Leadership magazine Jan/Feb 2016 V45 No 3 | Page 26
ness, but add a pictorial representation and
attention is back in the palm of your hands.
Infographics are not as hard to create as
they seem. While some that we see are developed by graphic artists and data crunchers, you don’t have to be a professional with
sites like Easel.ly, Piktochart, Dipity and Visualize.me. There are several templates that
can be used with the free account as you get
your feet wet, and if you find yourself using it
a lot you can think about a discounted educator account.
YouTube has hundreds of easy-to-follow
videos to instruct in the use of each of these
Infographics sites as well as others that are
appearing on the market each month.
6. FlipBoard. For all the music lovers, Pandora has become a staple with the
thumbs up/down for your musical interests.
Zite has done the same for news stories and
articles of interest. It’s an online magazine
that works on both mobile phones and tablets by identifying your interests, giving the
thumbs up/down option, and customizing
your stream of content.
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Leadership
FlipBoard recently purchased Zite and is
incorporating the best features of both services as users migrate. Many leaders ask us
where we get the content we share and almost exclusively it is because we saw it on
Zite – now Flipboard.
Face it. Most leaders don’t have time to
search the web for great articles for professional improvement. Checking Flipboard
allows each of us to read up in a quick and
easy way, even if it’s on the couch with some
coffee in the morning, between appointments, or on the train during a commute.
7. Hidden Strengths. The Hiddenstrengths.com website ties nicely to the book
of the same name. The free online assessment helps to unleash the crucial hidden
strengths that you might have missed along
the way, or perhaps lost sight of, but you have
to have access to the book in order to access
the assessment. We recommend checking
your local library or bookstore where we
found a copy for less than $15. It helps to
identify talents, knowledge and skills that
can be transformed into strengths.
Selling itself as the way to tap into the opportunity gap between the top 20 percent
and bottom 10 percent of your skills, Hidden Strengths identifies the greatest opportunities to help you become a stronger
and more effective leader. There is certainly
something to be said for a self-assessment
that hones our own leadership skills and can
then be used with others on our teams and in
our organizations.
Quality of life
When it comes to quality of life and being
a positive, focused leader, many resources
exist that can provide a daily reminder of
how to look differently at scenarios and
move closer to being the “glass half full”
leader.
8. Live Happy. I think we can all name
a few family members and colleagues who
would make the world a better place if they
were happier. Maybe this describes you.
Livehappy.com is a website (and magazine,
podcast, store) that can help us discover the
best of positive psychology and the science
of well-being. From daily experiences to