Business Blog on The Huffington Post

Much of the marketing that is done is based on conjecture with little application of knowledge or bona fide data.

Marketers, who never really learned marketing deeply enough, base their judgments on their opinions, which are too often shaped by misconceptions.

One of the most common misconceptions is that people nowadays will not pay attention to ads or communications that have more than a minimal amount of ad copy.

The reasons most commonly given to support this notion are that people ...

Do not like to read.

Have short attention spans.

Are in the habit of reading short messages in texts.

Are too distracted with multiple media channels.

Have their noses buried in mobile devices.

While these reasons are often true, the conclusion that short copy sells better is not.

Everything is relative

Good marketers know that only members of the target audience can decide what is "too long" and what is "too short." When I saw the movie Titanic, it was over 3 hours long. I thought it was too long. Teenage girls thought it was too short and watched the movie over and over again. Leonardo DiCaprio was not on the screen enough for them.

If people are really interested in something, they want more. If they are not interested, they want less. You cannot have too much of a good thing, but any amount of a bad thing is too much.

One of my favorite T-shirt's of all time has a picture of Albert Einstein on it with a headline that reads, "Sit on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit next to a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

Less can be more since we are busy or lazy

Of course, if the content creator can get the essential information into the consumer's head with less copy, that is usually a good thing because it saves the consumer's time - a clear benefit since most of us are either busy or lazy.

However, it is nearly impossible to pick out who in the target audience wants more and who wants less. What is a good marketer to do? The answer is format the information into "bite-sized" pieces using sub-headlines and graphic elements.

For those who want less, they can read the headline, look at the photo, perhaps read the subheads and then skip to where they can buy it. For those who want more, the longer body text can provide that too.

Yes, less can be more, but the way marketers should look at this is well-written long copy is usually a far more concise version of text that would otherwise be a lot longer.

Most importantly, good marketers format it in a way to allow "busy or lazy" consumers to pick out the main benefits without reading, viewing, or listening to the entire content.

What marketing legends say

In his book Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy says...

"All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short ... advertisements with long copy convey the impression that you have something important to say, whether people read the copy or not."

Dr. Charles Edwards, former dean of the Graduate School of Retailing at New York University is quoted as saying...

"The more facts you tell, the more you sell. An advertisement's chance for success invariably increases as the number of pertinent merchandise facts included in the advertisement increases."

In his book, "Tested Advertising Methods," John Caples says...

"Advertisers who can trace the direct sales results from their ads use long copy because it pulls better than short copy... Brief, reminder-style copy consisting of a few words or a slogan does not pull inquiries as well as long copy packed with facts and reader benefits about your product or service."

There are many more quotes from many more experts, but in deference to my previous post on the power of three, I will stop here.

More recent proof from the fast-paced online world

I know what some of you are thinking. The people I quoted above are "old guys" who are long gone. What they said is no longer relevant in our fast-paced, distracted, short-attention-span world.

While those "in the know" understand that the wisdom of these "old guys" is more powerful today than ever, I need to address this objection head on. The fact is that data shows that long copy typically sells better than short copy online too. Marketing Experiments did a series of tests for clients to show the effect of copy length on Website conversion rates. In all their tests, the long copy outperformed the short copy by wide margins.

Need more proof? On the Conversion Rate Experts Web site, they share how they were able to boost Crazy Egg's conversion rate by 363%. Can you guess how they did it? They made the home page 20 times longer!

Why longer copy typically outsells shorter copy

Even though it is counter-intuitive, why does longer copy typically outsell shorter copy? While the list of reasons could be very long, I will limit them to seven. Longer copy enables the advertiser to...

Provide more benefits, which in turn, shows more people how the product or company can help them.

Show the product or company is more important since it has more capabilities.

Answer more questions and generate more sales since selling involves answering objections.

Target the customer better so those who respond are more likely to buy.

Give those who want more information the information they need so they will be more comfortable buying your product or doing business with your company.

Give those who are "busy or lazy" and don't want to read a lot the ability to skim the important points without requiring them to read, listen to, or watch it all. This requires good formatting.

Provide more keyword-rich copy to boost organic search engine results.

Hopefully, this post will help you convince the skeptical throngs who still believe that shorter copy sells better. Since it is a counter-intuitive notion, you need proof to support you.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

2015-09-25-1443192885-3237094-screenshot20150728at12.58.03pm.png.jpeg

Photo from YouTube

"You don't understand. I just can't take lunch. They won't let me!", the panicked young trader exclaimed, his eyes looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights. In my days as a headhunter, I would frequently interview people, who, realising they could trust me, would let their guard down and tell me what was really going on at work.

I stopped him in his tracks. "Really? You can't take lunch? What are they actually going to do to you if you take lunch?", I asked. He hesitated, "Well..no-one else in the office does....my career.......they might think I'm not serious..."
I decided it was time to share with him the best piece of career advice I had ever been given.

My father isn't one to give a lot of unsolicited advice, which is why when he does I pay attention. When I began my first job in financial markets, we were having a conversation about how things were going. He said, "I'll give you once piece of advice. Always take your lunch". I remember saying, "But what if I have a lot on? What if I don't have time?". He replied, "Make time. It's your break, make a habit to take it, and if for any reason you need to skip it, make up for it". I took his advice, and I have to say it made all the difference in my career and my stress levels.

What did I do in my lunch break? All sorts of different things. Sometimes I just went out and ate my lunch, either on my own, with a colleague or friend. Sometimes I would go for a walk and discover a new location near my office. Sometimes I'd go to the gym. Sometimes I would run errands (bills do need to be paid, and shopping does need to be done!). Sometimes I'd go to a peaceful place, like a park, or a church, and just sit there and be quiet.

What was the benefit? Why not just work? Why not indeed. There is always work to be done. We could work 24 hours a day if we wanted to. However, if you don't create breaks for yourself, when will you rest or have time for other non-work related activities? I know that I always felt re-energised after taking my break and ready to tackle whatever lay ahead.

For those who wish they could take lunch but feel they can't, I pose the question: What do you think is going to happen if you don't take your break? Is the world going to come to a standstill? Does the entire responsibility of the company's future rest on you personally not taking your lunch-break? Does anyone actually have you in some kind of headlock and is preventing you from taking your lunch? Of course I understand that the work needs to get done and that you want to do a good job. I'd also like to point out that even in the army, unless you are in the middle of out-and-out combat you have to take your lunch (I know this because I was in the officer training corps at university, and have friends who are currently still serving in the British armed forces). I can assure you something would have had to have gone seriously wrong for us not to have had our lunch. These days, in my spare time I lead hikes in the mountains. I know for a fact that if you want your team to function well, unless you are in the middle of an electric thunderstorm or concerned about avalanche danger you absolutely need to give them a lunch break and a rest.

Now and then, I agree there are times, when you might work through lunch - in order to meet a very important deadline, or to take that time out to do something else later, e.g., catch a flight, leave earlier to go to see your children's school concert, or escape the rush hour. You may even have a career where you may need to work through traditional lunch hours, in which case you will have a break provided later. However, if you are making it a habit to not take your break and are never making up for lost time, I'd love to find out how you feel at the end of the day: well rested and fulfilled with plenty of energy for the evening to come and looking forward to your next day at work? Or tired, irritated and a little bit cranky desiring simply to go home and collapse on the sofa and not even wanting to think about the next working day?

How you manage your energy and time throughout the day is entirely up to you. If you feel that you have too much work to do that does not allow you to take a lunch-break, then rather than whining about it and feeling sorry for yourself, have an honest conversation with your colleagues or your manager. Perhaps they can help you with your priorities, or see whether some of your responsibilities can be delegated. Your time management and well-being is just as much your own responsibility as it is your employers'.

We are of course all different souls with individual needs for R&R. I do appreciate how hard it can be to tear yourself away from your work if you are really getting involved in it. The point that I am trying to make here is this: you do have a choice. You can take your lunch-break if you want to. Will you be fired for that? Highly unlikely. Will you be passed up for promotion because you chose to exercise a human right of taking time out for lunch? Well, all I can say is, if you are...is that the kind of environment you want to be working in? If so I certainly hope it is worth it.

How are you managing your time and energy throughout the day?
How often are you working through lunch? If often - how often is the work you need to do urgent?
How do you feel at the end of the working day?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Feel free to comment below. If you wish to contact me directly you can reach me at nesrin@nesrineverett.com or via my website

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

2015-09-27-1443313408-3909637-bigstockCoachSignOnColorfulTags89164472.jpg

These days there are a lot of folks out there referring to themselves as coaches. There are business coaches, life coaches, spiritual coaches, financial coaches, and the list goes on and on. The problem is many of these people are not coaches and would better serve the actual coaching community (and themselves) by choosing another title that more accurately describes what they do.

