Working with People; Not Against Them

Stand firm when you need to.

© iStockphoto/JayKay57

Do you consider yourself to be assertive? And what does being assertive mean to you?

Does it mean exercising your rights all the time, every time? Or does it mean knowing when to let someone else or some other cause or outcome take precedence over your rights?

For example, is the boss who places a pile of work on an employee's desk the afternoon before that employee goes on vacation, being assertive? Or, is the employee who is about to go on vacation being assertive when she tells the boss that the work will be done upon her return?

It's not always easy to identify truly assertive behavior. This is because there is a fine line between assertiveness and aggression. So, some definitions are helpful when trying to separate the two:

Assertiveness is based on balance - it requires being forthright about your wants and needs while still considering the rights, needs, and wants of others. When you are assertive, you ask for what you want but you don't necessarily get it.

Aggressive behavior is based on winning - it requires that you do what is in your own best interest without regard for the rights, needs, feelings or desires of others. When you are aggressive, you take what you want regardless, and you don't usually ask.

So, that boss was being aggressive. Yes, he had work that needed to be done. However, by dumping it on his employee at such an inappropriate time, he showed a total lack of regard for the needs and feeling of his employee.

The employee on the other hand, demonstrated assertive behavior when she informed her boss that the work would be done, but it would be done after she returned from vacation. She asserted her rights while recognizing her boss' need to get the job done.

Assertiveness is not necessarily easy, but it is a skill that can be learned. Developing your assertiveness starts with a good understanding of who you are and a belief in the value you bring. When you have that, you have the basis of self-confidence. Assertiveness helps to build on that self-confidence and provides many other benefits for improving your relationships at work and in other areas of your life as well. In general, assertive people:

• Get to "win-win" more easily – they see the value in their opponent and in his/her position, and can quickly find common ground.
• Are better problem solvers – they feel empowered to do whatever it takes to find the best solution.
• Are less stressed – they know they have personal power and they don't feel threatened or victimized when things don't go as planned or expected.
• Are doers – they get things done because they know they can.

When you act assertively you act fairly and with empathy. The power you use comes from your self-assurance and not from intimidation or bullying. When you treat others with such fairness and respect, you get that same treatment in return. You are well liked and people see you as a leader and someone they want to work with.

Developing Your Assertiveness

Some people are naturally more assertive than others. If your disposition tends more towards being either passive or aggressive, you need to work on the following skills to develop your assertiveness.

Value yourself and your rights:

• Understand that your rights, thoughts, feelings, needs and desires are just as important as everyone else's.
• But remember they are not more important than anyone else's, either.
• Recognise your rights and protect them.
• Believe you deserve to be treated with respect and dignity at all times.
• Stop apologizing for everything.

Identify your needs and wants, and ask for them to be satisfied:

See the full article Assertivness on Mindtools.com

Turning a Challenge into an Opportunity

Turn dissatisfaction into satisfaction with these strategies.

© iStockphoto/Roma

One of Tim's most important clients has just walked into his office, unannounced. Tim stands up with a smile on his face, ready to greet him, when the dam bursts - his client explodes into an angry tirade because Tim's organization has failed to make a delivery on time.

Because of this, the client was unable to demonstrate a key product, which meant that he lost an important sale.

Tim does his best to reason with his client, but nothing he says helps the situation. The client only gets angrier, shouting accusations and spiraling further into a rage. Within a few minutes he walks out, vowing never to do business with Tim's organization again.

Many of us have to deal with angry or unhappy clients as part of our roles, and it's never easy. But if we know what to say and, more importantly, how to say it, we may be able to save the situation. In fact, we can even end up with a better relationship with our client than we had before.

In this article we'll explore how to deal with angry or difficult customers. We'll highlight specific tips and techniques that you can use to smooth things over, so that you can leave them feeling satisfied.

Step One: Adjust Your Mindset

Once you're aware that your client is unhappy then your first priority is to put yourself into a customer service mindset.

This means that you set aside any feelings you might have that the situation isn't your fault, or that your client has made a mistake, or that he or she is giving you unfair criticism.

All that matters is that you realize that your customer or client is upset, and that it's up to you to solve the problem. Adjust your mindset so that you're giving 100 percent of your focus to your client, and to the current situation.

Step Two: Listen Actively

The most important step in the whole of this process is listening actively to what your client or customer is saying - he wants to be heard, and to air his grievances.

Start the dialogue with a neutral statement, such as, "Let's go over what happened," or "Please tell me why you're upset." This subtly creates a partnership between you and your client, and lets him know that you're ready to listen.

