In your quest for career success, suppose you had to choose just one of the following: perfectly-honed skills, ideal opportunities, or someone who really believes in you.  Which would you pick? This is the question a friend recently posed, thinking it would spark an interesting debate. She was disappointed that this wasn’t a more intriguing or meaty topic for me. Or perhaps she was surprised that someone who’s dedicated her professional life to training and learning wouldn’t have automatically picked door #1. Without even thinking, I responded with what I know in my soul… that having someone who honestly and truly believes in you trumps everything. I was fortunate enough to find such a person early in my career. Beverly Marsh was the master teacher who hired me at age 19 to instruct high school vocational education classes. She saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.  Her belief gave me the confidence to build the skills, create the opportunities, take the risks, and ultimately realize tremendous success.  She opened the door with her belief and then walked me through it with her modeling, mentoring, coaching, and support. Rather than detailing her role and contributions, I’ll share a letter I sent to her a few years ago as part of a gratitude project. Dear Beverly, It’s hard to believe that it’s been thirty years since you hired me to teach an ROP class.  What’s even harder to believe is the impact that decision would have - for decades to come. I can’t adequately express the depth of my gratitude to you for the very special role you played in my life.  Your willingness to hire me at my age and with my limited experience provided external validation at a time when I was particularly impressionable.  Your support ignited a level of self-esteem that has served me well throughout my life and continues to do so today.  Your confidence in me was a springboard for my confidence in myself. Additionally, through your example, you taught me the value of positivity, appreciation, and recognition.  Your consistently upbeat, positive approach to life - and its various challenges - was and continues to be an inspiration to me.  You had a gift for magnifying the positive and I am grateful that I was able to watch and learn this from you at such a young age.  An extension of your positivity was your talent for appreciating and recognizing those around you.  When in your presence, people always felt strong, capable, and valued.  I believe that your ability to bring out the best in others was rooted in this skill.  Thank you for applying it with me - and, more importantly - for modeling it so effectively over the period of time we worked together.  It has had a lasting effect on my life, influencing my personality and how I interact with others.  I attribute a tremendous amount of my success - in business, marriage, parenting, friendships, community, and life - to you and what I learned from you.  Thirty years ago, I remember thinking that you might be my fairy godmother.  Today, I’m convinced that you were. With love and admiration, Julie Goethe wrote that "Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is." But sometimes, that belief is inspired, sparked, instigated, coaxed, or conjured by the belief that someone else places there first. What about you? Which would you choose: skills, opportunity, or someone who believed in you? Who has believed in you and what impact did it have? Image: www.dreamstime.com The post Belief Opens Doors appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

Troy McAlpin's blog post was featuredHow Cloud Is Changing the Role of ITBefore he became host of The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon played Nick Burns the Computer Guy on Saturday Night Live. Someone would call him, and he’d patronize and insult his way through fixing minor (to him) computer issues. He was always annoyed because he was reacting to someone else’s problem. And that’s what IT used to be - reactive maintenance and administrative.Why was IT so reactive? In a mainframe environment, the guys in IT were doing all the development, security, monitoring, testing, issue resolution, and logging themselves - there was no time to get ahead.We CEOs think it’s high time for CIOs to have a strategic seat at the table, time to shed the "cost center" image, but we need to shed the business of maintenance and watch-dogging. Tickets in and fixes out. Resolving serious issues or patching code could sometimes take days, and no one knew why because IT lived behind the black curtain in the back of the store.How the Cloud Changed EverythingNo one talks about a "back office" anymore. The back office stuff should just run. The days of IT acting as support and execution for the direction set by executive leadership are over. The systems, services, information and processes that IT maintains don’t drive the business - they are the business.Was the "cloud" good for IT? Yes of course, competition is always good. The cloud hosting and applications pulled back the curtain and exposed the condition of legacy IT. While the rest of the world wondered what this cloud thing was, business and line managers jumped on early cloud offerings. Finally a way to avoid IT projects! Savvy CIOs also realized they could outsource non-value-added activities and leverage these third-party systems for everything from Salesforce automation and storage to enterprise systems and more.As people voiced concerns about security, some CIOs started building their own private clouds. Today many cloud companies are using hybrid clouds with private and public cloud offerings. Most cloud companies invest heavily in security because