So what is coaching anyway? The ICF (International Coach Federation) defines coaching as "partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential." Coaching is connecting a client's purpose and passion to goals and strategies to bring about sustainable results. It's about challenging and supporting people to perform at higher levels by helping them to bring out the best in themselves and those around them.

See, as a coach I don't promote myself as the expert. As a coach I strongly believe that my clients know what they are capable of and what it will take to be successful in any given situation. My job as the coach is to ask the right questions to draw those solutions out of my clients. Sure there are times when a client will truly be stuck and I will use my knowledge and experience to help them get unstuck. However, I do not come to my clients with an agenda other than to help them set and reach their goals by challenging them to do more than they would have done on their own.

Coaches also do not use their success as a model for their clients. As coaches we understand that each and every person is on his or her own unique journey. We will not try to decide what is best for our clients; we empower our clients to make choices for themselves.

So, if you not a coach, what are you? If you use your methods of success as a model for your clients, "I made 10k in 30 days, let me show you how you can do the same," then you are not a coach, you are a mentor. If you tout yourself as an expert having the answers to the problems that your clients are currently facing, "Let me show you how to turnaround your failing company," then you may be a consultant. Don't want to use mentor or consultant as your title? You could use advisor, guide, specialist, or any other term that floats your boat and accurately defines how you help your clients, but to keep from muddying the waters please don't refer to yourself as a coach.

If you are a coach that also offers consulting or mentoring services, then separate your coaching services from your other services. You don't need to create a different website or different brands. What you can do, is on your work with me page provide links or a drop down menu and distinguish what it would be like to work with you as a coach and how it would be to work with you as a mentor or consultant.

So, if the definition of a coach does not describe how you help your clients please do me (and all the other coaches by definition) a favor and stop calling yourself coach.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

By October 1, credit card holders and merchants were supposed to have switched to EVM chip-enabled credit cards and chip card readers. It seems that many consumers and businesses have blown that deadline.

If you haven't received a new credit card with chip technology, don't worry. More than 200 million new chip cards have been sent to cardholders, according to Bankrate.com. Your old card with the magnetic "swipe strip" will still work when you need to make a charge. But missing the deadline may be more consequential to merchants, who now have new fraud liability.

Merchants who failed to upgrade their card readers to chip technology could now be liable for losses from fraud. Previously, the issuing banks had been solely responsible for fraudulent use of credit cards.

EVM technology (EVM stands for Europay, VISA and Mastercard -- the consortium that standardized the chip technology) has been in use in Europe for a decade and in Canada for the past two years. The chips have a good record of lowering fraud losses.

The move to EVM chip technology has been spurred by the major banks and has been accepted by major retailers, who understand the new potential liability. But many smaller merchants have either not understood the new liability or have been unwilling to spend the money on new card readers.

The chip is a more complicated technology that foils "swipe fraud," in which information from the magnetic strip on an older card is easily stolen. The chips provide a unique code for each transaction, so the data changes each time the card is used. Of course, the chip card won't prevent fraudulent use when someone is ordering over the phone or the Internet using the card. But it's estimated that three-quarters of the more than $3.8 billion in annual fraud losses at retail outlets could be avoided if chip cards were in use.

Using Your Chip Card

Your new card looks almost the same, but you'll notice the difference because you insert your chip card into the merchant's reading device, and it stays in the device until the transaction is completed. For example, if you're at a restaurant your server will bring one of the new devices to the table, where you will manually insert the tip as well as your PIN to complete the transaction. Then you remove your card, and the server can hand you a printed receipt.

Be on the lookout for your new card in the mail. Switch over to using it immediately, as it will work in all the older swipe readers as well as the new chip readers. And be sure to destroy the old card. But remember that the chip isn't the total answer to credit card fraud. Keep these tips in mind:

1. Check your card balance and transactions online every week -- or more frequently if you use the card often. Even though you're 100 percent protected against fraud, it helps to discover it quickly -- especially now that banks will be pursuing the merchants for reimbursement!

2. Use a separate card for online purchases. That way if your information is stolen you will be able to restore your saved credit card information at websites more easily when you get a new card.

3. Keep a separate list at home of all your credit cards, the account numbers and the toll-free numbers to call if a card is stolen. (You won't be able to access the toll-free number on the back of the card if your wallet is stolen!)

Credit card fraud is costly, but not only to the banks and now the merchants. It raises the price of consumer goods for all of us. So instead of being annoyed at the need to change credit cards, we should applaud the industry for offering more protections. We will all be better off. And that's The Savage Truth.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

VW, another corporate enterprise with no heart. In Indian thought there are seven energy centers in the human body, called chakras. Considering this as a valid depiction, it can be said VW only exists at the level of the first three chakras, located from the base of the back to the abdominal region, thus exhibiting only the instinctive impulses for "I want to be Number One" and "I want to dominate." VW forgot the heart chakra, where empathy and compassion reside. Shame on VW.

The VW emissions charade is not a potential car accident issue, but a more pervasive health issue. With this cover up VW evaporated all the good will it has built over the years. Think about the old VW ad, Lemon, which declared VW would not accept any imperfections in its cars, not even on the glove box.

This current affront to the common good seems all to similar to when Wall Street shorted junk mortgages. In both cases, ill-willed corporations short-sold every Tom, Dick and Harriet on Main Street. Commercial greed kicked dirt on homespun grace.

The earth shifted that every American walks on when, for the first time, new words such as "sub-prime," "derivatives," and "ponzi" were jammed into the American lexicon. Now, VW has sucked out even more trust from the American psyche.

We, the people, are scratching our heads and wondering how all this happened? Americans are becoming justifiably cynical about the state of corporate sincerity.

Big Biz Doesn't Get It

In too many instances, big business still refuses to "get it." Instead, executives often talk contrition, but in reality are just waiting for time to pass and the headlines to recede from memory. They refer to a few "bad eggs" while declaring the fundamentals of their enterprise are still sound.

Well, let's get down to fundamentals. People don't live their lives based on "fundamentals." People are not technologies. Emotion always trumps numbers, and people (AKA: customers, consumers, shareholders, voters) are emotional beings.

So what's VW's CEO to do to earn back the trust of the American people?

Earning Trust...in Four Timely Steps

First, the unit of time that business leaders orient to must be expanded beyond their daily call to Wall Street and their quarterly reported 'expedient present.' Trust takes time and grows slowly over time.

Secondly, trust comes from people feeling understood, and showing understanding means much more than mere rational(e) explaining. Corporate speak is for obfuscating. Only plain talk demonstrates understanding and understanding only comes from respect for and empathizing with 'The Other.'

Thirdly, trust comes from a shared past, a collaborative present and a co-authored future with mutual self-expansion between corporation and 'the people' as the goal. Secrets, and behind the scene maneuverings, corrode trust. Stultified, scripted language annuls trust. Narratives that give voice to the dynamics of our deepest human selves must supplant cliché, linear propositions, and black-or-white simplifications.

Fourth, access encourages trust, even when it means acknowledging mistakes. Here, for example, social networking may help. Websites such as Facebook could be used by corporate executives to allow some business-decision dynamics - and even some personal information - to be made "public." Likewise, two-way communications could be encouraged. Sharing helps to instill trust.

Cognitive Reforms and Vitality

Furthermore, earning back the trust of the American people requires a wider cognitive vision from business leaders. Government oversight alone is insufficient to prompt change.

This change in cognitive orientation need not be based on altruism. It can be meaningfully based on a re-cognition of the nature of vitality. When people - along with companies - feel their authenticity has been recognized and can be further expanded via a co-authoring with a corporation, they feel more optimistic, self-responsible, social and happy. A sense of "me" and "you" are connected is cultivated, such that through each other and the relationship, both grow. Venues for such cognitive revamping include:

1. SOCIETY, NOT JUST MARKETS
Markets imply mechanistic models whereby human dynamics are given short shrift. Society means a common amalgam given rise by the human commerce of emotion, belief and belonging.

2. QUALITY OF LIFE, NOT JUST INCOME
Money is great, and having a lot of it is a way of defining self-worth, but money can't buy a sense of well-being and peace of mind - things of real value.

3. REASONABLENESS, NOT JUST EXTREMISM
People must have a human sense of scale; and human investment strategies must take into account their biography, persona and local contingencies when taking action. This tempers the currencies of a corporation wanting just to be "bigger" or "more."

