Making decisions is a great effort

Executive function is exhausted after the difficult decisions.

The so-called executive function is actually a set of subfunctions cognitive skills including concentration when performing a task, decision-making, short-term memory and inhibitory control. It is therefore a core function of many regulatory and other various mental activities and plays an important role in reasoning ability, hata the extent that is necessary to take into account in any attempt at evaluation or measurement of intelligence, as evidenced research published in 2007 in the journal Child Development.

The effort involved in these processes, the job of keeping the mind alert in case of concentration, not to distract us from the object we have to focus, or the need to not give in to the temptations of the worst option in the case of decision-making, and this effort is to turn a tired and a depletion of executive function, just as weight lifting muscles tired and exhausted arms.





Important decisions

He describes a collaboration of Amir On in Scientific American: Tough choices: making decisions tired your brain. To better understand executive function as a construct that underlies the decision-making on matters that may not have anything to do with each other, the author proposes the illustrative example of someone who discusses the options somewhat irrelevant or not eating a cookie .

Later, that same person has to take a decision more important, relative to a completely different area and will affect very relevant to your life, as is the choice between two possible jobs that have been offered. Well, that decision may be affected by the earlier efforts on the issue of the cookie, since the effects of such efforts are persistent and may have exhausted the instrument-executive function, which now is required to make a decision transcendent.

The fact that the decision merely tired and even exhausted executive function, and it has an effect on subsequent cognitive tasks, seems confirmed by the research and field studies conducted by psychologist at the University of Minnesota Kathleen Vohs and colleagues .

In one of them, for example, some students took to the mall, where they were making purchasing choices. Subsequently were given the simple algebraic problem solving, and students who had made a greater number of choices at the mall had a considerably more difficult to solve.

Mental exhaustion

The decision-making process includes, among other things, the consideration of different options, the sacrifice of the advantages of one of them in exchange for what it offers the other, the transition from one state to another mental evaluative decision-making, and are these mental activities that require effort that ends up straining to executive function.

Especially stressful, as the findings of a parallel study conducted by Nathan Novemsky professor at Yale University and colleagues, is facing the need to sacrifice something to make other, and here it should be noted that the greater similarity maintain between If the different options that you need to choose, it is more strenuous efforts.

Another study, published by the psychologist at the University of Maryland Anastasiya Pocheptsova and colleagues in 2007, also confirms the effects of tiredness and fatigue on executive function, in this case by experiments on concentration and attention regulation, which also require the use of it. Subjects with the tired brain for this activity took the worst decisions in the matters put to them later.

Cognitive tools

On the other hand, many of the tests and tests used in this type of research, also serve to assess the extent to which the performance of certain cognitive activities tired, fatigued or exhausted at the "muscle" brain, can also be used as training for same, as noted by Clancy Blair, associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University, and author of the first of the studies cited in this article.

All these results and conclusions are extremely relevant, because executive function is something that we continuously throughout the day. They can challenge the idea that the multi-functionality in the workplace increases productivity, because only the transition time between them and other tasks by an employee would rather low, especially when it comes to complex tasks. This aspect has been investigated.

They are also clear implications of the same in many other areas (including economic) of our lives and take account of these studies and their findings may help at least identify when it is not a good time to take an important decision. For example, after having been assessing the advisability of eating or not a cookie.

40% of executives who are promoted perform less

Over 40% of managers pay less if they change their position or role within the company. However, according to a study conducted by the Corporate Executive Board, these managers can succeed if they manage clearly what they call "the paradox of success quickly."

In the business world today, the pressure for new managers to produce a quick contribution is enormous. According to a survey of more than 5,400 new officers, 40% of them pay less or worse when they are in full transition to a new position, affecting the productivity of nearly half the workforce of an organization in a year.

These managers were asked about what they were focusing on, what behaviors exhibited and how they fared in their first month of work. They were also asked to rate the performance of their teams. The result has been a series of patterns that distinguish managers who thrive in his new position of those who do not.




Although this study has shown that getting a "quick win" is perceived as critical, managers who achieve a "victory" in his new post early are more likely to "derail" in the future. Fall into what the study calls "the paradox of success quickly."

According to an article in Harvard Business Review, the most common behavior associated with the failure of the new position is the tendency to choke at the minute. In this carreblankra unbridled success, the manager seeks to highlight a component of his new job. By putting the focus so intently on a single purpose, neglects broader responsibilities.

