Here is the fifth update from this experiment that was originally from Dosh Dosh Technorati Experiment. I had a first update, a second update, a third update, a fourth update and the original Technorati Favorite Experiment can be read here. As you can see, the experiment is quite successful… requiring almost 3 hours for me to slowly go through each and ever link, see what they are about, add them to my favorites, and cut and paste into this update! Whew!

How do we rate the success or failure of the experiment? Well… I will give it some thought and make a conclusion in a few days time, I guess!

Following are nice people with their wonderful (or strange) blogs that favorited me!

1. shadragon (aka Uncle Sha)
2. madetobegreat (aka Alan Torres)
3. thecoach (aka thecoach)
4. Stargaz3r (aka Kelly Cho)
5. MsMoneyGirl (aka Ms. Latina Renee)
6. armymomnj (aka Army Mom New Jersey)
7. lxcoza (aka Derrick Markotter)
8. anaisamy (aka Amy L)
9. hobbit (aka hobbit hob)
10. tinasilva (aka Tina Silva)
11. culpepperd (aka David Culpepper)
12. CoachChar (aka Charmell Slaughter)
13. johnsl3 (aka Jay Ess)
14. PAULANEALMOONEY (aka PAULA MOONEY)
15. reformatthis (aka RJ Matthis)
16. dotsonr (aka Ray Dotson)
17. vikassah (aka Vikas Sah)
18. thereviewer (aka Mike Eitel)
19. jgoldstein2000 (aka J Goldstein)
20. feistyred (aka Charity)
21. Samanathon (aka Saman Sadeghi)
22. mrgarylee (aka Gary Lee)
23. angrycat (aka Jeremy Hopkins)
24. bethchelle (aka Beth T.)
25. andreasbard (aka Andreas Bard)
26. pinoyarki (aka ky kiske)
27. iFancyIt (aka iFancyIt Inc.)
28. Karenchatbug (aka Karen)
29. Gibo (aka Gilbert Lumantao)
30. jphillips (aka Jonathan Phillips)
31. chinoyray (aka Ervin Sam Yray)
32. NicholasKister (aka Nicholas Kister)
33. lf5058 (aka Leah Schrader)
34. hsunderland (aka hsunderland)
35. easternmystic (aka Pranav Chavda)
36. affiliateblog (aka Fraser Edwards)
37. LifeIsRisky (aka LifeIsRisky)
38. 5xmom (aka Lilian Chan)
39. blackkat (aka Kat Cooper)
40. sharingthelife (aka sharingthelife tan)
41. abbtech (aka Alan Parekh)
42. digitalhubtips (aka Nathan Arlante)
43. Dany00 (aka Dany Dol)
44. QuartzMountain (aka Kevin Henney)
45. asgeirhm (aka Asgeir Hoem)
46. typeronin (aka Ed Lau)
47. WritingThoughts (aka Laura Spencer)
48. azhad (aka Shaz Azhad)
49. ceslls99 (aka Lisa Knight)
50. lidiman (aka Lidiman Malaysia)
51. crpitt (aka Claire Pitt)
52. AkiJinn (aka Aki Jinn)
53. ahoklah (aka Adam Mutum)
54. level80 (aka John Brace)
55. tehph71 (aka Vedis Teh)
56. sidewinder (aka Michael de`Oz)
57. ugyen (aka ugyen dorji)
58. mccreadj (aka Jason McCready)
59. amienerev (aka amiene rev)
60. MindPatterns (aka Peter Haslam)
61. foxtucker (aka Fox Tucker)
62. i8yerpuppy (aka Mike Wheeler)
63. julietpain (aka Juliet Pain)
64. venukb (aka venu gopal)
65. Ginene (aka Ginene)
66. thelazygenius (aka Lazy Genius)
67. eastcoastlife (aka eastcoast life)
68. yongkailoon (aka Yong Kai-Loon)
69. schee88 (aka Chee Lean Yew ( a.k.a. schee ))
70. scorpy01 (aka Marisa Shreve)
71. mattsofi (aka Ahmad Sofi MdHashim)
72. Wolfsbane (aka Vijay)
73. kathiemt (aka Kathie Thomas)
74. palyndrome (aka Paul Bryant)
75. compeyes (aka Jason Stone)
76. skeeterbess (aka skeet)
77. deepakjeswal (aka Deepak Jeswal)
78. mblair007 (aka Mark Blair)
79. magicalrosegarden (aka Magical Rose Garden)
80. hafidin1 (aka Wan Hafizuddin)
81. ddang (aka Danny Dang)
82. davidairey (aka David Airey)
83. vjsolutions (aka Volodymyr Zablotskyy)
