Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Traveling over the Holidays: Unleashing the Power of Nice

I'm on vacation in Louisiana, and loving it. However, getting here was a pain due to the fact that they lost one of our family's bags on the way. All's well now and we were treated just fine but it was still a pain.

Ironically, on the flight I read an excellent article on how to make travel more bearable: It's in "Best Life" magazine, and it's called "21 Rules of Stress-Free Travel"

Great stuff awaits you, like:

  • The safest seat on the plane
  • An analysis of relative seat costs on flights (I wrote about some of this pricing insanity in the past)
  • Cool tips for getting a decent hotel room and keeping it from making you ill
  • Very good luggage, security checkpoint, and packing techniques

Check it out and cut down on your travel stress!

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Learning through Blog Forums

Every year at this time, Rosa Say, author of the book Managing With Aloha, takes a long vacation and pauses her blogging activities. Does her blog just go dark during that time? Heck no.

Rosa calls on other folks to contribute "best of" links from their blogs in a sort of carnival. I'm proud to be in the mix.

In this ecclectic collection of voice, you'll find lots of great stories -- and you might discover some new blogs you like. Click here to redeem your Talking Story Gift Card and check out Ho'ike'ike 2006.

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A cornucopia of networking advice

Josh Hinds has honored me by asking me to participate in an interview on his site, "Business Networking Advice". I'm the December 13th entry in a long series of 3-question interviews on the topic of business networking.

You can find the interview here.

And be sure to take a look around the site - Josh is keeping it real over there, and I learned a lot of cool things from his interviews.

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2006 Talking Story Countdown!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote some pointers for how to prepare for negotiations. In response to that, Rosa asked a question about what to do after the deal is done.

Here are my thoughts and pointers:

  • Get it down in writing
    • Very soon after the agreement is struck (same day if possible), record what was agreed in writing. I use email because it's efficient and works for my style.
    • This written plan should include the main points of the agreement, committed action items with owners, and any time frames as agreed.
  • Raise the flag on any "gotchas"
    • When writing up the results of the negotiation, you may uncover "holes" that you forgot to address. Bring them up right away.
    • After the work you've done during the negotiation, you probably have a good idea what's going to work for both parties, so feel free to offer some suggestions for how to fill the holes.
  • Follow up and follow through
    • You or a designee on your side should "own" management to the agreement. This includes nagging people who aren't hitting commitments, double-checking the results to ensure that they meet what was agreed, etc.
    • Set a good example yourself by following through and keeping your own commitments. If you don't do this, what leverage do you have if the other person misses a commitment?
  • Don't be too dogmatic
    • Often, we commit based on good faith and what we know at the time of the negotiation. When we actually get down to delivering, we find that what we thought was appropriate doesn't make sense in the real world. Whenever possible, try to manage to the spirit of the agreement - not the letter of the law. This doesn't mean you can change the agreement at will, but you should be open to discussing alternatives that become apparent or necessary during implementation.
  • Don't rule out going back to the bargaining table.
    • Sometimes, one party or the other finds they can't deliver what they thought they could deliver. If you feel that coming, raise the issue early and try to create a collaborative environment to come up with a workable solution.
    • However, don't give up to soon - just because renegotiation may be an option, that doesn't mean it should be used as an "easy out."

These are the things that came to mind for me. What about you? Got any tips to share with us?

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Fresh Gear: Why use a headset that isn’t handsfree?

Free headsets - are they worth the price?

A lot of people use the headset that comes with their mobile phone. Free is a great price, I'll grant you. Unfortunately, most of the manufacturers include headsets that don't work all that well. They ones that come with my phone usually have an earbud speaker, and a microphone that hangs down on the microphone cable. The problem? I've found that I can't use these because a) people can't hear you when you use one, and b) these pick up tons of background noise.

You'll see an interesting phenomenon when you walk around airports, etc. - people that use these headsets end up using one hand to hold the microphone near their mouth so the other person can hear them. That seems a little odd to me.

If you're going to use one hand to constantly hold your headset's microphone up to your mouth, why not just hold the phone itself?!

Use a handsfree headset that really is handsfree

I have a headset I really love - it's a Plantronics MX150 headset, pictured at left. This is my second one - the first one was an OEM version that Verizon included with one of my phones a couple of years ago (very cool that they didn't go with the cruddy ones I mention above). I still use my first one in my car, and bought a second one (non-OEM) which I carry in my laptop bag. Available from Amazon for less than $20, I think it's well worth it.

This thing is tough, doesn't crackle, has great noise canceling so you don't get all the background noise, picks up your voice very well, and is comfortable enough to wear for extended periods of time. Best of all, the adjustable boom is built into the speaker assembly so you don't have to hold the thing next to your mouth. In other words: this headset really is handsfree!

Here's some trivia for you, too - Plantronics has been in the headset game for a long time. They made the first headsets for the first voyage to the moon, for example.

My thoughts on Bluetooth headsets

I've dabbled in Bluetooth headsets a few times, but I always end up back with my trusty old Plantronics MX150. I still haven't found a Bluetooth headset I love - most of them still have problems with background noise and wind. I even have a Plantronics Discovery Bluetooth headset. It's good, as far as Bluetooth headsets go (very small, can charge it from a AAA battery, etc.), but the sound quality isn't as good as my MX150. Also, most Bluetooth headsets have those Borg-like blue flashing lights and look distractingly geeky - I'm geeky enough without flashing lights on my head, thank you!

Free your hand...

Bottom line: if you're still holding that dangling microphone to your mouth, consider trading up to something better. You'll be thankful for it, I'm sure!

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