4. CONNECTEDNESS, NOT JUST INDIVIDUALISM
Given the complexity and the conflicts of the world today, the task of everyone is to transcend our individual identity without negating our individual identity, such that we recognize the fundamental idea that 'The Other' is in us.

Together

It is a bedrock of capitalism - particularly in the last part of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st - that one yearns for gratification from individual financial success and fame. Perhaps now is a good time to recall the 1946 Gregory Peck movie, The Yearling. In its dramatic culmination, Peck's character explains the sometimes-harsh facts of life to his son:

"Life is a fine thing... powerfully fine, but not easy. Sometimes we have to see it through together."

America must develop a culture of commonality in which the individual and the group can thrive. In that way, America can live up to the idea of "WE, the people."

Trust is not something one individual or entity does. Trust is a relationship. When those who sit in the boardrooms of corporate America can conceive of establishing a relationship with the Toms, Dicks, or Harriets sitting at home in their living rooms, that's the meaning of America. When that happens America will become itself.

The time is right. It also coincides with Pope Francis' underlying message in all his speeches while in the US: morality and connectedness.

VW: Very Worrisome.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Tina Fordham is Managing Director and Chief Global Political Analyst at Citi. With Citi since 2003, Tina advises institutional investors and corporations, typically at the C-suite level, about the implications of macro global political developments. She has been named in the "Top 100 Most Influential Women in Finance", the "Top 19 Economists on Wall Street" and is a member of the World Economic Forum's Strategic Foresight group.

How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
To talk about a career path in my case is laughable. I've gone from the Silicon Valley to Prague, Moscow, New York, Baku and London; less of a path than an Odyssey. The role I have carved out as the first and only Chief Political Analyst working for a major Wall Street institution is a collision between a hard-working Portuguese immigrant upbringing, the collapse of communism, the globalization of financial markets, and what the British call sheer bloody-mindedness. I'm living proof that you don't have to have an MBA or be born with a silver spoon in your mouth to make it to senior levels in Banking. Of course with a background like that, it helps to be self-motivated and never take no for an answer.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my route into banking was pretty unconventional; after graduating from university in San Francisco, I spent much of the 1990's in Eastern Europe teaching and conducting field research. My first-ever business trip was to the Komi Republic, in the Russian Arctic in 1996 for the charity Action for Russia's Children. It was a technical assistance project for a US company that wanted to support an orphanage for disabled children in a Soviet-era industrial town they were helping redevelop. Contrary to what I'd expected, it was not depressing but hugely inspiring. Other projects included field work on democratic transitions in Russia and Azerbaijan, and with factory workers in Hungary and Poland.

Working closely with both early foreign investors into Central and Eastern Europe and local people who were dislocated by the post-Communist transitions was life-changing. It taught me a lot about understanding the impact of political, economic and social change from the bottom up and what investors need to understand about fast-changing environments. These insights inform my research to this day; there is no substitute for first-hand experience. Working in challenging and complex environments also makes you resourceful. You learn that if what you need doesn't exist, invent it. I thought Citi needed a Chief Political Analyst, and eventually, they agreed.

How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at Citi?
After returning from Eastern Europe and completing a Master's degree at the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia (one of the best decisions I ever made), I joined what was then a small start-up political risk consultancy in New York called Eurasia Group. What initially started out as a research project looking at post-Soviet political transitions ended up as the first political and economic risk index on Wall Street, a joint venture with Lehman Brothers launched in 2001 during the emerging markets boom. I was the head of the joint venture, and as part of that business, developed the first political analysis research products specifically tailored to financial market investors. Bringing political science-based analysis to investors as we did then and I still do now has been likened to the first physicists who came to Wall Street. We were pioneers.

What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Citi?
Establishing Political Analysis as a mainstream research offering for investors has been both the challenge and the highlight of my 13 years at Citi. Citi is the only major financial institution that offers political analysis as a dedicated product area, alongside traditional asset classes like economics, commodities and equity research. It simply didn't exist before. My approach is data-driven, but incorporates qualitative methods too, supported by political science theory and historical comparisons. The demand for what I call political analysis strategic advisory services from both investors and numerous FTSE 100 companies at the board level has been snowballing, and marks a new iteration in my approach. I am deeply committed to the notion that investors and companies can make political analysis a more systematic part of their approach to thinking about opportunities and risks, and constantly thinking of new ways to approach this, such as incorporating qualitative indicators and survey- and scenario-based approaches.

Recent career highlights include spearheading Citi's first research reports on global public opinion, which I coined as "Vox Populi Risk" in a ground-breaking empirical study 'What the New Vox Populi Risk Means for Politics, the Economy and Markets' and gender economics Women in the Economy: Global Growth Generators' in May. We now plan to incorporate gender research as an ongoing topic, and our conceptualization of shifting and more volatile public opinion as outlined in Vox Populi continues to resonate.

On both counts, I'm immensely proud to have had the opportunity to help produce innovative analysis that is helping take banking research into new territory, and am gratified that these efforts have been supported internally and well-received by clients.

What advice can you offer to women who are seeking a career in banking?
I would offer the same advice to a woman in banking as I would to someone looking to succeed in any occupation: identify opportunities to contribute, don't wait to be asked. Then make sure the quality of your work is outstanding; excellence beats expedience.

One point that I feel strongly about is this: when you are an outlier, for whatever reason, you have two choices. Either you twist yourself into a pretzel to try to fit in, or embrace being different and turn it into a source of strength. Embracing being an outlier is clearly the more compelling option: it is also the most rewarding. And people are more likely to remember you.

On a more prosaic level, never wear black on TV or presenting. You might as well put on an invisible cloak if you do that.

How do you maintain a work/life balance?
This has to be my least favourite question, although everyone asks. As a single mother of two spirited school-age daughters (age 7 and 10) with a high-profile global role, an outside observer might be tempted to say that my work-life balance leaves something to be desired. It is certainly true that I live and breathe what I do; after all, the global political and investment environment is in constant flux. But I think that if you love what you do, it makes everything else bearable. My life isn't perfect or perfectly balanced, but I have had some amazing opportunities thanks to my career, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

My daughters and my friends are unreservedly supportive, which is a huge source of strength. I also don't suffer too much from the guilt that plagues many professional women. In the world that I grew up in, people worked in factories and shops, and took overtime and second and third jobs to support their families. You had to work, and do the best you could while you were there. There was no shame in it.

That's not to say that I don't feel the stress of it all at times. To clear my mind, I run in the parks of Northwest London. When I want to be creative, I bake cakes and bread. Somehow it just about works.

What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
Implicit in this question is the assumption that women need to change in order to fit into a male-dominated workplace. I don't think women need to be more like men; we need to have the courage of our convictions. Fearlessness is my most admired quality, for men and women alike. Humility is a close second. Combining both is not a bad way of moving around in the world.

How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
In my own career, I have benefitted greatly from senior sponsors, male and female, and also had great support from peers and informal mentors. I've also been privileged to mentor others; I am currently mentoring a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and I can assure you that mentoring a former tank commander means the exchange goes two ways. Diversity isn't just about promoting women, it's about incorporating a wider range of experiences and viewpoints, too.

Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
Although the number of women in leadership positions is small, as individuals they are mighty, to paraphrase the line from a Midsummer Night's Dream. Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, whom I met at Davos this year, is one of the female leaders I most admire. Her intelligence, determination and grace at the helm of a major international institution in the midst of a fragile global economic recovery make her a fantastic role model.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was an early source of inspiration and remains so. Besides being a formidable scholar of the USSR as well as the first female US Secretary of State (and fellow SIPA alum), she also has a great sense of humour. I met her last year and she had us in stitches with her tales about world leaders, like the former North Korean leader. She also has some great one-liners. My personal favourite is "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women,".

What do you want Citi to accomplish in the next year?
As Citi continues to be successful as an institution, more opportunities for women in leadership positions will follow. A strengthening trajectory for the industry and for the global economy offers the best hope for furthering the goal of increasing diversity, not only for women but more generally. Diversity of thought leads to better management, better idea-generation, and outcomes for clients.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The average attention span is now shorter than that of a goldfish. That sad fact is courtesy of research from Microsoft, as reported earlier this year in Time Magazine. People generally can now concentrate for a whopping eight seconds, about one second less than our fishy friends (and 50 percent less than where humans were in 2000).

The reduction in our ability to focus is due in no small part to our obsession with mobile devices. Diversion from the task at hand is now just a tap away. Consequently, our lives have been shattered into shards of time, filled with digital distractions.

And so the world has adapted. Marketers and content-providers alike have recognized our need to be entertained, educated and even to exercise within bite-sized chunks of our day, rather than elongated stretches. As evidence:

The New York Times NYT Now app has a "mini-crossword" section, with just 10 clues, that can be solved in about 90 seconds. (Who has the time to sit down over a major brainteaser with a pen and paper?)

