Today the team building concept is well-established and it has been globally taken up in many organizations as a better way to approach and manage businesses. There is one question to be asked ‘How to make our teams really effective?’ If organizations want to perform better and increase the team’s efficiency, then it is important to understand the characteristics which standouts out in effective groups. Effective group will have unique characteristics in way they interact and work together. A close study of the following characteristics will give important clues that help to identify and deduce the factors which play a big role in effective team work.

Effective crowd must talk to one another rather than speaking behind each other’s back. You should know that back biting is totally non-existent or rare in an efficient team and there is always a high level of mutual understanding and trust. This forms a bond among the members of the group and this will lead to rapport, giving team spirit. Tensions are also rare. Effective teams will have a healthy respect for each other’s options and viewpoints. Members will encourage one another and actively listen and will participate during the group discussions. Disagreements do exists but they do not snowball into interpersonal conflicts.

Effective teams must know how to deal with conflicts. Disagreements and conflicts entering subject or work related discussions are considered as a normal occurrence and the members do not harbor any hatred towards one another once the team meeting comes to an end. Effective gangs are true partners with all aspects concerned with teamwork. They have an informal work ethics of sharing and supportive. There are totally aware of their team’s goals and also share the responsibilities and work towards achieving their objectives.

An effective organization must require successful employees. The team realizes the needs to focus on the group’s goals and even rise above personal ambitions. Team members are secure in their individual capabilities and understand the reasons why an organization has initiated a team which should be considered first priority. They are able to work towards executing their tasks in line with common goals of the members. They must have realized that if they work on their individual roles truthfully, personal gratitude is bound to come their way.

The points discussed above are all important for a good team performance. Even though these mentioned points are put into perspective what a successful team is all about, it is also necessary to realize that high performance group requires the right challenge, regular team building programs, ongoing skills training and sufficient recognition and reward for keeping the team’s momentum going.

Source:1888articles

Similar to a birthstone and an astrological sign, there are birth flowers which have a corresponding meaning and character that is being attributed

to the person who was born during a certain month. Check out your birth flower and consequent personality traits:

1. January Birth Flower – Carnations : People who are born during January have carnation as their birthday flower. It is also known as gillyflower and clove pink and is widely harvested in many different colours and varieties. The name of the flower is derived from the Greek word corone (coronation) and means ‘flower of the Gods’.

Flower Meaning of Carnation : Carnations symbolise deep love, fascination, a friend in adversity and eternal fidelity.

Personality traits associated with carnation : Individuals who have carnation as their birth flower are strongly motivated to succeed and gain a position of power in life. They strive for respect and accomplishment in their careers. They are emotional and sensitive and are very responsible and protective towards their families. But the biggest barrier in their success is their communication skills; they need to learn to openly communicate their deep feelings.

2. February Birth Flower-Violet : People who are born during February have violet as their birthday flower.

Flower Meaning of Violet : Violet signifies faithfulness, warmth of affection, prosperity, faith, wisdom, hope, inspiration, humility and cleanliness.

Personality traits associated with Violet : People born with violet as their birth flower have an accurate intuition, a tremendous common sense, ingeniousness, and a powerful will. They can handle any difficulties in life with a smile and transcend setbacks by using celestial knowledge. Women are born with this flower as their birth flower are original, independent, beautiful, intellectual, and make good use of their magnetic sexuality to reach their purposes.

3. March Birth Flower – Daffodil : The daffodil is the March birth flower. The daffodil’s meaning is rebirth with a promise of happiness and joy.

Flower Meaning of Daffodil : Daffodils represent optimism, reverence, kindness and warmth unrequited love.

Personality traits associated with Daffodil : Daffodil as the birth flower makes one compassionate, dreamy, artistic, independent, sensitive, loving, impractical and timid. These people can easily adapt to different situations and can handle different tasks at the same time. One of the greatest traits of these people is that they usually avoid conflict whenever possible and are inclined to act as peacemakers when others fight.

4. April Birth Flower – Daisy : April’s birthday flower is daisy which comes in pink and purple colours and is quite popular among flower lovers all over the world.

Flower Meaning of Daisy : It is associated with innocence, modesty, curiosity, inquisitiveness and brings a joyful, happy-go-lucky character wherever it appears.