84. stubsy (aka Mark Stubbles)
85. robwattsy (aka rob watts)
86. realamber (aka Joel Yang)
87. travelwell (aka Gerald David Greene)
88. aGlobalWarming2007 (aka Mark Laymon)
89. LindaJM (aka Linda Martin)
90. KEslick69 (aka Kyle Eslick)
91. elizajane202 (aka Eliza Ferree)
92. alex3071 (aka alex3071)
93. rtcunningham (aka RT Cunningham)
94. AndyBeard (aka Andrew Beard)
95. kakashihatake (aka tan saylee)
96. dmiracle (aka Dawud Miracle)
97. santaram (aka santaram koyilada)
98. TechFinder (aka Nick Halstead)
99. planetapex (aka Mohamed)
100. rahulasthana (aka Rahul Asthana)
101. research103 (aka Research)
102. robinbal(aka Robin Bal)
103. narendra007(aka Narendra Sakibanda)
104. anitokid (aka AnitoKid Mapugay)
105. narlante (aka Nash Trout)
106. nirmaltv (aka Nirmal T V)
107. rishimac (aka Rishi Raj)
108. chennairomeos (aka Karthik Ramadoss)
109. fastfastlane (aka Deborah Petersen)
110. guinsfan68 (aka Michael Rinsem)
111. ejabs (aka Matthew Jabs)
112. rosking (aka Sandra)
113. wampago (aka Chris Ruddlesdin)
114. ApOgEEs (aka Muhammad Fauzilkamil Zainuddin)
115. atulperx (aka atul dogra)
116. pinkdeals (aka Danielle)
117. tanguy (aka Tanguy)
118. ckanthramya (aka ramya shivalingiah)
119. gauravonomics (aka Gaurav Mishra)
120. UnchallengedHate (aka UnchallengedHate)
121. vrreddy (aka vrreddy)
122. orangeye (aka Guilherme Almeida)
123. Dayastic (aka - -)
124. iszo (aka iszo)
125. syafthegeek (aka Syafrizal Abu Mansor)
126. engtech (aka engtech)
127. delani (aka Deborah Roscher)
128. garryconn (aka Garry Conn)
129. JanuaryMoon (aka Elizabeth Whitener)
130. vijeesh82 (aka Vijeesh Ravindran)
131. kidchino (aka Brendan Monaghan)
132. webduck (aka Webduck W.)
133. shaileshdoke (aka Shailendra Doke)
134. daryllau (aka Daryl Lau)
135. infohigh (aka infohigh)
136. jimimorrison (aka jimimorrison)
137. betshopboy (aka betshopboy)
138. revyd (aka Dave Olson)
139. netbizopp (aka Joel Guarino)
140. affiliateprograms (aka Greg Ray)
141. jensofnorway (aka Jens P. Berget)
142. rugjeff (aka jeff phelps)
143. edbaker (aka Ed Baker)
144. sexyinred (aka Norlina Mohd Mushahar)
145. Merovingian343 (aka Ladislav Juric)
146. rmiles7721 (aka Richard Miles)
147. laughingbuddha (aka susanna kompogiorgas)
148. arnie7 (aka Arnold Stewart)
149. pasat (aka grzegorz paslawski)
150. star500k (aka Saw Htoosayhei)
151. plosiguant (aka Nenad Ristic)
152. ValkrieANGEL (aka Pam Keong)
153. ejcooksey (aka Elisabeth Cooksey)
154. Grant24 (aka Grant Pierrus)
155. ant3eye (aka Anthony Tripodi)
156. quasifictional (aka Diogenes)
157. sevn (aka Daniel)
158. BrownBaron (aka Ariel Garcia)
159. bwp58 (aka Brian Pratt)
160. blogosquare (aka Hans Coomar)
161. mgax01 (aka Marc Chase)
162. askax (aka Andika Kusuma)
163. sjbarker (aka Simon Barker)
164. vinodis (aka Vinod Ponmanadiyil)
165. Noviisi (aka T Jantunen)
166. gvvaughan (aka Gary Vaughan)
167. kawaiikuma (aka Maki Maki) - The ONE who started this!
168. VivienneQuek (aka Vivienne Quek)

Technorati Tags: technorati favorite, technorati experiment, technorati ranking

Marketing should be fun. Online marketing should be even more fun, and it is! That is, until you get to the part where you are actually trying to sell some stuff. Besides the usual marketing challenges, the online world presents you with a new and different challenges - how to list your products, how to collect money, how to deliver? Welcome to the confusing world of ecommerce software!

