Do you want to effectively accomplish your work mission and vision? If so, you need allies, people who support your ideas at work.

Forming these alliances takes time and energy, but ...

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Here are a selection of tweets from July 2010:

• @SirKenRobinson: Creativity is a global impulse. Here's a preview the World Creativity Forum 2010
• @JohnBaldoni: Conflation is the enemy of clarity. Fusing two separate issues creates one confusing problem. Good!
• Growing tired of hearing about leadership? RT @mikemyatt: What if Leadership was more than a buzzword?
• @mjasmus: It's time for Thought-full Thursday. Today's topic is Mutual Advocacy (i.e. healthy relationships)
• Leadership is a really a philosophy—a way of thinking. Perhaps it’s misplaced in b-schools and should be found in the humanities.
• @stevefarber: "We need to build new environments that support experiential, creative and individualized learning." http://ow.ly/2fl9w
• SamSilverstein: Leadership & Accountability: Check out all the great leadership tips on my podcast.
• Ask yourself: What would the world be like if every leader was just like me?
• @PickyEaterFiles: "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad."
• @stevefarber: Free download: an issue of Leadership Excellence
• Are you a leader worth following? by @joankw
• Can an organization get so big and so complex that it just can't be managed effectively? by John Baldoni
• The Little BIG Things, Compressed Edition! Don't miss this download
• Scott Eblin: Fear Kills
• @work_matters: The Difference Between a Bad Job and The Wrong Job
• @ronkarr: Competition or Creation—Which Generates Greater Success?
• How Accountability Works by @sreardon
• @Leadershipfreak: Xanadu begins when leaders shift from “me to we.” - Finding Xanadu
• @artpetty: The Triple Threat to Good Decisions: Data, Time and Emotion
• The Other 93% @LeaderTalk How do you use nonverbal communication to your advantage as a leader?
• I like it ... ASPIRE! @mjasmus: The Day 360's Are Obsolete
• @drbret Engagement: Cause Or Effect?
• @RonEdmondson: 5 Tips For Leading Strong Willed People - Repost
• S+B: Leadership Development in the Middle East @boozcompany most compelling way to develop new leaders is by example
• @Bill_George: My discussion with Forbes.com on a massive generational change in leadership
• 25 Signs an Organizational Model is Broken – by @ellenfweber
• JohnBaldoni: What two Georges -- Steinbrenner & Patton -- teach us about self-discipline
• Ten Signs of a Fear-Based Workplace - BusinessWeek
• @laurencanning: Are Your Beliefs Holding You Back?
• Will Marré interview: Creating Sustainable Relationships
• Not everyone can be coached @coachgoldsmith How to Spot the Uncoachables
• @mikehenrysr: #LeadChange Group - Check out the new site.
• @tgmason: "The path to your greatest potential is often through your greatest fear" ~Craig Groeschel
• Cornell grad @Tom_Peters gives reunion lecture: Business can be done right, Kindness is free and turns a profit
• @LeaderTalk: Reflective Listening
• Mike Henry Sr: Meet LeadChange – Michael McKinney
• 5 Words for Wise Leadership by @ellenfweber
• DondiScumaci: Emotions Aren't Good Drivers - a little story about making the most of feedback.

See more on Twitter.

In this episode of The Searchologist, Jim Stroud explains how to search Google, Yahoo and Bing more efficiently by using the metasearch engine – Dogpile. Plus, Otis Collier gives tips on how to increase views of your Linkedin profile. Yay! Watch the video, then pass it on to a friend. Click here for more recruiter training tips. Related PostsWhy I [...]

The Searchologist Magazine presents The Week In Recruiting: #HireFriday Job Tips for 2010 by Marie Journey 1. Council bans mini-skirts in crackdown on ‘inappropriate’ clothing in the office 2. Recruitment market faces more obstacles  3. India to Add 110 Million to Global Workforce 4. Six Principles Every Organization Must Employ 5. Are Men In HR Going the Way of the [...]

What’s up with Donato?  CRM Deduplication sounds really booooring? Well, not to me.  CRM Dedupe is a huge problem in the world of sales, marketing and recruiting.  This is a subject that I have spent considerable time and deep thought over the last few years.  After knocking out 5 blog postings on the topic of [...]

I have previously discussed how entrepreneurs should use a blog to build their personal brand and I have provided some examples of entrepreneur blog posts. Here are a few more examples of entrepreneur blog posts:

The Human Resources Blog:

- Offering retirement savings for a small business: This would be an article talking about how an entrepreneur implemented a 401k savings program for a small business. The stories could include advice on how to choose a 401k provider, what percentage of salary a small business should match and how to talk to employees about the program.

- Benefits programs for small businesses: This would talk about the different benefits programs (healthcare, insurance) available for small businesses. It would talk about the different providers, how to understand the industry lingo and how to make the essential benefit program for a small business.

- Hiring/firing in a startup: Talk about the differences in hiring/firing in a startup as opposed to a more established business.

The Financial Analyst/CFO Blog

– How to manage cash flow in a startup: This would talk about the different ways to forecast cash flow in a startup and talk about the importance of keeping a startup’s burn rate under control.

- How to create financial reports in a startup: This would talk about the different financial reports which are most essential to a CFO and CEO in a small business/startup. The articles would also talk about the differences between the reports in smaller and larger businesses.

- Which software to use for helping to analyze a startup’s finances: This would talk about the various financial software programs available for startups. This could tie into how it creates specific and essential financial reports mentioned previously.