Personality traits associated with Daisy : People with daisy as their birth flower are born leaders. However their strong and impatient desire to succeed must be controlled as hasty decisions need to be avoided. They are competitive and motivated people and they make everyone’s life beautiful wherever they stay. But they have a habit of talking too much and usually are not good listeners.

5. May Birth Flower – Lily of the Valley : Lily of the valley is the birth flower of May. This graceful flower was once used as an herbal medicine as a poison antidote in the ancient times.

Flower Meaning of Lily of the Valley : It represents strength of character, remembrance, infatuation and splendid beauty.

Personality traits associated with Lily of the Valley : People born with Lily of the Valley as their birth flower are beautiful, somehow stubborn and practical towards life. Strong and dominant with powerful will power, these people can courageously handle the difficulties of life. Girls born with this birth flower are beautiful, intellectual and sensitive

6. June Birth Flower – Rose : The Rose is the birth flower of June.

Flower meaning of Rose : The most common and beautiful flower, rose stands for passion, friendship, magnificence and love.

Personality traits associated with Rose : People having rose as their birth flower have a gift of youth, a double personality and a quicksilver mind enabling them to adapt easily to any situation. They have good communication skills and are curious by nature.

7. July Birth Flower – Larkspur : Larkspur is considered to be the birth flower of July.

Flower meaning Larkspur : Good luck, lightness and laughter are associated with Larkspur.

Personality traits associated with Larkspur : Family matters will always play an important role in life of people who have larkspur as their birth flower. They are perfectionists and are quite critical. Steadiness, organisation, warmth, love, and charm belong to them and they are go-getters in life.

8. August Birth Flower – Gladiolus : The gladiolus is the birth flower of August.

Flower meaning of Gladiolus : Strength of character, marriage and family is an important sense for people born in August. These are also meanings attached to their birthday flower, gladiolus.

Personality traits associated with Gladiolus : People born with gladious as their birth flower are strongly motivated by the will to succeed. Strong and dominant, they nurture a formidable desire to organize and rule others. But their destructive outbursts of emotions and pride often lands them in trouble. Women born with gadious as their birth flower are stunning, intellectual and attract others with their enthusiastic power.

9. September Birth Flower – Aster : The aster is the birth flower of September. In ancient times, it was believed that burning the leaves

gave special powers, as the scent would drive away evil. The aster flower symbolises afterthought and was laid on the graves of soldiers.

Flower meaning of Aster : Aster or morning glory is known to have rich and deep colours that radiate beauty to its surroundings. It symbolises love, daintiness, contentment and unpredictability.

Personality traits associated with Aster : People who were born with ater as their birth flower are believed to have a strong devotion to life and are filled with light. They are intellectual, very critical and picky and tend to work hard. They are masters of communication and will always combine logic and intuition in dealing with life. Astrologically they have been classified as the “perfectionists”.

10. October Birth Flower – Marigold : The marigold or calendula is the birth flower of October. In India, the flower was placed around the necks of holy statues, as it was considered most sacred.

Flower meaning of Marigold : Contentment, excellence, gratitude and love for nature are characterised by the marigold.

Personality traits associated with Marigold : People born with marigold as their birth flower are strongly motivated by a desire for justice and always create harmony in all areas of your lives. They have a gentle personality and love to take challenges. They are ‘peacemakers’ and usually don’t like to fight with others. Being a good communicator they usually tend to convince people and are considered to be born leaders.

11. November Birth Flower – Chrysanthemum : The chrysanthemum is the birth flower of November. According to an old myth, a single petal of this flower placed at the bottom of a glass brings forth longevity.

Flower meaning of Chrisanthemum : Chrisanthemum represent cheerfulness, sensitivity, compassion and wealth.

Personality traits associated with Chrisanthemum : Strong, private and dominant, the individuals who have chrisanthemum as their birth flower are born with a practical mind and an acute intuition. They are interested and aspire only for the truth. The women are sensual, intellectual, reserved, and super magnetic.

12. December Birth Flower – Narcissus : A sweet fragrant, bulbous white flower, Nacissus is the birth flower of December. As per Greek mythology, Narcissus was the most beautiful boy on Earth and as he saw his own reflection in a near by lake, he leant over to kiss his mirrored image and fell in and drowned. When he was discovered by the God Apollo, he turned Narcissus into a beautiful flower, so his beauty could be remembered forever.

