Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Seven Personal Characteristics Of A Good Leader

How often have you heard the comment, "He or she is a born leader?" There are certain characteristics found in some people that seem to naturally put them in a position where they're looked up to as a leader.

Whether in fact a person is born a leader or develops skills and abilities to become a leader is open for debate. There are some clear characteristics that are found in good leaders. These qualities can be developed or may be naturally part of their personality. Let us explore them further.

SEVEN PERSONAL QUALITIES FOUND IN A GOOD LEADER

Seven Personal Characteristics Of A Good Leader

1. A good leader has an exemplary character. It is of utmost importance that a leader is trustworthy to lead others. A leader needs to be trusted and be known to live their life with honestly and integrity. A good leader "walks the talk" and in doing so earns the right to have responsibility for others. True authority is born from respect for the good character and trustworthiness of the person who leads.

2. A good leader is enthusiastic about their work or cause and also about their role as leader. People will respond more openly to a person of passion and dedication. Leaders need to be able to be a source of inspiration, and be a motivator towards the required action or cause. Although the responsibilities and roles of a leader may be different, the leader needs to be seen to be part of the team working towards the goal. This kind of leader will not be afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty.

3. A good leader is confident. In order to lead and set direction a leader needs to appear confident as a person and in the leadership role. Such a person inspires confidence in others and draws out the trust and best efforts of the team to complete the task well. A leader who conveys confidence towards the proposed objective inspires the best effort from team members.

4. A leader also needs to function in an orderly and purposeful manner in situations of uncertainty. People look to the leader during times of uncertainty and unfamiliarity and find reassurance and security when the leader portrays confidence and a positive demeanor.

5. Good leaders are tolerant of ambiguity and remain calm, composed and steadfast to the main purpose. Storms, emotions, and crises come and go and a good leader takes these as part of the journey and keeps a cool head.

6. A good leader, as well as keeping the main goal in focus, is able to think analytically. Not only does a good leader view a situation as a whole, but is able to break it down into sub parts for closer inspection. While keeping the goal in view, a good leader can break it down into manageable steps and make progress towards it.

7. A good leader is committed to excellence. Second best does not lead to success. The good leader not only maintains high standards, but also is proactive in raising the bar in order to achieve excellence in all areas.

These seven personal characteristics are foundational to good leadership. Some characteristics may be more naturally present in the personality of a leader. However, each of these characteristics can also be developed and strengthened. A good leader whether they naturally possess these qualities or not, will be diligent to consistently develop and strengthen them in their leadership role.

Seven Personal Characteristics Of A Good Leader
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Barbara White President of Beyond Better Development has over twenty years experience in leadership. Beyond Better Development works with organizations who want their leaders to develop towards their potential and stay on the cutting edge. More about Leadership Developmentand Good Leadership Skills [http://www.beyondbetterleadership.com]

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Saturday, December 8, 2012

New Product Development Outline For New Energy Bar - Product Life Cycle and Pricing Planning

The new PowerBar GelBar combines two growing market segment products into one - the growing segment of energy drinks and the growing, yet moving quickly towards mature, market of energy bars. In this stage of product development, it is necessary to focus on the product life cycle stage of the bar, the upcoming stages and our contingency plan for each as we reach it, marketing mix actions that can be taken to promote the product, and touch briefly on the initial pricing strategy.

Product life cycle stage currently
Despite the fact that GelBar combines a growing product with a growing/mature product, I believe GelBar is in its introduction phase. However, because of the nature of the ingredients, it is a non-disruptive product that will likely mirror a low learning curve product. This means the introduction stage will be short and fast. Because of this, I expect competition for the GelBar quickly once the product is launched.

There is some logic behind claiming that the product is in fact an extension of the growth stage for PowerBar and a way for the firm to stave off the decline in the maturity stage. From a macro perspective, this is true, but the product itself must start in the introduction stage. Because the firm will view the product as new growth product, GelBar will enjoy market exposure and a large advertising budget potential that will allow it to penetrate the market quickly and with large customer awareness.

New Product Development Outline For New Energy Bar - Product Life Cycle and Pricing Planning

Planning for future product life cycle stages
Introduction - Launch product with intensive marketing efforts and skimming pricing. Package the product in flashy packaging to attract customers to purchase the product. Launch in limited markets to test customer reactions and correct problems in the product prior to mass market.

