text:
Blog RSS
Border Background
  1. Hiring new talent? Here’s how to spot a potential leader

    September 13, 2016 by Alison Hill

    Having a strong leadership pipeline is a sensible strategy for any organisation. Identifying, nurturing and retaining high potential employees at the start of their careers is a strategy that pays off handsomely.

    Wouldn’t it be nice to hire an enthusiastic young gun with the skills you need now, and then have them move up the ladder with your organisation? Ideally, you would spot a candidate with high leadership potential and then nurture them, helping them to grow into the leader whose aptitude you so astutely spotted way back. The long-term health of an organisation is much better when hiring managers can identify those with the potential to grow into a leadership role and excel at it.

    The problem is, it can be difficult to know what skills will be needed next month, let alone further into the future. As Daniel Goleman has written, ‘the only certainty about tomorrow’s business reality is that it will be ‘VUCA’: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.’ Technological change, globalisation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and an increasingly data-driven business environment mean that we are less likely than ever to be able to predict the future of any industry, let alone our individual businesses.

    With the help of the right recruitment tools, your organisation can identify people who have the right skills for the role and the organisation right now, and the ability to master new skills that may be needed later. Critically, you can also learn to spot the right attitudes and behaviours that identify a new hire as a potential leader.

    These are the personal characteristics to be on the look out for when you interview future leaders and when you decide what personality assessments to use in your hiring process.

    Social and emotional intelligence

    People with high social and emotional intelligence understand both themselves and others and how to manage emotions in each. They make others feel valued and can motivate them with their enthusiasm and positive attitude. They are consistent in their actions, able to show empathy and compassion, are honest and always act ethically and responsibly.

    Motivation and a degree of selflessness

    Potential leaders can inspire those around them to be their best selves. They are not egotistical or driven by self-interest, but by a genuine desire to inspire others to do their best. They know that their success always depends on the willing co-operation of others.

    Openness to feedback new experience and information, learning

    Potential leaders are curious about themselves as well as the world around them. They ask good questions and listen carefully to the answers. They look for feedback from others and learn from it and from their mistakes. They understand collaboration and can identify strengths in others that will contribute to great outcomes.

    Willingness to work towards difficult goals without giving up when things are tough, resilience to continue in the face of setbacks an to learn from failure are hallmarks of good leaders. Those with high leadership potential are able to motivate others and to keep going even when times are tough. They enjoy challenging both themselves and those around them.

    The precise mix of characteristics and how they combine with hard skills will be different for each organisation. Identifying what you need now and into the future is a complex tasks. Challenge Consulting’s suite of psychometric tests can help you to identify potential leaders to match your needs now and into the future.

    Contact Challenge’s People Solutions Team on [email protected] or (02) 9221 6422.

  2. Why hot-desking is not so hot

    September 6, 2016 by Alison Hill

    Some years back, a friend who worked as team leader at one of the big consulting firms told me she had to get to work early the next morning to grab the desk she wanted. Hot-desking – regularly moving from one workstation to another instead of a dedicated desk space – had gone mainstream. It seemed like a great idea: she got the desk with a view in a quiet corner, met a range of diverse people each day and broke down some manager-worker hierarchies.

    It turns out that she hated hot-desking – and she’s by no means alone. According to recent research by organisational psychologist Dr Rachel Morrison, so do most workers. Dr Morrison, of Auckland University of Technology, asked a range of Australian workers about their experience of hot-desking. The answers surprised her. Many were quite the opposite of what the researchers expected to find.

    Rather than building more friendships and increasing collaboration and teamwork, relationships were worse. The study asked people about the demands they experienced in a shared environment (the study also covered open-plan offices). ‘We were expecting to find that people would accrue resources and perhaps make better friends and have increased supervisor support, but what we found actually was that hot-desking and open plan environments created worse quality friendships and lower supervisor support evaluations’, Morrison told ABC Radio National.

    ‘When people are feeling distracted or experiencing a lack of privacy and not enough social distance, they are responding by withdrawing, so they are trying to create their own social distance by not engaging in a friendly manner with their colleagues, by keeping their conversations quite curt, using headphones’. These are not behaviours that usually lead positive relationships. ‘There is less co-operation, less collegial behaviour when people are feeling stressed by the work environment’, says Morrison.

    Hot-desking means we are not able to personalise our working space. ‘Being able to do so fulfils some quite fundamental human need to make a space your own and feel at home there,’ explains Morrison.

    However, despite the disadvantages, the trend continues, and Morrison doesn’t see it changing any time soon. ‘It makes financial sense to be able to use space flexibly. Real estate and office space are a really expensive resource for a lot of organisations, so any time you can save money and use the same space several times in a day or for several people when people aren’t there all the time it does certainly save on cost.’

    So if you are hot-desking in an open-plan office and feeling irritable and unsociable, you’re not alone. Here are some tips for dealing with this modern workplace reality.

    1. Create activity-based workspaces

    Rather than devoting the entire office space to hot-desking, create different spaces for different purposes. Make a quiet space for quiet work, breakout rooms for team meetings and dedicated places for small group conversations and co-working sessions. One company has small, private ‘call rooms’ with a desk, lamp and whiteboard for quiet work and phone calls.

    1. Create ‘I’m busy’ and ‘I’m available’ signals in the workplace

    These could be actual physical signs for each work station, or a shared understanding of signals such as that wearing headphones means do not disturb. This is easy to do and you need not even be listening to anything on your noise-cancelling headphones for others to get the message.

    1. Use a mixture of fixed workstations, hot desks and working remotely

    Those who are in the office five days a week for most of the day get a fixed space; those who work two or three days, or who spend significant time away from the office, use hot-desking. Have a policy that those who need to get work done that needs a significant stretch of time requiring focused attention can work from home for most of the day or part of the week, depending on the length of the project.

    1. Communicate

    Some honest, polite discussion with your neighbours about noise levels or interruptions may be all it takes to keep the open-plan office working. Rather than moaning about them behind their back, have a conversation about what each of you needs. It may lead to exactly the creative shared solution that hot-desking and the open-plan office were designed to achieve.

    So what is the future of hot-desking?

    ‘There are good reasons to have activity-based workspaces’, Morrison concedes, ‘for example, places where people can go to do particular types of work like collaborative work or work that involves high levels of cooperation. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to work closely with others.’

    Morrison’s research found that where people are working closely with others in order to do their jobs, all of the negative impacts of hot-desking and open-plan working disappeared. ‘It was when people were working closely beside others but not with them that it became an issue’, she explains.

    ‘Thoughtfully designed offices that include hot-desking but that also include other breakout places or the ability to book a room when you do need privacy is a good way of having the advantage of both. That will probably be the move that organisations will have to make in the future.’

  3. Why a structured learning program wins when preparing leaders for the next level

    August 30, 2016 by Alison Hill

    Leaders at all levels can be daunted by the thought of moving from their present level to the next rung of the leadership level. Whether they are going to be leading a team for the first time, making the transition to mid-level management, or stepping up to lead a business unit, transitioning leaders can easily feel overwhelmed by the challenges they face.

    Structured programs that address development needs at each level are the best way to address this. A leadership transition program includes hands-on learning, coaching and formal learning. Surprisingly, only 37% of organisations have a structured program to ensure smooth leadership transitions, according to the Global Leadership Forecast 2014/2051 by DDI and The Conference Board.

    As well as increasing engagement and retention and improving the quality of future and current leaders, structured transition programs across all levels of the leadership ladder have a very significant effect on financial performance. The study found that companies with a leadership transition program performed 13% better than average.

    We’ve taken a look at what helps to smooth the leadership transition. Some key findings are:

    • Learning to lead must be handled differently for each level. First-level leaders, mid-level leaders and senior-level each require a unique approach.
    • Hands-on learning in the workplace through setting tough challenges, with plenty of face-to-face contact, is preferred by 90% of transitioning leaders over technology-based and online learning, whether it is instructor lead or self-directed.

    What does this mean for organisations that are developing structured first-level leadership programs?

    Those who are going to lead teams for the first time do best when their leadership transition program involves three key elements:

    • Developmental assignments
    • Formal training
    • Coaching

    Developmental assignments are rated as the most effective method of growing new leaders. This involves the first-level leader taking on challenges such as handling new or different responsibilities, starting a new project or making strategic changes to an existing one,

    Formal training in the hard skills and process capabilities, such monitoring, target setting and applying incentives is absolutely essential.  Mastering hard skills, whether through academic study or workplace learning,  is the most important factor in performance, according to the Study of Australian Leadership. As they put it, ‘Workplaces with better fundamental management systems and practices experience improved workplace performance and employee outcomes, above and beyond other leadership factors.’

    Many institutions offer great courses in leadership, from managing staff in a small business to MBA-level learning in developing to senior management roles. Take a look at the AIM website for a wide range of leadership training options for each level, or Kaplan Professional’s aspiring and emerging leaders’ courses. There are plenty more too.

    Coaching from the current manager is another effective way that first-level leaders learn, according to respondents in the Global Leadership Forecast, with coaching by others in the organisation and coaching from external coaches seen as less relevant at this level.

    Identifying those with the potential to be leaders is vital. They can be identified using objective measures, such as those offered by Psychometric assessment team at Challenge People Services.

    Identifying readiness to step up to a new level of responsibility is important as well, and is not the same as identifying potential. Simulations that present challenges that the high-potential might face in their new role give organisations the opportunity to measure whether they might be able to meet the demands of the new role within a shortened period of time.

    Developing leaders at every level who are capable of taking the organisation on the strategic journey it has identified is at the core of business success. We have looked at what works best for first-level leaders: developmental assignments, formal learning and coaching. Future posts will look at what works for mid-level and senior-level leaders.

  4. What Australia needs to do better

    August 23, 2016 by Alison Hill

    The Olympics are over, and Australia didn’t do as well as we’d hoped. The post-mortem has begun and the leadership is being blamed. Chef de mission Kitty Chiller was too controlling, had ‘muddled team ideals’ and made policy on the run, says the Guardian. Former head swim coach Bill Sweetenham says the entire swimming hierarchy must step down. The recriminations will go on.