These managers feel the urgency to prove their worth to their new roles, they can succeed, but lost in destructive behaviors, such as focusing too much detail, react negatively to criticism or jump to conclusions. These behaviors undermine their long-term success at his new job.


Collective work

CEB's research shows that the best managers avoid the risk of paying little success trying to get that fast collectively, and not their own risk. These managers work with your team to achieve immediate results. To do this, managing change or help the people in your team to thrive within the organization.

The pattern of those to succeed in his new position agrees on one thing: his ability to manage change. As new leaders, want things to move, but also understand that as a result of its rise, its new teams have to deal with change, like himself. The study of CEB believes that the transitional stages are not just the manager, but organizations as a whole. Organizations, he says, have to invest in leadership development.

To help new managers to successfully overcome the paradox of rapid success, companies must redefine their expectations for immediate success. Recognizing the uncertainty in these transition periods for these managers and their teams, companies should develop their capacity for change, make it possible for the loyalty of those working with management in pursuit of that success desirable.

The key, says the report, be realistic. Both the one hand as the other. Managers must know their limitations. Companies, meanwhile, should define reasonable goals and make sure the person knows blindly promoted the work that has to play.

Training and coaching

In this sense, training and coaching play a very prominent place. The transition process should not begin when the new manager takes his new post, if not earlier. Then there should be a support phase in which the manager would have to handle more detailed information about how the company is from that new position.

On the other hand, is key to detect failures at the same time taking place, and finish them sooner. The cost for a company that has a manager who performs below its potential is enormous.

A few months ago, the magazine Tendencias 21 contained a study of the Instituto of Executive Development which claimed that a third of managers who change employers have the feeling that they have not met expectations two years after recruitment.

Then the 150 managers interviewed considered that the average time to acclimate to the new position takes between 6 and 9 months. According to the authors of the study, companies devote resources to facilitate this transition that does not serve much of anything. Other actions, such as coaching, which have a high effectiveness rate (42%).

New ... "Leadership?

During periods of crisis can assess many factors that change according to the nature of the crisis conditions, and become that make the management decisions of the present and the future.

One factor is the behavior of managers of companies, which currently are under great pressure and have to make decisions that will determine the future of their employees, their organizations and society in general.

The new global survey by McKinsey & Company, called "Leadership Through the Crisis and After" (The leadership during the crisis and after), investigated the way in which individual leaders are leading and the changes that their styles of leadership have suffered during the economic crisis.

The study found that executives actually have significantly changed their styles of leadership during the past year, with the exception of their views on the aspects that can help companies in the long term, and also revealed that many of the styles leadership is most needed at present and in the future, like having inspirational leaders and have a clear direction for the company, are used more by women than by men.

Leaders without much leadership


The global survey emphasizes the positive in the majority of participants said they had not cut into programs for recruitment, retention and development of women, but also states that this is overshadowed by the fact that only one third of respondents consider gender diversity as one of the ten priorities of their companies, as well as relatively few are taking specific actions to promote it.

Moreover, there are some very encouraging figures in the leadership of managers: only 48% of the executives surveyed believe they should inspire and only 46% considered it their responsibility to provide leadership during the crisis. Moreover, these figures drop to 45% and 39%, respectively, if the questions are framed in the form of lead in post-crisis times.

John Baldoni, leadership consultant and author of several books, publishes a Article survey on Harvard Business Publishing, and believes that "A majority of managers just do not understand what it means to be a leader."

And is that only 30% of managers felt they needed to motivate their employees during the crisis, and 23% felt during the post-crisis, only 23% expressed the need for accountability during the crisis, and 18% during the post- crisis, and only 33% of them said they believed that innovation is needed now, while 46% said they believed it was necessary during the post-crisis.

In the words of Balconi, "If a majority of managers do not feel the inspiration and direction are needed to manage corporate performance, and that motivation and accountability are essential, then our companies are in a much worse than the imagined ".

Leadership is more to do to fulfill the tasks

The author of the article explains that the leadership can not be alone in getting things done, because that would have a very short view that the company would not far away, but that this ability to execute must be accompanied by provision for reach the company to achieve the objectives and have the foundation for growth.

Finally, it is important to note that a leader should inspire and be admired, and that inspiration is not about to give the most sophisticated speeches, but set an example and explains Balconi "The word inspiration can be confusing and even overwhelming, for most managers because they can feel that need to be speakers as Winston Churchill or leaders like Colin Powell. No, the inspiration is rooted in the personal example. Managers can inspire employees to put in a position to succeed .... "

34% of internet users surf the Web during TV commercial breaks

More and more users have become at multitasking, ie two simultaneous consuming media, especially television and the internet and to avoid TV commercials no longer need to zap, but enough for them to surf the net. The research, conducted at the request of Microsoft, shows that the target of 16 to 24 deepens the habit.