Duolingo is an app that provides language lessons in modules that can take 3 minutes or less.

The Scientific 7-minute Workout" is another app that compresses a workout into what would have once been barely time for a warm-up.

Retail in particular has been dramatically affected by the mobile revolution. We used to talk about the "moments of truth" for a brand decision. Now these have splintered into what Google calls "micro-moments" - "mobile sessions that average a mere 1 minute and 10 seconds long, dozens and dozens of times a day".

With the rise of micro-moments, the days of going shopping are gone forever. Nowadays we are always shopping. While waiting for a train, we check out email offers and download coupons. Walking down the street, we navigate our way to a store and check reviews along the way. In a tedious meeting, instead of daydreaming, we jump on a site and buy a new pair of shoes. (I'd love to know the amount of retail revenue that is now generated in office hours around conference tables.)

Down time has become go-time. These pause-points are often in between activities, and are tiny little gold mines just waiting for an enterprising merchant with a pick. So how do you get your lode?

To make the most of micro-moments, Google says (and I agree) that you need to "be there", whenever and wherever the shopper wants to deal with you. As Woody Allen famously said "80% of success is showing up". And so it is with retailing in 2015 and beyond.

Of course, when you "show up", you also need a web presence (or app) that is built and scaled for mobile (surprising how many sites still are not), loads quickly and presents relevant information.

Do it well and micro-moments can make a major difference to your business results. And by the way, if you have struggled to the end of this article without jumping on your mobile, give yourself a pat on the back.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Each and every October is National Work and Family Month (NWFM), and this annual celebration offers a great opportunity for employers to showcase those organizational practices, policies, and programs that support employees in their efforts to achieve success both professionally and personally. If you haven't already done so, now is the time to pledge your organization's support for National Work & Family Month. There are many ways organizations can participate.

Here are just a few:

Promote your organization's commitment to work-life effectiveness by offering programs in one of the seven categories of work-life.

Conduct a work-life needs assessment to determine where your organization ranks on the work-life continuum.

Share best practices by applying for the WorldatWork Work-Life Seal of Distinction award.

Download a National Work & Family Month logo to help spread the word.

Promote National Work & Family Month using social media tools such as Twitter (using hashtag #WorkLifeWins).

Join our Huffington Post blog fest and write a blog on the importance of National Work & Family Month to recognize the dramatic changes in the way Americans work & live today.

Please visit our website to find out more about these ideas, as well as others. While there, whether it is dependent care, health & wellness, workplace flexibility, financial support, time off, community involvement, or a host of other programs and initiatives, you can access a variety of tools and resources, as well as learn how other organizations are promoting work-life programs.

What organizational practices, policies and total rewards programs do you have in place to actively and effectively support efforts to help your employees achieve success within and outside of the workplace?

Does your company create a culture where employees are given the tools necessary to overcome personal obstacles, and devote their work time in a meaningful way, all the while ensuring that an engaged and productive workforce delivers the desired business results for your company?

Join WorldatWork on October 6, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. for "Rethinking the Workweek," a roundtable discussion to promote workplace flexibility, and be a part of the conversation all month by following hashtag #WorkLifeWins!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

A civil engineer recently remarked that nobody wants to pay for the upkeep of roads, public transit systems, or other infrastructure. After all, he quipped, "people get credit for building the new school, not maintaining what we already have."

His comment got me thinking that the same mindset often holds true for brands and the messages that express them. When companies and organizations decide it's necessary to brand or rebrand, they invest the time and dollars to do it. Once created, brand guidelines might be distributed and some message training might occur initially to allow the brand to take root. Over time, efforts to maintain or refresh the branding typically become less frequent. Only when customers and donors start to defect--the infrastructure equivalent of the bridge collapse or train derailment -- do we take notice and realize that something must be done.

Sometimes the product or service offering just isn't compelling any longer. And sometimes companies and organizations have lost touch with their own brand and its meaning. They may even have lost sight -- literally -- of the people who matter most. As a result, they could be sending conflicting and confusing messages that don't reflect the brand or reinforce the positive experience they want customers to have.

Let's face it -- the shiny new object is always much more interesting than what we already have and know. It is always tempting to quick-start new features or jump on the latest social media trend. You might think about refreshing an identity with new colors or grasping at a new catch-phrase to inject into your key messages -- all without taking stock of what your brand means, or should mean, to key stakeholders. We fail to recognize that maintaining and nurturing that meaning is critical. Maintenance doesn't have to mean standing still or shying away from innovation. Maintenance, instead, should be about investing the time, passion, and resources to reinforce your brand position and experience, externally and internally.

What does it take to properly maintain your brand?

1. Stay close to your stakeholders. Your brand lives in their minds and hearts. Make sure you take the time to find out what they like and don't like. Understand the relationship of their aspirations and desires to whatever it is you offer. One company that has done this well is Dominos, whose original unique selling proposition used to be delivering pizza in 30 minutes. Over time, however, the differentiator faded, as competitors became just as fast at delivering hot pies (and some of those pies tasted better). A series of focus groups opened the eyes of the CEO and senior leadership to the fact that the product quality needed attention -- and repairs.

2. Don't wait until the bottom falls out. Too often companies and organizations watch a declining customer or donor base and don't act until reputations or viability are damaged beyond repair. As with Dominos' example, where the company publicly owned customer feedback, a product was reinvigorated, with the customer base and the public invited to watch the whole process.as documented on YouTube. This was the equivalent of rebuilding a bridge before chunks of concrete started falling on cars.

3. Communicate clearly, often, and with purpose inside your own organization. Your employees, contractors, franchisees, or volunteers must understand and operate with the same principals as executive leadership. They are the keepers and engines of your brand. Just as you seek out customer feedback, make sure you do the same with internal teams. It's not enough to hand someone the employee handbook or a list of talking points. Make sure your teams understand and believe in what you are doing and that they can carry forth your messages both in word and deed.

Revisiting the Dominos scenario, two bored employees one afternoon made a video where they were NOT making quality pizza -- putting cheese up their nose and then on to pies. The video went viral and Dominos was forced into crisis mode. While everyone now talks about the company's deft handling of the crisis, perhaps had there been better understanding and communication of what it means to be working at Dominos, through better training and engagement, the crisis might not have happened at all.

In this age of choice and message overload, creating powerful brands is more important than ever. But creation is just the beginning. Maintaining and nurturing that brand involves equal measures of intentional magic. The work is hard and not always sexy, but the rewards are worth it. Just ask Dominos, now termed a "climbing success" with double digit earnings growth this year.

Please share your stories of reinvigorating your brand and the infrastructure to support it.

Follow me on twitter @lizwainger.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

2015-10-01-1443700684-4152906-2015BlogMainTheBattleoftheCreativeGenius600.png

Isn't it peculiar how you can sometimes create something new, solve a complex matter or suddenly get really important insights - just like that! Bam! Suddenly it's there - no stress, no hard work, it's just like - playing!

Artists - like authors and painters - often report of incidents that feel like being in a trance or state of meditation while working, losing total control of time and space. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of "Eat, Pray, Love," talks about this in the Ted video "Your Elusive Creative Genius."

In "Eat, Pray, Love" Elizabeth travels to Italy to find herself. Kristine and I also spend as much time as we can in Italy. We haven't been looking at it as a quest to find ourselves, but on one of our first trips - that's exactly what happened!

Let's go back to a creative moment in 2011...

It had been a long day when we finally ended up in the scenic and ancient town of Malcesine by the beautiful Lago di Garda. The view of the sea, picturesque old buildings, and the atmosphere itself made it easy to drift back to former times. But in this backdrop, a light for creating the future was also sparked.

2015-10-01-1443705658-2345831-WHerethebrainwellsstorystarted.png

Over a long and lazy lunch and a glass of Italian wine we started talking about how sad it is that so many people do not thrive at work. Why is it that people do not feel that they matter? How come they do not see the important part they play in the bigger picture? We talked about how so many leaders have failed in creating an engaging culture at work. And why is it that most people find strategy really boring, and not see it as a way to understand the purpose of what they are doing and as a map to where they are heading?

The one idea that intrigued both of us was: It MUST be possible to do this differently. It must be possible to work with strategy (and the more 'structural' parts of an organization) in a way that is engaging and that mobilizes people instead of disengaging them. And of course it was.

We just had to engage our creative geniuses - and start creating

When the waiter came to our table, we asked for a pen. We started scribbling. First on the back of the napkin. Then on the tablecloth. (Luckily it was made of paper.) Thoughts, insights and solutions were pouring out, resulting in a visual image of a solution that was crystal clear. Suddenly it was revealed to us, and we saw exactly how this could be done. It all just clicked.

