Navigating the Eye Care Employment Sector

Economic uncertainty over the past several years has led many people to explore new opportunities for long-term employment. Healthcare represents one of the largest and most appealing industries for people who enjoy improving the quality of life for patients and who can handle the frustrations that sometimes come with direct patient care. The fact that there are so many different avenues that can be taken in healthcare often creates confusion for those who are trying to find the path that is most appropriate for their needs. One field that is commonly overlooked is that of the eye care industry which includes both medical and retail departments. Individuals who are looking for lots of room for career advancement and a relatively laid back work environment are encouraged to consider the many options available in the vision specialty.

Most eye care establishments have both medical and retail departments that complement each other. Personnel who work on the medical side of the business include assistants, technicians, optometrists, and ophthalmologists. These occupations represent progressively higher levels of education and training as well as compensation. Individuals who are uncertain which profession is most suitable for them are well-advised to begin their career as an assistant or technician and then decide on whether or not they want to pursue one of the more advanced fields after they have gained some experience. While the assistant and technician opportunities require relatively little education and training, the optometry and ophthalmology fields require a minimum of eight years of college and may include long postgraduate training programs.

How to Mentor a New Teacher

Teacher mentoring is an important part of a teacher's first year. New teachers tend to struggle especially in the areas of classroom management and lesson planning. This article outlines the steps involves for giving a new teacher the support s/he needs during the first year of teaching.

1. Observe the new teacher's lessons. After observing a few lessons, the mentor should begin a weekly schedule for providing feedback whereby mentors share his/her observations, positive notes and areas s/he thinks should be improved. Mentors should take note of what worked particularly well and which areas need improvement without criticizing or judging the teachers. Mentors should be available to help new teachers on a frequent and regular basis.

2. Sit with the teacher in a room with minimal distractions. Sitting in the teacher's room is not a good idea! Together with the new teacher, try to sum up the lesson. What went well? What needed improvement? Give the new teacher the chance to come up with the answers by him/herself. [see a list of guiding questions below] Provide a few guiding questions if necessary. When were the students most engaged? When were they not focused?It is important for mentors to encourage teachers to stop and think after giving a lesson whether it was a good one or not, and why. This is not in order to indulge in self-congratulation or regrets, but in order to have a basis for their own learning from reflection on experience: this lesson was unsatisfactory, what could I have done to improve it? Or: this lesson was good, what was it exactly that made it?

How to Write a Mentor Teacher Report

In most situations, mentors for student teachers are provided with a form to use when they compile their reports. These forms vary in their content, so read them carefully before filling them out. As a mentor teacher, you provide reports that the student teacher can learn from. Because of this, include the positives and the negatives of the student teacher's instruction. Let the student teacher know what she is doing right and provide concrete, constructive criticism illustrating what she needs to improve.

1. Read the student teacher's lesson plan to make sure that the content standards are addressed, the teaching objective is defined and the procedure is logical.

How to Be a Mentor to a Troubled Child

There are thousands of children across the country that need mentors. Mentoring a child in foster care or from a bad home situation is a positive way to impact their lives and give them a good role model to communicate with. People often avoid being a mentor because of the uncertainty of how to be a good mentor. Here are some tips for mentoring a troubled child.

1. Be a friend. Your job as a mentor is not to be a surrogate parent or an authority figure, but to be a friendly face for the child to communicate with. Spending all of your time together lecturing them or trying to teach them right from wrong will only alienate them and make them feel like you are just another adult who can't relate to them.

2. Relate if you can. It will help the child you are mentoring to feel that you understand them if you share similar experiences that you have had in your own life. It doesn't have to be a huge revelation to be helpful; agreeing with them that little sisters are annoying and sharing a story or two about your younger siblings will help them feel closer to you and make it easier for them to talk to you.

How To Develop a Leadership Training Structure

Given the high number of executives who are reaching retirement age, and the increasingly competitive international business market, corporations that don't have a structured leadership training program in place might not have a leg to stand on in a few years. Today's leaders need to be innovative, and they need to have someone in line to take their place when they are not able to lead any longer. Developing a leadership training structure will ensure that your corporation remains viable during times of conflict and change.

1. Determine the type of material you want your leadership training program to cover. For example, do you want all managers to participate in mandatory diversity training? What about the topics of conflict resolution and innovation? And, do you think it would be wise to incorporate some elements of succession planning training into your course offerings?

