Improving on "Self-Negotiation" in 2007

Food for thought as we enter a new year...



EuropeanPWN - Do women negotiate differently from men?

Am I getting enough ?

How many women feel comfortable asking that question ? Help is on the way. The change in question illustrates the change in focus from whether women and men negotiate differently to how women can improve their position and start thinking strategically. Negotiating for what you want, raising your goals and expectations and creating opportunity do not mean you have to stop being a « Nice Girl » ! However, the time has come to move on from thinking that hard work alone will get you rewards . It is time to devote some energy to creating value for yourself. As a result of all the research there are many books on the subject of women and negotiation on the market now with training and coaching sessions to suit all tastes. In the words of Deborah Kolb, Professor of Management and Gender in Organizations at MIT and author of the « Shadow Negotiation » and « Everyday Negotiation », it is time to claim your ‘place at the table’.

Faith-Based Initiatives Walk a Narrow Line

Yesterday, one of my clients commented on how sensitive the Feds were about do's and don'ts for the faith-based programs. She just returned from a meeting in DC for new grantees in the Fatherhood Initiative. Then, this morning I saw this new report from The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy.

If you're a faith-based organization, this report is MUST reading.

The State of the Law 2006: Prison Programs, Chaplaincies and Capacity Grants Top Year’s Faith-Based Controversies

The State of the Law 2006: Legal Developments Affecting Government Partnerships with Faith-Based Organizations

The Bush Administration´s Faith-Based and Community Initiative continued this year to face legal challenges that test its potential reach. Among the most significant cases in 2006 were those concerning prison programs, government chaplaincies, and grants to help faith-based organizations increase their ability to win government contracts, according to the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy´s annual "State of the Law" report. [More]

Marketing Tobacco to Teens Still an Issue

Seems like we've been fighting this battle for a long, long time. The proof of the damage marketing tobacco causes keeps rolling in.

RWJF News Release: Exposure to Tobacco Marketing More Than Doubles the Odds of Children Smoking

Exposure to Tobacco Marketing More Than Doubles the Odds of Children Smoking Dec 4, 2006 - Washington, D.C. Children's psychological involvement in marketing enhances its impact Exposure to tobacco advertising and pro-tobacco depictions in films, television, and videos more than doubles the odds that children under 18 will become tobacco users, according to a new study to be published in the December 2006 issue of the peer-reviewed Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Learn How a Great Presenter Refines Substance, Structure, and Style

If you make presentations to sell, whether it's an idea, a product, your agency's mission, or a new program's value to the community, you'll find this a helpful overview for your prep work.

Many consider Ray Butkus one of the best marketing presenters around. I found it worth saving in my resource file. Maybe you will, too.

Developing and Delivering High-impact Sales Presentations
By Ray Butkus

In the sales arena, success depends upon the superior presentation of the facts. In a highly competitive market with an abundance of choice, winning isn’t simply about building the better mousetrap but about how well the marketplace understands and remembers the distinctiveness of your mousetrap versus all others....

Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense

For Non-profits Taking Tentative Steps into Web2.0

For my non-profit clients struggling to get into web2.0, this great one page pdf offers six things a non profit can do to "figure it out." Thanks to Seth Godin.

Free one-pager for non profits (org2.0)

Dec 06, 2006 18:08:02 GMT

Courtesy of Npower New York and Squidoo. Download pdf
Feel free to share.

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Things I Give Thanks For

If WW II interests you, you'll find this series of posts interesting.

Leif Peng publishes a daily blog of 50's and 60's graphics that I enjoy tremendously. This past week, though, in honor of Veterans Day, he has published WWII illustrations and talked about his family's experience in the war. Father - Chinese living in Japanese occupied Taiwan; grandmother and family in what became East Germany, his wife's grandmother in Scotland, and his best friend's Canadian grandfather fighting in Italy.

It's a great collection of art and story. Because it's a blog, it reads newest posting at the top. Order doesn't matter for most of it, but Thursday and Friday, Nov. 16 & 17 are two parts to the same story, so read Thursday first.

The series starts at Saturday, Nov. 11, 2006, if you need to find it in the archives.

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/

The Dilbert Blog: Weasel Nominees for 2006

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, and my favorite blogger, wants your opinions -- help him out. Send him your nominees. I'm considering mine.

The Dilbert Blog: Weasel Nominees for 2006:

"By way of definition, a weasel is someone who is trying to get away with something and actually succeeding. We don’t include anyone who is in jail because that person isn’t getting away with it.