When choosing your shopping cart software, you need to be aware of a few important points:

• The Administration must be easy to use, you do not want to waste time there when you should be busy marketing your products
• The software must be secure and perform fast
• The software must be Search Engine friendly
• The entire sales to order process should be as automated as possible
• Payment options must include several different ones (usually PayPal and Credit Cards are a must)
• Tracking and reporting features should be rich

There are a host of features that any shopping cart should have, however, only you can determine which are the most important ones for your online store. There are a lot of technical decisions that are tied to this also. For example, your hosting package for your web site could restrict your choice of shopping cart solutions. You will need to decide on whether to use PHP, ASP, CGI, or any of the many different choices out there. If you are not very technical, do not like to “tinker”, I have an alternative suggestion for you: consider a hosted shopping cart. Ecommerce software are complex to set up and run, but a hosted solution means that all the technical stuff has been taken care of and you only need to focus on your shop itself.

One possible solution which is new to me was ASHOP Commerce. I took a look there and found that they actually have quite a comprehensive list of features. Of course, there is no such thing as a perfect ecommerce software. However, I found the feature set of ASHOP adequate for most common needs. But what is good is the tiered pricing program. They have 4 different levels of pricing from a single shop Starter package to a B2B (Business-to-Business) Enterprise level of features and capabilities.

I suggest that you first have your marketing plan in place. Then, when you are ready, go for a hosted shopping cart software and get up and running in a few hours. That way, you will not lose your momentum and your online marketing efforts will not lose any of its sharp edge!

While I am not a shopping cart software expert, I have done my share of hunting down appropriate shopping carts for various projects. I can tell you, many times, after weeks of sweat and tears, I sometimes wish I had taken a hosted solution instead.

Technorati Tags: shopping cart software, shopping cart, ecommerce software

Sometimes, it is better to follow than to lead. You see, when you are walking behind, it is the person in front who has to watch out for the pot-holes, push aside the obstacles, watch out that we are all going in the right direction and keep everyone cheerfully trudging along!

In this sixth of my ten-part Leadership series, we shall explore the risks a leader needs to take.

Out there in front, you are the one who decides where to plant your next step. Every step forward is a decision. Each decision entails some kind of trade-off. That is where the risks start to appear.

No one likes risk. However, a leader has no choice but to forge ahead. What then is the best way to approach this? A prudent leaders always weighs his risks. To take too large a risk, could result in devastation. To take too small a risk, and it will be forever and a day to reach that lofty vision.

While the vision looms large and distant, clear objectives and milestones are the life-blood of leaders. Move towards them steadily, seeking small wins as affirmation and encouragement for the team. Risks need to be planned as a part of your roadmap to success.

This approach is also good as the mistakes made would tend not to be as devastating as attempting to clear the mountain in a single day. Mistakes made are lessons learnt. But to be able to benefit from the lessons, you have to be sure your army is not totally decimated! Clear objectives, achievable milestones, small wins, bearable mistakes - these will bring the team inexorably forward towards the ultimate vision that the leader has.

To not take any risk is the best approach. One that most businesses would love. Unfortunately, if you never stepped off the sidewalk, you will never get across the street. It is the role of the leader to take risks. You, as the leader, have the priviledge of sharing your vision, and achieving your dreams. At the same time, you also have the dubious honor of bearing the risks.

A good leader constantly moves ahead. A weak leader is frozen by the myriads of issues at hand.

In our next installment, we will be looking at fostering cooperation and trust.
To catch up, here are the links to the previous posts:

1. Articulate Your Personal Vision As a Leader
2. Putting Action To Your Words
3. Have a Vision
4. Share the Vision
5. Learn and Grow

Technorati Tags: leadership, good leadership, leadership skill, take risk, leaders learn and grow, leaders innovate

Many of you who have followed the growth of photography has envied Kodak for dominating the scene and Polaroid its brief flash of brilliance. But photography today is far from dead. With the quality and cost of digital digital cameras becoming so much more compelling, even more photos are taken today than ever before!

Marketers take note! Here is an example of a product marketing innovation which I found to be really clever! Its a Digital Photo Frame! Why do I think this is clever? It is not a new “invention” but rather, employs an LCD panel, an SD memory card, and a remote control to create a digital photo frame. Each digital frame looks like a normal photo. The difference is, being a digital picture frame, you can actually save all your digital photos and show them off.