    Sport seems not to be the only area in which Australia is falling behind – a recent leadership study finds significant weaknesses in business leadership and management that are hurting our future performance and prosperity. The Study of Australian Leadership was conducted by Centre for Workplace Leadership at the University of Melbourne and reported its findings in May. The SAL says we have reason to be concerned about the state of leadership and management in Australia, and that we are in danger of being unable to address future challenges.

    SAL highlighted seven areas of concern. The gaps and weaknesses we believe are most worrying for Challenge clients are these four.

    1. Many Australian organisations do not get the basics right

    Management fundamentals are not up to scratch, the survey found. Performance monitoring, target setting and using incentives were found to be lacking, and the survey rated these as more important than leadership capabilities and self-efficacy (a leader’s belief in their ability to lead). The good news is that these are skills that can be taught and learnt.

    The study showed that investment in leadership capability pays off in better performance and more innovation. Workplaces with a range of leadership development activities not only have more capable leaders, they also believe in their capacity to excel.

    This leads us to the next important finding.

    1. Too many Australian organisations underinvest in leadership development, especially at the frontline

    When organisations do spend on leadership development, they are focusing on the wrong places. The SAL showed that for every $10 spent on training for senior leaders, only  $1 is spent on frontline and workplace leaders. Yet training for frontline and workplace leaders improved performance and drove innovation more than training for senior leaders did.

    The study found too that many leaders are not well trained for the job, with one in four senior leaders in the private sector having no formal training beyond secondary school. While it concedes that formal qualifications are not everything, it points out that formal training provides a basis for many of the necessary skills, from technical too problem-solving and change management.

    This could be related to the next finding.

    1. Leadership in Australian organisations does not reflect wider social diversity

    It is still dominated by older men form English-speaking backgrounds, according to the study, with women, younger people and those from Non-English speaking backgrounds underrepresented. It points out that diversity is good for business performance, leading to greater creativity and innovation and higher commitment and engagement at work. Since a key finding was that innovation is driven by quality leadership and management and is a critical source of productivity growth and competitiveness, this matters at more than only an ethical or social level.

    1. Many senior leaders do not draw on strategic advice in making decisions about the future

    The study identifies three levels of leadership: senior organisational, workplace level and frontline leadership. At the most senior level, leaders must scan the external environment, interpreting the myriad factors that will influence the competitive position of their organisation. Yet few senior leaders are turning to associations, consultants, experts and the insight of other senior leaders for advice. The study points out that leaders need many sources of insight and information, they cannot make sense of how external challenges will influence their organisation in isolation. Not drawing on strategic advice leaves them vulnerable to poor decision-making, especially in a climate of uncertainty and disruption as we are experiencing now.

    Australian sport and Australian business both have a lot to learn about leadership, it seems, before we can truly be winners. Anthony Mitchell, co-founder of strategic leadership firm Bendelta, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald put it this way: ‘We are now smart enough to recognise that the most important driver of business success – the quality of leadership – requires a level of science proportionate to its impact.’ More on that next time.

  5. How to create and deliver a presentation that is worth sitting through

    August 16, 2016 by Alison Hill

    A friend in the financial services industry told me about a webinar she signed up for, and what a waste of time it was. I’m sure you can relate: after about 20 minutes she took a break and made herself a coffee. When she came back, the same slide was on her screen and the presentation had hardly moved along. She gave up and went back to her work.

    Mostly we’re not able to clock out of boring presentations. Either we need the information to do our jobs properly, or we are stuck in a meeting room with no way out. Most of us will be on the other side of the audience at some time, and have to present to others in the workplace. Knowledge-sharing is a vital part of work these days, and most of us will be called on to give a talk or slide presentation, or to create a webinar or instructional video at some time.

    Whatever method you use, here are some guidelines to follow and some handy resources to help you.

    1. Get straight to the point, preferably with a good story

    So many presentations – particularly webinars – have long introductions that add nothing to the experience. Hook your audience early with a pithy introduction and preferably with a good story that makes them care. There’s nothing like a human angle to get the audience involved. My financial adviser friend recalled the story of a retailer with no business interruption insurance. A car went through the shopfront, smashing the glass and ruining expensive equipment, which was covered, and closing the shop for a month, which was not. That got her attention much more than a statistic about lost trading revenue could ever have.

    1. Know who your audience is

    Actually, this should have been point one. You can’t deliver a good presentation if you don’t know who you are talking to. It affects everything from what technical terms to use (see point 4) to how long you will talk for and what visuals you will use. Take a page from the marketing playbook and create a ‘persona’ representing your typical audience member. How old are they? What do they do in their spare time? What do they already know about your subject? Why do they need to know about your topic? Do some research before you make the presentation, and then tailor what you have to say to that persona.

    A word of warning: it’s annoying to poll the audience at the start of your session and then not act on what you find. Countless webinars ‘poll’ the audience and then do squat to adapt the content to suit those findings. Either be prepared to adapt your talk, or don’t ask. Your audience will only feel ignored and tune out if you fail to respond to their needs.

    1. Don’t overcrowd your presentation with bullet points and endless slides

    Death by PowerPoint – we’ve all been there. There is no point in putting up slides filled with endless bullet points and reading them to the audience; not in person, and not online. Your audience will read your slides rather than listen to you, and they can read faster than you can speak. Use slide presentations to highlight the main points you will talk to and make sure they are interesting. We couldn’t say it any better than in this presentation about great PowerPoint presentations by designer Damon Nofar.

    1. Don’t use excessively technical jargon or in-house terms

    My finance professional told me how she attended a seminar dealing with legal issues in financial advice. ‘When the presenter used terms I didn’t know, I felt really out of touch. I felt dumb until I looked around the room and saw nearly everybody else looking awkward, and realised it wasn’t just me.’ The lesson is that if you have to use technical terms, explain them clearly in words that match the knowledge and experience of your audience.

    1. Use your ordinary speaking voice and put your self into the presentation

    Most of the time, presentations do not need to sound like a formal oration. It’s not the school debating society, nor the Gettysburg address. Put your true self out there and you will be much more likely to connect with the audience.

    1. Mind your professional manners

    My financial friend told me how at an industry event she attended, presenters had cracked ‘jokes’ about their competition in the industry, naming the organisations. Far from making her feel more positive about the presenter’s organisation, she was shocked by their lack of professional manners. Whether you are presenting internally or externally, slagging off the competition, be it another company or another team, adds nothing to your presentation. Bad jokes, in-jokes and snide remarks reflect badly on your professionalism.

    1. Create a strategy to deal with questions

    Think about your pace and how to engage your audience. Reading slides out in a monotone is not going to do it. Giving the audience a chance to ask questions, stopping to ask or answer questions yourself and periodically checking the audience’s understanding helps to keep people tuned in.

    Questions and answers need to be controlled, however. We’ve all been in a presentation where an audience member takes up the group’s time with questions that are not relevant to the rest of us. ‘I was impressed by a presenter who could deflect unhelpful questions’, my financial adviser friend told me. ‘He offered to collect all the questions and answer them at the end if his presentation hadn’t answered them, and dealt with important ones as he went along. He struck a good balance between being engaging and taking up too much time with things that were not interesting to most of us.’

    1. Call on the professionals

    Challenge Consulting’s People Services runs Presenting with Impact workshops on presentation skills, as well as a presentation skills test for candidates.

    Copyright-free images to use in your slides are available on many sites, including Pixabay.  Easy-to-use graphic design site Canva helps with images and infographics. Both can be used for free. Prezi is a great alternative to PowerPoint. There are plenty more learning resources and tools out there. Use them to make your presentations sing.

  6. What makes a good mentor?

    August 2, 2016 by Alison Hill

    Mentoring is a buzzword in today’s workplace, with over 70 per cent of Fortune 500 companies offering their employees professional mentoring programs. The concept is ancient, however – the term ‘mentor’ comes from Homer’s Odyssey, which dates back to the end of the eighth century BC.
    Mentor was left in charge of Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, when Odysseus left for the Trojan war, and later, the goddess Athena disguised herself as Mentor and encouraged Telemachus to stand up to his mother’s suitors and go searching for his father, who had not returned from the Trojan War. (Yes, it’s complicated. Reading the whole work is a deeply rewarding experience and is highly recommended.)
    Mentoring is not the same as coaching, which we wrote about here. It is also not the same as training, which is formal and structured, and designed to teach particular skills and competencies.
    Dr John Kenworthy of Leadership AdvantEdge defines mentoring as: ‘A working relational experience through which one person empowers and enables another by sharing their wisdom and resources’.
    At a recent session at the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) mentoring trainer Toni Greenwood said that the best mentors know about the specific company, the industry it operates within and the big-picture issues of strategic importance to both. They have a range of great interpersonal skills, including active listening, the ability to give good feedback and the courage to have difficult conversations – and then let the issue go. They will be good at challenging the person who is being mentored and reframing the issue they are facing to allow them to find their own solution. Emotional intelligence is crucial; they must show empathy, resilience and the ability to read emotions in others.
    Let’s turn again to the Odyssey for some ideas about what a mentor does.
    1. A mentor is a more experienced person who shares their wisdom with a less experienced person.
    As Mentor did for Telemachus, a mentoring relationship provides a safe space for the person who is being mentored to share the issues that are holding them back with somebody whose experience is greater. Creating a long-term relationship over time, so that both people can learn about one another, build trust and feel secure, is a foundation of the mentoring process. While there is no perfect time for the mentoring relationship to last, generally around a year is recommended. In Deloitte’s Emerging Leaders Development Program, mentoring relationships last at least two years.
    A connection with a mentor can help a high-potential employee to learn from a leader, making them ready to take on a leadership position in the organisation more quickly, and with more organisation-specific knowledge than if only skills training or coaching were offered.
    2. A mentor works alongside the person who is being mentored.
    A mentoring relationship may start out with specific goals and set competencies to achieve, but its scope usually grows beyond the initial issues to encompass anything that impacts success, such as dealing with work–life balance or developing self-confidence. Nevertheless, agreeing on areas of focus, adopting a mentoring model and the all-important business of choosing a mentor are vital in setting up the relationship and deciding on its strategic purpose.
    3. A mentor encourages the person being mentored to step outside their comfort level
    Because an important part of the mentoring relationship is directed at the person’s future in the company and not only for the immediate job, it is different to the role of manager. Companies use mentoring programs to develop leaders and to keep star performers engaged, increasing retention rates. The mentoring relationship is most productive when it is separate to the manager–employee relationship (unlike in the coaching relationship where the manager can play a more direct role).
    Just as Mentor became Telemachus’ teacher, coach, counsellor and protector, developing a relationship based on affection and trust, organisations can adopt mentoring programs to build leaders and create organisations that engage and retain top talent.

