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. 26 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