Sep

29

Qualities of a successful manager

Filed Under Career, Management | Comments

I am getting myself ready for a job interview and one of the common interview questions that I am preparing myself for is: What qualities do you feel a successful manager should have?

You are supposed to think about a manager you had in the past which really helped you succeed and that you thought was a good leader. If you have trouble thinking of one or you never had a manager like this, then I think you should just answer with the qualities you really believe a good manager should have.

My answer would go something like this:

“I think the most important qualities for a manager to have are compassion and a willingness to help no matter what. A good manager should also be a very good trainer if the are managing employees because I feel that is one of the most important roles of a manager. It is up to them to make sure that the employees are able to do their jobs which should result in everyone being happier overall. A good manager should also realize the importance of positive and negative feedback. Praising someone when they do something right can be a great motivator. I think any manager with these qualities will be successful.”

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Sep

29

Access denied to social networks

Filed Under Web | Comments

There is a good chance that if you work for any decent sized company, they probably have some type of web filtering software in place to prevent you from accessing certain websites. One of the most popular companies that provides these services is Surf Control. If you take a look at their website, they summarize their software by stating this:

“SurfControl’s portfolio of software, on-demand services, and appliances provide you with better-than-ever protection against Internet and e-mail threats, resource abuse and business risk.”

Are social networks really a threat? Sure these types of web filters are great at stopping people from accessing websites that are unsafe and inappropriate for work, but what kind of threat does facebook or LinkedIn have against work computers besides possibly lowering employee productivity? So I guess social networks would fall under “resource abuse”.

There is certainly more business people using facebook now that a year or two ago since they opened up the site. This article by InformationWeek explains how large companies now have many employees that join the site as part of their companies network. This is very common, especially for some of the larger Fortune 500 companies with thousands of employees who all share the same employer.

This should be common sense, but I think most importantly employees should be very careful of what they have on their account for other people to see. It is up to that person to make sure that privacy settings are in place and that their profile does not share too much information that could lead to a bad image (You may want to leave that drinking group and take out “sleeping all day” from your interests). As time goes on, will companies continue to deny access to these sites or open up and let their employees use them hoping that some good could come out of it? My guess is they will continue to clock them, but if they are smart, they will figure out a way to incorporate the power of social networks to connect their employees. If they have no intention of building their own employee social network, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take advantage of facebook’s API to reach out to employees and the huge pool of users for possible recruiting.

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Sep

27

Love is the Killer App review

Filed Under Books | Comments

I want to start by talking about one of my favorite business books so far. This book is called Love is a Killer App written by Tim Sanders. It is a New York Times bestseller and has many amazing reviews on Amazon. It is well written and very easy to read.

The subtitle of the book states: How to Win Business and Influence Friends. It is essentially about just that. Tim Sanders does a great job at making you realize that only the people who are truly nice and have compassion in business (whom he refers to as lovecats) will be the ones to succeed in today’s business world. Most importantly, he emphasizes that you should share your knowledge with other people so they can learn and benefit from what you know. And also to care for others without expecting something in return because it is the right thing to do.

I like to tell people about this book because I enjoyed it very much and it got me interested in reading more business books. And also because recommending a good book to someone is part of sharing your knowledge. If you haven’t already, pick up the book and read and I guarantee your love for biz will be greater after your done.

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Sep

27

Welcome to Attention Digital

Filed Under Misc | Comments

My name is Johnny Makkar. Most of my free time is spent online taking in as much as I can about marketing and technology. I also enjoy reading business books and magazines. I started blogging because I enjoy sharing interesting stuff and wanted to occasionally give book reviews.

Some of the highlights since I started this blog have been getting linked to by The Consumerist, Engadget, and Gizmodo. Several of my posts have also been mentioned by well-known bloggers such as @chrisbrogan, @mashable, @pistachio, and @problogger. I only post new content when I have a desire to share something worthwhile to increase my chances of expanding this paragraph.

Text JSM to 50500 for my contact info.

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