Newsletter Issue 111, March 2006

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 111, March 2006

Hi guys,

Our series on finding out how well you delegate winds up in Delegating Well Part 2 from AMA below.

If you are looking for a new PDA, then Microsoft's Origami Project might interest you. 

CountA in Excel   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Delegating Well, Part 2

In a recent issue of the American Management Association's newsletter, AMA had a great article on delegation. AMA's editor, Shari Lifland, has kindly allowed me to reproduce it here for all of you to enjoy. Last time we looked at the do's of delegation; and this time we look at the don'ts.

The Don'ts - when not to delegate:

1. Avoid delegating tasks that:
   • Are sensitive and personal in nature
   • Require a degree of risk and decision making that is unfair to the delegatee
   • Require your personal expertise
   • Require your personal leadership
   • Have legal restrictions.
2. Such inappropriate tasks may include:
   • Performance evaluations
   • Counseling, disciplining and other confidential personnel matters
   • Tasks assigned specifically and exclusively to you
   • Tasks that are the responsibility of another team, department or division
   • Crisis situations where people are looking to you for leadership
   • New initiatives that require your setting the example and setting the standard.
3. Avoid delegating to:
   • People who are already overloaded
   • People who have other important, high-priority tasks requiring their attention
   • People who lack the time to complete the task successfully
   • People who lack the skills to complete the task successfully
   • If there are other candidates for delegation available, people who have successfully completed similar tasks before. Share the knowledge.

AMA’s Delegation Bootcamp provides guidelines that help managers learn how to turn over the right amount of responsibility and authority to the appropriate people. This article was excerpted from the seminar materials developed for that programme.

About the Author: Shari Lifland manages content for AMA’s Members-only Website (www.amanet.org) and is Associate Editor of MWorld. If you are an AMA member, you can rate your delegation skills in a short Self-Assessment, “Do I Delegate Enough?” from AMA’s “Delegation Bootcamp” seminar at http://membersonly.amamember.org/editorial.cfm?Ed=120&ID=88.

 

Microsoft's Origami Project

Microsoft is apparently planning a small mobile PC, sometimes reported as Intel's Ultra Mobile PC or Slide or by Bill Gates as Carry Everywhere PC. An announcement at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hanover recently stirred up all kinds of speculation.

Microsoft have set up a website at http://www.origamiproject.com/3/ and from February this year they have been running teaser ads which have been updated every week, so that the early-adopters can check out what is happening. On March 9th they added a weblink back to the main Microsoft site at http://www.microsoft.com/umpc.

The Microsoft site blurb says that "The Ultra-Mobile PC is a new kind of computer. It combines the power of Windows XP with mobile-ready technologies that make it easy to access and use your software on the go. With small, lightweight, carry-everywhere hardware designs, you can connect and communicate, accomplish any task anywhere and at any time, and be entertained and informed wherever life takes you. " OK, yes, but what is it REALLY?

The hardware is a Windows XP Tablet PC, running XP2005 with a diagonal display of up to 179mm with a minimum resolution of 800 x 480. It has an integrated touch panel, and is WiFi- and Bluetooth-enabled. It will happily run Office XP, and syncs with your base PC like any normal PDA.

Weighing a little under a kilo, it looks pretty small and compact. While is probably not something that you could put in your pocket, it would fit in a handbag. You can view the gadget in action at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/howitworks.mspx

CountA in Excel

When working in Excel, have you ever wanted to know how many blank cells you have in a row or column of text entries, and not been able to work out how to do it?

Well, there is a way, by using Excel's CountA function. If, say, you needed to keep track of workshop attendance at a conference, you would:

1. Go to A2. Enter "Attendees" or similar title in this cell.
2. Then enter all 250 registered attendees down column A from A3 to A252
3. In cells B2 to - say - K2, you would enter the workshop titles (or course dates, or whatever)
4. For every attendee who attended the first workshop, you would enter "yes" in column B against their name from cells B3:B252
5. Right at the top of the spreadsheet in cell B1, create a total the first workshop attendees, enter the following formula: =COUNTA(B3:B252). You put the totals right at the top of the sheet because otherwise your data will be off way down the page and constantly scrolling down to see the result of your formula at the bottom is a pain
6. To obtain the total attendance for each remaining day of the seminar, simply grab the fill handle on the bottom of B1 and drag the formula across to K1.