Flower meaning of Narcissus: Narcissus symbolises celebration, egotism, wealth and success.

Personality traits associated with Narcissus : People born with narcissus as their birth flower tend to be fortunately blessed, strong willed. They hate disagreements, are careful, unobtrusive, systematic and confident. Extremely hard working, independent and self-confident, these people respect traditions. They are very much attached to their family and can go to any lengths to protect them from the world.

It appears that the new search engine from Microsoft won’t be called Kumo after all as the company prepares to unveil a marketing blitz behind the engine which could potentially change search engine optimization (SEO).

AdAge reports that Microsoft will spend between $80 million and $100 million on advertising for its new search engine, which the magazine says will be called Bing. According to the magazine, this marketing campaign will dwarf anything that search engine giant Google has done in the past.

However, if Microsoft is to truly rival Google, it has a big hill to climb as a recent report from comScore found that the company only had an 8.2 percent market share in search. To change this, some say Bing will need to show people that search can be improved.

“If you grab the average user off the street and ask them, ‘Does search suck?’ I think they’d say no. They don’t know what else can be done,” Shashi Seth, a former executive at Google who is now chief revenue officer at Cooliris told the magazine. “They think search does a pretty good job, and if you could prove otherwise with a product that’s differentiated, people will sit up and take notice.”

In recent weeks Google appears to be facing an onslaught of competition from upstart search engines. But with comScore reporting that Google maintained a 64.2 percent market share last month, it’s unlikely the company will be knocked from the top spot anytime soon.

Source: brafton

1. Setting goals is easy but achieving them isn’t. That’s why setting “SMART” goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely – is the first step in making your goal a reality.

Make your goal as Specific as possible and express it in positive terms. Do you want to stop losing money or do you want to start making money? How much money do you want to make?

How do you Measure success? You’ll need a way to evaluate your progress and determine if you’re moving towards your goal. For example, if you want to improve your finances, then you should have a way of keeping track of income and expenses.

Is your goal Achievable? Consider whether you have the resources necessary to achieve your goal. If not, you need to determine if you can assemble everything required to streamline your process. Remove any obstacles before you get started!

Realistic goals are achievable goals, unrealistic goals are just dreams. It’s not necessary to be negative but take time to honestly evaluate whether you’re being realistic. Losing 30 pounds in 2 weeks is not impossible but it’s not very likely and certainly not healthy.

Make your goal Timely by stating a due date for your goal AND the action steps involved in achieving it.

2. Align your goals with your values. If your goal doesn’t reflect your beliefs and character then you’ll have difficulty achieving it. And even if you do manage to get what you want, you won’t be very happy. Set a goal which is meaningful to you and be clear about the consequences of your outcome.

3. Share your goals with three to five key people. Not everyone needs this strategy with every goal but almost everyone can benefit from it at some point. Finding supportive, positive people is key because you certainly don’t need anyone sabotaging your progress.

4. Assemble everything you need before you need it. This prep work is vital in eliminating the frustrating and time consuming “running around” which can derail your progress later on.

5. Minimise potential challenges. There are 3 key ways to prevent overconfidence and poor planning from creating obstacles down the line:

* Create a complete, measurable, action plan which includes all the steps necessary to achieve your goal. Don’t forget due dates for each step.
* Incorporate all your actions into your schedule. Add them to your calendar with anywhere from 10-20% flextime to help you control any unexpected delays.
* Regularly evaluate your progress. You may need to make changes or adjustments as your project takes shape. Anticipate them so you won’t get blind-sided.

6. Complete at least one action per day. Consistent actions will propel you towards your goal. Even choosing a small task will make a dent in your to-do list and may motivate you to do even more.

7. Establish a support system. Who or what can provide you with encouragement, advice, healthy feedback or a willing ear?

8. Reward Yourself. Don’t wait until you achieve your goal, especially if it’s a long-term one. Reward yourself as you reach certain milestones. Something as simple as scheduling time for yourself or perhaps a special treat that you’ve felt guilty about indulging in can keep you motivated to keep going.

Source: projectsmart

Keeping employees engaged is critical during an economic downturn. Here are some smart ways to do it.

