Resources for success

I'd be interested to hear about how different teachers ask for and accept payment.

I'm a knitting teacher and I started off about 5 years ago not asking for any money in advance, just cash on the day. It took about 6 months of endless no-shows before I started asking for a 50% deposit. Then on the advice of students, I made this 100% deposit with a cancellation policy (see below).

But there are still times that people book and need endless chasing for payment (these are the one's that want to pay last minute and they often cancel last minute).

Liked this:

(Via SSE and forimpact.org)

A helpful Amazon reviewer has taken the time to summarise the 21 bad habits (well, 20 actually) outlined by Marshall Goldsmith in his book "What Got You Here Won't Get You There".

I've reposted them below:

Letting winning get in the way of relationships you need
Dropping too many ideas on those who work for you
Being judgmental rather than helpful
Slamming people in public or behind their backs
Making comments that indicate you disagree with everything that's just been said
Showing off how smart you think you are
Saying anything in anger
Being negative

My friend Nick worked on this course with a friend of his who has sadly passed away, but he's made it available now for free in his memory. It includes a PDF guide plus two hours of supporting audio comprising seven easy lessons in how to identify what you know and competently teach it.

As Nick says, "we would love you to have access to Rick’s material free of charge – with just one condition – please use the material to teach what you have to share."

Might be of interest to all those "long-time learners, first-time teachers" out there?

Great 'world 1.0 -> world 2.0' post from Euan Semple. Best line:

"It is not about technology but about a shift in behaviours from a command and control mentality to an instigate and nurture one."

In a representative democracy, I think people will cede authority to a leader if they think they won't lose their power. But in social media projects, they will only allow someone to lead them if their power will increase.

The more active and engaged the population becomes, or needs to become, the more the task of leading them becomes about enabling and serving, and not setting directions or crushing dissent. Those dissenting energies are still valuable energies, and the direction is chosen by the crowd.

I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with technology lately, which is a big deal for someone in my line of work. In particular I've really been struggling to keep up with my level of incoming mail. Every day my inboxes are fuller than the day before. I hate being rude to people, and e-mail seems to be the quickest way to stack up uncompleted tasks. (And don't even get me started on Facebook.)