The Office Manager Blog

– Finding office space for a startup: Talk about the different office space needs for a startup/small business and the specific ways an entrepreneur finds this “dream space”.

- Managing an office for a startup: This blog post would talk about the various challenges in managing the day to day operational/administrative programs for a small office/small business.

Author:

Ben Cathers is a young entrepreneur and author who successfully built three different internet startups before he was 19.  Ben is the author of Conversations with Teen Entrepreneurs and was named in 2005 by CNN as a member of “America’s Bright Future.”  Ben has been quoted/featured in the Wall Street Journal, FOX News, ABC News, CBS News, Yahoo! Internet Life, The London Sunday Times and in over 40 different publications.  Today, Ben is working on his 4th startup (stealth mode – in the social media space), does web strategy consulting for small to medium companies, runs social media and marketing for Lightspeed Financial, maintains a blog on social media and entrepreneurship at BenCathers.com and is on the advisory boards of  ZepFrog Corp and iGot2Know LLC.

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The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and many State laws require that employees be paid the wages and overtime pay they are legally entitled to receive in a timely manner. Unfortunately, many employees who have not been paid amounts that they are legally entitled to receive are hesitant to complain because they are concerned about being fired or otherwise [...]

Rich DeMatteo from Corn on the Job and the team at Brazen Careerist have put together a free ebook titled What I Know About Getting a Job.

The book is a series of short, actionable tips for job seekers. It contains articles by some of my favorite HR bloggers, including Lance Haun of Rehaul, Ben Eubanks of Upstart HR, Kris Dunn from the HR Capitalist, and Laurie Ruettimann from Punk Rock HR.

Oh yea. I’ve got a post in there, too.

It’s free. It’s useful. Check it out.

Download What I Know About Getting a Job

Copyright Chris Ferdinandi | Content licensed under Creative Commons

How to get the most out of that often-seen personal branding space: your email signature.

Create your well-branded email signature according to this formula. Required elements are bolded, the rest are recommended when relevant:

---

Salutation,

Name
Tagline
Title(s), Organization
Association Membership
Phone numbers (mobile/land/fax)
Website/Social media profiles
Image

---

Where:

Salutation – using your email signoff to only say goodbye is a wasted opportunity. Either use an expression that’s relevant to your personal brand or wish the person something positive. The best result is a combination of both that doesn’t sound too cheesy. In my email signature, I usually say “To your job search success.”

Name – your full name.

Tagline – your personal branding tagline.

Title(s) – your current job title, your position within the organization you most associate yourself with, or just the (credible) way you want to be known.

Organization – the organization you most associate yourself with, typically your employer, a professional association you’re prominent in, or your own company.

Association Membership – any brand-related association that you are at least a member of, worth mentioning especially to people who are likely to recognize it (in the past or later in the future).

Phone numbers (mobile/land/fax) – some people include both their landline and mobile/cellphone numbers, but that’s overkill- just put the one number you want to be reached at. If you have a compelling reason to include more than one number, put each on its own line with a label to indicate which it is such as “Tel: 555-1234″ and “Cell: 555-5678″. If most people who contact you are on Skype and you prefer it, use the Skype callto syntax so that calling you is just one click away.

Website/Social media profiles – use the one url (at least) that most builds your personal brand. This might be your blog, your organization, or association membership profile (see above), social media resume, or one of your social media profiles. At minimum, list your LinkedIn vanity url.

If you’re not sure which urls to use, list 2 or 3 but use a url shortener like 3.ly that lets you customize the shortened url (e.g. http://3.ly/jstwitter) while also counting the clicks so you can measure which url people clicked more. Check the click statistics after a month of usage and then decide which urls to leave in your signature. Like with LinkedIn, use your Facebook vanity url if you decide to include your Facebook profile in your email signature.

Important: include ‘http://’ in each url in your email signature so that the recipient’s email software will automatically make the url clickable.

Image – the brand-relevant image that best represents you, such as your personal logo, a picture of your latest book or other product, or even your avatar.

Author:

Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.

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Months ago, I wrote a post about taking the high road.  Sometimes, it really stinks.  I mean really.

I don’t like saying negative stuff about people and companies. And, my guess is most of us don’t (hmmm . . maybe I’m wrong about that).  But, sometimes you just want to call out the absolutely idiotic behavior of others.  Then your sensibilities set in and you realize it would be majorly uncool so you don’t.

You have to be careful though, not to confuse taking the high road for being a doormat.  If people are bad-mouthing you or jerking you around, you need to stick up for yourself.  If you don’t, no one else will.  And, if people around you are doing things that are unethical, illegal or immoral, then not speaking up isn’t taking the ‘high road’…it’s tacit approval which can undermine your personal credibility.

The important thing to remember when addressing these matters is, stay with the facts and take individual personalities out of the equation.

It’s also important to remember who you work for and what you do for a living.  I’ve seen so many people make snarky remarks and then wonder why people won’t do business with them.  Duh – because you made it personal (remember stick to the facts).

But actually, the one I’ve seen more often is people who won’t stick up for themselves or what’s right and wonder why people won’t do business with them.  Let’s face it…if you aren’t willing to stand up for what you believe in, why would any company hire you and give you access to their employees, equipment, money, etc. You haven’t demonstrated that you’ll act in the best interest of anyone, much less their company.

Simply put, taking the high road means not lowering yourself to the snippy comments of others.  It isn’t about avoiding conflict at all costs.  Conflict and disagreement can often bring positive change.  Hmmm…I see a post about conflict coming in the near future…

Image courtesy of Peter McDermott

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