Growth - During this phase, I expect multiple competitors to enter the market. More flavors of the GelBar can be introduced and the promotion would focus on the differences between GelBar and the competition. We will expand the locations that offer GelBar as we roll out the product launch across multiple markets.

Maturity - Continue to introduce new product variations until GelBar reaches a full product line. Stock the product in all stores with an impulse buy section, including gas stations, athletic stores, grocery stores, and others.

Decline - Slowly cut the production of the bar and offer alternative bars to encourage customers to switch while reducing the cost of switching (i.e. reduce the risk of losing according to the prospector theory). Begin to replace the GelBar with the next innovation at select outlets to test the new products.

Promoting GelBar using the marketing mix - three strategies for pushing the product forward
Product - With multiple bars and energy drinks on the market, product packaging and ease of use are paramount. GelBar should be promoted with a product size similar to a Snickers to facilitate the idea of a snack on the go. The physical packaging of the bar should emphasize the combination of the ingredients inside. Possible combinations include two-tone packaging that focuses on the orange color of 5 Hour Energy and the gold of PowerBar or black and white to visually emphasize the two distinct ingredients.

Bundling of the product is also important. The bar should be available in both singles and pack form. This pack form would allow the serious athlete to purchase 6 to 10 bars at a time for a reduced price per bar. By increasing the amount of bars available to purchase at a single time, GelBar appeals to higher-end athletes as well as discount membership stores such as Sam's Club or Costco.

Promotion - Because the initital market for GelBar is high-end sports enthusiasts, advertising will be limited to clearly relevant sporting events. Possible events and end user groups include community sporting events, high school sporting events, corporate-sponsored sports, and professional sports athletes.

As the product matures in the product life cycle, general advertising will be used. By getting sports athletes on board at an early stage, natural promotion will happen as fans see athletes using GelBar at sporting events. Additionally, GelBar can hire celebrity endorsements from these initial professional sports adopters. This will increase GelBar's visibility to the average consumer and will help to increase sales as the placement of GelBar is also expanded into the growth and maturity stages of the product life cycle.

Placement - GelBar is meant for serious athletes, thus placement initially will be in high-end sports shops and venues such as professional or amateur league sporting events. These limited test markets will allow us to correct customer complaints with the new product before rolling it out to grocery stores and health food stores regionally. Because we feel GelBar may be both a planned and impulse purchase, the product should be stocked in two locations within every venue - both near the cash register for impulse buys and near other energy bars for planned purchases.

Once the product matures, GelBar should be in every gas station, discount membership retailer, grocery store, workout facility and athletic equipment store. This large market penetration will provide the most value for customers as GelBar will be readily accessible while working out or at short notice.

Setting the price of GelBar to accomplish these goals
GelBar is a high end product initially that becomes a mass consumer product as it matures. Because of this, a skimming pricing strategy would work the best at first. While GelBar should be given away at sporting events to minimize prospector theory impacts to the end user at first, eventually the product should be priced above the market rate for an energy bar when it is launched across a few select markets. This high price will ensure only the high-end athlete buys the bar and creates GelBar as a status energy bar.

However, once competition begins to enter the market, the price needs to be reworked. By switching from a skimming to penetration pricing plan, GelBar will be able to command the market and effectively compete with the new bars that are launched by our rivals. Because we were a status symbol bar, GelBar should be widely accepted by the mass consumer as long as we have the association with high performance and elite athletes. This lowering of price will make the product available to all types of athletes, not just elite. The end goal of the pricing strategy is to become similar in mentality to Gatorade or Powerade, both brands that are synonymous with a workout food.

Careful analysis of the product life cycle and understanding what each stage looks like will be key to successfully launching and promoting the GelBar. By utilizing different marketing mix strategies at each product life cycle stage, GelBar can stay one step ahead of the competition and maintain its market share. Using each stage of the life cycle, including decline, as a way to promote GelBar will lock in the core customer - the elite athlete, while at the same time making sure the product is readily accepted by the mass consumer when we launch into the mass market segment.

New Product Development Outline For New Energy Bar - Product Life Cycle and Pricing Planning
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Adam Link is an avid follower of the financial markets and constantly looking for the next arbitrage opportunity. He has written on topics ranging from debt markets to Internet start ups to complex financial transactions. His passions include his company, Liekos Group (found online at http://www.liekosgroup.com), and traveling when his schedule allows.

His website is http://www.liekosgroup.com, an online holding company that specializes in website management, capital management, and is venturing into real estate.