Surprised about the clarity of it all, one of us said, "Hey, someone needs to do something with this."

We looked around, couldn't see anyone except a big and happy Italian family and a few tourists.

Then it dawned on us: "That 'someone' was us." WE had to start working with this, because it was so important.

This was the birth of Brainwells. Which is kind of funny. Because we had never even once been thinking of starting working together. But suddenly it all was there.

Building Brainwells from scratch has been and still is a great journey. But another important thing we realized when looking back to this day at the shore of Lago Di Garda, was that this happened because we let ourselves be creative instead of being in a performing mode.

We didn't try being 'clever and hard-working' to find an idea to build upon. Actually, we didn't look for anything in particular.

We just let our minds wander. We allowed our thoughts to connect beyond where they normally do. We resisted being logical. We dared to think big.

When you are in this state of mind, magic can happen - and for us, that day, it really did.

The creative state vs the performing state.

The opposite of this 'creative state' is the 'performing state.' When you do things because you have to, more than because you want to. Of course, we need those moments too, but don't forget to allow yourself to be in creative mode from time to time.

It might require that you enter a no-stress modus, but we guess you've heard the saying that "Sometimes you need to move slow, to move fast?"

So - now what?
If you are lucky, you work with something that lets you be in the creative stage when you need it. If so, cherish it.

And - honestly - if you find yourself just being a hard worker, performing all the time, it might be time considering doing something else. Kristine worked in this mode too long and for the wrong reasons. The result was a total breakdown.

Read more in her story "Climbing the Corporate Ladder and falling down".

To sum it all up, it is easier to love what you do when you are in your creative sweet spot, rather than when you are just performing your tasks. It's all about balance.

"Choose a job that you love and you will never work a day in your life" (Confucius)

This blog post is written by Kristine Maudal and Even Fossen, founders of Brainwells. Our passion is 'The Human Side of Strategy' and we work relentlessly and passionately with leaders all over the world. With love and care we share parts of the magic here or over at our own blog LeadershipCourageFun. Thanks for being here!

All photos © Brainwells / alphaspirit / Peter Eckert

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Agent of disruption.

It sounds like a spy game involving stealth.

If you are the one being disrupted (Amazon v. Borders, Uber v. Yellow Cab), it no doubt feels that way, even as the rest of us are enjoying the spoils of reading or riding anytime, anywhere.

One of the best ways to cope with, and even harness the forces of mass disruption, is to become the agent of your own disruption-to disrupt yourself.

Here are five reasons why:

1. Yourself. When you try something new, you make a decision to focus on who you can become, not who you are -- to move from stuck to unstuck. When you learn, you get a squirt of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that makes you happy. It literally feels good to disrupt yourself.

Though you may crave certainty and the control of a focused task to complete, moving into terra incognita feels better. It is restorative, both emotionally and physically. In fact, a study done by Kennon M. Sheldon and colleagues suggests that that opportunities for self-expression, i.e. creativity, may increase feelings of agreeableness, conscientious, and openness, leading people to act more responsibly, cooperatively, receptively, and cheerfully.

2. Your loved ones. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn once famously said "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." This also means you are the sum total of others being around you. Research has shown that emotions are contagious. As you enjoy the feel-good effects of disruption, others will too.

As you share your dreams of disruption with these important people, you release the bonding hormone of oxytocin which activates higher levels of trust. Sharing makes other people feel trusted and that makes them feel good, too.

And don't forget the children in your life. We dream so they can dream. We disrupt, so our children can disrupt.

3. Your colleagues. Companies don't disrupt, people do. When you're willing to step back and take risks, you give others the courage to do so as well. It is a human imperative to feel safe. When we feel safe, it gives us the confidence to try something new.

I know from personal experience that one of the most difficult aspects of jumping to a new learning curve is to set aside my ego. When we take a step down to gain momentum for an upward surge, for a time we may have less expertise and are reliant on those junior to us. It is really ego-bruising to temporarily look dumb, asking questions like "Am I doing this correctly?" especially to lower-status team members.

But as Rebecca Jackson explains beautifully in her essay, "Shedding My Skin," it is worth it--"Have you ever let go of something that simultaneously protects and strangles you; something that both defines you, but also suffocates your evolution? Just like a snake shedding its skin, you have to lose something critical to grow, leaving you vulnerable and exposed in the process." When you shed your skin and become better, you encourage others to do so as well.

4. The market. Disruption breeds innovation -- a willingness to play where others are not. Starbucks founder Howard Schultz once said "Any company that embraces the status quo is on a collision course with time". Too bad he didn't have coffee with Borders or Kodak.

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, puts it in another way -- "Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding something more of the familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result of something fresh and strange. Unless companies invest in the difficult task of creating new things, they will fail in the future no matter how big their profits are." Challenge the status quo and others will too.

5. The economy. Consider this number -- $8 billion. That's how many dollars have been earned by developers for Apple's App store just since 2008. Or, think about this number -- 1,027,000. That's how many U.S. jobs Apple has created or supported over the years. Innovation caused by disruption not only keeps our economy healthy, it provides opportunities for others. In fact, a recent survey by the Global Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the world's most dynamic entrepreneurs (disruptors) found that 77 percent of them expected to grow their workforce in 2015. As Vinton G. Cerf, vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, said, "it seems fair to say innovation has brought us the potential for abundance and new work."

It may sound "evil empire"-ish, but being an agent of disruption is a very powerful positive force. When you disrupt yourself, you not only cope with the forces of disruption, you enable yourself to harness its power and unpredictability to pull you forward -- and potentially those around you, too.

About the Author
Whitney Johnson is an investor, speaker, author, and leading thinker on driving innovation through personal disruption. Her new book Disrupt Yourself, will be released on October 6, 2015. To learn more, visit http://whitneyjohnson.com/disrupt-yourself.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Tesla Motors has broken the mold...again. The Tesla Model S P85D was given a perfect score by the independent not-for-profit Consumer Reports, but only after its score was adjusted down.

Consumer Reports has a testing methodology to asses the quality of an automobile. That testing framework had previously delivered a top score of 99 out of 100...to a previous Tesla Model S in 2013 (the non-Tesla high of 98 was awarded in 2014 to some company of a bygone era).

Then came the Tesla Model S P85. It broke through the framework and got a 103 out of 100. ‎The final score was adjusted down as metrics were moved, so the final score was 100 out of 100.

Add to that the perfect score received in the U.S. Government Crash Test Rating and you know you have built something unique. Special measures had to be used to flip the Model S over at all (normal cars flip on the track at high speeds) and the government crash test roof crushing machine broke before the roof of the Model S did!

Consumer Reports and the US Government have been rating cars for over 60 years. Some of the automotive manufacturers competing for the ratings have been around ‎for over 100 years. Tesla was founded twelve years ago.

In a little more than a decade, Elon Musk and his team at Tesla have changed all the rules, produced the best and safest car ever made and have forever changed the automotive industry (and with the building of the Gigafactory that will mass produce automotive batteries in Nevada...maybe another industry or two).

Innovation and creative destruction are at the heart of American capitalism. Elon Musk made a bet on the electric car. ‎ He risked $70 million of his own money (nearly a third of his net worth at the time) believing Tesla could succeed where others had failed. The entrepreneurial spirit that drives companies like Tesla is everything the world admires about America, and rightly so. That is what capitalism delivers: innovation, better products and cheaper prices (well not yet for Model S but the Model 3 will be here in 2017).

Today, Tesla employs 6,000 people mostly in the U.S. When the Gigafactory comes online in a few years it will employ another 6,000 people. When we talk about "job creators" in this country, there is no better example than Tesla. Tesla should be selling cars consumers want, innovating and exporting their products around the world. But there is a roadblock that even this "perfect" car can't drive through.

This embodiment of what makes America great is running into some unfortunate realities of the modern American economic morass. Tesla wants to sell its cars directly to consumers but many states do not allow such a transaction. Why? Why can't a consumer purchase a car directly from a manufacturer?

Entrenched interests. ‎ Antiquated regulations. A gridlocked political system.

Many states have outdated laws on their books that cars must be sold through car dealerships. This legislation enacted in the 1950's to protect the car dealership networks that had risen to educate and service the first wave of mass market automobiles. Now Tesla is being forced to challenge these laws and is being fought by the car dealerships and their political patrons. These dealerships do employ a lot of people but the value they bring to the automotive supply chain is eroding. As history has shown repeatedly and without fail, you can not protect jobs in a dying industry. While entrepreneurship is a great strength of America so is our economic flexibility. By not modernizing laws to allow Tesla to sell cars directly. politicians are only delaying the inevitable and impeding a new American champion.