39% of users change channels during commercial breaks, while 34% use internet along these intermediates, according to a study conducted at the request of Media Meshing Microsoft Advertising between 1,050 adults in seven European countries ( United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Belgium.
This paper highlights two of every three Internet users surf the web while watching TV at least once a week and 40% do so most of the day or night.

As for the distinction by sex and age, the study says there is no significant gender bias in the simultaneous use of these means and that users aged between 16 and 24 show a greater propensity to consume internet and TV at the same time. Another feature of the report is that the day of the week is a differentiating factor in the simultaneous use of media. On weekends this use throughout the day (from 10:00 to 17:30) is almost twice that week: 47% versus 23%.

The dominant activity during the simultaneous use of media, as in the regular use of internet is the e-mail query, followed by web browsing, social networking and instant messaging. At this point if they are gender differences: the web surfing men looking for content while women focus on communication in its various forms.

For multitasking roles of advertising in television and internet are complementary: both play a similar role in providing consumers information about products and brands, as well as providing information on products they already know. In regard to stimulate interest, product testing, and persuasion, the force that has traditionally been advertising on television is still noticeable, but online ads are also obtained good results in the study.

Another preconceived idea is the widespread perception that Internet is not just a response channel and the major drivers of brand awareness are the ads on television, print and outdoor. However, when asked to multitask on this issue, 51% choose the network as the most effective time to make known brands and products.

Prospectively. The next 20 years: how to evolve the attitudes of customers and the workforce

Business projects with long horizons of time, such as R & D of products, design of the workplace, and compensation planning, must deal with a key question: What are the needs, demands and desires of consumers and employees in decades more? If you think the answer is "more of the same", is wrong.

Howe and Strauss, authors of Generations, The Fourth Turning and Millennials Rising, among other books, studied the differences between generations over 30 years. His extensive research has revealed a fascinating pattern, a pattern so strong that lends credibility to their ability to predict. They point out that based on historical precedent we can predict how today's generations will think and act in the coming decades.



Three of those generations will still be vital forces in American society in 20 years: the Boomers, Generation X and Millennium. Their attitudes and behaviors influence a lot in the economy, the workplace and social institutions in general. For example, as older Boomers reject high-tech medicine in favor of a holistic self-care, natural foods and healing techniques for body and mind, some hospitals offer alternative medicine and spiritual counseling.

Gen Xers, who grew up in an era of poor schools and marriages, will remain alienated, disaffected, and pragmatic in its maturity. And are the most entrepreneurial generation in U.S. history and it will be able to drive innovation, efficiency and mass customization. In contrast, young adults prefer Millennium teamwork, close family relationships, job security and a popular culture without depth. Their unprecedented digital empowerment and organizational skills will create a major political force and may even revive the labor movement.

¿Less than 2 months? Failure of Microsoft

Spent less than two months since its launch and Microsoft announced yesterday that it canceled the production of their cell phones Kin, designed for young users of social networking sites. In the technology company said it was to focus on the Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft went on sale two types of kin in U.S. last May 13 between 50 and worth $ 100 and planned to market the device in Europe in recent months, something that no longer occur. The company, however, continue to work with the Verizon telephone company to conduct the inventory of existing U.S. Kin

"We made the decision to focus on the release of our Windows Phone 7", Microsoft said in a statement released yesterday, which said the team dedicated to Kin will become part of the staff working in the development of Windows Phone 7 (WP7), which hit the market in October.

According to technology website Gizmodo, Microsoft's decision was based on poor sales of Kin. From MSNBC, media, formed by Microsoft and NBC Universal, Kin scored a "white elephant" because, despite its functionality and access to social networking sites, use rates were as high as those of cell high-end but without offering the same services.

The company said Kin advances will be applied in the next WP7, with which Microsoft hopes to compete with the iPhone, Blackberry and other phones of the so-called "smart."

Marketing en Facebook

magina be able to reach current and potential customers through the largest network in the world, with about 400 billion users and growing.

That is the proposal made by creators of Facebook to trademarks, an offer that had roots of urgency to improve the economic figures of a gold mine that was not even a really profitable exploitation route.

