Spinvoyage

Ten Pivotal Tips to Boost Your Leadership Skills

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:40:03 +0000

Ten Pivotal Tips to Boost Your Leadership Skills

Leadership transcends mere titles, encompassing dynamic skills essential for personal career growth and team success. Whether you are a seasoned leader or are just stepping into this arena, honing these skills can significantly enhance your professional journey and that of your teams. Here are ten pivotal tips to improve your leadership skills:

Cultivate Self-Awareness and Personal Growth

Self-awareness is the cornerstone of effective leadership. Understand your strengths and weaknesses and recognize your emotional triggers. This knowledge allows you to leverage your strengths strategically and manage your limitations effectively. Make it a routine to reflect on your actions, decisions and outcomes. Consider journaling as a powerful tool to gain insight into your leadership style and its impacts.

Seek and Leverage Feedback

Encourage honest feedback from peers, mentors and team members. This input is invaluable for identifying areas for improvement and affirming what you are doing well.

Master Effective Communication

Clear and concise communication is crucial to successful leadership. It ensures your vision is understood, aligns team efforts and resolves conflicts efficiently. Practice active listening to fully engage with your team and ensure all members feel heard and valued. As the inevitable conflicts arise, address them promptly, fairly and constructively.

Enhance Emotional Intelligence

Develop your ability to understand and manage your emotions while empathizing with others. This emotional acumen builds trust and strengthens team dynamics, essential to effective leadership.

Sharpen Decision-Making and Problem-Solving Skills

Leaders are often required to make swift and effective decisions. Approach complex problems analytically, breaking them into manageable parts. Foster a collaborative environment where team involvement in decision-making processes is the norm, enhancing the team’s sense of ownership and satisfaction.

Embrace Adaptability and Flexibility

Stay informed about industry trends and developments to anticipate and adapt to changes. View change as an opportunity for growth rather than a threat and encourage your team to adopt the same perspective.

Invest in Mentoring and Developing Others

A great leader invests in the growth and development of their team members. Provide opportunities for them to take on new challenges and share your knowledge and experience to guide their professional journeys.

Build and Maintain Strong Relationships

Strong relationships are the foundation of a cohesive and high-performing team. Foster team spirit and collaboration through organized team-building activities that strengthen these bonds. Regularly recognize and celebrate team achievements to boost morale and motivation.

Foster Vision and Strategic Thinking

Define clear, achievable goals and communicate them effectively to your team. Develop strategic plans that align with your vision and involve your team in the planning process, ensuring everyone is committed to the collective success.

Pursue Continuous Learning

Continuous learning is vital for stayingrelevant and successful. Enrich your knowledge with continual reading and participate in leadership workshops and training programs to gain new perspectives and techniques.

Conclusion

Elevate your leadership journey by embracing these ten practices. Each fosters crucial skills that enhance your capabilities and your team’s performance and morale. Remember, great leaders are made, not born—start enhancing these skills today to gain tangible results in your leadership effectiveness and your team’s success.

The 5 Simple Ingredients to Ultimate Lifelong Success

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:39:35 +0000

Success is the sweetest word that excites all of us. But not everyone can reach it. Only a few can. Why is it so? Is there a magic wand for successful people?

Success is the confluence of several ingredients such as passion, vision, mission, execution, and feedback. Whenever you want to achieve something in your life, you must know what you love the most.

Don’t ape other successful people blindly as it ends up in a fiasco. What clicks others may not click you. What is required is to find out what touches your heart the most.

What are the areas of interest that drive you and give you a kick for moving ahead? Most of the people successful in the world are passionate about what they do.

They did what excited them. They did what brought joy while doing. They tapped their inner talents. They discovered their hidden strengths. They carried forward their raw abilities ruthlessly.

2. Vision

The second successive ingredient for success is vision. It tells you where to go in your life. It reminds you of your present status in life. It directs you in a specific direction based on your passion.

Most successful people are visionaries. They know what they want and where they want to go in their lives. They set their directions properly and move ahead successfully. Succinctly, it is like placing the ladder on the right side of the wall.

“The key that unlocks energy is desire. It’s also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited.” —Earl Nightingale

3. Mission

The third ingredient for achieving success is mission. It tells you how to go. Once the direction has been set, the mission unveils the methods, tools, and techniques involved in following a specific direction.