2. Choose one or more delivery platforms through which leaders will have access to the training materials. Keep your managers' needs and time constraints in mind. For example, if you are going to implement group leadership training sessions, live or virtual classroom instruction might work best. But, if you want managers to be able to access training materials whenever they are free, self-paced Web-based training is more flexible.

3. Mandate that all managers and senior level executives, regardless of seniority, actively participate in the new leadership training structure. Encourage them to apply new leadership techniques that they are learning to their daily workday in order to assess the validity of the training materials. Then, make adjustments as needed.

How to Implement Leadership Training

Business owners and senior executives understand that developing competent leaders within their organizations is key to maintaining a competitive position and fostering future business success. Implementing a successful leadership training program should start with senior management and flow throughout the organization. No matter what leadership training program you choose, implementation begins with assessing organizational culture and training needs, and follows a process that includes effective communication of program goals and expected outcomes.

1. Assess your organizational structure and culture and the specific needs of your internal leaders to decide what type of training program to implement. If the organization has a definite hierarchy, you should present the leadership training program first to senior leaders, then to others lower on the organization chart. If the organizational structure is flat, with many people sharing similar responsibilities, the leadership training program should be more team oriented, with everyone participating from the start.

2. Establish goals for your leadership training program. If your company is planning a major expansion, the training should emphasize not only a vision for the expansion, but also one for future employee recruitment and development. If the company is established but needs to improve its processes, the training should stress how to meet the goals for improvement.

How to Provide Leadership Training

Leadership training is essential for persons who work in a decision-making capacity. A company or organization provides leadership training to equip employees with the information, skills and tools to help them to become effective leaders. Leadership training can be offered through seminars, conferences, meetings or training courses. The training should be tailored to suit the specific needs of the company or organization because different entities and work environments require different types of leaders.

1. Identify the needs of your organization's leaders.

2. Assess the company's strengths and weaknesses to determine how to manage the entity and how to equip leaders with the tools they need need to operate on a day-to-day basis.


3. Plan a leadership meeting, seminar or conference. Attendance should be mandatory for people who manage others. You will want to include trainers and assistants as well.

4. Address the areas of leadership relevant to your company and print out key points and notes and distribute them at the meeting or seminar.

5. Give a presentation that discusses the issues affecting your organization's operation. Detail the company's strengths and weaknesses in relation to the role of leaders.

The Differences Between a Coach and a Mentor

Coaching and mentoring are both important roles in a person's life. Many people need guidance and help to achieve a certain goal they are trying to accomplish, making a mentor and/or coach a helpful part of his or her life. Coaching and mentoring are different, though they are thought to be the same.

Coach

According to Eric Parsloe, Director of the Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring and author of several books on maximizing individual performance, "coaching is a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve. To be a successful coach requires a knowledge and understanding of process as well as the variety of styles, skills, and techniques that are appropriate to the context in which the coaching takes place." Coaching is giving someone advice and/or guidance to help him or her achieve a particular goal. Coaching is an important job that helps the community and others. A person that is being coached has to listen and do as the coach says, not having a choice as to whether the person wants to listen or do as told.

How to Teach Women Leadership Training

The role of the woman in society has undergone many changes in past decades. Today, women occupy positions of leadership in government as well as in the private sector. Women also study in universities, vocational schools and community colleges around the United States. As more females enter the workforce and educational institutions, leadership training programs are being developed to aid women in realizing their potential in their studies and in their careers. An effective leadership training program must take into consideration the unique characteristics of female leadership styles.

1. Identify your audience. When you begin planning, think about who the leadership training is designed for. Ask yourself if you are going to be teaching young women who are still studying or women who have worked and developed a career. Keep this in mind when developing other aspects of the course.

2. Decide how the training will be delivered. Some training can be delivered in large lectures; keep in mind, however, women's special capacity for interpersonal relationships and plan to deliver other training in smaller focus groups. Think about the length of the course and whether you will ask participants to complete assignments or implement certain skills they have studied in the training.

How to Set Up a Company Mentoring Program

Mentoring programs are actually a great way to improve worker performance and morale. Employees who are involved in mentoring usually strive for excellence, because they want to show others they are worthy of guiding young people toward their goals. Even the smallest mentoring program you set up can benefit all parties involved.