The network aims to be an alternative for companies that still believe that marketing and advertising options are limited to mass media such as radio, television, newspapers and magazines and even the Internet, but also associate it with traditional media is ie web pages of newspapers and magazines.

Facebook


First, companies need to understand that to succeed in these areas need to think beyond the term "campaign", and that success in social media is based on creating continuity with consumers.

Therefore, we must seek to be reliable and be perceived in this way in front of customers openly.

Facebook has chosen to compete with Twitter by enabling a "public search" by changing their privacy policies-a plus for advertisers, but not for users.

It has also implemented a strategy of "Open Graph", integrating features of Facebook directly on other websites, conceptually similar to Google AdSense, based on keywords or phrases.

He also completed the migration to a system of "Likes" or better known as the "I Like" application that allows Internet users to tell if they like the content or an advertiser's product.

A more than interesting for brands considering that Facebook now accounts for 7.5% of surfing time people in the United States with 134 billion airtime per month.

The trend is in line with other social channels are doing. For example, Twitter has its function Promoted Tweets, an advertising platform aimed at organizations interested in using the microblogging social network to develop their business strategies.

Continuing with Facebook, another point to emphasize is related to their ability to influence, particularly through public figures deemed "influencers." Reach these people leads to better results and a high "Share of Voice."

Tim Schigel, CEO of ShareThis, add other concepts such as sharing, the sharing of content, "clicks, how many people do you click to content," engagement, "how much time interacting with the scope, content, and how inspired they are to spread and share content.

These benefits are just some of the possibilities that remain to be announced on the social networking world.

Brands bet online branding to increase the level of recall among users and consumers

Internet is establishing new scenarios where trademarks are beginning to play a leading role. The brands touch the lives of consumers and are crucial in influencing purchase decisions. Therefore, large companies have decided to take a 180 degree turn and bet heavily on marketing strategies and online branding in order to maximize impact, visibility, and increase the level of recall among users and consumers.

The markings are intended to be part of our lives. Companies are not just intended to seek the return based on the results of the return of their advertisements and advertising. Claim that their marks are symbols of worship, be recognized and associated with certain values. Seek to differentiate.

While branding may look different and broader aspects of brand marketing, these companies need to compete and differentiate. Thus, building a brand, is of vital importance and need to know to take and implement successful communication strategies for consumers.

In social networks involving trademarks was intensified thereby being able to demonstrate the positive effects of creating a direct relationship with the users and consumers. The branding is no longer reduced to playing with the creative elements of the brand itself but extends the premise to be present and participate actively in the environment and social media.

On the Internet, brands have taken the lead as a champion of Social Media Marketing. However, the conversation alone is not enough. The marks look and be creative to maintain visibility and visual impact. Before joining in the conversation, the names must comply with a clear objective, to be identified and recognized by the consumers' minds.

The segmentation of online media allows companies to analyze and identify patterns directly related to all professional sectors differentiated by theme, target audience, user profile, etc ... and this is where brands seek greater visibility to strengthen their impact and recall level.

For this reason, companies have begun to broaden their vision in this area looking for new scenarios in which detect values that can be inherited, transmitted to their partners and brands to be installed on them. The mere fact that consumers perceive them as having a number values that attract them, it means that reject or at least tend to reject names that do not show these values.

Business Intelligence for success

Citius, Altius, Fortius! (Faster, higher, stronger). The motto of the Olympic Games helps us reflect on our business objectives at this time. Because. confess, we live in times of change exponential sales cycles vary, the market is more aggressive, changing consumption patterns before they finish analyzing sales. We must go further, to adapt, evolve. But how? Using common sense business intelligence tools.

Information Today

These days a company can not afford, for example, errors like a sales campaign die before birth, for not taking into account all the information needed to direct market their product right.


For the Commercial Division of a company the challenge is clear. Analyze what to sell, when, to whom and how. Decisions, along with other areas of the company, including Marketing, based on information from various sources, internal and external. All these parts, well geared, can make good decisions in less time.

Today we are not surprised continuous change and the speed at which it occurs. We live in times where the information is growing so rapidly that a newspaper publishes information in a week that was accessible by a person of the eighteenth century in his life.

Thus, the volume of information generated by companies is doubling every two years. What can we do to manage it? The natural solution is to rely on powerful and sophisticated tools, the so-called business intelligence, allowing us to make better decisions using the huge volume of information also is necessary for our business. The technology allows, and in many cases, the pocket too.