  7. How constructive criticism helps us thrive

    July 26, 2016 by Alison Hill

    So much of what we do at work, from giving and receiving performance reviews to learning to be a leader and coach, rests on being able to give and receive feedback. Although it can be scary, people actually thrive on criticism when it is constructive.

    Good feedback is the quickest way to learn do things better and to change our behaviour. Yet we fear and avoid it, for good reasons to do with the way the human mind works. We find it threatening both to give and to receive criticism. It doesn’t have to be that way.

    A colleague recently participated in a writing workshop and told me how much she had benefited from what others had said about the work she’d presented. ‘Well you’re good, so of course they would say so,’ I told her. ‘No, it was when they told me the things I hadn’t done well that I really learnt something’, she said.  ‘It hurt, and some of the group were pretty harsh, yet when I thought about it later, I was grateful. I reworked my story and it was a lot better.’ Then she told me how hard it had been to give constructive criticism, especially to people she didn’t like much or when she felt the work had few redeeming features.

    I reminded her about using the ‘sandwich’ method we’d learnt in parenting classes: positioning a slice of negative criticism ‘cheese’ between two pieces of positive feedback ‘bread’. ‘I did that, and I felt like a fake’, she told me. ‘I could see they were just waiting for me to get to the bad bit, and didn’t really hear the good news. I was uncomfortable because I knew I still had to say that their dialogue was unnatural and their grammar was all wrong, and my unease made them uncomfortable too.’ It seemed the conventional wisdom wasn’t working.

    She then shared with me how the group had agreed to a better method after that first awkward session. They decided to be transparent about how constructive feedback would be given, and all agreed to follow a process. My friend described how much better she felt about giving and receiving feedback when the emphasis shifted to making shared, informed choices about how to improve. Of course, sharing creative writing in a group setting is not quite the same as having a one-on-one conversation about workplace performance, but the principles still apply.

    Giving criticism: the criticism sandwich v the transparent approach

    Instead of: ‘The report is well written and interesting. However, there’s not enough detail. You’d better find the figures and add them in before the presentation at three. I love the layout though’.

    Describe what you see, and agree on the facts

    ‘I’m concerned about the lack of detail in this report and how that might have affected our business case. I’d like to go through some details and see if you see the same things. I’m open to the possibility that I’ve missed something or that I’ve not explained what’s needed. Once we agree on the size of the problem, let’s decide what we can do.

    Decide how the work could be improved

    ‘So you agree there should be more data and explained that you needed more time to do the research. I’ll have Tom cover your client calls for today and you will find the data and add it to the report before the presentation.’

    Commit to implementing the feedback where appropriate and sharing the results

    You’ll get the revised report to me by two, so that I can check the figures. Next time I’ll be more realistic with timeframes and you’ll be clearer about your process and ask for help if you need it, so there are no last-minute surprises in future.’

    How did implementing this transparent approach work in my colleague’s writing workshop? And how can we apply what she has learnt to the workplace?

    She now feels more genuine in the feedback she gives, and less defensive about receiving it in return. The group as a whole feels confident and comfortable about sharing the good and the bad aspects of each other’s work. She’s preparing her manuscript for a publisher – a step she said she would never have taken without the constructive and transparent criticism of her peers.

    Managers have to give criticism regularly, and it can be tough. Employees are bound to receive it, and in a healthy workplace giving and receiving feedback from peers can present growth opportunities too. Practicing good feedback techniques will stand us in good stead no matter where we are. So describe what you see, negotiate a mutual solution and commit to implementing good feedback.

  8. How to get the most from your temporary assignment

    July 12, 2016 by Alison Hill

    Temporary work can be great for all involved. Companies get to fill leave positions, cover for a key person who is ill, or find an extra pair of hands in busy times. Newly qualified workers can gain experience in the workplace and try out different industries and employers, and otherwise unemployed people can keep their skills current and earn an income while they search for a permanent position.
    A first-class agency that specialises in the industries and skills that both the company and the temp are interested in can make a good match great.
    So how do companies and temps both get the most out of the temporary assignment? We asked Melissa Lombardo, Challenge Consulting’s Temporary Services Consultant,  and considered what employers have valued when they nominated people for our Temp of the Month award.
    Here are four things you can do to maximise the temping experience.

    1. Be reliable
    Reliability is Lombardo’s first requirement. It seems self-evident, but sadly it isn’t. She explains that Challenge maintains a group of excellent candidates that have been interviewed and reference checked, so that when an assignment arises, the candidate can fill the position the same day if necessary. ‘This means reliability is the most important characteristic of a good temp’, says Lombardo. ‘Temps who show commitment to the position will be most likely to be offered the next position, as they’ve demonstrated their reliability by showing up and completing the placement’.

    What they said about the temp …
    ‘Her work rate and standards are very high’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Michala Kowalski
    ‘She is so accommodating and bright that any company would be silly to not offer her a role for which she applies’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Janette Wallman

    2. Be a clear communicator
    The agency can make a good match if both the temp and the organisation are clear about what they want. If a temp is unable to take a position because it means a long commute, they should say so, says Lombardo. A reasonable recruiter would not hold that against a temp, and can offer them another assignment closer to home.
    Organisations should try to plan for covering maternity leave, annual leave or periods of higher activity. With more notice, the temporary recruiter can place the most suitable person, particularly for longer assignments. The best temps are in high demand and may be unavailable at short notice.

    What they said about the temp …
    ‘She is a strong communicator and is able to deal with our introducers demands with ease’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Anna Kemp
    ‘… a friendly and energetic part of the team’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Nishma Manandhar

    3. Be open-minded about the assignment
    Lombardo says that both organisations and temps can be reluctant when the person’s skills and experience are more than the role requires. Approached with an open mind, this situation is a winner for all concerned.
    The temp has a great opportunity to impress, to network and to learn new skills and systems. They will be remembered when it comes to making a permanent hire in a position for which the temp is qualified; they will think of Charlie the great temp receptionist who was actually a qualified accountant when the next suitable vacancy comes up.
    ‘The company gets the benefit of a person with strong experience and skills, representing great value for money, says Lombardo. ‘This is particularly true for those on working holiday visas, who may be much more qualified than is necessary for an admin assistant.’

    What they said about the temp …
    ‘… doing jobs far below her skill set but she would not tell you she is degree qualified in the science field’ Challenge Temp of the Month Janette Wallman
    ‘Despite being a senior HR practitioner and working with us on contract, Janine has mucked in with admin duties’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Janine Brockway
    ‘… consistently amazes us with the upgrades he has made to our SharePoint site’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Peter Sunga

    4. Have a positive attitude and go the extra mile
    Temps are always meeting new people and working in different environments. It helps to be friendly, positive, and open to new experiences. If the temp assignment is more junior than is ideal, a positive person will see it as a good way to network and have new learning experiences.
    Employers should be open to contributions that are ‘above and beyond.’ Just because they are temps, it doesn’t mean they can’t make excellent suggestions or put improvements in place.

    What they said about the temp …
    ‘… jumped at the opportunity to take on challenging additional work’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Charbel Elhage
    ‘… made a huge effort to pinpoint any areas for further development’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Nishma Manandhar
    ‘… not only performed the role as required, but has worked to make continual improvements to the process’ – Challenge Temp of the Month Aisling Kennedy

    Find out more about Challenge Consulting’s Temporary Staff Services here.

  9. How the best leaders become coaches: lessons from the field

    July 5, 2016 by Alison Hill

    Being a team player, touching base, big wins, level playing fields – not to mention  dropping the ball and getting it over the line –  are just some of the terms from the sports field that we use at work. So when we decided to address the topic of leadership coaching, we decided to ask a successful sports coach for tips that we could translate to the workplace.

    When Adam took over as coach of a club soccer team, they had come last in the previous season’s competition. They weren’t too discouraged, as they were mates who liked playing together, but they had no expectations of winning. Three months into this season, they have won eight games in a row and stand a good chance of winning the entire competition. So what’s changed? And how did they get there?

    As I spoke to Adam, the parallels between coaching a group of 16-year-old boys in football and leading a team at work became clearer. Last season’s coach/manager has moved on. The team is ready to play but not highly motivated. They lack some skills and resources, and above all they lack belief that they can achieve. These are the steps Adam took to turn the team’s fortunes around.

    1. Observe and learn

    For the first few training sessions, Adam watched the players, assessing their skills and attitudes and observing how they worked together as a team. He didn’t step in or change anything until he had this figured out. Adam then worked out what he needed to learn himself before he could support the team. He realised that he couldn’t teach them hard skills in the time available, but could suggest areas of improvement for each player and an approach to learning new skills.

    Lesson: The best coaches start by truly understanding the team they are working with before they rush in with solutions. They know that self-education has to come before teaching others, and empower their teams to be responsible for their own skills development.

    1. Plan and consult

    Once he had observed the team and was familiar with their strengths and weaknesses and how they worked together, Adam make a plan for tackling improvement. Upgrading skills was to be their individual responsibility, while teamwork and team culture would be his.  He consulted the team about their vision; what they wanted from the season and what they expected to achieve.