Resist the temptation to try to solve the situation right away, or to jump to conclusions about what happened. Instead, let your client tell you his story. As he's talking, don't plan out what you're going to say when he's done - this isn't active listening!

Also, don't allow anything to interrupt this conversation. Give your client all of your attention.

See the full article Dealing with Unhappy Customers on Mindtools.com

Iberiaweather now has a new system recovering and pushing data to internet and weather services. The system is more powerful and has additional ram and resources not previously available. It also has an updated Operating system and additional storage. The system is not yet fully operational though I am in the process of restoring services. At this time I have successfully recovered storm tracking data and all lightning reporting and tracking systems. Live storm tracking is now available on iberiaweather.com though it may be sporadic as I continue to work on the system attached to the weather station electronics. I'll update this post as things come back online.

Completed so far:

• New Server
• OS Upgrade
• Recover data from damaged drives and arrays
• Reinstall Nexstorm
• Recalibrate Lightning detection systems
• Reconfigure Nslog Realtime ftp services
• Setup GPS
• Reconfigure Strikelink for Strikestar.us Network
• Reconfigure Wasp 2
• Rebuild Weather Index
• Reconfigure Weather Display
• Update license Codes
• Change out logins
• Update storage paths
• Reconfigure Wunderground
• Reconfigure CWOP

Tags: Strikestar, Weather, Iberiaweather, network
]]> http://www.lukehebert.com/2011/10/14/iberiaweather-com-online/feed/ 0 http://www.lukehebert.com/2011/10/08/steve-jobs-1955-2011/ http://www.lukehebert.com/2011/10/08/steve-jobs-1955-2011/#comments Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:50:26 +0000 Luke Hebert http://www.lukehebert.com/?p=499

via http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/

Call apple what you will, but one thing is certain Steve Jobs was a visionary in many different areas of media and entertainment. is ingenuity and vision brought forward the world of smart phones as we know it today and brought forward Pixar one of today's most prominent Animation and entertainment companies in the world. Apple and Pixar have both brought with them paradigm shifts in their respective fields and have forced competitors in the worlds of both technology and entertainment to improve their process and polish their products in a way that was not seen before. Moving forward one can only hope that the many individuals touched and affected by the Steve as well as the products both companies have produced will follow in his vision and continue to build a smarter more innovative world.

Before every major architecture launch from AMD or NVIDIA, the companies typically hold an editor's or tech day. These events usually last about a day (sometimes two) and involve a bunch of press sitting in a conference room while they get peppered with presentations and pepper back with questions. Engineers and key architects are usually present. The goal behind these tech days is to help the press understand, at least from the manufacturer's perspective, what makes their new architecture tick. Benchmarking usually doesn't happen at these events, but typically we get hardware at the event or shortly thereafter. If you're curious, Intel doesn't typically do a tech day - that's what IDF is for.

Two weeks ago AMD held one of these tech days for its upcoming Bulldozer architecture, which will be sold under the FX brand (e.g. AMD FX-xxxx CPU). Although it'll still be a little while before I can talk about most of what transpired at the Bulldozer tech day, there is one thing I'm allowed to share today: overclocking potential.

AMD was conducting overclocking experiments at the tech day and had three different stations setup for us to look at. The first used a sub-$100 closed-loop waster cooling solution from Antec (Kühler series). I can't tell you much about the chip itself other than it is an 8-core FX processor that AMD was able to overclock to 4.8GHz using the Antec Kühler. Next up was phase change cooling. Armed with a phase change cooler AMD pushed another 8-core FX CPU up to 5.894GHz at 1.632V. AMD ended on its most aggressive cooling solution: liquid helium. Using liquid helium AMD was able to take Bulldozer to a new world record of 8.429GHz. The resulting overclocked frequency was high enough to get AMD's FX processor inducted into the Guiness Book of World Records for the highest frequency for a computer processor. None of this tells us much about how Bulldozer will perform unfortunately. The most interesting number is likely the first number (4.8GHz) which gives you the upper bound of what to expect from an overclocked Bulldozer at home without any exotic cooling. AMD recently announced it started shipping server versions of its Bulldozer CPU and that desktop parts will be available in Q4.

See the videos on anandtech.

via http://www.anandtech.com/show/4770/amd-sets-world-overclocking-record-with-8429ghz-bulldozer-processor

Hello everyone,

I know that some of you may frequent my weather site and it would be useful now more than ever considering the weather conditions in the area this labor day weekends. Unfortunately the computer that processes data and pushes it to the website, where viewers like you can obtain information, is currently down. I now live in Austin Tx and the station is at my families home out of reach. The system requires physical service or replacement in order to restore data transmission to the site as well as other reporting locations. I will get the system back online as soon as possible but it may be a few months before that is possible. I will update my blog when the system is operating normally.