1. Decide on the type and intensity of mentoring you want. Some programs can be as simple as guiding newcomers in everyday tasks. On the other hand, programs can be very involved and intensive, allowing for one-on-one meetings, guidance and counseling between experienced workers and beginners.

2. Don't just wing it: Establish the rules of the system long before you decide to implement it. Establish clear rules of what is expected of the people involved, what the limits are and how long the program is expected to last. Let everybody involved know these protocols beforehand so there are no surprises along the way.

How to Mentor College Students

In today's hectic, fast-paced life style, there may seem to be little time to volunteer as a mentor. However, becoming a mentor to a college student will prove to be beneficial for both the mentor and the mentee. There are three stages that are part of mentoring: teaching, coaching and acting as a friend. As a part of these stages, there are several steps that can be taken to ensure the experience is empowering to both the mentor and the mentee.

1. Choose the college student to be mentored. Often the student will approach the person who she would like to have as a mentor. For the mentor, the job is easiest if the mentor is involved in higher education; however, the experience is equally important for all people involved in mentoring because of the experience brought to the program.

2. Enter the teaching stage of mentoring. In this stage, the mentor discovers, through discussion and by looking over the student's written work, the strengths of this student. Whatever may be weak can also be improved upon through the mentor's advice and through feedback. As a part of this stage, the student can act as a shadow to the mentor. By following the mentor and by watching how the mentor writes correspondence and various papers and reports and the way the mentor communicates over the phone, in person and via email, the student gains valuable lessons.

3. Provide exposure to different perspectives on various issues, and to have discussions based on the material the student is studying. The student needs to be reminded that questions are essential to the learning and mentoring process. It should also be stressed that no question, as long as it is asked respectfully, is off limits.

4. Enter the stage of mentorship. In this stage, the mentor acts as a coach and, as such, offers encouragement to keep the student motivated. The mentor also helps the student understand effective ways to deal with problems and obstacles that may show up. The key here is to keep the student motivated so that he will not give up on the goal of achieving the college degree.

5.

 Know that the final stage is friendship. The mentor must remember that, along with being a teacher and a coach, the mentor is most importantly a friend who is there through thick and thin. The mentor is the sounding board for anything that bothers or troubles the student.

How to Introduce a Mentoring Program

Introducing a mentoring program can help develop an organization's young people into skilled and successful contributors. As senior staffers share their knowledge, they can gain a sense of satisfaction from helping others and making the company more successful. Generating buy-in among employees is important for any new endeavor. Making people feel included can help generate more excitement than if partipants feel forced. A properly introduced mentoring program can take a company and its staff to the next level.

1. Choose criteria for mentors and mentees. For a non-profit, perhaps the mentors will be senior volunteers who have spent at least two years with the program and have demonstrated commitment to the cause. The mentees could be volunteers who have worked fewer than six months but show commitment. Establishing criteria will help as new people come onboard and possibly enter the mentoring program. 

2. Preview the mentoring program. Distribute informational brochures to those who will be involved so that people can begin to familiarize themselves with the idea.

3. Hold an informational meeting, inviting the mentors and those eligible for mentoring. Introduce everyone to each other and run through the program's specifics. The heads of the company or program should talk about why this program is important and what everybody will get out of it.

The Importance of Keeping Your Training Simple

It's extremely important that you keep your training simple. When I say simple I do not mean easy. Everyone I assume has heard of the KISS approach. If not let me tell you that KISS stands for 'Keep It Simple Stupid'. The K.I.S.S approach has been around for a very long time and used by people from all walks of life in generating success. There is absolutely no need to complicate things in order to become successful. You simply need to incorporate things that are easy to understand and implement, but you must also understand that keeping things simple does not mean making things easy.

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." Albert Einstein

When it comes to training you need to KEEP things SIMPLE, in the sense of keeping your training...

Structured: Training must be organised and well planned.
Intense: Training intensity is of paramount importance.
Monitored: You must monitor and evaluate your training.
Progressive: Training must be progressive and you must control your progression.
Lifestyle Oriented: You must look at the 168-hour week as opportunity for progress!
Exclusive: When you TRAIN you MUST train. STOP socializing and FOCUS!