it is core to their business. As a result, their security is often better than at commercial enterprises.CIOs and other IT leaders realize they need to become service brokerages instead of break-fix shops. They could integrate their private clouds with their partners’ private clouds for services. Using these other services instead of doing all the work in-house freed them up to do more.The New Face of ITToday, a reactive CIO is a dead man walking. Successful CIOs are thought leaders, visionaries and strategists. Where success before was the lack of failure, CIOs today must move the company forward. They are responsible for generating revenue and helping set direction for their companies, but must maintain focus on traditional core responsibilities to keep systems robust and safe.A Q4 2014 survey by Skyhigh Networks says:The average employee uses 27 apps at workThe average company uses 897 cloud services (10 percent more than IT expects!)92 percent of companies have users with compromised identitiesAs a result, CIOs have a variety of new roles that were simply not available in a pre-cloud world:As a strategist, the CIO sees what technologies will be best to use in a month, a year, in five years, and works with the CEO to set direction for the company. IT used to be support for the business, but in today’s digital world, IT is helping to set the strategy for the business.As a service broker, the CIO manages integrations with strategic partners and in-house development. With the addition of APIs, CIOs can often choose from a menu of potential partnerships to accomplish services that used to exhaust internal resources.As an orchestrator, the CIO chooses the cloud platform the IT department will use. Often large enterprises use a mix of public, private and hybrid clouds, depending on integrations and appetite for risk. Employees, partners, customers, and the public have different needs, and CIOs have meet their demands.As a facilitator, the CIO understands the needs of each department like never before. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work anymore because business is just too complex, too big and too fast. Marketing has different needs than engineering than finance. Setting up each department for success is becoming a benchmark for IT departments. With APIs are making applications behave more like platforms, and CIOs have to be flexible in using them to best advantage.As a politician, the CIO has to balance the advantages of BYOD, shadow IT and remote work with the potential dangers that these activities invite.The modern leaders of IT departments are strategists and thought leaders, and cloud technology has given CIOs, CTOs and IT managers a tool set that once seemed unthinkable.But as someone in a latex mask was once said, "With great power comes great responsibility." As a result, technical leaders are implementing their own ideas and following their own decisions, and they are held to account for results. I encourage everyone in these technical leadership roles to take advantage of the tools available and lead your teams and companies because I guarantee your competitors are doing the same.Troy McAlpin is founder of xMatters.See More

In his New York Times article, Paying for News? It’s Nothing New, Jeremy W. Peters shattered my belief that major news outlets don’t pay for interviews.In the most technical sense, major news outlets don’t. But they provide various types of expense reimbursements in exchange for an interview. As Peters notes:The payment is always for something else, tangible or intangible, like one’s time or the rights to memorabilia.So what’s the difference between paying for a picture or paying for the interview? The money ends up in the interviewees hands. Peters also notes that this practice has existed in one form or another for over a century—citing an example of his own paper paying a survivor of the Titanic.Maybe the real issue is not paying for interviews but the guideline of not paying for interviews isn’t realistic. Major news outlets can’t seem to follow the intent of their own guidelines, even if they have met the guideline in its most technical sense. Read Peters’ analysis athttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/sunday-review/paying-for-news-its-nothing-new.html?pagewanted=all

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Supervisors are the lynchpins in any organization. They are the link between management and the employees who build the products, deliver the services, and take care of the customers day-in and day-out. They are on the frontline, the leading (and sometimes bleeding) edge, closest to the action and the realities of business. Supervisors are also one of the top reasons employees give for leaving their jobs. Classic Gallup research (based upon more than one million employees) found that the number one reason for quitting a job comes down to the boss. Researchers summarized it with the much-quoted phrase: "People leave managers not companies." And Leigh Branham further confirms this finding in The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave, based upon Saratoga Institute’s review of 19,000 exit interviews. But what about the other side of this coin? What about the supervisors who retain employees? The supervisors for whom employees are consistently willing to go the extra mile? These supervisors send messages of trust, authenticity, candor, and support… and they speak phrases that many other leaders don’t. Wondering what they are? Check out the rest of my article at LeadChangeGroup. Image: www.dreamstime.com The post 5 Phrases Every Supervisor Should Adopt appeared first on Julie Winkle Giulioni.