Tesla is only freely allowed to sell cars directly to consumers in six states, four more allow it with restrictions. In many states your government outright bans you from directly buying the best and safest car ever made.

These obstacles are stifling the American Dream. They stifle innovation. They increase prices to consumers. They let foreign competitors catch up to Tesla.

While the Tesla Model S P85 is priced beyond the reach of most, in time and at scale, Tesla will deliver more innovation, lower prices and you too can be driving a near perfect car. Car dealers and uncompromising politicians, please get out of the way. That sound you hear coming is the silent-roar of an electric engine powered by American leadership, innovation and ingenuity.

Congratulations on your perfect score Tesla, you are what makes America great.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

According to the American Psychological Association, stress has become a major health problem in the United States, especially work-related stress. Most of us have to deal with work-related stress at some time or another, but are we fully aware of the consequences?

Research has shown that too much stress leads to higher blood pressure, heart disease, overeating, and several other health problems. It also leads to various psychological and emotional problems. When we're stressed out, our lives are consumed with worry and insecurity. The bottom line is that stress will lead to an unhealthy and unhappy life. Fortunately, there is a simple solution.

I'm sure you've heard all the talk about how mindfulness meditation is sweeping the nation. There are good reasons for this. Over the last few years, scientists have confirmed what meditators have known for thousands of years, that mindfulness meditation leads to happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.

The way it works is simple. By calming your mind, you will be able to see the world with much greater clarity, and make better decisions in your life. Furthermore, less agitation in your mind results in more steady emotions, and greater inner strength.

So how do you beat stress with mindfulness meditation? Here are some simple suggestions for helping you get started with the practice, and for bringing mindfulness into the workplace.

Begin Meditating

At the core of mindfulness, is being in the present moment, because that is where all of reality is taking place. The past no longer exists, and the future always remains in the future. All of life experience is in the present moment.

Mindfulness meditation is the primary tool for developing mindfulness. Find a quiet place (at home or work) where you can sit for a few minutes without being disturbed. Close your eyes and begin following your breath. Focus your attention on the sensation of the air passing through the tip of your nose. Count your breaths 1 through 5 silently in your mind. When you get to 5, simply start over again.

When you get distracted, immediately bring your attention back to your breath, and continue counting. What the counting does is help you stay focused. After a few minutes, your mind will begin to slow down.

You don't have to meditate for long periods of time to realize the benefits of mindfulness meditation. You can start with 10-15 minute sessions a few times a week, then gradually work your way up to longer sessions.

You can even start a small meditation group at work. All you need are a couple of coworkers to meditate with you either before work, or during lunch for just a few minutes. Many successful companies are already doing this.

Practice Mindful Breathing

You can practice mindful breathing at any time of the day, no matter where you are. Simply stop what you're doing, and take 3-5 mindful breaths, then continue what you were doing. By mindful breaths, I mean pay close attention to your breathing, while you avoid thinking about anything else. What this does is interrupt the acceleration of your mind, so that it doesn't get too agitated. It will also help you stay calm in tense situations.

Practice Mindful Walking

How much walking do you do during the course of your day? Quite a lot, probably. Each time you walk is an excellent opportunity to meditate. Just use the same techniques you use with mindful breathing, only take each step with deep awareness. And if you're not in any particular hurry, then slow down. By slowing down your body, you force your mind to follow.

Practice Deep Listening

Most of us do not listen closely when we're engaged in conversation. Stephen Covey once said, "Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." We are usually thinking about how to interject our opinion, or of something entirely different.

To practice deep listening, start by looking into other people's eyes. Then pay close attention to what they're saying, and resist the temptation to let your mind wander off. This will dramatically improve your communication and relationships, because people will see that you're sincerely interested in what they have to say. It shows appreciation and respect, and works wonders for healing and transformation.

Practice Mindful Speech

Many of us do not think carefully when we're about to speak. We usually just say what's on our mind, without considering how our words will be interpreted, or what the consequences will be. Sometimes, we even regret saying some things.

Our speech can have a significant impact on our interactions and relationships. When you're around other people, consider how they feel in your presence. Do they seem tense, or at ease? Our words can either create chaos, harmony, or have little impact. Of the three, isn't harmony preferable for our work environment?

We can practice mindful speech by choosing our words more carefully, instead of just reacting to what other people say. Try choosing words that are more loving, healing, and respectful, especially in tense situations. As with deep listening, mindful speech can bring about a tremendous amount of healing and transformation.

As your mind becomes more calm and serene through mindfulness meditation, these mindfulness practices will come to you naturally. Imagine what it would be like if everyone at your job practiced mindfulness. With greater awareness, everyone would clearly see how to work together to achieve their common goals. There would be better communication, more cooperation, less tension, and greater productivity. And that means a more pleasant work environment, and less stress on you.

Adapted from Mindfulness Meditation Made Simple: Your Guide to Finding True Inner Peace.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

In a monumental admission of automotive fraud, Volkswagen's chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned last Wednesday amid revelations that 11 million VWs were built to cheat on clean air tests.

The scandal came to light last week, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board blew the whistle on the German auto giant for selling half a million of the stealth polluters in this country. The cars, diesel-powered models sold since 2008, contain software that defeats emission controls. As a result, they're pumping out up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides, pollution associated with asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments. This is bad both for Americans' health and the auto industry. Just as galling for me is that the company was not only cheating, but marketing their products as "clean diesel" cars.

Diesel engines have always been more popular in Europe than America. Generally speaking, the engines run longer, produce more torque and are much more efficient than gasoline-powered equivalents. However, diesel engines also produce a huge amount of nitrogen oxides and fine particulate pollution--dangerous soot--and diesel fuel contains a high level of sulfur, which fouls catalytic convertors. Under the 1990 Clean Air Act, EPA regulations for passenger vehicles emissions became stricter than those in Europe. As a result, high polluting, diesel cars of the day could not be sold in the US.

But even as these cars disappeared from the roads, diesel trucks remained a familiar sight on America's highways, as they were not subject to the same regulations. A critical element of the commercial supply chain in the United States, diesels were also a big part of conventional pollution--polluting ten times more than the equivalent gasoline engines.

In the mid-1990s when I was running EPA's Office of Transportation Air Quality, I began talking to my EPA engineers as well as people in the auto and truck industry on how to address diesel emissions. It became clear that there was a pathway to clean diesel if we could reduce the sulfur in diesel fuel, but it would have to be on the order of a 97% reduction! Combining clean diesel fuel with the advances in diesel technology, which had made diesel cars so popular in Europe, could make clean diesel cars possible in the US. Many European manufacturers, including VW, wanted to bring their diesel cars to the US.

In 2000, under president Clinton, EPA took a historic action to make "clean diesel" a reality in the US. We finalized standards that require the oil industry to virtually zero out sulfur in diesel fuel and the diesel engine manufacturers to reduce tailpipe emissions by 95 percent. As a result, thousands of premature deaths and millions of respiratory illnesses would be averted.

"Clean Diesel" became an advertising slogan and a new generation of diesel cars was introduced in the US in the mid 2000s. Mercedes introduced the new US models in 2006.

Soon after, VW and BMW introduced new US diesel models. Clearly, though, VW thought they could play by different rules than the rest of the industry and abused a lot of hard work designed to allow more diesels on American roads.

But, VW still has a possibility for redemption. First, the new CEO Matthias Muller should not only replace the technical and other leaders who were responsible for the emissions scandal, but VW should undertake offsetting actions to make up for all the extra pollution his company has kicked into the nation's air. For example, they could retrofit old diesel school buses and trucks on the road.

Secondly, he needs to repair his company's relationship with customers by repairing their cars to meet the standards. If VW can't get the cars to comply with US fuel efficiency standards without compromising performance and fuel efficiency, they should buy them back from consumers.

Finally, if Muller still wants VW to be world's largest automaker, he should also shift the overall strategy of the company away from diesel and help the company get over its irrational skepticism towards electric powertrains. This could be the ultimate silver lining in the proverbial cloud for them. The rest of the automotive industry believes that electrification is needed to power the cars of the future. VW has historically been against electrification and argued that clean diesel was a better solution. Muller should direct VW's engineering organization to participate in this race for the future. VW's scale, resources and technical expertise directed at electrification would help increase the EV and PHEV vehicles on the road and the same time drive down costs faster to achieving parity with internal combustion powered vehicles, a technology of the past.

