Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. - Viktor E. Frankl

“Amo a la gente que me hace reír. Honestamente creo es lo que mas me gusta hacer reír. Cura una multitud de males y es lo mas importante que podemos hacer”. –Audrey Hepburn

What makes us feel good about our work?

What motivates us to work? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn't just money. But it's not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our work. 

The 3 Things You Need to Do to Be a Better Leader

Leadership is a discipline where art meets science.

The path to becoming a better leader is a winding, complex journey. You’ll experience unexpected twists and turns, and you will make mistakes. But that’s okay.

What’s most important is that you take a step back, hold yourself accountable, and challenge norms to push yourself to new heights. Leadership isn’t always natural – it’s a process that’s learned over time. Challenge yourself by taking the following steps:

1. DEVELOP YOUR UNIQUE PERSONA

History has given rise to certain standards that define a leader. These individuals are typically thought of as being well-dressed, masters of power-poses, and authority minded. They conform to a specific mold, and if you close your eyes, you can probably imagine this person in your mind. You may also ultimately realize that this person isn’t you.

That’s okay.

To become a successful leader, you need to take a step back from everything you’ve learned – to look past the classic leader persona and start looking in the mirror.

Leadership is subjective, and it’s crucial that you embrace your own persona.

Next time you’re reading about a great CEO or browsing the Fortune 500 list, ask yourself – “what leadership traits make me unique?”

Focus on the traits that make you a strong leader and cultivate those. Pay attention to situational dynamics at work, and let these moments guide you.

2. TEST AND ITERATE

Leadership isn’t necessarily innate – it’s often learned. This process requires continuous experimentation, trial and error. Look for ways to iterate on the persona that you established in point #1. Don’t be afraid to try new approaches or respond to a specific situation in a new way.

For instance, if you’re managing a new project at your company, and tend to lean toward a more authoritative approach, you may want to try guiding with empathy and encouragement rather than stern authority. Or vice versa.

To cover your blind spots, ask for your team to provide regular, honest feedback – perhaps through a formal or informal evaluation survey. Provide a means for anonymous feedback.

Remember that as a leader, your role is to represent your group. Rely on your team to ‘crowdsource’ your development as a leader.

3. PRACTICE THE ART OF CALM

It’s human to feel frustrated. When something goes wrong, or when you find yourself in a predicament, keep your frustrations in check. Before sending an email, lashing out at a vendor, or venting to a teammate, take a step back.

Breathe. Take a walk. Do what you can to clear your head before you act.

In high-intensity situations, it is crucial that you remain balanced, self-aware and composed.

If you practice these traits, you’ll be empowered to inspire them among others on your team.

Focus on developing a ‘frustration plan’ ahead of time, before any challenging situation comes up. That way, when you run into a tough situation, you can rely on your brain to outsmart your emotions.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Be humble, and give yourself the flexibility to make mistakes. We’re human. We’re far from infallible. And most importantly, we learn and grow together. The more we focus on learning and practicing, the more empowered we’ll be to grow.

100 Great Quotes

1. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.- Aristotle

2. The best way out is always through.- Robert Frost

3. Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.- William B. Sprague

4. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.- Albert Einstein

5. Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.- Henry Ford

6. I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.- Oprah Winfrey

7. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”- Michael Jordan

8. You must be the change you want to see in the world.- Mahatma Gandhi

9. What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.- Goethe

10. You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.- Zig Ziglar

11. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.- Mahatma Gandhi

12. Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.- Napoleon Hill

13. Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.- Truman Capote

14. Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare.- Japanese Proverb

15. In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.- Theodore Roosevelt

16. If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a chance of being a prophet.- Isaac B. Singer

17. Success consists of doing the common things of life uncommonly well.- Unknown

18. Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.- Charles F. Kettering, Engineer and Inventor

19. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.- Mark Twain

20. Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success.- Unknown

21. Some succeed because they are destined. Some succeed because they are determined.- Unknown

22. Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.- Dan Stanford

23. Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.- Albert Einstein

24. A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.- Hugh Downs

25. If you’re going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now.- Marie Osmond

26. Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.- Roy Goodman

27. If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.- E. Joseph Cossman

28. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

29. We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

30. The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.- Mark Twain

31. Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.- Mark Twain

32. Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.- Mark Twain

33. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.- Mark Twain

34. The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.- Richard B. Sheridan

35. Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

36. “Act or accept.”- Unanonymous

37. Many great ideas go unexecuted, and many great executioners are without ideas. One without the other is worthless.- Tim Blixseth

38. The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.- Bono

39. Sometimes you just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you.- Dr Phil

40. Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.- Stephen R. Covey

41. People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.- Norman Vincent Peale

42. Whenever you find whole world against you just turn around and lead the world.- Anonymous

43. Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent.- Marilyn vos Savant, Author and Advice Columnist

44. I can’t understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I’m frightened by old ones.- John Cage

45. Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.- Albert Einstein

46. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.- Unknown

47. The best way to predict the future is to create it.- Unknown

48. Anyone can do something when they WANT to do it. Really successful people do things when they don’t want to do it.- Dr. Phil

49. There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.- Dr. Denis Waitley

50. Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.- Sir Winston Churchill

51. Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but don’t quit.- Conrad Hilton

52. Attitudes are contagious. Make yours worth catching.- Unknown

53. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.- John Wooden

54. There are only two rules for being successful. One, figure out exactly what you want to do, and two, do it.- Mario Cuomo

55. Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.- Richard Bach

56. Vision doesn’t usually come as a lightening bolt. Rather it comes as a slow crystallization of life challenges that we one day recognize as a beautiful diamond with great value to ourselves and others.- Dr. Michael Norwood

57. Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.- Dr. Joyce Brothers

58. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.- Samuel Beckett

59. Flops are a part of life’s menu and I’ve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses.- Rosalind Russell

60. Cause Change & LeadAccept Change & SurviveResist Change & Die
- Ray Norda, Chairman, Novell

61. Winners lose much more often than losers. So if you keep losing but you’re still trying, keep it up! You’re right on track.- Matthew Keith Groves

62. An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.- Bill Bernbach

63. An obstacle is often a stepping stone.- Prescott

64. Life is “trying things to see if they work”Ray Bradbury

65. If you worry about yesterday’s failures, then today’s successes will be few.Anonymous

66. Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.Dennis P. Kimbro

67. We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.Ralph Waldo Emerson

68. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

69. In matters of style, swim with the current;in matters of principle, stand like a rock.Thomas Jefferson

70. I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.Albert Einstein

71. Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.Machiavelli.

72. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.Mahatma Gandhi

73. “You are what you think about all day long.” — Dr. Robert Schuller

74. What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say” — Ralph Waldo Emerson”

75. “Success is not to be measured by the position someone has reached in life, but the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed.”Booker T. Washington

76. “Talent is formed in solitude, character in the bustle of the world.”- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

77. “To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”- Elbert Hubbard

78. If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.- J.M. Power

79. By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day- Robert Frost

80. “I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”- Maya Angelou

81. “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”- William James

82. “When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’”- Sydney Harris

83. “Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.”- Richard L. Evans

84. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.”- Robert Frost

85. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.”- Eleanor Roosevelt

86. Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.- Seneca

87. Do first things first, and second things not at all.- Peter Drucker.

88. The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders.- Foster’s Law

89. Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it.- Joe Clark

90. I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.- Winston Churchill

91. Positive anything is better than negative thinking.- Elbert Hubbard

92. People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

93. Those who wish to sing, always find a song.- Swedish Proverb

94. If you’re going through hell, keep going.- Winston Churchill

95. The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

96. Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.- Voltaire

97. Enduring habits I hate…. Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits.- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882

98. There is no education like adversity.- Disraeli

99. He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.- Friedrich Nietzsche

100. Adversity introduces a man to himself.- Author Unknown

Think outside the Box

El Secreto es ser "Asertivo"

Managing the team for top Results

One of your direct reports is seriously missing the mark. His deliverables are sloppy, other colleagues are starting to complain about having to pick up his slack, and on top of all that, he rolls in late every day. It’s time to step in.

• Passive Approach: Next time he turns in a terrible first draft of a report, you stay up until 2 AM redoing it on your own—and then fume about his poor performance to other colleagues when he’s not around.

• Aggressive Approach: Go full-on Jerry McGuire on him, demanding to know why he’s so stupid, assuring him that he’s unhirable anywhere else, and that you’re doing him a favor by not letting him go — all but firing him on the spot.

• Assertive Approach: In a private meeting, you clearly communicate why his work isn’t acceptable, pointing to his failure to satisfy core procedural requirements, but are careful not to take aim at his personal qualities. Harnessing your emotional intelligence and empathy, you invite him to let you know if there is anything else going on. Perhaps he’s struggling with personal issues that are detracting his focus from work. Or, maybe he’s not clear on your instructions. To keep projects on track and better your relationship, you schedule a weekly meeting to check in and create a channel for clear communication.

In the final option, you’ve taken control of the situation instead of letting the problem linger and have presented a scenario in which both you and your report win.

Costa Rica uno de los mejores países para viajar solo

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Here are 15 customer service tips for 2015

Get back to the basics of customer service. Be polite and say please and thank you. Speaking of basics, use the customer’s name. It helps with building rapport. Always do what you say you are going to do. If you say you’ll call back in five minutes, don’t make it ten. Everyone has customers. Sometimes they are external – customers who pay you money. Sometimes they are internal – colleagues you work with. Sometimes they are both. Everyone has customers. Let your customers know your name and how to contact you so if they are inadvertently disconnected, have another question, or there is any other reason they might need a “friend” at the company, they can easily get back in touch with you. Respond quickly. Return calls, emails, and any other types of requests quickly. Be punctual for meetings. It’s expected you will be on time. It’s a sign of disrespect if you aren’t. Monitor social channels for comments from your customers and, once again, respond quickly. Treat employees the way you want your customers treated, if not even better. What’s happening inside an organization is felt on the outside by the customer. Some companies’ customer service people focus on one-call resolution. Try a no-transfer resolution. Create a consistent experience. Everyone does their best every day. Customers want and expect a consistent, positive attitude from everyone they come into contact with. Empower people to make great customer-focused decisions.  This comes through hiring the right people and training them properly. Constantly train customer service. It may be short five or ten minute tips. It needs to be ongoing. Training isn’t something you did. It’s something you do. Everyone always has two jobs: to do the job they were hired to do and to take care of the customer. Be a customer service role model. Regardless of what you do for your company, be that person that everyone admires and wants to emulate. Don’t just read this list. Use this list! Choose the tips that resonate with you. Circle them. Then focus on one at a time; one each week. And, be sure to share this list with your colleagues. Maybe even your customers. Here is to 2015 being your best customer year ever! Happy New Year! Copyright ©MMXIV, Shep Hyken - Reprinted with permission. Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is a customer service expert, hall-of-fame speaker and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. He works with organizations to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. He is also the creator of The Customer Focus, a customer service training program that helps organizations develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset. For more information contact (314) 692-2200 or www.Hyken.com

Followers who tell the truth, and leaders who listen to it, are an unbeatable combination. - Warren Bennis