    Lesson: Involving the team in their own goal setting and making a concrete plan of action brings results. The best coaches know that setting achievable yet challenging goals motivates people.

    1. Set expectations and parameters

    Adam emailed each team member, outlining what was expected of them and what he would do for the team. This included attending every training session, showing total respect for teammates,  and encouraging team members who made mistakes or struggled with new skills. In turn he committed to 100% positive effort and the intention to win every game.

    Lesson:  Setting clear expectations for everybody in the team – including the coach – builds a respectful culture in which everybody is expected to do their best and support one another in an atmosphere of civility. The best coaches hold their team to high standards of personal conduct as well as professional skill.

    1. Advocate for the team

    The team’s culture of non-performance meant they were under-resourced and rather ignored by the club. Adam’s mission was to get the team the resources it needed to succeed, and he pressured the club to provide new training balls, bibs and cones. This motivated the team and they soon began to win games and catch the attention of the club’s hierarchy. A coach needs to ‘go in to bat’ for the team and get them the resources they need, as well as to be supported by the organisation, to be truly effective.

    Lesson: Whether it is better equipment, more time to complete a project or recruiting a star performer, a good coach tries their utmost to get the team what it needs. Their commitment to advocating on behalf of the team shows the team they are valued as well as providing them with resources  to maximise their chances of success.

    5. Learn from setbacks and failures

    When the team started winning, they were surprised by their success. They won a game, but then had a bad loss, crumbling under pressure. Adam reassured them that this did not confirm their fear that they were a poor team after all. He admitted that he had formed a false sense of their mastery after the previous week’s win, and thought that winning would be easy this time too. He asked the team why they thought they had lost, and how they felt about it, and together they recommitted to a slightly different training routine, moving players to different positions, and working harder at skills. They aimed for improvement, not perfection.

    Lesson: Progress is not always linear and there are bound to be stumbling blocks. Confronting these situations, learning from them and adjusting plans when they are not working makes for a better result. A great coach leads the team through setbacks and is not afraid to talk about the negative aspects of performance as well as the positive.

    1. Review performance and celebrate success

    At the end of each game, the team has a quick chat about what went well and what went badly, but Adam is aware that they would rather get home than talk about the game at length. He plans a longer, more formal feedback session for the next training time, where they can talk honestly among themselves – and when tempers have died down if necessary. He stresses that by this time he has had time to reflect on the game, which is crucial in setting the tone for a review. The players contribute their ideas, the team discusses them, and the coach acts on the good ones. He sets the rules for these discussions: no criticism of anybody in front of others; talk about the team, not individuals.

    In this team, success is not celebrated by singling out individual players for medals and commendations. The biggest celebrations are reserved for when a player who has never scored a goal before gets one, rather than for when the star player scores another one. Adam’s proudest achievement is that a player who has never scored in many years of playing kicked the winning goal last week.

    Lesson: Success belongs to everybody, and so does disappointment. The best coaches do not praise or criticise reactively. They reflect and plan before honest discussions about—–

    The parallels between coaching a sports team and a business team are clear – that’s why the sporting metaphors fit so well. Lead your team to success by being the coach who uses a consultative leadership style, plans before acting, and shows flexibility and a willingness to take considered risks. Then watch your ‘weakest performer’ score the next winning goal.

  10. Five alternatives to the traditional performance review

    June 28, 2016 by Alison Hill

    I asked a millennial a straightforward question: ‘Have you ever had a performance review?’ ‘Yes, and it sucked’, he replied.

    He’s a motivated, engaged worker who routinely exceeds his monthly targets, so I’m sure it wasn’t his rating he was unhappy with; it was the process. We know it needs to change; after all, the workplace has changed profoundly in the last decade. We make decisions more collaboratively, we work in global teams, our work is more data-driven and information overload is a constant stressor.

    This young person described his ideal alternative to a performance review to me and it boiled down to three things:

    • Coaching and mentoring to help him reach his own goals
    • A clear understanding of the organisation’s goals and how he is expected to meet them
    • A fair and balanced assessment of how he is doing, from a range of perspectives

    And while these are all really important to him, he doesn’t want them to be onerous or too time-consuming; not for him, his manger or the people in HR.

    I participated in a webinar hosted by Halogen Software, in which presenters Evelyn Watts and Hawley Kane outlined five alternatives to the annual review. I’m sure my millennial mate, as well as any of the other three or four generations in the workplace, will find an alternative that suits their workplace and their people.

    It’s important. Watts and Kane reported that when organisations began to focus on coaching and feedback in their ongoing performance management they reported:

    • increased revenue (70% of companies)
    • decrease in staff turnover (72% of companies)
    • improved customer satisfaction (54% of companies).

    So here are the five alternatives that Watts and Kane of Halogen Software suggest.

    1. Quarterly goal setting

    Frequent revision and updating of goals leads to better business outcomes. It’s common for executive teams to review their goals as often as five times a year; employees are unlikely to do the same.

    Step one is to align individual goals with strategic goals; and step two is to set concrete goals with a target and a measurement. It is then critical to keep on track and stay engaged, which is accomplished by regular and specific feedback and discussion. As Halogen is a software company, it has clever computer-based ways to manage these processes and keep them front of mind.

    1. Development discussions

    In the contemporary workplace, especially for millennials, the reality is that 18 to 24 months in a job is normal. In this time, employer and employee want to get the most from each other. Holding development discussions that challenge everybody is the manager’s challenge. The process should be honest and open, with the manager acting as coach, not boss.

    It is still important that the process be formal and that a solid development plan results from it. Halogen’s career development plan asks, ‘Where do you want to be in two years?’ The manager is then challenged to identify appropriate development plans to help the team member reach their career goals. They must keep the conversation going, periodically asking, ‘how are we doing?’ and at the end of the year asking, ‘did we get there?’ before creating the next plan.

    1. 360 degree feedback assessments

    One of the things my millennial mentioned in describing how his reviews sucked was that although his manager felt she had the full picture of his achievements, he didn’t believe that she did, as he did some of his best work on a project in another team, some of whom were in another city. Well-conducted 360 degree reviews overcome this as workers are far more accepting of performance feedback when it comes from multiple sources. Halogen reports more accurate, credible and reliable performance appraisal ratings, improved performance and higher functioning teams as well.

    These are their guidelines

    • Have employees choose raters with manager approval
    • Feedback should be aggregated and anonymous
    • Rate on competencies
    • Provide training and follow up

    Teaching people how to give and receive feedback is important for this approach to be successful, and feedback should flow up as well as down the company hierarchy.

    1. Project reviews

    Reviewing the success of a project and the people working on it aligns better with the way many companies work now. This method is not limited to the employee-manger relationship and is flexible in that it can launch any time and team leaders can manage their own project teams and set project goals and measurements. Project reviews should incorporate continuous feedback to work most effectively, say Watts and Kane.

    1. Check-ins

    Watts and Kane refer to frequent, regular one-on-one conversations as the ‘Holy Grail’ of performance management. They link coaching and feedback to goals, development, rewards and ultimately career progression. Because they are so important, we will look at these in detail in our next post about performance reviews.

    Progress, not perfection

    In the webinar’s question time a participant said that they presently had no performance reviews, and asked how to get started.  Training people to understand the benefits, linking goals (the what) and competencies (the how) and changing the mindset of managers all formed part of the answer, but what really resonated was Watts and Kane’s assertion that you can start tomorrow with these five methods.

    We know the performance review has to change, and we can take small steps, aiming for progress rather than perfection. Work is changing so fast that we can’t afford not to – improving conventional approaches is not going to cut it and the annual review is becoming less effective at driving performance every year.

SUBSCRIBE Join Our Mail List
Border Background


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

WARC-Truncated: length

WARC-Type: response

text:
Posts from September 2005.

ClearContext v2 Update

Thanks to everyone who has asked about the status of product plans.  FYI – We continue to rapidly move towards our next major release (ClearContext v2.0).  Our initial announcement provides a good overview of the feature set; we will talk more about the final feature list shortly.

Beta testing will start in Q4.  If you are interested in participating in the Beta, please send an email to

A number of people have begun to ask about v2 upgrade pricing.  We have not finalized 2.0 pricing yet, but we will provide discounts to registered 1.x users that make it cheaper to upgrade then to buy the new product outright.

Thanks again and we look forward to hearing your feedback on the product when we get it out there!

“We’re making our people compete with sandbags strapped to their legs”

BusinessWeek has an interesting article in this week’s edition titled The Real Reasons You’re Working So Hard.
The basic premise is that, while the information revolution has boosted
productivity by 70% in the last 25 years, companies that are holding on
to now archaic corporate organizational structures are overloading
their employees with internal inefficiency.  Read this:

Globalization and the
Internet create great new opportunities, but they also ratchet up the
intensity of competition and generate more work — especially with the
existing corporate structure still hanging on tightly. "Nobody wants to
give up their territory or their control," says Shoshana Zuboff, a
former professor at Harvard Business School. Adds Lowell Bryan, a
McKinsey & Co. director: "Professionals are still being managed as
if they were in factories, in organizations designed to keep everybody
siloed. At less well-run companies, you’re struck by how frustrated
people are. They work like dogs and are wasting time."

Make that lots of time. Fully 25% of executives at large companies say
their communications — voice mail, e-mail, and meetings — are nearly
or completely unmanageable. That’s according to a new McKinsey survey
of more than 7,800 managers around the world. Nearly 40% spend a half
to a full day per week on communications that are not valuable. Other
surveys echo similar results. "We’re making our people compete with
sandbags strapped to their legs," says Zuboff.

One only has to look at the popularity of David Allen’s Getting Things Done Methodology
to verify that this is exactly right – millions of workers are
struggling to cope with overly efficient distribution of information
within an inherently broken internal system.  And while there are
lots of companies who provide tools and methodologies to cope with this
problem (ourselves included), there is a real need for big corporations to rethink the way that they manage their people and their business.

