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" Influential cognitive processes are at play as people stumble through life ." This, my friends, is a geek-speak pun inside a conclusion from a serious study of how the shoes consumers wear while shopping effect their buying behavior.  There conclusion? "When shopping for a big ticket item, such as a television, there is a checklist of things you should always do: Read reviews. Compare prices. Wear high heels." Other ways to curb your urge to spend? Ride up and down the escalator, play a few games using the Wii Fit, or go shopping immediately following your yoga class. Here's the gist of the report ~ A new BYU study finds that consumers experiencing a heightened sense of balance (i.e. wearing high heels) are more likely to weigh the options and go with a product that falls in the middle of the high-end, low-end scale. "If you're someone who tends to overspend, or you're kind of an extreme person, then maybe you ought to consider shopping in high he...

The "Engaged Employee" is the backbone of the success of your business.  By engaged, we mean an employee who actively works toward the goals you set, who cooperates with your programs. Unfortunately, engaged employees make up only 30% of the American work force, with 70% either just putting in time at your expense or, worst of all, actively engaged in defeating you. For a further discussion of  the engaged employee, visit our post:  Creating Corporate Culture II: Employee Engagement One generally accepted technique to keeping your engaged employees engaged is to grant them a degree of autonomy in how they organize their work.  A book published in January, 2011 concludes that, "Workers who feel they have autonomy -- that they are free to make choices in the workplace and be accountable for them -- are happier and more productive according to an extensive research literature review. And by definition, a happy, productive employee is an engaged employee. This is o...

The headline of the story read: "Successful Entrepreneurs Share a Common History of Getting in Trouble as Teenagers". A new study by Professor Ross Levine of the Haas Economic Analysis and Policy Group and Yona Rubinstein of the London School of Economics and Political Science found that entrepreneurs earn on average 50 percent more than their salaried counterparts who are working in the same industry and have the same education. In this study, an entrepreneur is defined as a person who undertakes a novel, risk-taking activity. Levine says think Michael Bloomberg or Bill Gates. Levine and Rubinstein found that successful entrepreneurs possess distinct traits identifiable back when they were teenagers. These traits turn out to be accurate predictors of entrepreneurial success. Some of the traits include ~ A high IQ, A stable family, Parents who earn a higher than average income, and Exceptionally high self-esteem and confidence. However, some other common traits are o...