Not only will CountA count text, it will also count numbers. So you can check on how many entries of any kind that you have in any column or row.

How's that for easy?!

 

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you;

• GPS, Global Positioning Systems (sometimes Global Positioning Satellite).
• NMi, Nelson Marlborough Info-region. A joint venture between the Nelson Regional EDA and the Marlborough Regional Development Trust to co-ordinate & streamline top of the south information and communication technology initiatives

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

This time we are looking at all you can do with Shift and End;

• Access "Select from the insertion point to the end of the text box entry" Shift & End
• Excel "Extend the selection to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower righthand corner)" Ctrl & Shift & End
• Excel "Extend the selection to the last nonblank cell in the same column or row as the active cell (with End mode on)" End & Shift & Arrow Keys
• Excel "Extend the selection to the last cell in the current row. This keystroke is unavailable if you selected the Transition navigation keys check box on the Transition tab (Tools menu, Options command) (with End mode on)" End & Shift & Enter
• Excel "Extend the selection to the cell in the lower-right corner of the window" Scroll Lock & Shift & End
• Excel "Extend a selection to the end of a field or with scroll lock on, extend the selection to the cell in the lower-right corner of the window" Shift & End
• FrontPage "Go to the end of a line " Shift & End
• Outlook "Select from the insertion point to the end of the entry (or text box entry) or extend the selection to the last card in the list" Shift & End
• PowerPoint "Select from the insertion point to the end of the entry" Shift & End
• Publisher "Extend the highlighting to the last character in a text box or go to the end of a line" Shift & End
• Publisher "Go to the end of the text frame or table cell" Ctrl & Shift & End
• Windows "Select the last item and additional items in an extended selection list box or the last item in the current list and additional items above it" Shift & End
• Word "Select to the end of current line or from the insertion point to the end of the text box entry" Shift & End
• Word "Go to the end of a document" Ctrl & Shift & End
• Word "End of Row" Alt & Shift & End

Hot Linx

Wanting to know what's happening in computing news, with a New Zealand slant? Then check out the latest at http://computerworld.co.nz/

And to help you keep up to date with new technology, the Sci-Fi website's tech page has all the new toys previewed at http://blog.scifi.com/tech/

If you need any kind of foot or deodorising product, then the NeatFeat site will interest you at http://www.neatfeat.co.nz/

There is a scary reality programme on in the UK called "The Armstrongs" on BBC2; a double-glazing duo whose dubious 'entrepreneurship' can be sampled at http://www.thearmstrongs.tv/

---

                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

read more "Newsletter Issue 111, March 2006"

Newsletter Issue 110, March 2006

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 110, March 2006

Hi guys,

How well do you delegate? You can find out in Delegating Well Part 1 from AMA below.

Is the art of handwriting dead? See what you think in Handwriting - a Lost Art? 

Measure Power Usage with 'Kill-a-Watt'   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Delegating Well, Part 1

In a recent issue of the American Management Association's newsletter, AMA had a great article on delegation. AMA's editor, Shari Lifland, has kindly allowed me to reproduce it here for all of you to enjoy. This time we are looking at the do's of delegation.

AMA’s Delegation Bootcamp provides guidelines that help managers learn how to turn over the right amount of responsibility and authority to the appropriate people. Following are some excerpts from their seminar concerning the do’s of effective delegation.

AMA's TIPS FOR THE “DELEGATIONALLY” CHALLENGED

Delegation is a skill that doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Many executives, managers and supervisors avoid delegation because of various practical and emotional barriers. For example, they may be afraid to relinquish control of some tasks or they may worry that employees will resist or resent delegation. It’s important to overcome these challenges, as effective delegation can have wide-ranging benefits for the delegator, the delegatees and the organisation as a whole.