As huge as the VW scandal is, there are bigger problems. The companies who help address climate change will be critical for humans' continued existence. The thousands of researchers at the United Nations-supported I PCC have declared unequivocally that we need to reduce GHG emissions by 80% below 2005 levels just to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. That means VW and other automakers need to have at least half of their fleet at zero emissions by around 2035 on the road to a fleet in 2050 that is at zero emissions and averaging 180mpg. The only way we can even come close to that is with electrified powertrains and low carbon fuels. The talented engineers at the world's second largest automotive company need to have as much time and money as possible to achieve these goals. Effectively combatting climate change will more than put the shine back on the historic VW brand.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

You're an entrepreneur and you've been in business for a while, things are really starting to ramp up, you have enough clients where you are finally able to start generating a profit but....

You're feeling overwhelmed by scheduling. You don't have time on the calendar to meet with clients or prospective clients.

You're frustrated having to do work that you really don't want to do.

You're unproductive. At the end of the day, you often feel like you didn't accomplish what you expected to.

You're losing your passion. You're starting to get burned out and you start wondering why you started on this roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship in the first place.

You're ignoring core tasks. The moment you realize that lately you haven't really worked on the "core tasks" that are essential to grow your business, because of all of the minutiae of the little tasks.

These are all signs that it's time to stop and reassess your workload. It's time to allow yourself to focus on the work you do best and hire other people to do the rest. Being the jack of all trades can initially seem like a necessity when you're an entrepreneur, but it really doesn't have to be that way!

Brian Tracy, CEO of Brian Tracy International said it best, "The smartest business decision you can make is to hire qualified people. Bringing the right people on board can save you thousands and your business will run smoothly and efficiently."

In reality, you cannot create a highly successful business by yourself.

Get help now!

Focus on what drives the revenue and what you're passionate about.

You can do this -- I'll tell you how and why it makes perfect sense. Let's say you're time is worth $100.00 an hour, I'm guessing it's probably much more than that, but we'll just use this amount as an example for now. Let's also say, that you're spending 10 hours a week on administrative tasks. If you paid yourself that $100.00 an hour for that time put in on the admin tasks -- that would be $1,000.00 per week and $4,000.00 per month.

Those tasks can be done by an assistant or a virtual assistant that let's say makes $20.00 an hour. So, let's take that 10 hours and multiply it by 20 that's $200.00 per week and $800.00 per month.

If you took those 10 hours per week (40 hours per month) and focused solely on income producing activities (such as talking to prospective clients or partners) how much money could you make in those 40 hours per month? Would you be able to make that $800.00 per month to pay your assistant? Of course you would, in fact, I'm certain you would be able to grow your business exponentially.

The math makes sense. So, what is stopping you? If you're not moving forward on this you must ask yourself -- what's holding you back?

Is it fear of not finding the right person? Is it having to let go of control? Or, is it that you don't believe that you can bring the money in to cover the expense of an assistant?

If you are going to grow your business you just have to let go of those limiting beliefs and shift your thoughts to thoughts that are empowering and supportive of your business goals, thoughts that will best serve you moving forward.

In order to reach your true potential as a business owner, hiring a team to support you is essential. Start taking action today. You got this!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

We are in Australia, and my wife just paid for a general practitioner's visit to examine possibly dangerous sun damage to her skin. The doctor's examination cost her $37 Australian, and the topical medication just $10Au. So what is wrong with a health care system that functions so well, yet is mostly paid for by Australia's taxpayers?

Perhaps it's time to bust the myth that universal, or government-run, or 'socialized' medicine is somehow less desirable than the present U.S. system of private health insurance. We know the U.S. has the highest per capita health care costs in the developed world. So how does that make private health care that is owned and run by privately-owned health care providers (except for Medicare) more desirable?

It just isn't true that total health expenditures -- government plus private spending -- is unsustainable. Australia spends about 9.5 percent of GDP on health services, for instance; the United States spends 17.7 percent. And though U.S. spending, whether or not a good value for money, hasn't undermined its economy or sapped the vitality of the country, it has held back higher worker productivity.

Australia has a government-run and insured health care system that covers every citizen cost-free, with additional private insurance for those that can afford it. And there was absolutely no waiting period in Australia's fifth largest city, Adelaide, with the appointment scheduled just one day in advance.

The physician my wife consulted said that the only drawback to the Australian system, in her opinion, was the difficulty of keeping the same general practitioner, as there were some 44,000 GPs in Australia, and a patient had to see whoever was available at the time needed. Then what about our own Obamacare?

The Commonwealth Fund, a noted health care foundation, provides some of the best research on comparing national health plans and policies. And it maintains the U.S. Affordable Care Act will enable the U.S. to only begin to catch up with the rest of the developed world in not only health care benefits but global competitiveness, even though it still relies on private physicians and doesn't regulate drug costs.

First, working-age Americans are sicker and die younger than citizens in many other developed countries," say two researchers of the Commonwealth Fund. "This health disadvantage translates into a competitive disadvantage, as there is a well-documented relationship between workers' health status and their productivity. The annual economic losses from diabetes and depression alone are estimated to exceed $100 billion."

The ACA could significantly improve the U.S. workforce's overall health. Insurance expansions have been shown to improve beneficiaries' health and raise their future earnings. Since the main coverage provisions of the law took effect, 12 million to 17 million working-age adults have gained health insurance. In addition, the ACA has stimulated a wave of innovations in health care, many focused on the things that keep us well, like prevention, telehealth, and promoting healthy lifestyles and living environments. To the extent that these succeed, the benefits will be felt in workforce productivity and business competitiveness.

Second, taming our nation's astronomical health care bill would further improve our ability to compete in foreign markets. We spend more on health care than any other wealthy country, as I said -- health spending represents nearly one-fifth of the U.S. economy, compared with one-tenth in the average industrialized nation. This leaves fewer resources available for research, infrastructure, education, and other investments that are foundational to economic competitiveness. Warren Buffett went so far as to call our health system "the tapeworm, essentially, of the American economy."

Another study by the Commonwealth Fund reported:

• The United States stands out for having the highest rates of chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease: 87 percent of older adults in the U.S. reported at least one chronic illness, and 68 percent reported two or more.

• Despite having Medicare coverage, U.S. adults age 65 or older were the most likely to report that cost posed a barrier to care. One-fifth (19 percent) said cost was the reason they did not visit a doctor, skipped a medical test or treatment recommended by a doctor, did not fill a prescription, or skipped doses.

• U.S. survey respondents were also the most likely to report trouble paying their medical bills (11 percent). Only 1 percent in Norway and Sweden reported the same.

So the U.S. Affordable Care Act is just a beginning in offering equivalent health care benefits of other developed countries. Yet many of our poorest red and southern states are refusing to expand their own health care coverage, though much of it will be paid for by the federal government. Hence they will remain our poorest states, with the greatest income inequality whose citizens will be most in need of better health care. Need we say more?

Harlan Green © 2015

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

As an entrepreneur/business strategist, I am always seeking to learn more information so that I can be a better asset to my clients. And it is only right that I do so. They pay me for my knowledge and experience, with the belief that I can help them achieve their desired success. Therefore, I must be well equipped in my ability to provide true value.

As a constant learner, I look to different authorities who can give me new insights, so that I can broaden my thinking. Doing so helps to increase my performance, which keeps me in demand as a strategist.

As I was doing a bit of research the other day, I came across Tony Robbins. I am sure you are familiar with Tony Robbins, international motivational speaker, who has worked with very high-profile people in various industries. As I was digging around on his site a bit, I came across his blog, Change Your Life Now.

Most of the material within the blog covers emotional and personal development and both play a major role in business success. Your business's success is dependent on your ability to control your emotions, no matter the circumstances you are facing. And it is dependent on your ability to continuously improve your personal state of existence so that you are never content.

Being a business owner will test you emotionally and mentally, so it takes a strong person to withstand the unpredictable nature of business ownership. Therefore, when you want to create a successful business, it would help you greatly to be equipped with the following qualities:

1. Ability to See Beyond Today
As a small business owner, you know business can either be slow or hectic. You may have a season of one extreme and then a season of the other extreme. More than likely your business never remains in a steady balance of ease. As this occurs you tend to get stuck in a particular routine of operating. When you do so, you allow other opportunities to pass you by because you are only thinking and acting for day-to-day.

Successful business owners now how to plan for the future and develop actions which assist in making their desired future a reality. You could be dead broke today and then be given a 6 figure contract next week. But this only occurs if you remain persistent no matter what your current situation may be at the moment. Tomorrow is always an opportunity to be better than your today.

