Diplo Learning Corner

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Month: April 2013 (Page 1 of 2)

Long Emails Don’t Get Read

30/04/2013 /

According to Craig Jarrow, the author of Time Management Ninja web site, effective email communication is as much a skill as anything else. The shorter and tighter your email messages, the better chance that they will be read, understood and acted upon.

Here are 10 Reasons That Your Emails Are Too Long:

  1. You don’t know what you are trying to say Long Emails
  2. You don’t know what you are talking about
  3. Your signature is unnecessary
  4. You are writing a book
  5. You are spamming
  6. You are rambling
  7. You are forwarding a mess
  8. It shouldn’t be an email
  9. It should be multiple emails
  10. You don’t edit your emails

In today’s high-speed communication, no one wants to read overly long email messages.

So, get to the point!

read more on http://goo.gl/lxqD2

image source http://goo.gl/anXup

9 Rules to Avoid Murder by PowerPoint

23/04/2013 /

Have you ever done a PowerPoint presentation? Probably yes. Do you think it has always been compelling and memorable? We do not think so!              Many presentations are boring and quite bad.

In his article, Aaron Couch provides a list of advices to make PowerPoint more enjoyable to read and simple to understand.

  1. Begin with an outline
  2. Be consistent with the theme and layout
  3. Forget clipart, crazy sounds and fancy transitions
  4. Do not read your Power Point
  5. Get to the point
  6. Use media but quality media
  7. Use the resources available to you
  8. Practice. Practice. Practice
  9. It all lies on you: the presenter

Read the full article at : http://tiny.cc/zl7snw

Image source: http://tiny.cc/f28snw

What does Verdi’s Otello tell us about leadership?

18/04/2013 /

In his Blog Nigel Paine talks about Verdi’s Otello and his dramatic failure as leader.
So, why has he failed?

  • He trusts the wrong persons
  • He doesn’t give attention to his team
  • He refuses to admit he might be wrong
  • He is not patient to make decisions
  • He forgets he is in a context. He doesn’t understand the importance of the external environment

Nigel Paine continues listing his top ten leadership errors.
Read the full article at: http://goo.gl/cmCv9

Image source http://leadershit.net/leader-e-leadership/

Common Leadership and Management Mistakes

16/04/2013 /

We learn from our mistakes. This is generally true.

However, there are common pitfalls managers and leaders should avoid:
  • not giving good feedback
  • not making time for their team
  • being too “hands-off”
  • being too friendly
  • failing to define goals
  • misunderstanding motivation
  • hurrying recruitment
  • not “walking the walk”, that is, not leading by example
  • not delegating effectively
  • misunderstanding their role.
The article “10 Common Leadership and Management Mistakes”
(http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/leadership-mistakes.htm), available on the Mindtools website, analyzes these mistakes and provides some suggestions on how to recognize and avoid them.
Leaderimage source: http://bit.ly/10N6mQG

A Users manual for your Brain?

15/04/2013 /

The theme of Diplocalendar 2013 was inspired by Mark Twain’s quotation that: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them”.

Brain Rules

Diplomats, like many other professionals, must read, understand, synthesise and make sense of newspapers, magazines, emails, official reports and so many other things related to their daily work. But there is so much else to read both for pleasure and to deepen our knowledge.

The selected book suggested for the month of April that supports professional development and is relevant to management in diplomacy is John Medina’s Brain Rules

How Shakespeare would run a business

11/04/2013 /

What leadership lessons may we learn from the great English playwright and poet?

In her article, published in a monthly series focusing on business and leadership lessons from prominent figures in history, Laurie Kulikowski describes the inspirational process that changed the way people looked at literature.

Here are some of the key points:

  1. be not afraid of greatness: “some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them” (Twelfth Night)
  2. maximise exposure: take an active role in your local community and pitch your business story to local media;
  3. learn from failure: no one wants to befriend failure, but if we do, we certainly don’t forget its visit anytime soon!
  4. get to know your employees, as King Henry V, disguised as a commoner, wandering among his troops to understand their readiness and their morale.

Read more on http://goo.gl/A3CWj

Firstfolio

Image Source: http://goo.gl/VtwvM

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