Strength Training and Cardio For Getting Results

In this article I will present basic information on strength, cardiovascular and flexibility training that I have found to be foundational in my experiences with physique transformation contests as well as fitness training in general.

If you are new to a fitness lifestyle that includes a focus on exercise and nutrition, keep in mind that most beginners, or people just returning from an extended layoff, can expect to make better progress than most "seasoned" exercisers. Be advised that exercise programs can be very demanding activities. I recommend that you have a physical exam by a physician before you begin any programming recommended in this special report.

Everyone working to change their physique, whether trying to gain or lose weight, should be measuring body fat (and lean mass) as they go along. For those desiring to lose weight, I believe it is crucial to strictly focus on fat loss and not just weight loss. Too many people get hooked on what the scale says, not caring if weight loss is coming from fat, water, or lean mass. If people are losing over 2 pounds of scale weight per week, research tells us that there is a high likelihood that some of that is lean mass. If you want to lose significant amounts of body fat as rapidly as possible, you need to be sure where the weight loss is coming from - fat? or muscle? (we don't want to lose muscle!)

Most people come to me with very little experience on how to effectively balance weight training, eating correctly, and cardio / aerobic workouts. My job is to help them establish a foundation to build upon and hopefully stay committed to for the rest of their lives. I always start beginners on a full body strength training program involving higher repetitions and low weights. This strategy is designed to strengthen and condition joints, ligaments and tendons and to prepare the client for more aggressive, higher intensity workouts. These beginner full body workouts, performed every other day, three days each week are also designed to teach clients proper repetition speed, exercise form and breathing. With intermediate clients, I usually start with a slightly more advanced full body workout, still focusing on correct form and rep speed as well as proper breathing.

How To House Train A Dog - What You Need To Know Before Starting

Learning how to house train a dog is one of the first and most important things any new dog owner should do. You can easily get frustrated when you do not understand the basics of this process.

Even though its impossible to give you all the necessary tips to show you how to house train your dog in this short article, I will try giving you some basic first tips. These tips are very crucial in the process of training a dog.

It's my hope that these tips will make it a bit easier for you in the process of training your dog. Its also very important to properly house train a dog when you consider the fact that general hygiene issues are the number one reason why dogs are surrendered to animal shelters these days.

The amount of work you have to do training your dog can seem overwhelming, but don't panic you can successfully house train any dog. All you need is the patience and knowledge of how to go about doing this. You need to pay attention to your dog and observe its attitude towards certain commands. You will need to persevere and stick with the right training plan. You won't help issues by jumping from one training method to another.

There is no magic solution to training a dog for cleanliness. It takes a little work on your side. You will succeed within a short time with the right information. Don't just give up and feel its tough before you even begin. I presently have 7 wonderful dogs and I house trained all of them successfully within a short period of time. What I basically did was to first acquire the necessary knowledge, then I took the time and had patience to follow it through.

Building an Effective Mentoring Relationship For Career Development

In the Myths of Mentoring, the difference between coaching and mentoring was discussed and many of the assumptions made about mentors and mentoring relationships were examined. .

But how do you build an effective mentoring relationship? Mentoring is about sharing knowledge and experience with an individual, and, in this case, helping them improve career success. Mentoring builds communication skills for the mentor, as well as providing them with a experience that is viewed positivelyby organizations for their own career development.An individual who is mentoring another is, and is acknowledged to be, a leader and an expert in their field.

Brown University asked many professional experts at a consortium of mentors "what makes a good mentor?" and this was one answer:

"Mostly, it's a person who is willing to share of themselves. Most people aren't mentors because they don't put the time in, they don't remember what it's like to be in vulnerable positions - just starting out as a student or as a professor or in some other endeavor. You don't learn the ropes anywhere except in a mentoring situation. Mentors are role models - not necessarily in a familial relationship. It's someone you can look up to in a field you want to model yourself in. A good mentor is a person who lives an exemplary life. Sometimes you can be a mentor and not even know it." - George Odell, professor of archeology, University of Tulsa.