It reminds you of the resources that are essential for following your path to success. It is during this journey that constant efforts and energies are essential to move towards success.

It is necessary to equip the skills and abilities for achieving. In brief, it is like climbing the ladder.

4. Execution

The fourth ingredient toward success is execution. It is the toughest task. It is easier said than done. There will be several practical bottlenecks that hinder the path to success.

There are both internal and external forces and factors that contribute to execution. The internal factors can be easily managed as things are very much within human control. Self-discipline, self-motivation, hard work, perseverance, determination, and grit will play a crucial role.

The external environmental factors which are beyond human control may disturb the path to success. A few call these fate. Few call the same as luck. It can either make you or break you as a successful person.

People who have high internal locus of control don’t believe in destiny. These people strongly feel that their destiny is in their hands. They try to control the external environment as far as possible.

If they are not able to manage and face setbacks during the process, they pursue their execution with more energy and enthusiasm.

The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is effective execution. It will tip the scale toward success.

5. Feedback

The last ingredient for achieving success is taking feedback. It is a review process where in you look at how far you reached your goals and objectives. If you failed to reach why did you fail?

How to overcome the failures and what remedial measures can be taken to pursue the path towards success. Feedback helps in aligning your efforts effectively towards your goals and objectives.

Confucius aptly put it, “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

Soar Like an Eagle

Ralph Marston said “Don’t lower your expectations to meet your performance. Raise your level of performance to meet your expectations. Expect the best of yourself, and then do what is necessary to make it a reality.”

The road to success is not a cakewalk. It requires a lot of struggles and sacrifices. To sum up, you need to be passionate about whatever you undertake. You have to set out your goals and objectives which becomes vision.

You set out a clear path or roadmap toward your success and that is known as a mission. Mere words won’t pay you but deeds play a crucial role in ensuring success which is execution.

Finally, it is equally necessary to take stock of the situation periodically for remedial and corrective action which is known as feedback.

When all these ingredients are effectively integrated success would touch your toes.

NYT Strands today: hints, spangram and answers for Wednesday, August 14

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:33:46 +0000

Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you’ll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.

Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. There’s no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If you’re stuck and need to know the answers to today’s Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.

How to play Strands

You start every Strands puzzle with the goal of finding the “theme words” hidden in the grid of letters. Manipulate letters by dragging or tapping to craft words; double-tap the final letter to confirm. If you find the correct word, the letters will be highlighted blue and will no longer be selectable.

If you find a word that isn’t a theme word, it still helps! For every three non-theme words you find that are at least four letters long, you’ll get a hint — the letters of one of the theme words will be revealed and you’ll just have to unscramble it.

Every single letter on the grid is used to spell out the theme words and there is no overlap. Every letter will be used once, and only once.

Each puzzle contains one “spangram,” a special theme word (or words) that describe the puzzle’s theme and touches two opposite sides of the board. When you find the spangram, it will be highlighted yellow.

The goal should be to complete the puzzle quickly without using too many hints.

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s theme is “Honey I’m home!”

Here’s a hint that might help you: places you call home

Today’s Strand answers

Today’s spanagram

We’ll start by giving you the spangram, which might help you figure out the theme and solve the rest of the puzzle on your own:

Today’s Strands answers

BUNGALOW
CABIN
COLONIAL
COTTAGE
CRAFTSMAN
RANCH

Google Screwed Up Pixel 9 Pricing And That's A Huge Mistake In 2024

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:32:24 +0000

New Pixels have typically launched toward the fall season, but not this year. This time, Google is launching its latest slate of hardware earlier than expected. At Google’s latest Made By Google event today, the tech giant launched a little bit of everything: new phones, new earbuds, new watches (plural, which is exciting), and a new foldable.

Notably, among these devices is the new Pixel 9, now with a whole new price tag. This is the base model Pixel that most people will probably buy. It starts at $799, which is $100 more than the Google Pixel 8 (which also had a price bump) last year. (The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 also cost $100 more this year.) Google thinks the upgrades you’re getting this year are worth and extra Benjamin. There certainly are some upgrades, but I’m not convinced they’ll be worth the extra money. I’ve had a chance to go hands on for a bit with this device, and here’s what we have coming.