One of the ongoing challenges of academic education is preparing students for the real world.In "What Students Don’t Learn About Work in Work in College" (http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/11/21/what-students-dont-learn-about-work-in-college.), US News & World Report blogger Alison Green identifies 10 lessons that are often lost on students. Several of these relate to one of the skills that I think is so important--especially for students hoping to become instructional designers and technical communicators (the two fields for which I prepare students).  But most are skills that students actually should develop in school. Green advises students: "You need to address both sides of an issue," noting that students typically learn to argue 1 side of an issue when preparing assignments for school.  But this is a skill that can be learned in school.  The best way to argue for one side is to explore the other side of the argument, then explain why that is the less effective approach to the situation.  This balance is also called critical thinking and the extent of that critical thinking is what  distinguishes A papers from the rest.  One need not wait for the workplace to develop this skill; it's something to start while in school. But admittedly, some faculty members assume that students know that arguing both sides of the issue makes for a stronger paper and, as a result, do not explicitly explain this strategy to students.  Green advises students that:You need to be concise when writing in the workplace. Good writing isn’t stiff and formal.  Like the last skill, this one can be developed in school.  The truth is, most faculty find stiff, verbose writing painful to read.  Most grimace when reading such assignments.  Unfortunately, some faculty members do not factor in the quality of the writing when grading papers, they reward such papers with passing or excellent grades.  Worse, because some faculty often assume that students know how to do things without verifying it, they do not comment on these issues when grading papers nor do they address the problems of verboseness and stiff writing with their classes. The last tip for writing that Green offers isProcrastinating is a really bad idea. That, too, is a skill that students can learn in school if their professors emphasize it.  So often, students can easily get extensions.  (I know well--when I was an undergraduate, I developed expertise in requesting them and, by the time I was a doctoral student, I was the designated "Can you give us an extension" requester in many of my classes.)But having had learned the same lesson in the workplace--sometimes painfully--(to be honest, I still struggle with deadlines), I have developed a zero-tolerance policy on late assignments. In fact, it's a totally zero approach--late assignments receive a 0.  Recognizing that students sometimes really do need an extension because they're juggling too many due dates for their classes, I do offer a "get out of jail free" card each term.  For one assignment, each term, students can ask to submit it a week late.  This does not work with some time-dependent assignments, such as in-class presentations and exams--but is well received by students.  Students merely need to tell me that they want to take advantage of this before the assignment is due; they do not need to provide me with an excuse and I advise them to take the full week of the extension.  Such an approach also teaches students how to negotiate schedules and actively confronting their schedules in advance--rather than at the last minute.  Those are important project management skills, and they're ones that can be developed in school.   

Stephen Coty's blog post was featuredWhere Will the Data Breaches Hit Next? A Look Into 20152014 seemed to open the flood gate for the slew of data breaches in 2015. From Target and Home Depot to the White House, it’s pretty clear that these data breaches and cyberattacks will not stop anytime soon. With 2015 already under way, we are sure to see an uptick in the number of attacks but a few key industries will see a notable increased risk.E-Commerce and RetailThe e-commerce and retail industry has been no stranger to the onslaught of data breaches, most of which were orchestrated via the point-of-sale (POS) system. The Target data breach was the first of many major retail POS system breaches in 2014. Target’s registers were infected with a malware strain that stole payment card information. This use of malware is not surprising, given that we have seen more POS malware written in the past year than we have since 2007, with the different variants including BlackPOS, Kaptoxa, Backoff, Chewbacca and updated versions of Dexter, Alina and VSkimmer. Attacks on other retailers like Jimmy John’s, P.F. Chang’s, Kmart and The Home Depot followed suit.As 2015 continues, retailers will continue to be a major target and, as they start implementing tighter security strategies, the attack vector will change. We will see more data exfiltration from online e-commerce sites that rely on open source or low cost POS systems that may not be as secure as an onsite POS network that is segregated from the rest of a corporate network. As the retail industry begins to invest in its security posture, victims of POS attacks through brick and mortar retail stores may decline.HealthcareIn 2013, the healthcare industry lost more personal identifiable information (PII) than any other industry. PII has historically been a very profitable commodity, demanding prices on the underground 10 times the price of credit card information. Healthcare PII data is valuable because it can be used to create fake identities for criminals and mask true personal data or even help terrorist organizations present valid identities to enter the United States. However, the attack vector really changed in 2014 - the new targets became businesses that support the healthcare industry through medical devices and technologies.The US Federal Drug Administration released a bulletin that identified over 300 medical devices that contained vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited. Security researcher Barnaby Jack has even demonstrated the wireless hacking of insulin pumps and pacemakers. Before his death in 2013, he was able to showcase the manipulation of insulin pump settings from over 300 feet away and the security shortcomings in medical transplants. His work illustrates how vulnerable medical devices are to outside exploitation. This trend will continue into 2015, with more medical technology manufacturers becoming a primary target of some state-sponsored industrial espionage and organized criminal hacking groups. Is the first online murder through a vulnerability that exists in a medical device in the offing? Will it be through an insulin pump or the wireless capability of a pacemaker? It seems like the stuff of Hollywood movies or is it?EducationHigher education institutions are also an attractive target for identity and information theft because of the sensitive PII data available from students, faculty and alumni. Universities, in particular, are at risk due to the inexperience of users who utilize the networks for both academic and personal reasons. This inexperience creates paths for multiple infections and rampant use of software and tools that haven’t been vetted. Unfortunately, the cost of an in-depth security strategy using the latest technology, processes and experts is often out of the budget range of most universities. According to the FBI, some foreign nations are also interested in stealing classified information and intellectual property from universities, possibly to bypass expensive research and development or spread false information for political or other reasons. It is not unusual for campuses to be the targets of phishing emails with attached malware or computer intrusions, with the intent to access confidential research or exploit social media networking sites. To mitigate risk in 2015, educational institutions should consider the private cloud for storing sensitive data. After all, the primary purpose of a private cloud service provider is to provide availability and security for the data stored in their datacenters.Oil, Gas and EnergyIn 2014, the oil, gas and energy industries saw a few new malicious groups form and produce some advanced malware that targets supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Cyberspying organization Energetic Bear is a group whose ties with the Russian government make them an formidable adversary. Attacks against infrastructure monitoring systems can be detected and defenses built to deny the attacker his desired target. Proper network segmentation, security tool implementation and constant patching are a few of several ways to protect your environment. Using threat intelligence to understand the adversaries of the oil Gas and Energy Industry will reveal their motives and assist in detecting and mitigating vulnerabilities before they are exploited by these malicious actors.2015 and BeyondThis year will produce more new and emerging malware that will affect multiple industries. We will see the emergence of new malicious actors and a revived list of old ones. We will see more groups starting to partner on operations to compromise their common targets, which really highlights the need for a proper, in-depth security strategy that is supported by both people and process.Stephen Coty is the director of threat research and author of the Cloud Security Report at Alert Logic.See More

The New York Times and its sister paper, the International Herald Tribune, recently identified the 10 hippest cities in the world.  The staffs specifically"examine[d] some cities that aim to be both smart and well managed, yet have an undeniably hip vibe. Our pick of cities that are, in a phrase, both great and good."Presented in alphabetical order (so no one knows exactly how each city actually ranked), the cities include:Auckland, New ZealandBerlin, GermanyBarcelona, SpainCape Town, South AfricaCopenhagen, DenmarkCuritiba, BrazilMontreal, CanadaSantiago, ChileShanghai, ChinaVilnius, LithuaniaNot only is my city the hippest in North American but apparently, my neighborhood is also among the hippest on the continent.  Both the Utne Reader and the Project for Public Spaces ranked the Plateau Mont-Royal as one of the hippest neighborhoods in North America.  But the Utne Reader gave that rating in 1997 and there’s no date in the Project for Public Spaces discussion, so I have no idea if the neighborhood is still hip. Or worse, whether I’m personally dragging down the hip factor.  (To see the original article and find out why the editors ranked these cities so highly, visithttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/business/global/hip-cities-that-think-about-how-they-work.html?pagewanted=all.)