When entering a formal or informal mentoring relationship, there are many factors to making it effective and successful. We'll explore a few here:

Mentoring in the Best of Times and the Worst of Times

No matter what shape the economy is in, how the industry is forecasted, or what is on the horizon for market demands, when it comes to identifying a just-in-time, time-efficient and cost effective way to develop people...it's mentoring.
If your organization is going through changes right now including a major downsizing due to the economic environment, now is the time to initiate a Mentoring Process.
Why now? Many organizations feel like the timing has to be just right before they can initiate projects. Sometimes that can be true - but mentoring is an initiative that is different. If the organization is downsizing, many things can happen to your knowledge capital:

Mentoring As an Essential Component of Recovery

I can sum up my own recovery from anorexia and bulimia with four words - relationships replace eating disorders.

When I became ill with anorexia at the age of eleven, I didn't know how to tell my parents what felt so wrong inside of me, and they didn't know what to say to help me open up to them. When they applied to our family pediatrician for help, he advised them that it was best not to discuss it with me and reassured them that I would soon grow out of it. My father, unhappy with this wait-and-see approach, then called the insurance company and was tersely informed that "eating problems" were not covered under the family policy. Left with only my pediatrician's advice to go by, my parents decided to keep silent.

What this meant was that the voice of the eating disorder was the only one talking to me on a regular basis, giving me confident-sounding advice about how to deal with life's daily challenges. And I, in my isolation and loneliness, became all too willing to listen. By the time I was a freshman music major in college, I was beginning to struggle with bulimia as well.

Then, scarcely two months after I had arrived at college, the tendons in my hands gave out under the strain of my piano practice schedule.  I was left with no choice but to withdraw from college and return home. My mother quickly located a physical therapist for me. She drove me to Annie's* office every week.

It didn't take Annie long to figure out that there was more going on with me than just hand injuries. One day, at my weekly session, she gently asked if I was okay. I opened my mouth to reassure her that all was well...and it all came spilling out-the fear of food, the hopelessness, the loss of my music, the loneliness that made me long to curl up and die. Amazingly, Annie asked if there was anything she could do to help.

Even more amazingly, I said "yes".

Since neither Annie nor I knew that much about eating disorders recovery, we embarked upon a learning quest together. Together, we began to brainstorm ways I could overcome my fear of food. She helped me find some local support groups and encouraged me to go. She shared books that had inspired her. We talked and she got to know me, which made all the difference in my daily willingness and ability to do the hard work of recovery.

Avoid Strength Plateaus in Your Weight Training Program for Muscle Building or General Fitness

Anybody who has achieved a little success with their weight training is always bombarded by the same question: How did you build that physique.... high weight or high reps? Naturally, the majority of trainees who have been in a training plateau for the last several months (or years), seek advice from those who have proven to be successful. There are two types of people who just can't seem to stop gaining muscle: those with those one-in a million genetics that allow them to put on muscle with any haphazard training program, and those who have intelligently manipulated their weight training program to keep their training dynamic and the muscle gains coming. If you are one of those genetic freaks that respond to anything, then this article is not for you. If you are a person who religiously hits the gym like an animal with a good nutritional plan, but still seems to be merely spinning their wheels instead of making the progress they want, then this article will be extremely helpful.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of manipulating your weight workouts to avoid training plateaus, three important points need to be emphasized:

1. 99% of trainees are over-trained on volume and under-trained on intensity. More is not always better.

2.The human body will respond to any acute stimulus, but quickly adapts to maintain homeostasis. The workout that did wonders for the first few weeks will surely stall if no changes are made.

The Effectiveness of Online Training

Online training is known by numerous names and acronyms--computer-based training (CBT), web-based training (WBT), cyber-training, distance learning, e-learning, etc. By whatever name, online training is a method of delivering training through an electronic medium without the immediate presence of a human instructor. By taking advantage of technology, training online can be more cost effective by delivering more knowledge in a more flexible and efficient manner.

There are distinct advantages to training online that may apply to your organization. With an online training course you have the ability to consolidate education and training across geographical and time constraints. Courses can be delivered to people in different offices without the expense of travel and with less interruption of work schedules. For individuals with busy schedules, online training courses offer the flexibility of being available when the people are able to take the training.

This flexibility is the strongest facet of training online and the flexibility extends beyond scheduling. For many people, an online training course supplies material in a more palatable manner then instructor-led courses. This certainly isn't true for everyone, but the power of training online to help many people makes it an important tool for your training program. Online training is self-paced and includes interactive tutorials, questionnaires, case studies, self-assessment, and other features that easily assimilate to individual learning styles. Because people have more control over their training experience, training online offers the opportunity to learn in a non-stressful environment.