The Google Pixel 9 has hardware upgrades

Right off the bat, the Pixel 9 is bringing Google’s new Tenser G4 processor. By all reports, this processor upgrade is more of a modest upgrade than you might expect from a generational release. Google seems to be more interested in managing heat and performance over raw speed. I’ve never found the G3 to be particularly lacking, so I can get on board with this decision. The new processor is bolstered by a base of 12GB of RAM, which is a step-up over the 8GB we saw last year. That will always be a welcome change.

The screen size also gets a minor bump up to 6.3 inches, compared to 6.2 last year. The result isn’t much in terms of footprint. The Pixel 9 is a little taller, but also not as thick. That yields a negligible increase in weight by a few grams. In terms of brightness, we seem to be in the middle of a brightness war, as Google has ramped its display up to 2,700 nits of peak brightness. I’m starting to think phone makers won’t be satisfied until we’re all carrying around portable tanning booths.

The Pixel 9 is ultra ultrawide

The biggest benefit to the Pixel 9 over its predecessor is arguably the 48-megapixel ultrawide sensor that accompanies the 50-megapixel main camera. The new ultrawide camera should bring some parity to the sensors, which is a nice change. Google’s been in the camera game for too long to keep going with a paltry ultrawide sensor. This mirrors the ultrawide camera setup from last year’s Pixel 8 Pro (and this year’s Pixel 9 Pro), so this is also certainly a welcome change.

Of course, this being the Pixel (as opposed to the Pixel Pro), there is no telephoto sensor in this camera setup, which is to be expected. The selfie camera on the front of the phone is the same as last year as well, so you won’t see much of an improvement in that regard.

Overall, if you’re an ultrawide camera fan, this should give you a notable improvement over last year’s sensor, but that seems fairly niche. I’m definitely more of a telephoto user myself. Of course, you still get all of Google’s photo processing expertise as well, so the Pixel 9 should perform quite well in camera testing.

The Pixel 9 has a slightly longer battery capacity

There are a few other improvements in this year’s pixel. The battery gets a modest increase to the tune of around 5%, but honestly the larger screen will probably balance that out. All the same, there’s every reason to suspect that this year’s Pixel 9 will probably perform just as well as the Pixel 8 last year in terms of longevity. What is a nice boost is the fact that the Pixel 9 supports 45W charging, which is still not up to snuff with the likes of OnePlus, but is definitely a welcome addition.

Google is sticking with its same software support schedule. That includes seven years of OS updates, security updates, and feature drops. Of course, this is Google, so it would be silly not to at this point.

Overall, this feels like a decent upgrade to the Pixel line, but I’m not positive it justifies its $100 price increase. I’m not sure why companies decided that 2024 was the year they had to increase prices when they’ve held steady for so long, but here we are. Of course, you’ll have to wait for our complete review to hear our full judgements. The Pixel 9 has usually been an easy recommendation, though it already comes a little harder this year because of the higher price.

Best Pixel 9 Pro Deals Include $200 Gift Cards, $760 Trade-in Discounts

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:31:37 +0000

Pre-orders are open for the entire new Pixel device line-up, including for the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL. There are deals to be had too, because Google is ready to push the new line-up of phones it has created that look like Google reaching a whole new level of quality. These phones look insane.

To start, we have bonus credits to spend when you buy the new Pixel 9 series, plus the trade-in values have been boosted through some retailers, including the Google Store.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the best Pixel 9 Pro deals available.

$200 bonus credit with Pixel 9 Pro: While Google and its retail partners aren’t doing discounts on the new phones without trade-ins, they are all giving you bonus money to spend on other stuff alongside your new Pixel 9 Pro. That means $200 credits to the Google Store if you purchase a Pixel 9 Pro or Pixel 9 Pro XL. If you’d rather go with Best Buy, they’ll give you a $200 Best Buy gift certificate. And then there’s Amazon, which is matching by giving away $200 Amazon gift cards.

And to get these credits, you just buy the new phones. So again, not a discount, but you can then use those credits for accessories, to get a Pixel Watch 3 or the Pixel Buds Pro 2, or maybe you just want to order some groceries for free on Amazon.