When I was in the consulting world, it was these types of
inefficiencies that opened the window for some of our largest and most
successful projects.  One of my clients had all the skills in
house to implement the enterprise systems we were building, but their
employees weren’t empowered to cross departmental lines to get it
done.  They ultimately spent millions in services fees to 3rd
parties who could work outside the corporate bureaucracy.  And
while the project was a huge success (we were inducted into the
company’s "Project Hall of Fame"!) they were paying us as much (or
more) for our skills at crossing organizational boundaries as they were
for our development and implementation work.

For more detail, read the BusinessWeek article The Real Reasons You’re Working So Hard.

Hotmail Beta Demo

I’m late to the dance on this one, but Omar has pointed out that a video for the new Hotmail beta (code named "Kahuna") is available on Channel 9.  Interesting stuff going on in the webmail world…

Email Nirvana

Mark Hurst touts the advantages of emptying the inbox regularly in a Forbes article published yesterday:

"Here’s how to manage incoming e-mail: Keep the
inbox empty–clear out incoming e-mails before they pile up or you lose
your ability to manage them effectively."

He makes it sound so simple.  The article goes on to explain some ways to acomplish this task, including the use of the oft repeated "two-minute rule:" if you
can address the message in less than two minutes, do it and file or
delete it.

For more detail, read The Secrets to E-Mail Nirvana.

Check Out My Podcast Network Interview

The Podcast Network interviewed me on their Productivity Show yesterday and posted it here.  It’s about 45 minutes long, and we spend most of the time talking through the features and functionality of ClearContext.  If you want to hear a more in depth analysis of what Inbox Manager can do, check it out.

I want to say thanks again to Cameron and Des.  It was a pleasure chatting.  Hopefully my enthusiasm for our product comes through in the show!

Getting the Most Out of ClearContext

While interviewing for a podcast this morning (more on that in a day or so) it occurred to me that we have posted a wealth of great ClearContext usage tips on our blog that our new users might benefit from, but may not be easy to find.  Eventually I’ll find a place to post some perma-links on the website, but for now here’s a roundup of some of our more informative posts:

Three Things You Might Not Know About ClearContext – New users should start here, it includes information no customizing views, automatically saving sent messages, and enabling the ClearContext open message toolbar.

Convert Your Folders to ClearContext Topic Folders
– a quick note on taking advantage of ClearContext’s automated filing featues using your existing folders.

ClearContext Proritization Adjustment – instructions for tweaking the weighting of ClearContext’s prioritization algorithm.

How To Avoid Exceeding Your Mail File Size Limit – use ClearContext to help proactively stay ahead of your company’s size limitations.

ClearContext & ActiveWords: a Script to Get You Started
– for new users of the ClearContext ActiveWords Agent, this walks you through exactly what we can do.

Holiday Email Avalanche – You’ve got 100’s of messages in your inbox and you want to clear them out?  Follow these tips to regain control of your Inbox using ClearContext.

Writing Sensible Email – always a great source of productivity information – has posted a bunch of tips for writing sensible email.  All are great recommendations and well worth the time to read.  I’d like to add one more – know your audience.  The content of your email should vary greatly by recipient.

For example, I worked with a client who routed a lot of my requests
through his administrative assistant.  It was imperative that I
thank her whenever she sent me an email or I wouldn’t get a timely
response the next time I needed something.  On the flip side, the
client could not care less when I responded with my usual pleasantries
in email – "get down to business" is a direct quote.

Read Writing sensible email messages for more information on crafting effective email.

Professional E-mail Tips from Lifehacker

D. Keith Robinson has posted a long list of ways to handle your email better on Lifehacker; including tips for writing better messages and handling large volumes of email.  This one struck a chord:

"Sign your e-mail. At the very least your name if the
person you’re e-mailing doesn’t know you well. I get many e-mails from
people who’s e-mail address is funky, something like, and it makes for an awkward response if I
don’t know their name."

Years ago I was working a large consulting gig at a major telecom company.  One of the independent contractors on the project had a somewhat unique email handle – let’s call it "" to protect the indifferent.  The first time I received an email from him I was shocked at the unprofessional image this conveyed to our mutual client.  Needless to say, the email address was a source of ridicule from everyone on the team and the contractor didn’t last long on the project.

Better yet, a friend of a friend shows up for his first day at work at a new, hip dot-com company in the late nineties.  When asked what he wants his email address to be, he replies "subtlewinds."  Turns out the company wasn’t THAT hip.  He didn’t make it more than a couple of weeks.

My post has morphed into something entirely different than I intended, but here’s where I close the circle: Email, like every other form of contact between you and your customers/ clients/ colleagues, is a chance to make an impression.  Make sure that you are conveying the image you want – pick a good email address, spell and grammar check your messages, use language that is appropriate to the audience, and put a good signature on all your email.

Read Special: Professional E-Mail Tips for more ideas.

Another Review Gets a Free License

Soulhuntre posted a comprehensive review of Inbox Manager:

“ClearContext is one of the tools that, even though I have only had it a week or so, has totally changed the way I relate to my inbox.”

That’s what we like to hear.  Given his mention of GTD, I think he’ll be even more impressed when we roll out our workflow features in v2.0 (more on that forthcoming).  Read his review for a thorough account of how ClearContext performs.

Our free license program is still in effect and we were happy to send a registration key out for this review.  If you put the word out about ClearContext, drop us a line and we’ll be happy to do the same for you.

*** The free license program has been discontinued. This blog post remains up for reference only

 Log in.

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-147-3-28.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-09
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for February 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

text:
Special eInstruction Offer for STAR Discovery Educators

CpssystemAs an added benefit of being a STAR Discovery
, we are pleased to offer you a special discount opportunity in
partnership with eInstruction

Through this partnership, you can purchase the Classroom Performance
System–CPS IR 32-pad system from eInstruction at an incredible price of $995
(plus shipping).  This is a discount of over 50% from eInstruction’s base
pricing of $1995.

Contact your DEN Field Manager for more

Related posts

One Comment;

  1. Steve Manns said:

    IF you dont have this system yet, this is a great offer 🙂

    Email me if you need more reasons to buy.


text:
Tackling Test Stress Tip 8: Be Artsy

I asked teachers what activities they liked to do with their students after testing each day. Overwhelmingly, the response involved art projects. Here are some resources for simple things you can do with your students:

Easy Fun School- Art
Art From Recycled Materials
Art with Few Materials Required

Do you have any favorite art activities to do with students this time of year? Please feel free to share them in the comments!

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vrogy/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Related posts


text:
Sunday, October 11, 2015

This Week's Birthdays (October 11 - 17)

Happy Birthday this week to:

Oct 11
1946 ● Gary Mallaber → Drummer with blues-rock then psych-rock then pop-rock Steve Miller Band, "The Joker" (#1, 1973), then session work for dozens of artists, including Peter Frampton, Poco, Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt
1949 ● Daryl Hall (Hohl) → Singer/songwriter and one half of Philly soul-pop-rock duo Hall & Oates, "Private Eyes" (#1, 1981), plus 20 other Top 20 hits
1950 ● Andrew Woolfolk → Saxophonist for R&B/soul-dance-pop Earth, Wind & Fire, "Shining Star" (#1, 1975)
1957 ● Chris Joyce → Drummer and co-founder of Brit soul-pop Simply Red, "Holding Back The Years" (#1, 1986)
1957 ● Blair Cunningham → Drummer for New Wave funk-pop Haircut 100, "Love Plus One" (#37, 1982)
1958 ● Tony Moore → Brit singer/songwriter, musician, radio personality and music promoter who was briefly keyboardist for heavy metal Iron Maiden and later with New Wave pop-rock Cutting Crew, "(I Just) Died In Your Arms" (#1, 1987), founded new music nightclub The Kashmir Klub in 1997 and currently manages other London music venues
1962 ● Andy McCoy (Antti Hulkko) → Guitarist for Finnish glam-punk-metal Hanoi Rocks, covered Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Up Around The Bend" (UK #61, 1984)
1962 ● Scott Johnson → Vocals and guitar for power-pop Gin Blossoms, "Found Out About You" (Modern Rock #1, 1994)
1971 ● MC Lyte (Lana Michele Moorer) → Rapper, "Cold Rock A Party" (#11, Rap #1, 1997), first female to release a full rap album (Lyte As A Rock, 1988), sometime TV actress
1973 ● Brendan Brown → Vocals and guitar for post-grunge Wheatus, "Teenage Dirtbag" (Modern Rock #7, 2001)

Oct 12
1935 ● Luciano Pavarotti → Highly successful and widely-admired Italian opera star and pop music singer, performed on Saturday Night Live and sang with U2 on "Miss Sarajevo", died from pancreatic cancer on 9/6/1977
1935 ● Samuel Moore → Tenor vocals and one half of R&B/soul Sam & Dave, "Soul Man" (#2, 1967), the most successful and critically-acclaimed soul music duo of all time
1942 ● Melvin Franklin → Bass vocals for Motown R&B/soul legends The Temptations, "My Girl" (#1, 1965) and Grammy-winning "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" (#1, 1972), died after a coma-inducing seizure on 2/23/1995
1948 ● Rick Parfitt → Vocals and rhythm guitar for Brit psych-boogie rock Status Quo, "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" (#12, 1968)
1955 ● Jane Siberry → Canadian art-pop-rock singer and songwriter, "One More Colour" (Canada #27, 1985) from the album The Speckless Sky (#149, 1986)
1955 ● Pat DiNizio → Lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for alt pop-rock The Smithereens, "Only A Memory" (Mainstream Rock #1, 1988), solo albums plus XM satellite radio programmer and unsuccessful US Senate candidate
1956 ● Dave Vanian (David Letts) → Singer and founding member of first-wave punk rockers The Damned, "Eloise" (UK #3, 1986), solo, now hosts TV show featuring homemade horror movies contributed by viewers
1960 ● Bob Mould → Frontman, guitarist and songwriter for post-punk alt rock trio Hüsker Dü, "Makes No Sense At All" (1985), light rock solo career, "See A Little Light" (Modern Rock #4, 1989), founded and fronted alt rock Sugar, "If I Can't Change Your Mind" (UK #30, 1992)
1966 ● Brian Kennedy → Irish singer/songwriter, played in Van Morrison band, solo, "Life, Love And Happiness", (UK #27, 1996), appeared on Broadway in The River Dance
1969 ● Martie Ervin Seidel Maguire → Multi-instrumentalist singer and songwriter with country-rock girl group Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready To Make Nice" (#4, 2006)
1969 ● Garfield A. Bright → Vocals for R&B/urban contemporary soul quartet Shai, "If I Ever Fall In Love" (#2, 1992)
1979 ● Jordan Pundik → Founding member, lyricist and lead vocals for pop-punk New Found Glory, "My Friends Over You" (Alt Rock #5, 2002)