In the months after September 11, as business activity slowed to a crawl, Steve Kerr, then the chief learning officer at Goldman Sachs (GS), launched a leadership seminar for senior managers that he nicknamed “Motivating Without Money.” The daylong sessionsdiscussed how Goldman’s managers could use nonfinancial incentives to energize their staff. While well received, the seminar was discontinued when business perked up again a year or so later.

Last fall, however, Goldman brought it back, widening the audience to include Goldman’s clients. (It’s now called “Motivating Your People in a Challenging Environment.”) “We got more people than I expected,” recalls Kerr, now a senior advisor to the bank and author of a new book, Reward Systems. As for why bonus-obsessed Wall Street hotshots would be so receptive to his “money isn’t everything” message, Kerr says: “I guess any reward in tough times is valuable.”

Read more

Marshall Goldsmith is one of the best authors / coaches i regularly read.

You won’t get to the top without it. To build your self-confidence, believe in yourself, don’t worry about being perfect, and put up a brave front.

Read More

Follow him on his website

In short, a blog carnival is a blog promotional event where one blogger acts as the host and other bloggers act as participants. The host announces the carnival date and topic then other bloggers who write about that topic on their own blogs write a post related to the blog carnival’s topic and publish it on their blogs. Each participating blogger sends the host the link to their specific blog carnival post entry.

On the date of the blog carnival, the host publishes a post with links to each of the participants’ entries. Typically, the host will write a summary of each link, but it’s up to the host how he or she wants to display the links to the various entries. When the blog carnival post is published by the host, readers of the host’s blog will have easy access to a variety of posts related to a topic of interest to them.

Each participant is expected to promote the blog carnival on their own blogs in advance of the carnival thereby driving traffic to the host’s blog. The assumption is that when the carnival date arrives, the host’s readers will want to read the various participants’ entries to the carnival and will click on those links to visit the participants’ blogs thus driving new traffic to the participants’ blogs.

Often a blog carnival is an ongoing event with the host running the carnival weekly, monthly or quarterly, but they can be one-time events as well. Blog carnival hosts may put out a call for content on their own blog or by contacting other bloggers they know that blog about the carnival’s topic. Alternatively, there are websites that operate as central locations for blog carnival hosts and participants to find each other. For example, BlogCarnival.com provides a place for carnival hosts to promote their upcoming blog carnivals and ask for submissions from other bloggers. If you’re interested in hosting a blog carnival or finding an open carnival to join with your own submissions, BlogCarnival.com is a great resource.

Source: about

Individuals who are not organized have to face problems in the way of goal achievement. Moreover the impact of such people is not good on others. It is possible that we skip things from our memory so it would be beneficial to write things on a piece of paper. A wrong step might be the reason of our weak memory. You would not afraid of your poor memory after writing your tasks on paper. You can write other important information in the same notebook to organize your tasks.

You can organize things due to sharp and quick memory. Successful people lead organized life due to which they remain successful. You should prepare your own to-do list to keep things in right order. The priority of events and tasks can be re-arranged in the achievement of your goal. You should be well planned because it will increase the speed of your goal achievement. Don’t change your time table frequently because it will disturb your routine of life. Similarly you can use the quality of organization in your goal achievement.

Organization is a skill which can be learnt with proper time and training. There are many benefits of being organized. You will become more flexible and creative in your objectives. Your productivity level will increase but your stress level will decrease. Organized persons use less money, time and other resources to achieve goal. Organization will provide you more control on your life, actions and time.

Source: 1888articles

Some find them akin to aliens; others insist they are animated cartoon characters, while a third bunch doesn’t quite know what to make of it. Nevertheless, we have all been privy to these white, scrawny creatures with giant heads as they invade our TV screens during an IPL match.

In 2008, Vodafone had unveiled the ‘Happy to Help’ series during the first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). With the launch of the second season, Vodafone has given birth to the Zoozoo: a special character created specifically to convey a value added service (VAS) offering in each of the newly released commercials.

Read more on AFAQS

Recovery may not be just around the corner, but it is coming, and companies need to act now to position themselves to succeed. In many cases, that means cutting costs, but it should not mean cutting customer service corners. Outsourcers can provide some sensible solutions for keeping customers on board in a highly competitive landscape while keeping budgets under control.

Read more on ecommerce times