An online training course combines the advantages of uniformity in training and self-paced training. The basic course is the same for each trainee (while still offering you the chance to tailor instruction more easily) but can be delivered to different people at different times. While a human instructor is only available a limited time, online training materials don't "go home" and trainees can review the subject matter as needed or desired. Support can be supplied via e-mail or phone.

Warning! Mentoring Can Be Detrimental to Your Business

Introduction

Professional and personal environments foster an environment ripe for the opportunity to mentor others. Mentoring occurs both in obvious and subtle ways, sometimes without doing so intentionally. Mentoring can be a positive and productive experience when executed correctly, and it can have disastrous consequences if not, the repercussions of which can ruin relationships and be costly to businesses.

What is Mentoring?

Mentoring refers to a personal or professional developmental relationship wherein a more experienced or more knowledgeable person (mentor) helps a less experienced or knowledgeable person (mentee) to develop personally, do a job more effectively or help the mentee work towards their career goals.

Commonly a mentor is someone whom as attained a high level of recognized experience in a particular domain, such as a parent, family member, friend or a adult role model, a manager, executive or other business organizational leader, and sometimes, it is a person most would not recognize as having the ability to be a mentor. Mentoring can be done by any person with experience, maturity, knowledge and leadership skills and qualities generally attributed to the role.

Why Mentoring Works

Let's first have a look at what has changed in the last 12 months. The economy has faltered, and we all have to face many more challenges than ever before. Reduced resources mean increased workloads. The need to be more economic, efficient and effective brings with it additional pressures. This can and does impact hugely on our time. For many that means extended working hours and additional responsibility. This can all take its toll and we get overwhelmed with the day to day work.

In light of the UK Governments Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), the task ahead may appear to be even harder than before.

Having the opportunity to "clear some space" just to reflect on what we are doing and how we can approach it from a different perspective is often difficult to do. Having a sounding board to explore ideas, develop solutions or to discuss how to handle an issue can make a huge difference.

What I will cover in this article is briefly the definition of Mentoring, and then proceed on to look at the different types of Mentor relationships. I will talk about the different methods of communication, the frequency and some of the common processes used.

Identifying what makes a good Mentor will be discussed as well as looking at the benefits for both the Mentor and Mentee. The relationship is not without risk so we will also cover some of the potential pitfalls. Mentoring is not for everyone, so I'll describe some examples where it may be appropriate. Finally I will share a brief case study demonstrating the Mentoring process in action and the outcomes.

A definition of Mentoring
There are a lots of discussions around what Mentoring is and isn't. I'll bypass this topic as it is a whole discussion on its own, and use two of the most relevant definitions to this article.
Mentoring allows "the transmission of knowledge, skills and experience, in a supportive and safe and challenging environment " according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) definition of Mentoring is "the deliberate pairing of a skilled and experienced member (the Mentor) with another member (the Mentee) with the agreed goal of the professional development of the Mentee".

Types of relationships
There are different types of mentoring relationships, ranging from upwards (your manager or boss, although this is very infrequent), peer to peer, cross functional and most commonly downwards.
Mentors can be from inside your own organisation be it directly from your department or function, or from another business unit. There are also Mentor/ Coaches available from within some Professional Institutions (for example the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK, and the Institute of Leadership and Management.) Other accredited Mentors/ Coaches are available externally.

Key to Maximum Success in Minimum Time: Get a Mentor

A funny thing about real estate investing. It continues to be one of the best ways for individuals to achieve financial freedom. But it's also one of the toughest businesses to stay in. Adding to the challenge is that today's real estate landscape has a number of pitfalls, but a savvy investor can avoid them by getting the right mentor. The right mentor will help you see where the traps are and how to avoid them.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Just in case you're not familiar with mentoring, let's start with what mentoring is all about.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a relationship built on learning. Typically, it is a one-to-one relationship between a more experienced and a less experienced real estate investor. It is based upon a mentor that is committed to your growth and development. Having a good mentor can be a short cut to success because you learn from other people's mistakes, enabling you to avoid the same traps and progress quicker. It's about applying learned knowledge that is hard to do on your own. Most of us don't succeed alone. That's were mentoring comes in - you're not alone.

What is a mentor?

