via ▶ Drone’s eye view of Burning Man 2013 – YouTube.
You may also like: What is Burning Man? | Burning Man
By David Kerpen (CEO, Likeable Local, NY Times Best-Selling Author & Keynote Speaker) via LinkedIn
FULL POST
1. Listening
“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway
Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here’s why the best CEO’s listen more.
2. Storytelling
“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.” -Robert McAfee Brown
After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you’re telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video – storytelling wins customers.
3. Authenticity
“I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier.” -Oprah Winfrey
Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow’s leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.
4. Transparency
“As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.” -John Whittier
There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night – unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.
5. Team Playing
“Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds.” -SEAL Team Saying
No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.
6. Responsiveness
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” -Charles Swindoll
The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.
7. Adaptability
“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” -Ben Franklin
There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.
8. Passion
“The only way to do great work is to love the work you do.” -Steve Jobs
Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.
9. Surprise and Delight
“A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.” -Charles de Gaulle
Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money – a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.
10. Simplicity
“Less isn’t more; just enough is more.” -Milton Glaser
The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today’s leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.
11. Gratefulness
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” -Gilbert Chesterton
Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor’s Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!
The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated
By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.
via 11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader | Stephen’s Lighthouse.
There are many, many selfless motivations for giving to a charity or doing a good deed. But being honest, most of us would also admit that these activities also make us feel good about ourselves–perhaps, dare I say it, even increase our overall happiness.
Do-gooders, charities, and even governments, then, might want to listen up to the results of a set of three recent psychology studies that are the first to measure in experiments what forms of “giving” are most likely to give us a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
The full story: People Like Giving More When The Giving Is Social | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.
Checking in at Little Free Library’s Facebook page is always fun, but a post yesterday was so mesmerizing that even the LFL folks couldn’t resist exclaiming: “Is this the most amazing, stupendously clever, epic, mechanically excellent (?!) and stunningly cool Little Free Library ever? It’s a kinetic sculpture! A neighborhood art piece! Destined for the Museum of Modern Art? The Walker? The Guggenheim? Have you ever seen anything this fab?”
Prior to World War II, GLBTI literature was hidden, with knowledge of its existence largely known only to members of the community, who shared texts among themselves. Occasionally a work of fiction would find its way into general circulation, but the books typically resorted to coded inferences of desire or served as warnings against the danger and immorality of homosexuality. This pattern continued until the 1969 Stonewall riot, which is largely accepted as the beginning of the GLBTI rights movement. The last three decades of the 20th century saw the establishment of GLBTI presses, bookstores, awards, and reading and book clubs, as well as literary festivals, writers’ conferences, and professional organizations. The closet was open, and the GLBTI community had found its voice.
Collection development and readers’ advisory (RA) staff can take advantage of a unique opportunity for professional growth by acquainting themselves with the widely dispersed sources of information about GLBTI literature. The task of identifying worthy contemporary purchases is best accomplished by consulting awards and recommended reading lists.
See the full article (which includes a longish list of recommended GLBTI fiction): via GLBTI Fiction: Opening the Fiction Closet | Library Journal.
(CBS News) Ever leave home and get that eerie feeling like something is wrong? Like you’ve forgotten something so important that you rewind through every waking moment before realizing your lifeblood, your reason for living, your smartphone is sitting on the kitchen counter? Well take my advice and leave it. After watching “I Forgot My Phone,” a two-minute film about society’s addiction to these devices, written by and starring actress and comedian Charlene deGuzman, you’ll agree with me. Visit Charlene’s YouTube page or check it out above. Just don’t watch it on your phone.
This brilliant short film shows how depressingly easy it is to let our phones distract us from true enjoyment of many of life’s great experiences like birthdays, the beauty of nature, quality time spent with friends, and even marriage proposals. So next time you walk out the front door, try leaving the phone at home.
via True-to-life short film about smartphones | The Feed Blog | CBS News.
The photos look like they could have been taken at a bar, a bat mitzvah, or one of those swanky media parties with sponsored vodka. But they weren’t. These photobooth shots were snapped at the New York Public Library as part of a new social media initiative to engage more with the library’s selfie-loving patrons, and the live photostream is making our hearts melt.
See the full story: How Selfies Are Re-Energizing The New York Public Library | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.
Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. Some of these are pretty nerdy, but I think they’re no less fascinating and easily understandable. A majority are original to this blog (see our full maps coverage here), with others from a variety of sources.
Wikimedia Commons
via 40 maps that explain the world | Washington Post.
You may also like: 40 Maps They Didn’t Teach You In School | Bored Panda
infophile 