We also don’t include anyone who is evil or annoying or incompetent but in an honest way. A weasel is someone who craps on toast and tells you it is caviar. Weasels say things like this:

“I have never taken steroids. I look like the Incredible Hulk because I eat right.”

“I didn’t realize I was stealing a billion dollars from my company. I just signed whatever they put in front of me.”

“I deserve my $100 million salary because without me the company’s stock price would have plunged even further.”"

If you care about getting accurate political information...

NY Center's Blog Spot: If you care about getting accurate information...

I coordinate the NY Center's Blog Spot. Earlier today I posted about Fact Check. There's very little coming out of either political party that I trust, so I count on Fact Check to tell me what's accurate.

They're up for the top ten websites impacting the way the web is changing politics. Take a look, and vote for them.

Non-profit gossip

And here's another you may find interesting.

Don't Tell the Donor

Don't Tell the Donor

News and opinions from the world of nonprofit fundraising... ripped from the headlines and passed as gossip through development offices... these are the stories you might not want to tell the donor.

For my non-profit friends

Here's a blog that will help you make connections and stay up-to-date. They started a pretty impressive blog roll that is growing rapidly.

Nonprofit Blog Exchange

Other People's Spread Sheets

I'm a pretty private person.  I guess it comes from my traditional New England up-bringing.  But that means that I don't know a lot about other people's personal lives.  So I found this site pretty interesting.  Who'd have thought people keep spread sheets about so many things?

Sure, budgets, CD & record collections, even mileage calculators.  But some of this stuff is really beyond my imagination.  I couldn't stop reading it.  I wish I'd thought of this one-

I have an 20-year-ongoing Excel spreadsheet, updated quarterly, called
"My Life" with the following columns: Date, Address, Job, Monthly
earnings, Boyfriend (5 years for the current one, but amusing
information before that), and notable events during the quarter. Only
the Monthly earning is graphible, but it's a handy chart at times.

To read what some people track on spread sheets:
Anil Dash: Excel Pile

Copywriting Commandments

Here's a concise guide to writing copy- easier said than done - from Gail Goodman, Constant Contact CEO.

Writing Compelling Promotional Copy - 10 Commandments for Great Copywriting

Freelance Writing Tips

Yes, I wish someone had passed these along way back when.

10 Tips I Wish Someone Had Given Me Before I Launched My Freelance Writing Career By Patty Harder

Thanks, Patty Harder

Cool Tool: Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Cool Tool: Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Kevin Kelly at Cool Tools provides the links to this wallet-size guide and a similar one, "Seafood Watch" from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I can never remember what I should and shouldn't eat from the good-for-you food list. These guides are small and useful.

Seth Godin's e-book- Who's There?

Have you read Seth Godin's latest? As usual, it's thought provoking. He's so good at articulating the changes that the web makes in our lives.

And in the best web tradition, his ebooks are short, sweet, and free. (Isn't he the one who started that tradition?)

This one focuses on blogging. It's must reading if you have a blog. Think about having a blog. Think you ought to have a blog. Or can't figure out what it's all about.

What Effect Reading Has on Our Minds - MSN Encarta

Well, this tidbit made me feel a bit better about having a birthday yesterday.

What Effect Reading Has on Our Minds - MSN Encarta: "How reading protects your mind
When you pit senior citizens against college students in general knowledge and vocabulary, the oldsters win out.
But college students beat their elders when it comes to memory and tasks that involve logic and deductive reasoning*. Except, that is, when controlled for the amount of reading those people do. There, the results pointed toward the notion that reading a lot can compensate for the wear and tear time can put on a mind. "

NationMaster.com - Where Stats Come Alive!

Here's a wonderful site to bookmark. NationMaster provides a quick way to explore those 'I wonder ...' questions when you're reading the newspaper or researching a topic.

NationMaster combines a massive statistical data base with some great tools to compare nations. Interested in murder rates? The per cent of people who will die before turning 60? Tax rates across the world? You'll find it all here.

NationMaster.com - Where Stats Come Alive!

They've just, in April, introduced a companion site with state statistics. The range here is still sparse, but these folks have proven they have what it takes to build a useful, interesting site.

By the way, if you'd like something interesting to do, they are looking for volunteer editors for both sites.

The secret to reaching a live customer rep

gethuman - advocacy for high quality customer service for consumers

How long did it take you to snake your way through a series of telephone menus the last time you called customer service? Well, here's something you can do about it. Get Human is a simple, wonderful site run by volunteers and 'powered' by you and me - if we will just take a minute to give them some feedback.

