| January 12, 2012 | | CONNECT WITH SMARTBRIEF |  |  | |  | | | The Leaderboard |  | | |  | - Learn to survey the scene to make the most of your strengths
One way to improve your leadership performance is to focus on figuring out how your strengths and weaknesses relate to the challenges you face, Nathan Bennett and Stephen A. Miles write. People who are good at assessing situations in this manner ask many questions and may explore a variety of ideas before committing to a solution, they write. Forbes (1/11)      - Why leaders should let their hair down
The best bosses consciously humanize themselves to foster relaxed, engaged relationships with their workers, says Christine Fruechte, president and CEO of advertising agency Colle & McVoy. "I can be very buttoned up. And that tends to be somewhat intimidating," she says. "If you want to be approachable and if you want people to let down their guard, you have to be a bit more casual." The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (1/7)  |  | Key Steps Business Owners Should Know About Successful International Payments. This American Express® guide helps you streamline FX payments. Includes FX payment provider profile, how to simplify payments, and insightful FAQ. |
 | | | Sales Strategies | | | |  | - Overcoming the difficulties brought on by revenue lag
Implementing effective compensation plans can be especially difficult in industries in which there is a large gap between the time when deals are made and revenue is recognized, writes Ryan Tognazzini. When designing such plans, it's important to understand how much revenue a commitment will likely generate, said Mike Balow of Integrated Device Technology. "Knowing how your business performs based on committed revenue enables you to deploy short-term sales-incentive plan goals that keep your top performers focused on the key objectives," Balow said. Sales Benchmark Index/Sales Force Effectiveness Blog (1/10) - Steer your sales organization off the fast track to failure
A few common issues may be stopping your company from achieving sales success, writes Ken Thoreson of Acumen Management Group. Thoreson describes a hypothetical sales organization in which the president, vice president and salespeople blame one another for difficulty in making sales. A number of strategies, such as implementing a sales-training program and focusing on communication, can help to improve your company, he writes. YourSalesManagementGuru.com (1/10) |  | Organizational Privacy Architecture and Assessment
This checklist for Ecommerce, Web Development and Design, and Direct Marketing professionals enables you to gauge your organization’s privacy compliance and best practice levels. Thousands of companies leave the intricacies of privacy management to TRUSTe, the 13-year-old leader in online privacy. Gain an overview of the program today. |
 | | | Daily Data Points | | | |  | - SIFMA roundtable estimates 2.2% growth for U.S. this year
SIFMA's Economic Advisory Roundtable has estimated that the U.S. economy will expand at a rate of 2.2% in 2012. "While our Roundtable has forecast continued economic growth through 2012, those predictions have been revised downward since our midyear survey," said Kyle Brandon, a managing director at SIFMA. "Concerns over the European debt crisis, along with domestic politics, fiscal policies and regulatory uncertainty remain significant risks to the downside for the economy going forward." Reuters (1/10) - Q4 decline in global PC shipments is confirmed
Lenovo reported a 23% increase in PC shipments in the fourth quarter, while Hewlett-Packard said it had a 16.2% decrease but still retained market leadership. Overall, global shipments declined 1.4%, research firm Gartner said. An IDC analyst noted that the figure was the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2008. Reuters (1/11), GigaOm (1/11) |  | To combat piracy and avoid lost revenue, ISVs need to understand what types of software attacks are out there and how to defend against them. Be aware of the types of attacks you're facing. Implement the right protection. Start by downloading this free whitepaper from SafeNet. |
 | | - Business travelers to face less stress, uncertainty and chaos
Advancements with technology will continue at a rapid pace, making business travel less stressful and more productive, according to a recent study commissioned by global travel firm Amadeus. "The new report ('From Chaos to Collaboration') concludes that there will be demand for increased partnership across the travel industry ... removing the stress, uncertainty and chaos that is usually associated with traveling in the 21st Century," George Dooley writes. Travel Agent Central (1/11)
- Would your company's logo look better in Comic Sans?
Design aficionados love to hate the Comic Sans typeface, but that hasn't stopped French design studio Cephalization from launching a Tumblr page with Comic Sans versions of iconic logos including the Disney signature logo, McDonald's Golden Arches and Microsoft's blue screen of death. The typeface is "childish, dumb, and wrongly drawn," admits designer Florian Amoneau. "But we wanted to show that when a font is well-used, it could be pretty too." FastCoDesign.com (1/10)  | I'm not going to walk on eggshells. We're all too busy."
--Christine Fruechte, president and CEO of advertising agency Colle & McVoy, as quoted by The New York Times  |
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