Technology

Get your leadership tools digitized

February 22, 2013

You’ve heard about the new generation of “digital natives”—young people born after 1989 who know only a digital world. For the rest of us, the lesson is clear: We need to become digital leaders.

Nuts, seeds and twigs of Twitter

February 5, 2013

You’ve been following people and news on Twitter, but you don’t really get it. How do you tweet directly to someone without blasting all your followers? What do hashtags mean? There’s a glossary right on Twitter. We’ve picked the most useful terms.

‘Do I need to be on Twitter?’

March 17, 2011

That’s the question Steve Cunningham hears often, as the head of a digital mar­­keting agency. His reply? The true power of social media is in doing things that are worth talking about. He mentions two companies known for creating buzz in social-media circles: Zappos and Apple.

This geek won’t use e-mail

January 6, 2011
Don Knuth, known as the Father of Computer Science, just completed the fourth volume of his definitive work, The Art of Computer Programming, which includes “The Chemical Caper,” a short story in which every word is a chemical formula. Knuth stopped using e-mail more than 20 years ago. He says it’s partly why he’s had time to write 30 books.

5 career portals worth a click

September 14, 2010

Even when gainfully employed, leaders keep trolling top job-related web sites in the event of an executive-level layoff. Here are five sites plucked out of about 50,000 U.S. career portals and databases.

2-way presentation

September 13, 2010
When making a presentation, ward off audience boredom by making it interactive. Here are four ways to deliver, according to “5 Tips for Making Your Presentations More Social”:

Is the age of profanity over?

September 13, 2010
Goldman Sachs now prohibits employees from swearing in e-mails, and uses screening software to spot and remove profanity. The impetus for change was the company’s embarrassment over profanity-littered e-mails that were repeatedly trotted out during congressional hearings. But is there ever a good cause for profanity in the workplace?

Decision-making 101: Why go it alone?

September 13, 2010
Computer encryption guru Bruce Schneier uses a catchy slogan: “When people talk about IT security, they talk to Bruce Schneier.” Very often, however—both in the world of computer security and elsewhere—leaders don’t talk to anyone before making decisions, even when they have specialists right at their fingertips.

More tweets from the elites

February 12, 2010

ExecTweets, twitter feed of top business executives and IT pros, offers 20 ways businesses are using Twitter. The list, compiled by BusinessWeek, highlights big and small firms. United Linen, for example, used Twitter during a blizzard to let customers know when their fresh linens would arrive.

Stand out from the crowd via LinkedIn

February 12, 2010

Facebook and Twitter may be getting all the attention, but you still need to pay attention to LinkedIn. LinkedIn is important precisely because it is so stodgy and predictable as a business tool. Here’s how to work it: