best, the CEO of DonorsChoose, a New York City nonprofit. Best calculated that he saves 2 seconds every time he uses a keystroke shortcut, for example Control + Enter to send an e-mail. The article estimates Best saves about 50 days worth of time over a 40-year career using just that keystroke.

It may take a little time upfront to set up shortcut keys, e-mail file systems or Twitter application, but those time-savers certainly add up in the long run – just ask Charles Best.

Whether you’re working widgets or writing ad copy, we want to know your best productivity tip.

As tough as it may be at the time, some people actually do better. We love this story about a high-powered, high-earning advertising exec who credits Starbucks with saving his life after being fired from his job a few years ago. On the cusp of retirement at age 63, Michael Gates Gill and his six-figure salary were being traded in for someone younger who would earn less.

Now, he’s making lattes and cleaning toilets at Starbucks – and loving it. In this CNN piece, Gill is quoted as saying, “When I lost my job, I thought my life was over. I didn’t realize it was just the beginning. I may have a part-time job, but I have a full-time life.”

Gill parlayed his experience into a 2007 best-selling book, “How Starbucks Saved My Life.” Plans are in the works for a movie about the book starring Tom Hanks. 

Not a bad way to turn lemons into lemonade.

When faced with a career blow, how do you turn it around? And have you read this book or do you know of other inspiring stories? We’d love to hear them!

Courtesy/PCWorld

Some big tech news this week is reports that Verizon will begin offering the iPhone as early in January. A report from Bloomberg quotes two people familiar with the not-yet-public information.

Many Verizon customers have been eyeballing the iPhone for years, but are loyal (or at least bound by contract) to the “Can you hear me now?” wireless provider.

The article reports:

The iPhone, which has been the sole domain of rival AT&T in the U.S. since June 2007, will give Verizon a boost in its competition for smartphone customers, UBS AG analyst John Hodulik said in an interview. Verizon customers, who numbered 92.8 million at the end of the first quarter, may buy 3 million iPhones a quarter, he estimates.

Adding the iPhone to its line of smart phones should be big for Verizon as many current customers will most likely take advantage of the new offering. It could be interesting to see how this impacts other brands Verizon offers, such as the BlackBerry.

So, we want to know: if you’re a Verizon customer, will you be first in line for an iPhone? And if you’re a current iPhone customer with AT&T, would you consider taking your iPhone business to Verizon?

Because of the plethora of passwords we have to create, most of us tend to select just one or two so we can try to remember them. Or, we end up writing them down. Neither of those are probably good options. A simple password means asking someone to hack your Facebook account and send strange messages to all your friends. And if you write all your passwords down, you never know when that list might get lost or stolen.

So, how do you create a strong password – and how do you remember it?

• Make your password long. A short password, such as “Fido,” is easy to crack.
• Use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.
• Create a system in which you replace letters with numbers. For example, use “3” in place of the letter “e” or use “0” in place of the letter “o.” You can use a system that works for you so it’s easier to remember.
• Avoid obvious passwords, such as your birth date, your child’s name or some variation of your name (your middle name or maiden name, for example).
• Don’t use the same password for every account.
• Change your passwords regularly.
• Be cautious of online password-keeper websites. Yes, this is a great way to manage your many passwords, but if someone hacks that site, that person has access to everything.
• If you do write your passwords down, make sure you keep them in a secure location. Avoid writing down passwords for particularly sensitive websites, such as your bank.

Check out this article from Microsoft for additional tips on generating passwords and password safety. Also, this article has tips on how to remember passwords as well as suggestions for password management systems.