personal improvement
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Your Inner Critic: Friend or Foe?Your inner critic is the little (and sometimes big) voice in your head that says things like, "That was a dumb thing to say" or "You'll never get that project done on time." The key is not to suppress this pesky critic, but rather to learn to work with it. Turn that voice from a foe into a friend. | 
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The Art of Precise CommunicationRegardless of how effective we are in our deliverables, much of our success is often attributed to communication. We communicate with various stakeholders about our projects, and while several attributes contribute to effective communication, being precise is one of the most important. | 
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Poronkusema and the Challenges of the English Language There are many words in other dialects that have no equivalent in English. These language peculiarities suggest that we need to allow for errors when working on projects with team members whose first language isn't English. But what about communication intended for a professional audience? Read on. |
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Terminology Pollution in DevOpsMany folks are embracing DevOps best practices. But there is also a dark side in the way that some teams are using terms like continuous integration, delivery, and deployment in vague and confusing ways. Using terminology in a clear and consistent manner is essential when implementing DevOps. | 
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Exploring Your Beliefs about Your Customers Have you and your coworkers ever discussed your beliefs about your customers? Or questioned those beliefs? You may surprised at the discrepancy between what you think your customers want and what they actually want. It's a good idea to reconsider every now and then and shake up the status quo. |
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The Value of Checklists in Our Software Testing WorkSome may see checklists as unnecessary, but consider the growing complexity of many of our software development and testing tasks. Ignoring the use of a tool such as checklists (when appropriate) can increase the risk in our already risky world of software testing. Sometimes, simpler is better. | 
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Leverage Emails as Your AmbassadorsWe are often communicating with people we have never met in person. In these cases especially, it's important for our emails to convey accuracy, transparency, tactfulness, and preciseness. It can help if every time you hit Send, you think of that email as an “ambassador” going out on your behalf. | 
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How to Do Your Best Creative Thinking Between interruptions, meetings, changes in priorities, and general everyday chaos, it's difficult to do any creative thinking. You need to give your brain a break from heavy-duty, task-oriented thoughts. To find out how to stimulate your own best creative thinking, consider both where and when. |
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