Reading up about psychology and developments in neuroscience is the equivalent of a car owner actually opening up their manual and learning how to fold down the backseats or how to program the radio. If you are trying to be an effective leader, the more information you have about how your employees’ brains work, the more effective you can be at keeping your business “machine” operating optimally.
Read the rest of this blog post

Despite the fact that there are formal usability principles that guide the planning and development of successful websites, there are still so many sites that miss the mark in terms of basic GUI performance. Look at it this way: you wouldn’t invite someone to your house for dinner and then immediately dive into a game of hide-and-seek with your unsuspecting visitor (unless you are under age ten or crazy), so why would you get a visitor to the site and leave them wondering what the heck you do or what the heck is wrong with you.
Read the rest of this blog post

Are people spending time on your site or do they leave when they get there because they get confused about what you sell or think your lime green flashing logo is a bit unprofessional for a koala bear site? On the other hand, if viewers are spending a decent amount of time on one particular page, pay attention to what words worked to get them there and what is good about the page. For example, may you see that people spent more time looking at pictures of stuffed squirrels this year instead of pandas. Or heck, maybe you see that the release of a new Chipmunks movies has a direct correlation to the traffic to your stuffed chipmunk page. Bottom line is that if you are not watching your analytics closely you are missing out on opportunities.
Read the rest of this blog post

How can we now draw the lines between “my time”, “gadget time” and “work time” when we live via smart phone? And now, with the acceleration of communication times and our constant reachability, relationships can meet strife when one person doesn’t get a text reply back in less than 24 hours. This begs the question: Is anyone really relaxing anymore?
Read the rest of this blog post

I recently watched a documentary about the acting teacher Roy London, in which one of his former students said that, To Know is about ego, to NOT know is about growth. As someone who is actively looking for ways to learn and improve, this quotation gave me much food for thought. Every day I see battles of egos at play and watch as ego preserving barriers block individuals from learning and growing. In the workplace, the inability of employees to see the less than pleasant character traits beneath their egos poses a great problem for their growth and ability to contribute to the success of their companies. By recognizing that pride and ego create resistance to personal and professional development, we can then start as individuals to really see where we can improve.
Read the rest of this blog post