Carol Ellis in her book Management Skills for New Managers outlines the importance of effective delegation as “Managers who delegate effectively have direct reports who are more capable and enthusiastic because of the delegation experience. A good manager knows that delegation is the way to achieve results through others.”

Why Delegate? 

1. Benefits to the delegator:
   • Relieves you of some of your workload, time pressure and stress
   • Allows you to devote your energies to higher-payoff tasks
   • Prepares people to handle tasks in your absence
   • Prepares people to take on your job so you can move up
   • Allows you to assess a delegatee’s potential
2. Benefits to the delegatees:
   • Develops their skills, abilities, experience, perspective and judgment
   • Prepares them for greater responsibility, authority and promotion
   • Raises their involvement and visibility within an organisation
   • Helps them feel more trusted and significant
   • Builds their motivation
3. Benefits to the organisation:
   • Improves decision making and execution through wider involvement
   • Develops organisational resilience by developing more skilled staff members
   • Creates a climate of trust and empowerment
   • Demonstrates a belief in the value and importance of people
   • Allows for easier and more effective promotion and succession planning

The Do's: Tasks that can be delegated:

• Recurring decisions and actions that others can handle
• Pressing priorities you can’t handle but others can
• Special projects and long-range tasks
• Detail work on projects you are handling
• Tasks that could help people grow in areas key to their future
• Tip: Keep in mind that the responsibilities you delegate should be “SMART$” (Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Reachable, Timely and within budget)

Thanks very much to Shari Lifland and AMA at www.amanet.org. Next time, in part two of Delegating Well, we will look at when NOT to delegate.

Handwriting - a Lost Art?

According to a Lloyds TSB insurance survey, one in three UK children has a computer in their bedroom, and I can imagine in NZ our stats will be much the same. Because of that technology, we communicate via email or phone rather than letter, we use electronic diaries more than paper, class work is word processed and we increasingly use electronic signatures over 'real' ones.

Stuart Jeffries at the Guardian wrote a very interesting article recently on "the death of handwriting", now that UK ATM cards will finally accept pin numbers instead of signatures. He lamented "today, as chip and pin technology becomes compulsory on the high street, even our signatures have become obsolete."

If handwriting is about to be relegated to history, it is probably a good time to consider its beginnings. The Sumerians started the whole recording system business, accounting via a stylus and wet clay; soon to be followed by nearly everyone else on the planet as they caught onto what a great thing this writing lark was. Clay tablets gave way to advancing technology - quill and paper - because it was EASIER. Just as latin script replaced German gothic script because latin script was easier to write and read. In the British empire, copperplate gave way to round-hand for the same reason.

Today, we have new technologies that make writing easier via microprocessors. Globally, latin script dominates due both to English being the business lingua franca and to computer technology. The 95% of us who use IBM PCs use the standard Times New Roman or Arial typefaces on our computers, internet and cellphones instead of our own, personalised handwriting and don't have a moments' qualm over that.

The 'art' of handwriting (or calligraphy or penmanship) is already outmoded - I don't think many of us can call our scribbly writing 'art'! Despite providing a sneak peek of our inner character, hand writing and signatures are definitely declining in use, with PCs, pin numbers and internet banking accelerating the process. Are there hoardes of graphologists out there who will slowly die off without replacement? And if they do, does it matter?

We still write, but now the act of writing and the art of handwriting have grown apart. Do we think less of someone because they send an email rather than a note? I tend to send everything electronically these days, and I definitely prefer to receive electronic Christmas cards, thank you notes, birthday greetings and email letters. I can then keep them on my PC, back 'em up and they are there for as long as I want to keep 'em. It avoids the issue of having slippy piles of tree-&-ink that I hate to throw out, but end up doing so because it gets ridiculous to try to keep it all.