$760 off with trade-in: The Google Store is currently offering up to $760 off (back) if you trade in your current device for a Pixel 9 Pro or 9 Pro XL. While not the instant discount like Samsung would do, it’ll still save you a good chunk of change in the end.

To get the full $760, you would have to trade-in the original Pixel Fold. Since I can’t imagine most of you have one of those to trade, you’ll be happy to know that Google will give you $699 for your Pixel 8 Pro. Other values are $490 for a Pixel 8, $540 for a Pixel 7 Pro, and $450 for a Pixel 6 Pro. Those all seem like really great prices to me, especially on older devices like the 7 Pro and 6 Pro.

If you’d rather trade-in with Best Buy, feel free to jump into their trade-in estimate machine. I took a quick look and saw $625 for a Pixel 8 Pro, which is under Google’s offer.

In total, we’re looking at $960 in savings, with a $760 trade and $200 credit to spend. Not bad.

Pixel 9 Pro Pre-order Links:

NYT Mini Crossword today: puzzle answers for Tuesday, August 13

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:29:50 +0000

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

A bite-sized version of the New York Times’ well-known crossword puzzle, The Mini is a quick and easy way to test your crossword skills daily in a lot less time (the average puzzle takes most players just over a minute to solve). While The Mini is smaller and simpler than a normal crossword, it isn’t always easy. Tripping up on one clue can be the difference between a personal best completion time and an embarrassing solve attempt.

Just like our Wordle hints and Connections hints, we’re here to help with The Mini today if you’re stuck and need a little help.

Below are the answers for the NYT Mini crossword today.

NYT Mini Crossword answers today

Across

Gymnastics surfaces – MATTS
They might be raised something exciting – HOPES
More than enough – AMPLE
Highway payment – TOLL
Food for farm animals – HAY

Down

Actor Jason of “Dune” – MOMOA
Submit one’s resume – APPLY
Poker player’s giveaway – TELL
Direction that’s down and a little to the right: Abbr. – SSE
“Hell __ no fury like …” – HATH

Android 15 Beta 4.2 Released for Pixel Devices

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:27:46 +0000

Google just released an updated beta for Pixel phone users, labeled as Android 15 Beta 4.2.

The Android team lists this as a minor update, filled with a few bug fixes that address the camera, delayed wake times, and more. A couple things that caught our attention are a fix for low frame rates when filming, as well as a fix for a UI flicker. See full details below.

Release Notes

Release date: August 13, 2024Build: AP31.240617.015Emulator support: x86 (64-bit), ARM (v8-A)Security patch level: August 2024Google Play services: 24.23.35

Below is the complete changelog for the update.

What’s Inside Android 15 Beta 4.2

This minor update to Android 15 Beta 4 includes the following fixes:

Fixed an issue where some devices were delayed in waking up.
Fixed an issue where a gray transparent bar was appearing when using the camera.
Fixed a camera issue that was causing low frame rates.
Fixed a camera issue that was causing a crash when changing zoom values.
Fixed an issue with camera saturation.
Fixed an issue that was causing the UI to flicker.
Fixed an issue that was causing the YouTube app to crash.

Go snag that update, beta users.

// Android Developers

Alright, What New Pixel Device Are You Buying?

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:25:46 +0000

We officially have seven new devices from Google this morning, all now up for pre-order. The question is, which ones are you going to buy?

For Google fans, this was a big day. We have four new Pixel phones, two new Pixel watches (same watch, two sizes), plus a new set of Pixel earbuds. There’s the new and improved Pixel 9 Pro Fold foldable, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL, Pixel Watch 3 (41mm and 45mm), plus the Pixel Buds 2 Pro.

Speaking to Kellen, who was on hand at Google’s launch event today, he said this about the Pixel 9 Pro’s hardware quality. “This phone feels insane in the hand. This is the nicest hardware from Google by miles.” He seems excited about the new lineup.

Let us know which Pixel devices you’ll be snagging. Curious what I got? That’d be the Pixel 9 Pro in Porcelain and a matching Pixel Watch 3 in the new 45mm option.