Here’s a picture of the digital photo frame which I ripped from their site:

The days when your homes are cluttered with endless books of dusty photo albums are over! Let these digital photo frames rule your homes!

They look like real photo frames, and you can now show off your photos in a slide show even! They even have photo frames in different sizes. For me, this is the way to go. I think it’s the remote control that sold me!

Technorati Tags: photo, digital photo frame, digital picture,   digital camera, product innovation, marketing ideas

When I first looked at doing online businesses last year, one of the concerns was how to collect money. There are many ways to do so but being able to accept credit card payment seems to be the best way.

I read up on Advantage Processors and they seem to offer all the various credit card services needed by any business, both online as well as offline (physical retail shops). Doing a Google search did not turn up any bad press about the company, which is a fairly good indicator that all appears to be well. I guess one good method is to contact them and test the response for yourself if you are wondering how good they are.

There is always a cost to doing business, but Advantage Processors seem to have very reasonable rates for various transactions. They also accept high risk credit card transactions for example, for mail order businesses. Not all credit card processing companies do so.

Technorati Tags: credit card, online marketing, credit card processing, internet business, online transaction

I just read this, and it is really hilarious! No, its not really vulgar, but it does sound a keen warning for all the marketing people out there not to take the lazy way out and leave everything to your juniors! You REALLY gotta read this!

http://www.davidairey.com/blog/is-your-logo-design-phallic/ 

Now, tell me you did not enjoy that!

Technorati Tags: logo, logo design, great logo, good logo, phallic logo, sex marketing

Here’s a really fun idea - get someone to pay you for doing what you are already doing!

Enter Blogvertise! There, you will get the opportunity to get paid for your blogging entries. Now, I just found out about this, new as I am to this world of commercial blogging, but it does seem interesting; both as a concept and as a source of revenue.

For the marketers out there, this is another avenue that you can employ on top of your ATL and BTL programs currently running. Banner advertising is so yester-year. Today, you should Blogvertise!

Technorati Tags: blogvertise, internet marketing, fun idea, marketing idea, advertising

Just came across this interesting stone. Seems like Amber as a precious stone is slowly gaining some attention. I guess it might be related to this site selling Amber jewelry in quite an innovative way over in sunny Singapore. Go see - www.realamber.sg.

All I know about Amber so far was learnt from Jurassic Park! But I guess I am no fashion guru, so whatever I say, please forgive me! But actually, what interest me is not the stone, but the very innovative marketing that is being done over at www.realamber.sg

You see, they practise what is effectively, a Reverse Bidding System! You know, when you have an auction, you bid for the item you want, and the fella with the highest bid gets the prize? Well, on this site, you simply look at the item, find out what the listed price is, and then bid a price which you are willing to pay for it. Isn’t that cool? So, let’s say you saw a cool Amber Necklace, and it showed US$94 as the listed price. Now, if you think that you would be willing to pay only US$85, then place that as your bid. If the store feels that the price is reasonable, it accepts and you got the piece!

Now, don’t you think that is just a really neat system?

Technorati Tags: amber, amber jewelry, amber necklace

Here is the fourth update from this experiment that was originally from Dosh Dosh Technorati Experiment. I had a first update, a second update, a third update, and the original Technorati Favorite Experiment can be read here. Following are blogs that favorited me!

1. robinbal(aka Robin Bal)
2. narendra007(aka Narendra Sakibanda)
3. anitokid (aka AnitoKid Mapugay)
4. narlante (aka Nash Trout)
5. nirmaltv (aka Nirmal T V)
6. rishimac (aka Rishi Raj)
7. chennairomeos (aka Karthik Ramadoss)
8. fastfastlane (aka Deborah Petersen)
9. guinsfan68 (aka Michael Rinsem)
10. ejabs (aka Matthew Jabs)
11. rosking (aka Sandra)
12. wampago (aka Chris Ruddlesdin)
13. ApOgEEs (aka Muhammad Fauzilkamil Zainuddin)
14. atulperx (aka atul dogra)
15. pinkdeals (aka Danielle)
16. tanguy (aka Tanguy)
17. ckanthramya (aka ramya shivalingiah)
18. gauravonomics (aka Gaurav Mishra)
19. UnchallengedHate (aka UnchallengedHate)
20. vrreddy (aka vrreddy)
21. orangeye (aka Guilherme Almeida)
22. Dayastic (aka - -)
23. iszo (aka iszo)
24. syafthegeek (aka Syafrizal Abu Mansor)
25. engtech (aka engtech)
26. delani (aka Deborah Roscher)
27. garryconn (aka Garry Conn)
28. JanuaryMoon (aka Elizabeth Whitener)
29. vijeesh82 (aka Vijeesh Ravindran)
30. kidchino (aka Brendan Monaghan)
31. webduck (aka Webduck W.)
32. shaileshdoke (aka Shailendra Doke)
33. daryllau (aka Daryl Lau)
34. infohigh (aka infohigh)
35. jimimorrison (aka jimimorrison)
36. betshopboy (aka betshopboy)
37. revyd (aka Dave Olson)
38. netbizopp (aka Joel Guarino)
39. affiliateprograms (aka Greg Ray)
40. jensofnorway (aka Jens P. Berget)
41. rugjeff (aka jeff phelps)
42. edbaker (aka Ed Baker)
43. sexyinred (aka Norlina Mohd Mushahar)
44. Merovingian343 (aka Ladislav Juric)
45. rmiles7721 (aka Richard Miles)
46. laughingbuddha (aka susanna kompogiorgas)
47. arnie7 (aka Arnold Stewart)
48. pasat (aka grzegorz paslawski)
49. star500k (aka Saw Htoosayhei)
50. plosiguant (aka Nenad Ristic)
51. ValkrieANGEL (aka Pam Keong)
52. ejcooksey (aka Elisabeth Cooksey)
53. Grant24 (aka Grant Pierrus)
54. ant3eye (aka Anthony Tripodi)
55. quasifictional (aka Diogenes)
56. sevn (aka Daniel)
57. BrownBaron (aka Ariel Garcia)
58. bwp58 (aka Brian Pratt)
59. blogosquare (aka Hans Coomar)
60. mgax01 (aka Marc Chase)
61. askax (aka Andika Kusuma)
62. sjbarker (aka Simon Barker)
63. vinodis (aka Vinod Ponmanadiyil)
64. Noviisi (aka T Jantunen)
65. gvvaughan (aka Gary Vaughan)
66. kawaiikuma (aka Maki Maki) - The ONE who started this!
67. VivienneQuek (aka Vivienne Quek)

Technorati Tags: technorati favorite, technorati experiment, technorati ranking

This is the fifth part of our Leadership series.

When we grow up and enter the workforce, we heaved a sigh of relieve; no more exams! If we only knew better.

The world today moves at a break-neck pace. It is not just machinery that experience obsolescence in today’s business world. You, with all your fancy degrees and impressive diplomas can become obsolete too. It’s a fast flowing river of change in the working world. To remain at the same place, we have to paddle like mad.

If this is true for the masses, how much more true this will be for the leader. Antiquated leadership skills like “You, slave! Fetch!” no longer applies. In come the new-fangled concepts like EQ, colored hats and oh, so many more. The worse thing is, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

As a leader, you not only have to keep abreast of personal and professional development, you also need to know what your people are doing. Recall the famous words “… and my boss has no idea how to do what I do…”?

While the leader need not be an expert in everything, the leader does need to be at least aware of what and why-of’s. You cannot expect to be able to make credible decisions without appropriate background knowledge. Your IQ can only get you so far, then you have to employ your EQ and mind your P’s and Q’s and leverage your network of contacts, experience and know-how to help you make the right decisions.

The most important thing about learning is the growth that you will experience as you learn. This growth will accrue to your team, not just yourself. That is why as a leader, it is so important for you to learn and grow. Otherwise, unconsciously, you are can actually stymie the growth of everyone of your team members.

A leader must be innovative and not shun change. You must be open to learning new skills, assimilate new knowledge; seek change instead of fighting them. Only when you are prepared to take steps forward, that the others can follow. Only when they follow, can you lead.