Oct 13
1937 ● Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow (Bruce Meyerowitz) → Beloved 60s and 70s pop-rock Top 40 radio DJ (WABC-am New York), then media businessman and currently Sirius XM satellite radio host
1940 ● Chris Farlowe (John Henry Deighton) → Rock, blues and blue-eyed soul singer, covered the Jagger/Richards song, "Out of Time" (UK #1, 1966), session work for Colosseum, Atomic Rooster, Jimmy Page and others
1941 ● Paul Simon → Highly acclaimed and ten-time Grammy-winning folk-pop-rock singer, songwriter and guitarist, one half the 60 folk-pop duo Simon & Garfunkel, "Bridge Over Trouble Water" (#1, 1970), solo, "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" (#1, 1975) and 12 other Top 40 hits plus the 1986 Grammy Album of the Year, Graceland (#3, 1987)
1944 ● Robert Lamm → Founding member, vocals, keyboards and songwriter for horn-pop-rock Chicago, wrote "25 Or 6 To 4" (#4, 1970) and "Saturday In The Park" (#3, 1972), solo with seven albums plus a 2000 collaboration album with Gerry Beckley (America) and Carl Wilson (The Beach Boys)
1947 ● Sammy Hagar → Hard rock guitarist and lead singer with early heavy metal band Montrose, "Bad Motor Scooter" (1973), solo, "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy" (#13, 1983), replaced David Lee Roth in Van Halen, "When It's Love" (#5, 1988), resumed solo career in 1995
1948 ● Peter David Spencer → Drums and vocals for pop-rock Smokie, "Living Next Door To Alice" (#25, 1977)
1948 ● John Ford Coley (John Edward Colley) → Guitar and vocals in folk-pop duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight" (#2, 1976)
1950 ● Simon Nicol → Guitarist for renowned Brit folk-rock Fairport Convention, "Si Tu Dos Partir" (UK #21, 1969)
1959 ● Gerry Darby → Founding member and drummer for Brit jazz-pop-rock Carmel, "Bad Day" (UK #15, 1983)
1959 ● Marie Osmond → Youngest sibling of family-oriented light pop-rock The Osmonds, ten US Top 40 singles including "One Bad Apple" (#1, 1971), country-pop solo career, "Paper Roses" (#5, Country #1, 1973) and seven other Country Top 40 hits, TV host
1962 ● Rob Marche → Guitarist for dance-pop-rock Jo Boxers, "Boxer Beat" (UK #3, 1983)
1968 ● Carlos Marin → Baritone for pre-fab Euro-pop vocal quartet Il Divo, "Unbreak My Heart" (Adult Contemporary #33, 2005)
1970 ● Paul Potts → Welsh crossover opera singer and winner of the first series of ITV's Britain's Got Talent, debut album One Chance (#21, UK #1, 2007)
1977 ● Justin Peroff (Papadimitriou) → Canadian drummer for jazz/pop/rock Broken Social Scene, "1 2 3 4" (UK #4, 2007), TV and film actor
1980 ● Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas → R&B/contemporary urban singer, songwriter, dancer and actress, "Foolish" (#1, 2002)
1981 ● Kelechukwu "Kele" Rowland Okereke → Lead singer and rhythm guitarist for indie pop-punk revival Bloc Party, "Helicopter" (Dance #5, 2006), solo

Oct 14
1927 ● Bill Justis → Record company music director, arranger and film score composer (Smokey And The Bandit, 1977), co-wrote and played saxophone on the one hit wonder pioneer instrumental rock n' roll song "Raunchy" (#2, 1957), died 7/15/1982 of cancer
1930 ● Robert Parker → New Orleans R&B/soul and rock 'n' roll singer and saxophonist, sessions for Fats Domino, Ernie K-Doe and others, then one hit wonder solo career, "Barefootin'" (#7, 1966)
1940 ● Cliff Richard (Harry Rodger Webb) → The "Brit Elvis" and biggest selling artist of all time in the UK, early rock n' roll star, "Move It" (UK #2, 1958) credited as the first rock 'n' roll song from outside the U.S., then migrated to MOR pop and light rock, "Devil Woman" (#6, UK #9, 1976) plus over 100 UK Top 40 hits, TV actor
1942 ● Billy Harrison → Backing vocals and guitar for the early lineups of Irish garage-rock, proto-punk Them, "Gloria" (#71, 1966)
1945 ● Colin "Bomber" Hodgkinson → Jazz-rock bassist, co-founded 70s bass-centric fusion trio Back Door, session work for Jan Hammer, Alexis Korner, the Spencer Davis Group, Whitesnake and others
1946 ● Dan McCafferty → Founding member and lead singer of Scottish hard rock Nazareth, "Love Hurts" (#8, 1976), has appeared on all Nazareth albums plus two solo LPs
1946 ● David Justin Hayward → Guitar and vocals for prog rock then pop-rock The Moody Blues, wrote "Nights In White Satin" (#2, 1967) and "Your Wildest Dreams" (#9, 1986), still touring in 2011
1947 ● Norman Harris → R&B/Philly soul guitarist, founding member of MFSB, producer for multiple R&B/soul groups including The Delfonics and The Trammps, co-wrote hits for Gloria Gaynor, Wilson Pickett, the Spinners and others as part of the Baker-Harris-Young songwriting team, died of a heart attack on 3/20/1987
1948 ● Ivory Tilmon → Vocals in R&B/soul brother act The Detroit Emeralds, "Feel The Need In Me" (R&B #22, 1973)
1948 ● Marcia Barrett → West Indian vocalist in R&B/disco Euro-dance Boney M, "Rivers Of Babylon" (#30, UK #1, 1978)
1952 ● Chris Amoo → Vocals for Brit Northern soul/funk quartet The Real Thing, "You To Me Are Everything" (#64, UK #1, 1976)
1958 ● Thomas Dolby (Thomas Morgan Robertson) → Multi-instrumentalist New Wave synth-pop singer and composer, "She Blinded Me With Science" (#5, 1982), also member of Camera Club and the Lene Lovich band, producer for Joni Mitchell, Prefab Sprout and others, developed the RMF downloadable file format and Beatnik mobile phone software
1959 ● Anthony Jude "A.J." Pero → Drummer for heavy metal Twisted Sister, "We're Not Gonna Take It" (#21, 1983), continued to perform with the band until his death from a heart attack on 3/20/2015
1959 ● Antimo Rivetti → Manager for Brit teen-pop blue-eyed soul Curiosity Killed The Cat, "Down To Earth" (UK #3, 1986)
1965 ● Karyn White → Contemporary R&B/pop singer, "Superwoman" (#8, 1988), now an interior design and real estate consultant
1974 ● Natalie Maines Pasdar → Singer, songwriter and guitarist for country-rock girl group Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready To Make Nice" (#4, 2006) plus Grammy Album of the Year Taking The Long Way (2006)
1975 ● Shaznay Lewis → Singer in Brit dance-pop-rock all-girl quartet All Saints, "Never Ever" (#4, 1998)
1978 ● Usher Raymond → The reigning "King of R&B," Grammy-winning pop-soul singer, songwriter, dancer and actor, "Nice & Slow" (#1, 1998) plus 13 other Top 10 singles and three #1 albums

Oct 15
1925 ● McHouston "Mickey" (aka "Guitar") Baker → Highly influential but little known 50s session guitarist at Atlantic Records, bridged R&B and rock 'n' roll as a backing guitarist, plus solo and duo Mickey & Sylvia, "Love Is Strange" (#11, 1957)
1935 ● Barry McGuire → One hit wonder folk-rock singer, songwriter and guitarist, "Eve Of Destruction" (#1, 1965), switched to Christian/gospel in the 70s
1938 ● Marv Johnson → Early Motown R&B/soul vocalist, "You Got What It Takes" (#10, 1959) and three other Top 40 hits between 1959 and 1961, moved into sales and promotion with Motown and sister labels, died from a stroke on 5/16/1993
1942 ● Don Stevenson → Drummer, singer and songwriter for 60s San Francisco folk-roots-psych rock Moby Grape, "Omaha" (#88, 1967), continues to appear with the band, issued his first solo album (King Of The Fools) in 2010
1942 ● Chris Andrews → Pop-rock singer and songwriter, "Yesterday Man" (UK #3, 1965), wrote six UK Top 10 hits for Adam Faith and Sandie Shaw in the mid-60s,
1946 ● Richard Carpenter → Keyboards and vocals with sister Karen in AM pop/adult contemporary duo The Carpenters, "Close To You" (#1, 1970)
1948 ● Lance Dickerson → Drummer for country-rock/boogie/swing bar band Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen, "Hot Rod Lincoln" (#9, 1972), worked with various incarnations of the band through the 90s, died on 11/10/2003
1948 ● Joe "Yo Yo" Jaramillo → Founding member and vocals for pioneering "East Side Sound" of L.A. Mexican-American one hit wonder brown-eyed-soul/garage rock quartet Cannibal And The Headhunters ("Land Of A Thousand Dances," #30, 1965), died from liver disease on 5/24/2000
1948 ● Chris De Burgh (Christopher John Davison) → Light pop-rock/adult contemporary singer, songwriter and keyboardist, "Lady in Red" (#3, 1986)
1953 ● Toriano "Tito" Jackson → Vocals and lead guitarist in R&B/pop-soul sibling act The Jackson 5, "I Want You Back" (#1, 1970)
1956 ● Chris Lacklison → Keyboards for glam pop-rock Kenny, "The Bump" (UK #3, 1975)
1962 ● David Stead → Drummer in alt pop-rock The Beautiful South, "A Little Time" (UK #1, 1990)
1962 ● Mark Reznicek → Drummer in post-grunge alt rock Toadies, "Possum Kingdom" (Modern Rock #4, 1995)
1963 ● Jay Bennett → Guitarist, songwriter and producer for alt country-rock Wilco, "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" (Mainstream Rock #22, 1997), solo, sessions and collaborations, died 5/24/2009 from an accidental overdose of painkillers
1966 ● Douglas Vipond → Drummer in Scottish indie pop-rock Deacon Blue, "Real Gone Kid" (UK #8, 1988)
1975 ● Ginuwine (Elgin Baylor Lumpkin) → Hip-hop soul crooner, "Differences" (#4, 2001) and five other Top 40 singles
1984 ● Shayne Ward → Contemporary pop singer and winner of the 2005 UK TV series The X Factor, "That's My Goal" (UK #1, 2005)