You can rate the companies you call; feed their data base with company name, number called, minutes on hold, and your rating of their service quality. They plan to publish the best and the worst.

And, amazingly they have a page you'll have to bookmark -- a directory of the phone numbers and/or shortcuts for reaching a human customer rep at a wide range of companies. Check there before making your next customer service call.

Thanks, Gethuman!

LiveScience.com: The Most Popular Myths in Science

LiveScience.com: The Most Popular Myths in Science: "
Chickens can live without a head

True, and not just for a few minutes. A chicken can stagger around without its
noggin because the brain stem, often left partially intact after a beheading,
controls most of its reflexes. One robust fellow lived a full eighteen months.
Likely he was a real birdbrain, however.

While I was noodling around on the Live Science site, I found this interesting fact. Well, it may not be important in your business, but it made me chuckle.

If you've got a few minutes check out the most popular science myths. Pretty interesting.

Happiness in Old Age Depends on Attitude

LiveScience.com - Happiness in Old Age Depends on Attitude: "'In fact, optimism and effective coping styles were found to be more important to successfully aging than traditional measures of health and wellness,' Jeste said. 'These findings suggest that physical health is not the best indicator of successful aging--attitude is.'"

Ain't that the truth! This report confirms my life experience. When my attitude deteriorates into self-pity or when I let the blues take control, life spins downward. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often.

AOL Offers Goodmail Service Free to Nonprofits

DMNews.com test News Article

"There will be no requirement, ever, for not-for-profits who deliver e-mail
to AOL members to pay for e-mail certification and delivery," AOL postmaster
Charles Stiles said.

Good news for my non-profit clients. We've all been nervous about what the cost of AOL's e-mail delivery system would do to budgets and fundraising plans. The new arrangement is slated to go into effect within 90 days. I'll keep you posted.

"On Friday, AOL said qualifying not-for-profit organizations and
not-for-profit advocacy groups would "receive the full functionality of AOL's
e-mail system, including having images and Web links enabled in mail, and
delivery to the e-mail inboxes of AOL members, at no charge to either the sender
or the recipient."

The Dilbert Blog: Wisdom for Grads

This is the cynical view of life in big organzations - but there's always a grain of truth.

Doug Adams has been compiling this advice for new grads. Lots of folks have added their comments.

The Dilbert Blog: Wisdom for Grads: "There's no such thing as good ideas and bad ideas. There are only your own ideas and other people's. If you want someone to like your idea, tell him he said it last week and you just remembered.

Teamwork is what you call it when you trick other people into ignoring their priorities in favor of yours.

Leadership is a form of evil. No one needs to lead you to do something that is obviously good for you.

You can estimate the time for any project by multiplying the number of idiots involved by one week and adding the number of capable co-workers times four weeks. (The competent ones are busier.)"

Pew Research Center: Are We Happy Yet?

Pew Research Center: Are We Happy Yet?: "Several of them [correlations] stand out: Married people are happier than unmarrieds. People who worship frequently are happier than those who don't. Republicans are happier than Democrats. Rich people are happier than poor people. Whites and Hispanics are happier than blacks. Sunbelt residents are happier than those who live in the rest of the country."

Whew! I didn't know I was so unhappy -- an unmarried, non-church-going, middle class, northeastern Democrat. Well, if this is misery so be it. I'm pretty content.

It's an interesting study, even if it isn't personally relevant.

OSHA Ergonomic Solutions: Computer Workstations eTool - Index for Computer Workstations

OSHA Ergonomic Solutions: Computer Workstations eTool - Index for Computer Workstations

When you spend as much time as I do sitting in front of a computer screen writing and researching, comfort is critical. There's nothing worse than neck pain when a deadline hovers.

This OSHA site provides some interesting information on equipment, position, and environment. It's prompted me to move my monitor -- closer and lower. I'll let you know whether I find it an improvement.

Thanks, OSHA.

Stanford iTunes

Stanford iTunes
I've been downloading the audio from Charlie Rose and NPR's This American Life and recorded books from audible.com for a monthly fee and from the local library system for free. I've spent hundreds of dollars over the years buying tapes and CD's from the Learning Company.

Now, I've discovered that Stanford University has a new service, originally targeted to alumni, to download faculty lectures, interviews, music and sports. All free.

I can hardly wait to explore it!