Carey Kolaja's blog post was featuredInternational Women’s Day 2015: E-commerce Tips for Growing Your Small BusinessOn March 8, 2015, the world celebrates the 105th International Women’s Day—a day created by Clara Zetkin in 1910 to fight against the oppression and inequality of women. Over the last century, the support of women’s success and equal treatment has grown tremendously. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) most recent Women’s Report, there are an estimated 126 million women starting or running businesses all around the world. That’s a 17-percent increase since the prior GEM Women’s Report in 2010. As the number of women in business and leadership roles continues to climb, it’s important to continue to inspire new leaders and celebrate their achievements.The e-commerce industry may soon be completely dominated by women business leaders. While only 14 percent of venture capital-backed companies in 2014 were founded by women, that number nearly triples to a whopping 40 percent when it comes to e-commerce. In honor of this year’s International Women’s Day theme, "Make it Happen," here are a few e-commerce tips - and inspiring examples - to help women entrepreneurs and business owners run a successful small business: Be Where the Customers AreGain new customers and expand the reach of your business by creating an online storefront, mobile-friendly site or even an app. Today’s consumers are not only using their smartphones to shop online, but they are using their mobile devices to make payments, so it’s also important to consider adding mobile payment options as well. A great example of a business that leveraged mobile technologies to reach new customers is daily boutique deal marketplace, Jane.com. The company’s CEO recognized the need to create an app that also accepts mobile payments such as PayPal and today, 72 percent of Jane's sales come from mobile. Need more incentive to hop on the mobile train? Check out these six advantages to developing a mobile app for your business from LeadersInHeels.com.Think Beyond BordersDon’t let your sales stop at the front door - it’s important to think outside your own borders to access new customers and profitable opportunities. Just ask Fashionphile Owner Sarah Davis, who seized an opportunity to ship her $1,200 handbags overseas after seeing a significant spike in website traffic from Brazilian online shoppers. International orders now account for $10 million - or 20 percent - of the online luxury fashion retailer’s total sales. Cross-border trade is something every small business owner should explore, but you need to make sure you’re talking everyone’s language - literally. Resources like SBA guidelines are available to help you understand global holidays and sell internationally. Don’t Let Finances Hold You BackNeed a loan to start a business, increase inventory or finance a new product line, but don’t have the time to apply for a traditional bank loan? Good news - fast and secure alternative lending options exist, and taking advantage of them can have a significant impact on your business. Single mother Denise Cline and owner of online custom blanket and fabric store, The Minky Boutique recently secured a $20,000 loan with non-bank lender PayPal Working Capital just minutes after applying. With the extra capital, she was able to restock inventory for the 2014 holiday season and ultimately saw a 10-percent spike in sales over Q4 2013. Pro tip: When looking for a lender, make sure they offer an affordable, fixed fee that is agreed upon at sign-up for smarter financial planning. Pick a Payment Partner, Not ProviderWhen handling small business finances, pick a resource that will be a true payment partner, not just a provider. Managing a small business can be hard enough, so chose a service that will take some of the complexity out of payments. It’s best to choose an established payment partner with experience in regulatory and security compliance standards, like PCI (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). This will help your business run smoothly while providing peace of mind for both customers and investors. Additionally, one-stop-shops that can process all payment forms are ideal, but look for a partner that supports an "open infrastructure," where you can bring in your existing payments partners if you want to. While the success of these 126 million female entrepreneurs can only be contributed to their hard work and determination, the tools and resources to further support them in their business efforts are out there. It’s for that reason and many more, that we should encourage the support and celebration of women and their professional successes around the globe, not just on March 8, but each and every day.Carey Kolaja is Vice President of Global Product Solutions at PayPal. See More

As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, good, clear writing is a skill that's needed on the job.But many people (including a PR firm I once sub-contracted for) mistakenly feel that buzzwords are a tool of clear writing . The PR firm felt that those buzzwords helped build credibility among prospective customers.But if the Evil HR Lady and the salacious anti-meeting tweeter MeetingBoy are to be believed, all buzzwords do is make people run out for the PeptoBismol. Find out which buzzwords are generating groans:Evil HR lady: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57337895/add-value-by-killing-corporate-jargon/Meeting Boy: http://meetingboy.com/post/5017367342/the-most-hated-buzzword