A mentor is a real estate investor who will provide you with needed advice, consultation, direction, or practical help for the effective achievement of your investing goals. A mentor has already done what you want to do. A mentor should be your learning coach: someone you can talk to and trust. A mentor should help you focus on your goals and give you direction that helps you succeed more quickly than you could alone.

Delivering Unmistakable Value Through Training

Training and development is at one of those proverbial forks in the road.

Most training organizations take the familiar and well-worn path, crowded with committed, enthusiastic, and highly capable corporate training specialists from around the world. The discussion on this path consistently revolves around difficult, often intangible goals such as "creating world-class knowledge workers" and "delivering competencies." Traffic moves at a steady, purposeful pace, as it has for decades.

Innovative organizations take a different path. On this road less traveled, the pace is fast, the destination clear. Here, training is driven to be better, faster, and cheaper by the relentless forces of impatient customers and the bottom line - in short delivering unmistakable, tangible value to their customers as well as the organization itself.

The direct and indirect costs of training, including lost productivity, add up very quickly.

In the United States, training costs more than the equivalent of a thousand U.S. dollars per employee each year at many companies, and it is often much more.

The Training Paradox

The value of learning in today's knowledge economy is clear. The oft-quoted leadership sentiment that "people are our greatest asset" is not mere posturing. Top firms in every industry place high emphasis on hiring the most capable people and providing continual learning opportunities to make them as effective as possible. In aggregate terms it clearly works: firms that spend more on training produce considerably more profit per employee.

Research published by the American Society for Training and Development shows that companies that spent an average of $900 per employee on training generated more than 30 percent more gross profit per employee than those firms that averaged $275 in training expenditure per employee.

The value of learning is not questioned. What should be questioned strenuously, is whether training organizations as operated today can deliver the kinds and quality of training-on time, on budget, and on target-that will consistently drive bottom-line results. As an executive, board member, or even a shareholder, you expect continuous productivity gains from manufacturing and shorter development cycles from R&D. 

5 Great Ways to Help Kids With Math

Some children learn math very easily, but others struggle through the basics. If your child is having a hard time learning elementary school math, there is plenty that you can do to help. Here are some ideas:

1. Keep an Encouraging Attitude
If your child is struggling with schoolwork, too much parental pressure can lead to further discouragement. Instead, keep an encouraging attitude. If you check over their homework and notice that they made many mistakes, cheerfully and calmly help them think through their errors. Don't ever suggest that they are just bad at math... let them know that they will get it if they just keep trying.

2. Cook with Your Child
Cooking and baking with your child allows them to get exposed to many tricky math concepts in a fun and relaxed environment. Instead of giving them even more fraction worksheets to struggle with, invite them into the kitchen to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies with you, thus learning fractions in a very hands-on way. Cooking and baking are also good ways to expose your child to concepts like weight and temperature.

Why Are There So Many Different Levels of Popularity in Junior High School?

Your question shows a high level of awareness about the importance teenagers place on being popular. You are to be commended for having such a level. Please know that your generation of classmates is not different from others that have come before you. Being popular has been an important thing to be for teenagers for a long time.

Before I get into the answer to the question please realize that there is nothing wrong with teenagers who want to be popular. The problem rests with us who as adults have created a "popularity mindset" environment that you all have copied and now mimic.

The answer to this question is both simple and complex. There are so many different levels of popularity in junior high school because there are so many different levels of popularity in the adult society. Unfortunately this is a case where teenagers are doing nothing more in junior high school than what you see us as adults do in the grown up world.

Different Adult Levels of Popularity

You don't have to look far to see the different levels of popularity among adults. Turn on the television, the internet or the radio and you quickly find the following different levels of popularity among adults.

How To Teach Children About Christmas - Using Christmas Plays

Christmas is a special time for everyone, especially children. However, it can be difficult deciding how to teach children about Christmas and the meaning behind it. The most traditional and popular medium is the Christmas play. This often forms a key date in the school calendar, and is highly beneficial as it gives pupils a chance to show off their skills, have fun and make their parents proud.

Why Christmas Plays Help Children Learn the Christmas Story

Children's Christmas plays make a great way to teach the nativity story, as encouraging active participation will act as a cue for remembering the story. Giving each child their own part but also having them all involved as a team will get them immersed in the storyline. This will help them connect with it, making it more meaningful to them so they will pick up the key points more readily.