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses.”

Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said, “We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals in the US, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and the approval of Motorola Mobility’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012.

via http://investor.google.com/releases/2011/0815.html

Gmail is taking a few cues from its tablet apps with Preview Pane, Google’s newest Gmail Labs feature.

Preview Pane, which is now available in Gmail Labs, allows users to simultaneously preview parts of an email while reading or replying to others. Users of Gmail for iPad or Android will instantly recognize the interface — its design is directly inspired by the email service’s mobile web apps.

Activating Preview Pane opens up a three-window panel for Gmail, with the Preview Pane in between the navigation and email panes. Activating the horizontal split places the preview pane at the top and emails below the preview pane. Users can change pane settings with a button that appears on the top right corner of Gmail. Google‘s Official Gmail Blog suggests that users with higher-resolution screens will get the most out of the feature.

The concept of a Preview Pane sounds intriguing, but my initial tests lead me to conclude it’s a clunky and incomplete product. It breaks up my Gmail Labels in a way that keeps them from lining up with Gmail’s navigation pane, leading to a ugly and cluttered look. The standard two-pane system is cleaner, although you probably can get through more emails with Preview Pane activated.

Will you be switching to Preview Pane?

via http://mashable.com/2011/08/04/gmail-preview-pane/

A recent report floating around the internet now claims that users of Internet Explorer are further away from the statistical populations mean when it comes down to IQ. The testing was performed by AptiQuant both this year as well as in 2006. The 2006 study indicated that users of Internet Explorer fared far better in previous year leading up to the 2011 study. What does this really mean, aside from beak room jokes for tech heads ?

It indicates that some users are more reluctant to change than ever before, those who chose to use other browsers are not as averse to change, though the populations of users on various browsers can vary greatly as does the technical skill sets of those taking the test. Keep in mind that the test itself is only as reliable as the number of people who choose to take the IQ test. Which means that the samples used to build the data are probably not as reliable as one might initially perceive them to be. Be that as it may, you can now say you have empirical evidence that users of Internet Explorer are, no offense, dumb. Though that seems to be something many in the tech world have known for quite sometime, it is the reason many of us continue to have jobs to do.

From a business stand point this certainly echos many of the same principals seen in normal change management or the applications of Kotter's Change Management theories. That there needs to not only be a sense of urgency to implement change, but also a clear understanding behind the reasons why change should be implemented. Unfortunately when it comes to the tech world many users would rather just have a system that works as opposed to understanding how to keep things operating, let alone select a browser based on performance or security.

via http://mashable.com/2011/07/29/internet-explorer-iq/

12th Annual

System Administrator Appreciation Day

A sysadmin unpacked the server for this website from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went wrong. All to serve this webpage.

A sysadmin installed the routers, laid the cables, configured the networks, set up the firewalls, and watched and guided the traffic for each hop of the network that runs over copper, fiber optic glass, and even the air itself to bring the Internet to your computer. All to make sure the webpage found its way from the server to your computer.

A sysadmin makes sure your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working. A sysadmin makes sure your computer is working in a healthy way on a healthy network. A sysadmin takes backups to guard against disaster both human and otherwise, holds the gates against security threats and crackers, and keeps the printers going no matter how many copies of the tax code someone from Accounting prints out.

A sysadmin worries about spam, viruses, spyware, but also power outages, fires and floods.

When the email server goes down at 2 AM on a Sunday, your sysadmin is paged, wakes up, and goes to work.

A sysadmin is a professional, who plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to get you your data, to help you do work -- to bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality.

So if you can read this, thank your sysadmin -- and know he or she is only one of dozens or possibly hundreds whose work brings you the email from your aunt on the West Coast, the instant message from your son at college, the free phone call from the friend in Australia, and this webpage.

Show your appreciation

Friday, July 29, 2011, is the 12th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. On this special international day, give your System Administrator something that shows that you truly appreciate their hard work and dedication. (All day Friday, 24 hours, your own local time-zone).

Let's face it, System Administrators get no respect 364 days a year. This is the day that all fellow System Administrators across the globe, will be showered with expensive sports cars and large piles of cash in appreciation of their diligent work. But seriously, we are asking for a nice token gift and some public acknowledgement. It's the least you could do.

Consider all the daunting tasks and long hours (weekends too.) Let's be honest, sometimes we don't know our System Administrators as well as they know us. Remember this is one day to recognize your System Administrator for their workplace contributions and to promote professional excellence. Thank them for all the things they do for you and your business.

via System Administrator Appreciation Day.