March 2007 Insight News

Looking for comments on new blogging efforts….  

Blogging Hints and Comments
After some trial and error the new blog is up and running and I’m enjoying adding articles to it. The focus is instant people skills (and how they apply to leaders of the future). Getting into this has helped focus my speaking topics much more, which is good in many ways. It’s much easier to market and explain to people what you are marketing when you’re more focused. You can take a look at http://crispstrategies.com/blog and add comments directly to the blog or by sending them to me at dcrisp@CrispStrategies.com.
  
Why Blog and How Blog Feeds Work  
Not everyone is familiar with blogs, why people write them and the fact that many businesses are finding them useful to explain professional topics. Then there is the puzzle of blog “feeds,” the way you set things up if you want to read numerous blogs via their headlines only, with the option to “click for more.” Given that this is new to many, I wrote up my own learning about feeds HERE.
  
More Articles Available Easily via the Blog   
Since starting the blog at the end of January, I’ve added nine articles and find it easier every time. It may even develop into the long-awaited book eventually. If not, at least, the concepts are similar: short pieces on leadership and people skills that make individuals and organizations successful. So far these are all available either on the main blog page or by categories at the right of the page (http://crispstrategies.com/blog).
 
The value of blogging over regular web sites is multifold. Readers can more easily comment or get into discussion. Search engines rate blogging activity more highly due in part to greater frequency of posting, making topics easier to find. It lends itself to making more, shorter articles available as well as making them easier to find and scroll through on the site via categories that can be set to store them. Each article can have it’s own “permalink” so it can be bookmarked or found easily later, but can also be sent to others, re-posted or referred to on other sites more easily.
 
And some of the new articles are:

The main idea – how core skills make people more effective: HERE. A quick overview of the five key skills.
 
The power of coaching over command-style leadership: HERE. As the shift continues toward a better style of leadership in organizations, this is at the bottom of it.
 
Complexity theory and leadership: HERE. Little by little new books like the ones mentioned here are making leadership a simpler science.
 
Instant leadership and a link with stories: HERE. There’s nothing like actual stories of how people overcame challenges to illustrate “instant leadership.”
 
The opening article of a series on the power of positive comments: HERE. Starting into explaining why leaders ought to be positive more often than negative helped me realize the value of being very specific about the reasons.  
  
Quote of the Month – and a new site! 
   
“Let’s drive not just breakthroughs in new products, but new ways to give more and more people access to these inventions and their benefits. This is a broad and important mission, and I believe we all have a part to play in it.” – Bill Gates
 
Those who know my interest in quotations as short sources of wisdom may be interested in this new find: http://www.ThinkExist.com, where this item may be found.