2. Understanding Consumer Thinking
It's quite amazing to know how many people operate a business but don't know who is their actual customer. When this occurs, I take it as a sign of an owner who does not know their business and who has low emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence is vital as a business owner because it gives you the ability to understand what attracts a person to your business. With this understanding in your possession you are able to design products and services that actually have demand in the market place. The extreme gap between successful businesses and mediocre businesses exist because emotional intelligence is seriously lacking in most businesses. Mediocre business owners are in business for themselves, instead of being in business to effectively satisfy the needs of the consumer.

3. Knowing When to Reset
As a small business owner, it is a badge of honor to be known as a workaholic. It shows that nobody will outwork you because you are in go mode from morning to night. While it is good to want to be the toughest competitor around, don't let such behavior ruin your business. Being a workaholic can burn you out emotionally, mentally and physically. And more often than not with small businesses, when the owner deteriorates, the business deteriorates.

You must know when it is time to step away for a minute in order to recharge your total well being. Being constantly bogged down in business develops tunnel vision, which means you see only what you want to see. Creating shifts of going hard and then relaxing for a moment; gives you the ability to last longer and see the bigger picture much clearer. Therefore, you know how to constantly improve your business in order to increase its success internally and externally.

There is more to creating a successful business than just writing some plans down on paper or in a computer. You have to operate within successful behavior, which can only be done when you possess a successful mindset that influences the actions you perform. Remember that success is a process of designed actions and not just something that occurs by coincidence.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

"Don't look at a startup and think about why it might fail. Look at a startup and think about why it might succeed."
-Steve Case

We spent Wednesday in Buffalo as the third stop of this fall's Rise of the Rest tour, and the 17th stop of the Rise of the Rest Initiative, founded by Steve Case and his firm Revolution. Reflections from Day 1 in Baltimore is here, and from Day 2 in Philadelphia is here.

In Buffalo, we saw the power of a community that believes in a comeback, and the transformative effect a positive attitude can have. We kicked off the day with this video -- that showed the incredible inventions in Buffalo (from Huck Finn to the credit card to jetpacks) and the optimism of the future. In many ways, Buffalo as a community embraced the "Rise of the Rest" spirit more than any of the 17 cities we have visited -- for Buffalo, a city with a million reasons not to pursue a vibrant entrepreneurial culture, the comeback is working.

"Why Buffalo? Why Not Buffalo?"

At the beginning of the day, we toured Bak, an advanced manufacturing plant making tablets, which started 6 months ago and is already providing 30 quality jobs. Steve asked the CEO of Bak, a Danish immigrant, "Why Buffalo?" The founder, JP Bak, responded, "Why not Buffalo!"

All day long we heard notes of optimism: unemployment is at a 30-year low, and for the first time in a generation, more young people came into Buffalo last year than left. We left with more than the stereotypes we had in our head of Buffalo -- cold weather (though it was the first heavy-jacket day of the tour) and chicken wings (though we did visit the Anchor Bar, the home of the buffalo wings).

If you look at the tour stops of this Rise of the Rest tour, we mostly follow the I-95 corridor, but Buffalo is a clear exception. We made the detour to Buffalo because this is a city that has made a concerted effort to be a great place for entrepreneurs -- and it's paying off.

The Buffalo Billion

Part of the Buffalo renaissance is an initiative from Governor Andrew Cuomo, the "Buffalo Billion," a billion-dollar focused initiative on re-growing Buffalo. We see public policy integrating with entrepreneurship best when government makes concentrated bets around a specific thesis -- in entrepreneurship, it's better to be specific and wrong, than vague and right -- and we saw several spillovers from Buffalo.

We saw seed funding (LaunchNY), large-scale jobs (SolarCity's plant, the largest solar manufacturing plant in the northern hemisphere, which will create 3,000 jobs), aggressive recruitment efforts (including 43-North, the world's largest business plan competition, which commits $5 million annually to startups who move to Buffalo for 12 months), and great integration with local assets (the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Center, formerly a real estate and parking company, in the words of its CEO, has started incubators for health and advanced manufacturing).

Communities, rather than hero individuals, build startups, and the flurry of activity gave entrepreneurs hope that they would have the community behind them. As one entrepreneur, who moved to Buffalo because of the 43-North initiative told me, and plans to stay, "it feels like at every social event and every business meeting I go to, the community is rooting for me to succeed."

Made in Buffalo

So -- what's next for Buffalo? We see a few strong industries: advanced manufacturing, due to a great workforce culture and hard technology industries (we saw, for example, SmartWalls, which is making walls that protect cities against floods), and an opportunity to revolutionize the creaking energy infrastructure with a flurry of bold energy bets, including one of the winners of the $100K pitch competition, Energy Intel, which is developing smartgrid-powering software.

The reason I say "one of the winners" is in the judging of the pitch competition -- judged, among others, by local hero Thurman Thomas -- local investors Z80 decided to match Steve Case's $100K investment so the competition could have two winners, getting $100K investment to PopBio, a precision drug delivery technology. This is the first city where we have had a $100K match, and is particularly indicative that for the "Rise of the Rest" spirit to continue, local leaders are the ones who own the future.

Buffalo, more than many cities we've seen, recognizes that its comeback and future is in its own hands, and more than anything, the attitude of making startups work is the most important ingredient to the Rise of the Rest.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

When I was entering my sophomore year at Stanford University, I piled up my schedule with everything there was. Not only was I taking a heavy course load, I was also in two shows, and trying to work outside of school. In addition, within the first couple of weeks, one of my good friends went through a major life trauma. I wanted to be there for her as much as possible. However, when you're doing everything, something has to give. What gave was my health. I wasn't working out. I wasn't eating right. And above all, I wasn't sleeping.

I probably pulled an all-nighter a week, if not more. I was so exhausted I was falling asleep in class, on benches... under tables. By the end of the quarter I was a complete mess. I had never needed a vacation more. Starting in January, I vowed to take better care of myself.

I stuck to my promise! Yet, as the year went on, I began to get more and more tired. This didn't make sense to me, as I was sleeping around 8 hours a night. I wrote it off as sleep debt. However, by the time summer started, I would need to go lie down if I ever worked out. Sometimes, I would collapse in my car when I got back from the gym, and would sit there for 30 minutes before driving home. I was sad -- all of the time. And I just didn't have strength in the mornings to get out of bed.

Then one day, I had shortness of breath. This is an extremely uncomfortable situation where you feel as though you are not getting enough air into your body. It went away pretty quickly. The next day, it came back. But this time, it lasted for an hour...then two...then three. It got to the point where I woke up feeling like I couldn't breathe, and the feeling would last all day.

I pushed these thoughts aside. I was fine. I had to be fine. It didn't once cross my mind that I had a health issue.

A few weeks later, I was on a hike, and I fainted.

I went in for blood tests the next week. The results came back, and they said I was extremely anemic. My iron levels were so low it had affected my thyroid, my adrenals, my B-levels, and my hormones. They said that my iron levels had been low for a while, and had only just reached tipping point of getting severe. They asked me if there had been any point in the last year that I had maxed myself out. Specifically, if there was a period of time where I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep.

I told them all about my fall quarter at Stanford, and about the pressure I had put on myself. The doctors said that when I used up all of my energy, I had destroyed the levels of the enzyme that absorbs iron. It turns out my anemia was initially kick-started by my lack of sleep.

I had to have a 3-hour intravenous iron injection, and then started taking multiple supplements. After about a month, I began to get my energy back. Now, I look back on how I felt and I can't believe I was actually able to function with such low energy. I feel so much better now there is no comparison.

Going into this quarter, I have a lot of work on my plate. But despite it all, my number one priority is sleep.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Counterintuitive Marketing: Short Copy Does Not Sell Better

Can't Take Your Lunch? Yes You Can.

Can't Take Your Lunch? Yes You Can.

Are You Really A Coach?

Got Your Chips?

Volkswagon: Polluting the American Psyche

Women in Business Q&A: Tina Fordham, Managing Director and Chief Global Political Analyst, Citi

Shopping in the Micro-Moments

October Is National Work and Family Month!

Is Your Brand Suffering From Deferred Maintenance?

The Battle of the 'Creative Genius' vs the 'Performing Machine'

Personal Disruption: What Is It and Why You Should Care

Tesla, The American Dream And The New American Reality

How to Beat Workplace Stress With Mindfulness Meditation

The Silver Lining in the VW Emissions Cloud

Get Help Now! When to Hire Your First Team Member

Single Payer 'Universal' Health Plans, Versus What?

How Do You Create a Successful Business?

Rise of the Rest Tour-Buffalo: How Buffalo Is Making Its Own Rise

When You're Trying to Do Everything, Something Has to Give