Oct 16
1922 ● Walter William "Max" Bygraves → Brit comedian, actor, variety show performer and pop singer with 12 UK Top 10 hits in the 50s, including "Meet Me On The Corner" (UK #2, 1955), but couldn't withstand the onslaught of Beatlemania in the 60s and turned to hosting TV programs though the 80s, died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on 8/31/2012
1923 ● Bert Kaempfert (Berthold Kämpfert) → German easy listening/adult pop orchestra leader and composer, "Wonderful By Night" (#1, 1961), wrote songs covered by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and many others, produced the first Beatles recording session with Tony Sheridan, died on 6/21/1980 after a stroke
1937 ● Emile Ford (Emile Sweetman) → West Indian-born singer, musician and frontman for pre-Beatles pop-rock The Checkmates, "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?" (UK #1 ,1959), short solo career and then record producer
1938 ● Nico (Christa Päffgen) → German singer, model and vocals for proto-punk The Velvet Underground, "Femme Fatale" (1967), then proto-goth/folk-rock solo career, died on 7/18/1988 from a brain hemorrhage following a bicycling accident
1942 ● Dave Lovelady → Drummer and singer for Merseybeat pop-rock The Fourmost, "A Little Loving" (UK #6, 1964)
1943 ● Charles Frederick "C.F." Turner → Bass and vocals for Canadian pop-rockers Bachman-Turner Overdrive, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (#1, 1974), the only member to play on every album the band released over 25 years
1945 ● Roger Hawkins → Drummer, session musician and founding member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also known as The Swampers), the renowned studio musician ensemble that recorded hundreds of songs and albums at Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama, including hits by The Staple Singers, Paul Simon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Wilson Pickett and countless others
1947 ● Bob "Ace" Weir → Founding member, rhythm guitarist, singer and songwriter for rock's longest, strangest trip Grateful Dead, "Sugar Magnolia" (#91, 1973) and "Touch Of Grey" (#9, 1987), solo, bandleader for Kingfish, Ratdog and Bobby & The Midnites, member of Grateful Dead spinoff The Other Ones
1952 ● Cordell "Boogie" Mosson → Bassist for the Parliament-Funkadelic ("P-Funk") collective of soul/funk bands and their flamboyant costumes, "One Nation Under A Groove" (#31, 1978), toured with P-Funk variations through 2011, died from liver failure on 4/18/2013
1953 ● Tony Carey → Keyboardist in early lineup of hard rock Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, founder and frontman for space rock Planet P Project, "Why Me?" (Mainstream Rock #4, 1983) and solo, "A Fine, Fine Day" (#22, 1984), producer for Jennifer Rush, Joe Cocker, Mark Knopfler and others
1959 ● Gary Kemp → Guitar and keyboards for New Romantic pop-rock Spandau Ballet, "True" (#4, 1983) plus 16 other UK top 40 singles
1962 ● Flea (Michael Peter Balzary) → Bass and vocals for funk-rock Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Californication" (Modern Rock #1, 2000)
1965 ● Simon Bartholomew → Founding member, guitar and vocals for acid-jazz/funk The Brand New Heavies, "Sometimes" (UK #11, 1997)
1967 ● Jason Everman → Rock guitarist and vocalist with brief stints in 1989 as second guitarist for premier grunge rock Nirvana, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (#6, 1992) and 1990 as interim bassist in seminal grunge rock group Soundgarden, "Black Hole Sun" (Mainstream Rock #1, 1994) before both groups became superstars, left to join other marginally successful grunge bands, eventually joined the U.S. Army Special Forces and became a decorated Afghan and Iraqi war hero, now a G.I. Bill graduate of Columbia University with a B.A. in Philosophy
1969 ● Wendy Wilson → Vocals for pop-rock all-girl offspring trio Wilson Phillips, "Release Me" (#1, 1990), daughter of The Beach Boys Brian Wilson
1977 ● John Mayer → Light pop-rock singer/songwriter and guitarist, won 2003 Grammy Award for "Your Body Is A Wonderland" (#18, Adult Top 40 #3, 2002)

Oct 17
1909 ● William Randolph "Cozy" Cole → Journeyman but highly regarded jazz-pop and swing drummer from 1930 through the 70s, his instrumental "Topsy, Pt. 2" (#3, R&B #1, 1958) was the first drum solo recording to chart, died on 1/29/1981 from cancer
1923 ● Barney Kessel → Highly accomplished, in-demand jazz-pop-rock guitarist and sessionman over a 50 year career, first as a member of several Big Bands, later as a touring guitarist with several big-name ensembles, and as a member of the acclaimed Wrecking Crew group of first call L.A. studio musicians, played behind The Beach Boyss, The Monkees, Simon & Garfunkel, John Denver, Natalie Cole and many others, sidelined by a stroke in 1992 and died from an inoperable brain tumor on 5/6/2004
1933 ● Soeur Sourie (Jeanne-Paule Marie "Jeanine" Deckers) → Belgian-born one hit wonder folk-pop singer and guitarist, as the "Singing Nun" recorded "Dominique" (#1, 1963), died on 3/29/1985 after ingesting an overdose of sleeping pills in a suicide pact with a girlfriend
1934 ● Emmanuel "Rico" Rodriguez → Jamaican trombonist with ska revival The Specials, "Ghost Town" (UK #1, 1981), solo and sessions
1935 ● Michael Eavis → English dairy farmer who founded the Glastonbury Festival in 1970 and on whose land the music festival has occurred annually for over 40 years
1941 ● Alan Howard → Bassist for British Invasion pop-rock The Tremeloes, "Silence Is Golden" (#11, UK #1, 1967)
1941 ● Jim Seals → Guitar, violin, vocals and songwriting in 70s light pop-rock duo Seals & Crofts, "Summer Breeze" (#6, 1972) and "Diamond Girl" (#6, 1973)
1942 ● Gary Puckett → Lead vocals and frontman for pop-rock Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, "Young Girl" (#2, 1968), followed with a modest solo career and now tours with a new lineup of the band
1944 ● Carole "Cookie" Cole → Music producer, stage, film and TV actress, adopted daughter of jazz-pop singer Nat King Cole and adopted sister of soul-pop diva Natalie Cole, starred in multiple motion pictures including The Silencers (1967) and The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974), co-starred on TV sitcoms Sanford And Son and Grady, as CEO of King Cole Productions oversaw the use and licensing of her father's catalogue, name and likeness, died of lung cancer on 5/19/2009
1946 ● James Tucker → First rhythm guitarist for pop-rock The Turtles, "Happy Together" (#1, 1967), left in 1967 following a European tour
1949 ● Bill Hudson (Salerno) → Vocals for sibling trio The Hudson Brothers, "So You Are A Star" (#21, 1974), ex-spouse of Goldie Hawn, father of actress Kate Hudson
1958 ● Alan Jackson → Honky tonk/new traditionalist country star singer and songwriter with 17 Country Top 10 albums and 24 Country #1 hits, including the Grammy-winning "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)" (#38, Country #1, 2001)
1962 ● Anne Rogers → Bassist for Brit indie-folk-pop Popinjays, "Vote Elvis" (Modern Rock #17, 1988)
1967 ● René Dif → Vocals for Danish dance-pop Aqua, "Barbie Girl" (#7, 1997), which drew a lawsuit from Mattel for its sexual content
1968 ● David Nesta "Ziggy" Marley → Five-time Grammy-winning guitarist, singer and songwriter, solo and as frontman for reggae-pop sibling group The Melody Makers, "Tomorrow People" (#39, 1988), son of reggae legend Bob Marley
1971 ● Derrick Plourde → Drummer for mainstream pop-punk The Ataris, "The Boys Of Summer" (#20, Modern Rock #2, 2003) and other bands, died from a suicide gunshot on 3/30/2005
1971 ● Christopher Kirkpatrick → Founding member and counter tenor vocals for teen dance-pop harmony boy band *NSYNC, "It's Gonna Be Me" (#1, 2000)
1972 ● Michael McKean → Actor and comedian, portrayed David St. Hubbins in the "mock-rock" parody band Spinal Tap from the movie This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
1972 ● Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III) → Grammy-winning blue-eyed rapper, worldwide #1 album The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and worldwide hit "Lose Yourself" (#1, 2002), producer for Jay-Z, Nas, 50 Cent, DMX, 2Pac and others, award-winning film actor
1972 ● Wyclef Jean → Haitian musician, member of R&B/jazz-rap The Fugees, "Killing Me Softly" (#1, 1996), solo, "Gone Till November" (#7, 1998), record producer, announced plans to run in the 2010 Haitian presidential election but withdrew when his bid for candidacy was rejected over residency requirements

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]


text:
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Photo Shoot- Fayetteville Residence

This home was a addition and total remodel. The original home belonged to the husbands grandparents so keeping the integrity of the house was really important to this family. With 4- very active kids involved in hockey and all sorts of school activities the original house was too small and not functioning. Ed Harrington was the architect on this project and did an amazing job tying in the new structure with the old.

