Recently I was discussing with a friend if being positive and happy attracts success or if the fact that you reach your goals is what makes you happy. From that conversation I can conclude that everyone has their own theories about it. We ended up discussing work environment, collaboration and getting things done.

My friend states that “if you work hard you’ll be successful and if your successful then you are happy”. I actually think is the other way around. You should make the effort to see “the glass half full”. Be happy that the glass is half full and with that extra happiness boost  you will work hard and fill in the rest of the glass.

Keeping a positive attitude to changes and roadblocks will make you more creative. By just seeing the bright side, people will tend to collaborate with you more and with that you’ll reach your goals faster. This makes the journey to success easier.

I know sometimes is not easy to see the positives but if you train yourself (brain and heart) to do so, things will end up being naturally positive in the future.

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Misc | No Comments »

A while ago a good friend  of mine asked more about the products and features I work with. Then he said something: “You put so much passion explaining things and this is not even your working hours”. I can clearly remember when I was answering to that statement a great TED talk was popping into my mind:

In sales, in business and in other aspects of life, I agree that is not the “WHAT?”  or the “HOW?” that drives things. Is the “WHY?”! The great examples given there are about Apple products and Dr. Martin Luther King but, in general, if you understand the vision and how you can contribute to that vision, how it connects to you and makes you fill, then it will enable you to sell, to buy, to motivate and to be motivated.

If you never listened to this TED talk, I recommend it and Simon  is a great speaker so time flies by

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Two years ago I addressed the importance of Motivation and how it is important for the health of your team and your organization.  That post is called “Motivation – Motivate yourself by motivating the world“. A comment on “more about me” led me to this post. Now I’ll be addressing specifics and give a couple of tips on how you should get yourself motivated and how to motivate others.

People can be motivated by different factors. Money is certainly one of them, where people must feel that they are payed according to the effort/responsibility they put into their role.

But there are others that in the medium/long term can do more than money to keep an employee motivated. Those other factors can/will even change the perception of the “fairness” of the dichotomy  work/salary.

• Work environment. Hire the right people, do not disregard the  great importance of their social skills. Sometimes, people that go the “extra mile” compensate their “technical perfection”. People that naturally think “what can I do for you?” instead of “what can this person do for me?” create sense of team spirit, coordination and go the extra mile helping each other.

• Challenge orientated work. People need to be challenged, they need to feel useful and encouraged. In my opinion, people like at some point to relax for a bit however, there is not a single person that likes to “relax forever”. People feel the need of doing something more, the need to “think” and “act”, to progress and influence the lives of others. Do not disregard the need of a challenge and purpose on the work people perform (ex: volunteering. People work for free for a higher purpose, to help and improve the life of others!).

• Perks. They can be small things, gestures of appreciation for the person and for it´s job.  This can go from giving someone an unplanned afternoon off during during the holiday season or a free dinner somewhere. It all depends on the culture that you want to implement in your organisation.

Above all. There is nothing more motivating in the long run than just a “Thank you. Great job!” when people deserve it.

Posted by João Rufino under Business | 2 Comments »

Image source: http://www.tminspiration.co.za

The all time favorite post on my Blog is “Basics of effective communication“. I believe what was said back then still applies. Here are a couple more ideas for you to keep in mind before engaging others, either they are costumers or members of your own team:”First things first”: What is your objective? What is the key message you want to transmit?

• Think of your audience, their expectations, their previous knowledge about the subject, their education background, their business culture etc. Write/speak accordingly. First impression counts if you dont know the people and don´t skip many logical steps just to sound smart!
• If your changing processes internally, use more than one channel of communication. It helps to pass the message across and useful to get people used to the idea you are trying to implement
• To get the message across one must use the right channels, “eg if the staff you are contacting do not have regular access to a computer, do not rely on email as a way of communicating with them. Also consider that different categories of staff prefer to receive information in different ways“.
• A  very common mistake is: the use acronyms without explaining them. Be mindful that not everyone might know what those are.
• Use headlines that explain briefly and accurately what the message is about. Sometimes people don´t have time to read everything at once but it is important that they know what is it about.
• Conduct an internal communications audit after the changes have been communicated for a while. Did people got the message? What can be improved? Use your findings to improve the process
• Remember that good communication is a two-way process. Provide opportunities for others to communicate their views/thoughts.  LISTEN… (I’ll make sure I write a post with my thoughts on effective listening)

Thanks for reading

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1000

That is it! I reached 1000 visitors last week (1008 to be precise).  Not surprisingly this happens when re-started to post more often in the blog.

Only last month, and according to Google Analytics, I had visitors from 106 countries or territories. The top countries visiting my blog are:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Canada
• India
• Portugal
• Followed by Germany,  Philippines, Australia, Ireland and France

I posted about how to improve a website ranking, internet marketing, cloud computing, effective communication, strategy,  user experience I and II, product management, Sales suggestions,  provided a couple of presentation tips, talked about my native country plus other things that you can check out by either searching or visiting the archive.

If you want to know how many visits I had when I start just ask Google for “what is the loneliest number”. The calculator will answer you.

Thanks to everyone that visited me

EDIT: To honor my Indian visitors I added Hindi as one of the languages where you can translate the blog automatically.

EDIT 2:     As of August I have over 2200 visitors a week . I definitely need to post more often. Thanks everyone for visiting my blog

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Internet & Marketing & Misc | 2 Comments »