In the case of the commercial area is particularly critical if we consider that both business decisions (target market, prices, margins, distribution of accounts) as the analysis of results (sales funnel-sales-funnel, milestones achieved, percentage of achievement of objectives) and response to alarms (minimum sales threshold, threshold margin, market share) should handle massive amounts of information from various sources throughout the company.

Intelligence, "the Director or the platform?


Rhetorical question if ever there was, as the business intelligence tools provide the information but intelligence, industry knowledge and experience of the business address that selects the direction to follow in terms of information.

I will give two examples, of which you can learn to fix the concepts we are discussing:

1. Imagine a company that quarterly sales report is remitted to a commercial director role, document the numbers of the best commercials are underlined with a fluorescent marker. Is it enough to track quarterly sales, without detecting any internal or external alarm this time? What if the director wants to analyze the same information by customer, by sector, see the trend in the next quarter based on the above? Will the information in time?

2. Now let us take the example of a company whose sales have dropped, but does not know why. If it needs to analyze your target market if the price of their products is competitive, if your bank is sound and its position within the market. For this purpose, using business intelligence tools define a plan in two phases: situation analysis and monitoring of the plan of action.

To track, define the desired objectives and measures to achieve. The Commercial Director is updated, reliable, allowing you to check daily if the plan is working and otherwise react. A plan like this has allowed the recovery position in the market, increasing sales by 35% and 10% margins.

Evolve

The business intelligence tools, or Business Intelligence, opens the door to a new style of business that can make the most time, allowing further improve our decisions, since the quality of the information that we do grow exponentially.

The market requires a Commercial Director to evolve, to squeeze the most out all the necessary information to make decisions that your company needs, and for this, your best ally is the business intelligence tools. Give it up can mean huge losses of market share in times that we can afford.

Let us not miss the train of success. Do we have available all the necessary tools to make our business decisions?

Business trends

Here are some of the trends that Thomas Frey, futurist and director of the DaVinci Institute, says will change the way we do business in the future. The effects of global crisis, the disruptive influence of new technologies, the emergence of new business models and aggressive search for new alternatives.

1) Systemic Crisis
Many of the systems we have today are global to the brink because they were not designed to cope with the speed and volume of today's society. We need an absolute change of national systems will lead to global systems. In the coming years, massive failures in most systems, including the tax system, judicial, security, money and more, and as they fall, new opportunities arise.

2) The "one-person Empires"
With financial markets in danger, the most popular form of entrepreneurship will be "one-person Empires," a business run by one person with a broad spectrum of influence. This outsourcing business models all its operations to various organizations around the world. The high costs of employment and the power deposited in the individual technologies creating the perfect conditions to grow this model.

3) business Colonies
Corporate colonies, as colonies of nanotechnology, video games, alternative medicine, there will be an incubator of specific industries as drivers of economic development. Be formed in cities as industrial centers and hotbeds of entrepreneurship. Will be both virtual and physical, of different size and structure. Will unite around a shared resource and thus share equipment or materials that are too costly for any one person can take over.

4) Cloud Computing
The ability to connect to your workspace in portable devices, wherever you are, avoiding complex and expensive systems is very interesting and, although some way to go, is fairly advanced. In the last few years has made great strides with the advent of programs such as Amazon's Web Services and Google's App Engine. But for this movement to reach its full potential, still a few years.

5) Battle of alternative energy sectors
Although oil remains the main source of energy, the push for alternative energy is booming. In the coming years, will expand exponentially, reaching new ground in the production, transmission and storage.

Social networks: the privacy concerns of users

Half of Americans have a profile on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are concerned about their privacy, according to a new survey.

The Marist poll showed that people over 60 were most anxious about their privacy, and that women were more concerned than men in this regard.

"This is a new information age. Some people are concerned, they are reluctant and are frightened by the magnitude of information on the Internet. There is an element of privacy that some individuals feel they are losing," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College.

Privacy on social networking sites is a constant problem. Facebook recently changed their policies to give users more control over how much information is public profiles following protests from organizations of privacy control and users about the difficulty of changing the default settings of their accounts.

The survey showed that 27% of the 1,004 respondents were concerned about their privacy on the Internet pages of social networks, while just over 23% were very worried.

Older Americans are more concerned about privacy, as Miringoff, because social networks are not as directed at them naturally to the young, who show a more carefree attitude towards the Internet sites and privacy.

Overall, 43% of Americans said they kept in touch through the internet pages of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn. 40% of men and 45% of women confirmed that they had a profile of any network.