In our next installment, we will be looking at why leaders need to Take Risks.
To catch up, here are the links to the previous posts:

1. Articulate Your Personal Vision As a Leader
2. Putting Action To Your Words
3. Have a Vision
4. Share the Vision

Technorati Tags: leadership, good leadership, leadership skill, leaders learn and grow, leaders innovate

Here is the third update from this experiment that was originally from Dosh Dosh Technorati Experiment. I had a first update, a second update and the original Technorati Favorite Experiment can be read here. Following are blogs that favorited me, which aint too bad considering i only started this just a little more than a week! :)

1. pinkdeals (aka Danielle)
2. tanguy (aka Tanguy)
3. ckanthramya (aka ramya shivalingiah)
4. gauravonomics (aka Gaurav Mishra)
5. UnchallengedHate (aka UnchallengedHate)
6. vrreddy (aka vrreddy)
7. orangeye (aka Guilherme Almeida)
8. Dayastic (aka - -)
9. iszo (aka iszo)
10. syafthegeek (aka Syafrizal Abu Mansor)
11. engtech (aka engtech)
12. delani (aka Deborah Roscher)
13. garryconn (aka Garry Conn)
14. JanuaryMoon (aka Elizabeth Whitener)
15. vijeesh82 (aka Vijeesh Ravindran)
16. kidchino (aka Brendan Monaghan)
17. webduck (aka Webduck W.)
18. shaileshdoke (aka Shailendra Doke)
19. daryllau (aka Daryl Lau)
20. infohigh (aka infohigh)
21. jimimorrison (aka jimimorrison)
22. betshopboy (aka betshopboy)
23. revyd (aka Dave Olson)
24. netbizopp (aka Joel Guarino)
25. affiliateprograms (aka Greg Ray)
26. jensofnorway (aka Jens P. Berget)
27. rugjeff (aka jeff phelps)
28. edbaker (aka Ed Baker)
29. sexyinred (aka Norlina Mohd Mushahar)
30. Merovingian343 (aka Ladislav Juric)
31. rmiles7721 (aka Richard Miles)
32. laughingbuddha (aka susanna kompogiorgas)
33. arnie7 (aka Arnold Stewart)
34. pasat (aka grzegorz paslawski)
35. star500k (aka Saw Htoosayhei)
36. plosiguant (aka Nenad Ristic)
37. ValkrieANGEL (aka Pam Keong)
38. ejcooksey (aka Elisabeth Cooksey)
39. Grant24 (aka Grant Pierrus)
40. ant3eye (aka Anthony Tripodi)
41. quasifictional (aka Diogenes)
42. sevn (aka Daniel)
43. BrownBaron (aka Ariel Garcia)
44. bwp58 (aka Brian Pratt)
45. blogosquare (aka Hans Coomar)
46. mgax01 (aka Marc Chase)
47. askax (aka Andika Kusuma)
48. sjbarker (aka Simon Barker)
49. vinodis (aka Vinod Ponmanadiyil)
50. Noviisi (aka T Jantunen)
51. gvvaughan (aka Gary Vaughan)
52. kawaiikuma (aka Maki Maki) - The ONE who started this!
53. VivienneQuek (aka Vivienne Quek)

Technorati Tags: technorati favorite, technorati experiment, technorati ranking

This is the fourth part of our Leadership series.

It is being a leader sometimes. Just think about it, there you are, driving for hours and then suddenly, without mercy comes the shrill echoes “Are we there yet!?”

It is so strange. Are we not all in that same car, travelling the same road, going to the same place? “Are we there yet!?” What kind of question is that?

You knowing your vision is good. But if THEY knew it too, it could be so much better. Vision held close to the heart is fine, if you wish to carry the gargantuan load all by yourself. But if you shared that vision, then everyone can put in their little bit towards achieving it.

Better yet, don’t just share the vision, make sure that those you share the vision with also share the same convictions and have the same objectives. There is nothing more powerful than an entire team pulling in the same direction, dreaming the same dreams and striving towards the same goals.

Great leaders understand this. Sometimes, sharing the vision alone is enough to get the massive buy-in. Other times, the leader (that’s you!) might need to do a little persuasive work. The team might need to “be sold” on the vision. They might need to be inspired or sometimes, they might simply need more information. Always remember that as the leader, you have access to more information than the rest of the team. Knowing what to share, when to share and how to share the information is a powerful arsenal at the disposal of able leaders.

The leader must decide what to share. Simply throwing all available information at everyone really is not helpful. Some people might not have the training or the time to absorb the information. Information overload, mis-communication and garbage can bog down an effective team. While some leaders pride themselves on being TOTALLY honest an withold nothing, there are times when such behaviour is nothing more than laziness. You, the leader need to sieve through, filter and analyse the information before passing it on to the team.

Timing the information sharing is also important. The leader holds the vision, the road map and shares that with everyone. However, the team might not need to know all the details TODAY. This might confuse their priorities and might make some people have a nervous breakdown as they see the moutains, real and imagined, looming before them.

How you choose to share the information is very important. Sending out an email to everyone might be a very efficient w