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Importance of Play in Child Development

Play is universal throughout the animal kingdom - whether it's a puppy chasing its tail, or young birds swooping through the air. The importance of play to youngsters should not be underestimated. Play is an essential part of growing up and researchers believe it's critical to ensure children reach their full potential in life. Research in animals show that brain connections develop during periods of play, and there's no reason to suppose the same is not true of young humans. Parents don't always understand the importance of play however, and in today's competitive world, the temptation is to stop your children "wasting time" and to put the time to what they believe is more constructive use.

For a child, however, there is no more constructive activity than play. When analysing the importance of play, particularly if you're tempted to introduce a more "worthwhile" activity such as flash cards, educational computer games or dancing lessons, you should take into account the following points:

Play allows a young child to be "in charge." Think about this - in their everyday lives, they're small and powerless, always being told what to do, and how to do it. Without an adult around, they're running the show!

The Importance of Play in Child Development

Play helps children learn about the world in which they live. They can investigate and discover, test their theories, spatial relationships, explore cause and effect, societal roles and family values. Such is the importance of play, that there's virtually no area of life about which it can't teach a child something.

Play builds self-esteem. Children will often play at something they know they can do well, at which they can be successful.

Play builds social skills. Children will begin playing with inanimate and non-threatening objects, like cuddly toys, bricks etc, so practising their interactive skills. Later, playing with other children will build on this foundation as they learn to share, take turns, assert themselves and begin to empathise with others.

The importance of play with parents shouldn't be underestimated either, as research shows that children whose parents play with them ultimately develop superior social skills.

Play also provides the opportunity for children to work out their feelings. The importance of play in dealing with difficult or unpleasant emotions is immense. A child who's worried about going to the dentist, for example, may deal with the anxiety by setting up a clinic for dolls with toothache.

Play helps with language development. Think of the vast number of words a toddler uses during play, many of them repeatedly, enhancing their language skills.

Play allows children to grow beyond their years. They can pretend to be all sorts of things in play - a doctor, a surgeon, a civil engineer even !!(think of those bricks)

Finally, don't forget to consider the importance of play in stimulating your child's creativity and imagination - making a castle in the sand, or a car garage out of a shoe box, taking an order in their own (imaginary) restaurant or dressing up as a king or queen - these all allow children to stretch the limits of their world and experience the fun in make-believe.

The Importance of Play in Child Development
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Ellie Dixon lives in Devon, England. She adores vintage illustrated children's books and loves to restore and edit them for today's kids. Visit Ellie's website, Scruffy's Bookshop [https://www.scruffysbookshop.com], to view a new online toolkit called "Kids of Character"

It's designed to help you raise responsible, caring kids in a fun way. Don't forget to sign up [https://www.scruffysbookshop.com/welcome.html] for her free monthly newsletter while you're there!

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Saturday, December 1, 2012

Website Functionality Depends Upon Web Design and Development

How well your website works has a lot to do with how well it has been designed and developed. Functionality needs to be built in from the ground up to ensure that each element loads quickly, performs efficiently and keeps all information safe and secure. Talented web developers are accustomed to using the latest technology available in order to design websites that are fast and functional, as well as looking great.

While a great looking website with lots of animation, flash and imagery is great to look at, what's the point in a great looking website if it isn't easy to use? Once the initial show is over, will visitors stay on your site if they can't find what they are looking for? Even worse, what if an element of your site has not been designed properly and breaks, or displays badly across different browsers? Experienced web designers know about these pitfalls and test their designs in a variety of ways to ensure that their sites load quickly and continue to perform well for visitors throughout their whole experience on your site.

Additionally, web functionality covers how well your site performs in the search engines. Good web developers are constantly monitoring the latest updates to good SEO practices and incorporating this knowledge into their design process. For example, special care needs to be taken over the functionality of websites designed with Flash landing pages, as search engines can't penetrate some of these pages. Visitors using certain types of browsers, or accessing your website from a mobile device such as an iPhone should also be able to use your site completely, and your website should be designed with this in mind.

Website Functionality Depends Upon Web Design and Development

Issues with functionality of a website cause thousands of businesses lost customers each day, as visitors click away because one or more areas of the site don't display properly or work the way they should. Imagine if your contact form couldn't be sent? Or if your navigation buttons didn't display and there was no other way for users to know which area of the page to click next?

Poorly designed and badly functioning web sites create a terrible impression of your business, so isn't it worth thinking about these things during the initial design rather than trying to fix them later?

Website Functionality Depends Upon Web Design and Development
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