I feel a bold statement coming on. I think that handwriting is becoming superseded. I think we have now found an easier way, and that this easier technology will continue to erode our reliance on paper and ink. Better power supplies, smaller technologies, voice recognition and 'scribble' recognition will see handwriting, as a skill, completely marginalised. Not next year, but maybe this century.

Also, I think that handwriting will eventually become a minority hobby along with other skills which have been overtaken by technology such as abacus work, Ancient Greek, comportment and tatting (all of which were taught as a matter of course in 18th Century schools). I am not sure that this is a bad thing. It is just a different thing.

New skills will arise to take the place of the old and outmoded ones. In other words, this is yet another evolution; 'in with the new, out with the old'.

Anyone know a graphologist who wants to retrain?

You can read Stuart Jeffries's article, "The Death of Handwriting" at the Guardian online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1709128,00.html

Measure Power Usage with 'Kill-a-Watt'

Are your electronics or appliances power guzzlers? You can find out where you're power consumption is going by testing your equipment, electronics and appliances with the Kill-A-Watt Meter.

Simply connect your appliances via the Kill A Watt™ plug into the mains, then watch their energy usage. This dinky American tool has a good-sized LCD display which shows appliance consumption by the Kilowatt-hour. You can calculate power consumption by the hour, day, week, month, or year, and it also shows volts, amps, Hz and VA.

With that knowledge you might decide that to turn some things off at the wall instead of leaving them on standby because you know how much each appliance is costing you.

To operate Kill-a-Watt in New Zealand you will require a 110V (US voltage) to 240V (NZ) transformer. You can order Kill-a-Watt on-line at http://www3.shopping.com/xPC-P3_International_Kill_A_Watt_Meter~linkin_id-3067401 for approximately USD$31.95 (≈NZD$48 + shipping).

A must-have for the newly-converted energy conscious.

 

 

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you;

• ICT, Information & Communications Technology. Electronic information-processing technologies including computers, the Internet, fixed-line telecommunications, mobile phones, wireless communications, networks, broadband, and specialised application devices (eg barcode scanners, Braille readers, GPS).
• SMTP, Simple Mail Transport Protocol. A TCP/IP protocol used in sending and receiving e-mail, usually used with one of two other protocols, POP3 or IMAP, that let the user save messages in a server mailbox and download them periodically from the server.

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

This time we are looking at all you can do with Shift and Home;

• Excel "Extend a selection to the beginning of a field or row or select from the insertion point to the beginning of the entry" Shift & Home
• Excel "Extend the selection to the cell in the upper-left corner of the window" Scroll Lock & Shift & Home
• Excel "Extend the selection to the last cell used on the worksheet (lower-right corner) (with End mode on)" End & Shift & Home
• Outlook "Select from the insertion point to the beginning of the entry (or text box entry) or extend the selection to the first card in a list or change the duration of the selected block of time when working in day/week/month view" Shift & Home
• PowerPoint "Select from the insertion point to the beginning of the entry" Shift & Home
• Publisher "Extend the highlighting to the first character in a text box or go to the start of a line" Shift & Home
• Access "Select from the insertion point in the text box to the beginning of the text box entry" Shift & Home
• Frontpage "Go to the beginning of a line " Shift & Home
• Windows "Select the first item in the list and additional items below it" Shift & Home
• Word "Select from the current position of within a line or text box entry to the beginning" Shift & Home

Hot Linx

If you want to find out what new business ventures and development are happening in the Nelson region, you need look no further than the EDA's website at http://www.eda.co.nz/developments/

The planet's largest telescope, Magellan, is under construction, and Discover's article on its progress can be read at http://www.discover.com/issues/feb-06/cover/

If you are at a bit of a loose end and want a snippet of entertainment, try a quick visit to view some of the excellent ads that have been posted at http://www.funstream.tv/

Microsoft is working on a hard/software device called Origami which sounds very interesting. Read about it at http://techrepublic.com.com/2100-3513_11-6043755.html?tag=nl.e056

---

                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

read more "Newsletter Issue 110, March 2006"