Life

10 MUST DO THINGS BEFORE CHRISTMAS

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10 things to do by Christmas

 

With just 10 business days to go before Christmas here is the top 10 things I think you should do to end the year strongly.

 

1 – Thank in person (or at least with a handwritten note) your direct report team, colleagues and anyone that has played a significant part in your success during the year. If you have a number of layers of teams reporting through to you be sure to send them a note of thanks.

 

2 – Thank at least 10 customers in person or by phone.

 

3 – Communicate your operating hours during the holiday period, including emergency support options, if appropriate.

 

4 – Review a list of sales leads and call at least 10 of them before the year is out, especially if your product or service can help them during this busy period.

 

5 – If you have an impact on invoicing or debt collection get busy get the invoices out and overdue accounts followed up. January can be a specifically tight cash flow month so get a head start.

 

6 – Block out 2 days in the new year to review with your team the previous 6 months performance and to refocus efforts for the coming 6 months.

 

7 – Clear your inbox, not only is it important to be timely in responding to communication but it will help set you up for the new year.

 

8 – Donate to charity, no man, woman or child should be hungry on Christmas day – a donation from you will make a difference no matter how small.

 

9 – Buy yourself a Christmas present, you work hard and you deserve to celebrate your successes. If you don’t think you’re worth a present why would anyone else?

 

10 – Be sure, before you leave for the holiday break, to setup and test your email out-of-office reply.

 

Get busy and have a safe and enjoyable festive season.

R.I.P. Mr Steve Jobs

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At 55 years of age Mr Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple Inc, passed away and leaves behind a great legacy but first and foremost he leaves behind his wife and his four children.

 

I lost my father when he was just 59 years of age and my heart goes out to his children and his wife. Regardless of how long the family had been preparing for Steve’s passing, it is never enough.

 

I am sure that what made Steve Jobs great will live on in some way through his wife and children as they continue to live lives that I am sure that Steve Jobs as husband and father was proud of.

 

In his commencement speech (click here) you get a glimpse into the man that loved his family greatly and also the work that he did.

 

Many have paid tribute to his inspiration, passion and the legacy his vision has left on the world.

 

I simply take this quote from him

“Do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet keep looking and don’t settle.”

 

I hope that whatever you do in your life, socially and professionally, that you do what you love and in turn do great work.

 

We may not all have the reach of Steve Jobs but in being our best and doing what we love we can achieve our own greatness.

 

In closing take a moment out of your day to say “I love you” to someone important to you and “thank you” to someone that inspires you.

 

Gratitude, respect and love.

People Enable Social Media

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When talking about social media it is easy to talk about facebook, Twitter and other such sites and in doing so we are forgetting one important fact – these social media / networking websites and all those apps that connect in to them are just tools that enable people to connect with others in real time, efficient and usually in one to many manner.

The power of the human element of social media was evidently clear today at the first day of the 2nd Annual Social Good Summit possible through a joint partnership of the UN Foundation, Mashable, 92Y and sponsored by Ericsson.

Today’s speakers ranged from Ted Turner (Chairman Turner Enterprises Inc & United Nations Foundation), to Erin Schrode who at 13 started her first successful not-for-profit and also included noted public figures including Valerie Amos (Under-Secretary-General & Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations).

I saw two key themes running through today’s presentations, the first being that people make social media, good or bad. 20 years ago people were doing evil and people were doing good, today they can do either in the blink of an eye thanks to the connectivity and real time reach the internet and social media brings.

The second was that social media enables anyone and everyone to actively contribute to making the world a better place. If you can not afford to donate money or if you are time poor through simple actions such as a retweet the tweet calling for action, engagement helps spread the word and helps generate action.

Basically through social media you can help make the world a better place, you can be highly active or relatively passively by just retweeting/reposting messages but it all helps.

There was also a truck load of great insights throughout the day and I have called out a few below. You can also check out the twitter stream to see some of the other insights from attendees.

From Ted Turner

    1. More should be expected of us, we must expect more of ourselves, we live in an era where collectively we can achieve more than any generation before thought possible, inaction is not acceptable.
    2. Success is going to bed early, rising early and it pays to advertise.
    3. Be optimistic the alternative isn’t much fun.

Valerie Amos

    1. In some societies people don’t have running hot and cold water, sewerage or even readily available clean drinking water but they have a cell phone – the cell phone sometimes is their only valued asset it is what keeps them connected to their friends. We must get better at using the technology to inform, empower and assist people.

Monique Coleman

    1. In developing nations the youth are just trying to stay alive meanwhile in developed nations like the USA, Australia and the UK suicide is the number one killer of youth.

Scott Harrison

    1. Connecting peoples donations directly to projects and communicating the outcome is all about closing the loop and making social good meaningful and personal.
    2. Scalability is just as important in the social sector as it is in the commercial sector, perhaps more so to do more with less.

Ami Dar

    1. Ask yourself three questions. What do you want to do? Why haven’t you done it? What would help you do it?

David Jones & Co

    1. Do something, get out their and act … ideas are great, action is better.

Nancy Lublin

    1. 100% of text messages are opened the challenge is turning text messaging into social.

Alec Ross

    1. 21st century is the worst time in history to be a control freak. Information used to be power now connected real time information is.

From all the presentations today I really enjoyed the presentation from Scott Harrison, founder and CEO of Charity Water.  they are doing some excellent work and 100% of your donations go to projects. They currently have a project to buy a drilling rig which will let them deliver 80 more wells a year. I’ve started a campaign to contribute you can donate online here

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