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Wordle Today: Wordle answer and hints for August 14

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:23:56 +0000

We have the solution to Wordle on July 16, as well as some helpful hints to help you figure out the answer yourself, right here. We’ve placed the answer at the bottom of the page, so we don’t ruin the surprise before you’ve had a chance to work through the clues. So let’s dive in, starting with a reminder of yesterday’s answer.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Let’s start by first reminding ourselves of yesterday’s Wordle answer for those new to the game or who don’t play it daily, which was “NEIGH.” So we can say that the Wordle answer today definitely isn’t that. Now, with that in mind, perhaps take another stab at it using one of these Wordle starting words and circle back if you have no luck.

Hints for today’s Wordle

Still can’t figure it out? We have today’s Wordle answer right here, below. But first, one more thing: Let’s take a look at three hints that could help you find the solution, without giving it away, so there’s no need to feel guilty about keeping your streak alive — you put in some work, after all! Or just keep scrolling for the answer.

Today’s Wordle includes the letter h.
Today’s Wordle uses two vowels.
Today’s Wordle is where you find seashells.

Today’s Wordle answer

No luck? Don’t sweat it — you can’t get them all! If you just want to see today’s Wordle answer to continue your streak, you can find it below.

The answer to today’s Wordle is …

SHORE
Today’s Wordle definition

And here’s what it means, according to our good friend ChatGPT:

The term “shore” refers to the land along the edge of a body of water, such as an ocean, sea, lake, or river. It’s where the land meets the water. The shore can vary greatly in its characteristics—it might be sandy, rocky, or grassy, depending on the location. In a broader sense, “shore” can also be used metaphorically to describe any boundary or edge of something, like the shore of a continent.

Tips for tomorrow’s Wordle

It might seem like Wordle is all luck, but there are a few good practices you can use to help get as many clues as possible in just a few guesses, making it that much more likely you can figure out the final word before you run out of tries. The most important guess is your first, and the trick is to load up on vowels (A, E, I, O, and U).

Some popular starting words people have had good luck with are “adieu,” “media,” “arise,” and “radio.” Just make sure not to pick a word with double letters, or you’re wasting precious guesses. The aim here is to try to figure out which vowels the mystery word contains, then layer in common consonants and close in from there.

Your second word, assuming that the first one gave you a good jumping-off point, should begin to lean more heavily on common consonants like R, S, and T. More good ones here we’ve seen are “stern,” “irate,” and “atone.” You never want to reuse any letters from a prior round that showed up as gray — you know they aren’t in the word.

Now that’s all solved and the definition is taken care of, and you’re armed with some tips to crush tomorrow’s Wordle, here are some games like Wordle you can try today.

NASA’s axed moon rover could be resurrected by Intuitive Machines

Administrator — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 06:21:51 +0000

Lunar scientists were shocked and dismayed last month when NASA announced that it was canceling work on its moon rover, VIPER. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover was intended to search the moon’s south pole for evidence of water there, but NASA said that it had to ax the project due to increasing costs.

This week, an open letter to Congress called the cancellation of the mission “unprecedented and indefensible,” and questioned NASA’s assertion that the cancellation of the mission would not affect plans to send humans to the moon. Scientists argued that the mission was fundamental to understanding the presence of water on the moon, which is a key resource for human exploration, as well as an issue of scientific interest.

Now, however, the VIPER mission may have the chance to go ahead in a different form. Intuitive Machines, the company that launched a semi-successful lunar lander mission earlier this year, says it is interested in taking over the rover mission and launching it using its own lander.

“Our position there is that VIPER science is important to lunar scientists and the future of the Artemis program, and it’s very important in terms of prospecting for volatiles and entrained water ice in the soil,” said Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, as reported by SpaceNews.

NASA has expressed interest in handing off the VIPER mission to a commercial partner, which would surely be preferable to all of the work that has gone into the rover so far going to waste. Altemus said his company was looking into what the costs would be to finish work on the rover, and that it was working with other partners such as companies or universities. He did not specify which other organizations were involved.

If Intuitive Machines were to take over VIPER, it could use its Nova-D lander to carry it to the moon, as the Nova-D is still in development, but has a larger weight capacity than the Nova-C lander that landed on the moon earlier this year. The planned launch date for the mission would be late 2027, and news from NASA about the mission’s future is expected next month.