Tag: Dave Guerra

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Amazon’s Alexa and The New WALKING LEADER Skill

By now, you have seen the Amazon Alexa commercials.

If you haven’t then let me share the following: Alexa “is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon, made popular by the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot devices developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, and other real time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system.”1

Sounds pretty cool. You talk to a small device and it talks back. Heck, it even tells you a joke, if you ask it to. Folks, it is official, we are living in the future.

I have been intrigued with the Alexa IPA (intelligent personal assistant) since it first came out, then appeared on my Kindle Fire and then it was on my Amazon Fire TV Stick. I was hooked. I was beyond hooked, I was mesmerized. Here is the perfect opportunity to be part of an emerging technology. VOICE.

So what did I do to be part of this emerging technology?

During the recent Amazon Prime Day the Echo Dot was available at a price that was too hard to resist.

While I was waiting for my very own Echo Dot to arrive, I brainstormed and came up with a couple of ideas. However, I wanted to proof of concept as well as making certain that I was not in over my head when it came to creating a new Alexa skill.

Doing my homework, I discovered there are approximately 15,000 Skills (and climbing) so why not add one more to the list of skills? That’s what I did.

What I did is put my daily audio,  the Walking Leader podcast, Going Beyond The Grind-Going Beyond The Hustle (Facebook video)  and the Amazon Skill development tool to get all that put together. A few days later, the approval email came in from Amazon and here is the link for  you to get my new Amazon Alexa Skill: Walking Leader Flash Briefing.

Now I am even more hooked. You can be too. Looking back, I was not in over my head. It was actually quite easy to create the “Flash Briefing“. What I am saying is you can create your own. All you need is an account on the Amazon Developer Platform. If you have an account on Amazon then you already have an account on the Amazon Developer platform. You are going to need a few things the most important is having a audio content that resides (is stored) on SSL enabled web-hosting service.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the “standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.”2

How do you know if you have an SSL enable web-hosting service? Simple, when people go to you website do they see HTTPS:// or HTTP://? If the see HTTPS then you are good to go. If not, then contact your web hosting provider to get the SSL added. Be warned, the SSL might cost you to install. However, once you have the SSL in place you are well on your way to having your Alexa Skill ready for the world.

If you have a message you want to share with the world, then give it a shot. Now is the time to get in on this new emerging technology. I am excited to be part of all this and I know you will be, as well.

Thanks,
David Guerra, MBA

 

  1.  Amazon Alexa. (2017, August 14). Retrieved August 17, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa
  2. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17, 2017, from http://info.ssl.com/article.aspx?id=10241
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LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #10: TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE AS A TEAM

LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #10: TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE AS A TEAM

While your team is composed of unique individuals, those individuals share one thing: You are their leader. They are part of your team. As the leader, it is your responsibility to ensure they are trained to work as a cohesive team, one unit and when need be they should know how to do the basic (rudimentary) functions of the other team members. Knowing the basic functions of the other team members is not for replacing them but to fill in the gaps when employees call in sick or the organization is transitioning between team members.

Training as a team creates esprit de’corps and enhances unit cohesion. Your team will develop a feeling of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty because they have shared experience(s). Having those shared experiences creates a team so strong, so empowered, and ready to be more effective than any other group in the organization that has not taken the time to train together.

Obviously, a leader will have to allow the individuals to attend training specific to their vocation in order to remain proficient and excel at their day-to-day operations and functions. However, when those employees return to the team, have them share what they learned with others.

A highly informed is team is a highly functional team. A highly functional team is a highly performing team. A highly performing is a team that is delivering and making huge impacts on the organization’s mission and vision. As a leader, who would not want to be leading a cohesive team that is making an impact on the organization? Be that Leader!

Thanks,
David G. Guerra, M.B.A.

Do you agree or disagree with this list? Let me know either by
Twitter @daveguerra or by email [email protected] or both.

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blog Inspiration Leadership Leadership Principles Mentor Motivation Walking Leader

LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #9: ENSURE ASSIGNED TASKS ARE UNDERSTOOD, SUPERVISED, AND ACCOMPLISHED

LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #9: ENSURE ASSIGNED TASKS ARE UNDERSTOOD, SUPERVISED, AND ACCOMPLISHED

 

A leader will lead from the front. If you come from the place that believes a leader’s place is in the rear with the gear, then you are WRONG!
A leader always leads from the front. A leader will also be responsible for ensuring that the job is done. Individuals that have elected to be part of the leader’s team will accomplish the job. The leader will also do the job (the mission) with the equipment, resources and within the defined time.
A successful leader will have gone through many wins and losses when it comes to completely the mission. A successful leader will have worked with many individuals and used various tools and resources to make proper and appropriate attempts at achieving the objectives towards completing the mission.

A leader that is mindful of the objectives that go towards completing the mission will work all the members of the team. Working with team members, the leader realizes that assigning tasks and sub-tasks will ensure that not only the objectives are met but are done on time while not compromising the success of the entire operation.

Thus, as a leadership principle a leader must ensure that ALL tasks are understood, supervised and accomplished. When it comes to understanding the task, those assigned to the task should understand it so well that they can not only repeat what the task is back to the leader but also fully comprehend the leader’s intent of that task. Including, how it fits into the big picture of the entire mission.

Speaking of the big picture, maintaining supervision is critical throughout the entire process from beginning to the successful completion of mission. Supervision of the all assigned tasks does not have to be by the leader but by those individuals that are qualified to supervise specialized operations or processes within the tasks.

Every great leader has his or her hands full. Yet, by being consistent and ensuring that all team members have a job and maintaining supervision the inevitable outcome of any mission is SUCCESS.

Thanks,
David G. Guerra, M.B.A.

Do you agree or disagree with this post? Let me know either by
Twitter @daveguerra or by email [email protected] or both.