Before Exterior

Exterior After
Dining Room Before

Dining Room After

Kitchen - I wish I had a picture of the before kitchen because it was a non functioning I do not think had been touched since the 1950's

Living Room- New Part Of House

I love this Chandelier in the Powder Room

Mudroom - Each child has their own space

Guest Room Bathroom- New Section of House

Upstairs Master Before- Now One of the Boys RoomsBoys Room After

Youngest Girls Room Before

Before the Bathroom Upstairs

After- Now Boys Bathroom

Oldest Girls Room After

After- Youngest Boys

What a great project this has been, we are still working on rooms! We really had fun bringing each child's personality into their rooms. Organization was one of the most important things in this project to the owners. We used a lot of built-ins in the bedrooms and gave each child their own space when walking into the house. To give the house even more uniqueness and personality we also did a lot of faux painting which came out amazing. The Dining room panels are all glazed and then a decorative muralist came in and did the floral detailing. It really came out amazing.

Photo Shoot -Lake Ontario

I am finally getting the pictures up from the photo shoot I did.

These are all from a house on Lake Ontario

It is a new construction that was just finished this Winter.

There are amazing views from this house. Looking out the windows you almost feel that the house is on the water. The exteriors ( not shown yet) of this home is wonderful with wrap around porches a heated pool and a guest house above the garage.
When designing this house some of the goals were to make it comfortable for 2 people or a whole house full of people. Trying to get as much light in as possible was really important along with utilizing the view from as many rooms in the house as possible.

Guest Room with loft

Same Room

Guest Room

Guest Bathroom

Living Room

Kitchen/ Dining

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Summer Tablecloth

Summer is all about simplifying.
This tablecloth is a great idea and easy project to do.

A table cloth that will work on a really long table and is user friendly is not something that is easy to find.

Summer is plain just too short to deal with ironing.

I think this is a great inexpensive solution for a easy to maintain table cloth. I bought 4 beach towels at Marshalls for $12.99 each. I seamed 2 beach towels together, I have done this with 2 sections. I thought seaming 4 beach towels together maybe too much to deal with and you have more freedom this way . When you need both sections for large family functions you can tie them together with clothes pins or safety pins. Another way to bring the 2 sections together is to add ties with ribbon or cut up a towel for ties. To dress it up I thought about adding grosgrain ribbon in navy blue along the edges or you can border it with a fabric.
Walla you have the ultimate table cloth for a lobster bake that you can through in the wash when you are done.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Powder Rooms Wallpaper and Color

Powder rooms are one of the most used rooms in the house it is the one area that you really can go all out and experiment with your style. The nice thing about powder rooms is the size, because they are generally a smaller room it is one of the easiest rooms to make a big statement while staying within a budget

Wallpaper is one way of really make a big statement. There are so many amazing wallpaper prints and color. I recommend that you go out of your safe zone and have fun.

This is a before and after

Fun Wallpaper in Powder Room

Photo Southern Living

I love the elegance of this Powder Room. The chandelier and mirror really make this room sparkle. I really like to use an unusual vanity in powder rooms. It is a really fun way to do something unexpected.
Better Homes and Garden photo
I am working on a house now that we are using an urn like this as a sink. It should be really cool when it is done.

This is such a glamorous wallpaper. I can see this in a powder room with tented upholstered ceiling with a gorgeous petite chandelier. For the sink you could either do a piece of furniture or an amazing pedestal sink.

photo House Beautiful

One way to do a great looking sink that is cost conscious is to take an inexpensive pedestal sink and add a fabric skirt to it.

When you are thinking about color once again go out of the box and use a fun color. I really like corals they make your skin look fabulous.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Window Treatment Before and After

I want to share a window treatment job that was just installed this week. Window treatments are one of my favorite things that I get to work on. There are so many amazing designs that can be used on windows. I love looking at the space and designing the perfect treatment. Each design will create a totally different look and feel to a room. Fabric is a incredible way to warm up a room and with so many wonderful fabrics to choose from you can really have fun.

The window treatments shown are in a home that is in a wonderful old 1920's neighborhood in Syracuse. I have been working on the project for over 4 years. We took the existing house and added on a huge family room and garage to the first floor. In the living and dining room we opened up doorways to give it more of an open feel. The kitchen was completely gutted and more space was taken from a hallway to make it a family room/ kitchen. Upstairs we created a master suite out of 2 bedrooms and added on a sunroom. In the attic we created a guest suite with a full bathroom. The attic was originally a maids quarters with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom . The bathroom was really cool because every thing was original in mint condition.

OK enough of the history of the project.....

Window treatments before and after in the living room and dining room.

The fabric used in the dining room is a beautiful muted coral with gold ferns I used the reverse side of the fabric. The color picks up the tones in the rug and a Asian screen that is not pictured

The living room I used a Navy Blue silk that has a great little trim in the same color as the dining rooms fabric

I used the same drapery hardware in both rooms. It is a fabulous line called Paris Texas Hardware they have such a beautiful finish on the rods, finals, arms, and rings.

Overall I can't believe the difference in the two rooms just by putting window treatments in. The nice things is that the treatments are really simple and do not take anything away from the view but overall gives a finished feeling to the room.


text:
Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Standardized Data Trees (UN M.49, ISO 3166-1, ISO 3366-2, country population/area, NAICS)

To help in aggregating, comparing, and validating data, I've created a pair of data of graphs which represent tree hierarchies of standard formatted data.

The World Graph contains:

World Graph Visualized

The NAICS Graph contains:
The percentage under the graph in the NAICS graph and the aggregate population/geographic area allow two things:
  1. Provide an amount as a dimension for data coded in these systems, (whether that amount be percentage of NAICS codes, population, or geographic area).
  2. Provide a means of comparing the similarity of two records by finding the Lowest Common Ancestor (LCA) and retrieving the score from that node.  The greater the score, the greater the distance between the nodes.
The hierarchies can be used for validating data as well as comparing things (as above) that are not on the same level of the graph.  For example, a US state could be compared to the country to South-Eastern Asia.

None of this is groundbreaking, but hopefully some find the graphs of use.


text:
Podcasts to Queue While you Craft

test AD_2014_10

I’m back with some new podcast recommendations! Last November I did a post with some of my favorite feeds to listen to while I knit/weave/crochet/cook/clean/drive/do all the things. It’s definitely time to dive in to my enormous list of ‘casts for an update. I have two crafty-themed suggestions and two story-based podcasts just for you when you click through to the rest of the post!

Stuff You Missed in History

Still one of my favorite podcasts, Tracey and Holly are back with an episode on Knitting’s Early History and I’m just thrilled to share it. There were some new-to-me little tidbits to glean throughout the episode and it was just so much fun listening to two ladies talk about my favorite hobby. So much fun and a delightful episode. If you liked this particular piece, you should absolutely browse through their archive for other interesting topics. I learn something new and fascinating every week!

Thread Cult

Each episode, features interviews with master craft people and creators in the home sewing, textile, and fashion communities. From independent pattern and textile designers to couture experts and curators, these thought-provoking conversations sure to enlighten your own sewing or fibers practice—and give you something to listen to while you stitch, weave, dye, or work!

The Moth

Moth stories are true, as remembered by the storyteller and always told live. They are also incredibly touching, funny, sad, awe-inspiring and interesting. I routinely find myself tearing up, laughing out loud and sometimes even putting my knitting down to really listen as the incredibly personal stories. This is an excellent podcast to really dive deeply into, plus there is an extensive backlog of episodes so you’ll have plenty of fuel for your craft sessions.

Radio Diaries

The extraordinary stories of ordinary life. From teenagers and octogenarians to prisoners and prison guards, bra saleswomen and lighthouse keepers Radio Diaries captures incredible snapshots of daily life. Lately, I’ve been working my way through the archive of Teenage Diaries from the 90’s while I work on laying out the next Knit Picks Catalog. Their more recent episodes involve taking a long look into a moment in history through the lens of a single person’s experience. I loved #44: The Ski Troopers of WWII episode as well as #26: The View from the 79th Floor about a plane that crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. Each episode is so thoughtfully crafted that I find myself listening to a few of them more than once, just to savor some part of the story I missed the first time.

I hope these podcasts keep you company as you craft your next project, they’ve certainly become part of my daily routine! Do you have any podcasts that you love, but weren’t on this list? Go ahead and share them in the comments! I’m always looking for another series to add to my ever-growing list!


text:
The Lindab Blog

Lower your energy consumption using ultrasound

By Torbjörn Bruzelius, October 04 2017

Ventilation constitutes 30 per cent of a building’s total energy consumption. Investing in a ventilation system using new ultrasound technology will help you cut operating costs and help reach the EU’s target of reducing energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2020.

If we are to limit human impact on the Earth’s climate, several things need to be done. In 2007, EU leaders agreed on a set of goals. One of these was to reduce energy consumption in the member states by 20 per cent by the year 2020.

The increased focus on climate has inspired companies and industries to start developing new solutions that will help reach the targets. Lindab is no exception and by working to minimize air leakage and to optimize the ventilation systems we can make a lasting difference.

Read More

Topics: Product development, Energy consumption, Ultrasound, Technology, UltraLink, Revolution

Search the blog

Subscribe to the blog

Follow us

Recent Posts

About the Lindab blog

The Lindab blog aims to give you an inside track to our company. We would like to share our knowledge from over 50 years of production for the construction and ventilation businesses.


text:
Simple, Not Boring

When I first started making jewelry, I was told that to sell it, I would need to create a reason for people to be passionate about it. Creativity was not enough, talent would not translate into a sustainable business. I didn’t pay much attention, because my love was jewelry making, not marketing, and the internet had filled my mind with “build it, and they will come,” stories.

Fast forward to my first retail show. A shopper asked me about my brand, what it was about, and who I was. I stumbled and stuttered through a non-answer, and the shopper (and her friends) left empty handed.

Continue Reading