Our entries were:

1. Peter Reyes
2. Alfred Cao
3. Cathaleya
4. richard osbourne
5. Stephen
6. vonnegurt5
7. @upbeatnow
8. @mekalav

And the winner selected by the True Random Number Generator is:

#6: vonnegurt5

Thanks to EVERYONE for playing, and thanks to Slacker Radio for the great prize! 

Post from: EveryJoe

Slacker Plus Radio Winner!

Here’s why they’re doing this, and what you might win:

The team at Slacker Personal Radio is very proud of the Graduates of 2009. In celebration we would like to offer you a one-year subscription to our Slacker Radio Plus subscription service.

Slacker is an Internet radio service allowing users to create their own customized music stations starting with either Slacker’s preset stations or their own custom built stations. Slacker offers many traditional genre, specialty and artist stations pre-made by professional DJs like “Today’s Hits”, “80’s, 90’s and Today”, “Country”, etc. while also letting users build entire stations of specific artists just by typing in their name. Users can continue to evolve any of these stations by rating favorite songs and banning artists or songs. Stations can also be fine tuned to play older or newer music, more hits or more eclectic music all through the intuitive interface at Slacker.com.

Slacker has 4x the music library as the leading competition and is available via the web, the Slacker G2 Personal Radio Player, BlackBerry, iPhone, Sony BRAVIA TVs, etc.

Slacker Radio Plus offers you:

• Unlimited Skips
• Unlimited Song Requests
• No Audio or Banner Ads
• Complete Lyrics
• Over 2 Million Songs

Want to sample this? Check out the official 2009 graduation party mix.

Giveaway details:

* 1 1-year subscription to Slacker Radio Plus
* You need a valid email already configured for Slacker (i.e. you already use Slacker with it, if you don’t have a Slacker account you will need to create one)

How can YOU win a free year of Slacker Plus?

Leave a comment with your favorite song. If you re-tweet this and include @philgerb in your note, you get 2 entries.

Contest runs through Friday June 12th, 2009 at 12 midnight central. I will announce the winner on Sunday June 14th, 2009.

Post from: EveryJoe

Slacker Plus: 1 Free Year

Being a successful manager depends on taking responsibility as a leader, and one of the duties of a leader is to make decisions. Making good decisions can influence morale, for good or ill. Your decisions can solve or create problems. Some days all you manage to accomplish is to make decisions for people.

Many of the decisions that you make take little effort, based on your skills and training. Others may lie at the edge of your authority or your experience, and will take some thinking. Here are a few tips for improving the decision-making process.

Define the end result

What purpose do you wish to achieve through this decision? List the criteria that you will use to judge the effectiveness of your results. Everything else will be based on these items.

List your options

Brainstorm a list of potential decisions that may achieve the desired result. Get creative, and involve others who could be affected by this choice.

Anticipate Problems and Solutions

Each of the ideas from the brainstorming session could generate a potential solution, or its own set of obstacles. List the Pros and Cons of each, using the criteria you developed in the first step.

Request assistance

Get feedback and suggestions from those who may be affected by the decision you need to make. Being open to their ideas may create new possibilities that you did not think of initially. Solicit the input of others higher-up in the decision-making process as well, if your experience is limited. Good advice from a mentor is invaluable, and including your team members builds trust.

Choose the best option

Make your decision with confidence based on the available choices and the best advice of your associates. Because you have exercised creativity and feedback, you should have covered all of the bases and be ready to move ahead. Develop a written plan for executing your decision and,

Implement your decision

Inform all of the affected parties of their particular role, and explain the end result you defined in the first step. Be prepared to include a provision for tracking, if necessary, in your implementation. Communicate with everyone involved when adjustments to the plan are made.

Obviously, following all of these steps is most useful for the largest of planning decisions, whereas ‘Common Sense’ will often dictate your course in smaller choices. Using these steps can improve your capacity to see the larger picture, and strengthen your sense of practical judgment.

Stephen Smith is the editor of Productivity in Context where he teaches people how to use basic tools and simple practices for taking control of their workflow situation, practical ways of being more productive at work and at home.

These practices are designed to give you more time to do the things that matter to you!

Connect with Stephen at Facebook by clicking on the image.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Manager as Decision Maker