How To Become a Great Program Manager

How To Become a Great Program Manager

A program manager generally manages several directly or indirectly related projects and sees them through to completion. Individuals who are highly motivated, self-starters, and very organized and detail-oriented usually excel as program managers and several training options exist today to help that manager hone his or her skills.

If you want to become a great program manager, knowledge of a specific industry, materials, products, manufacturing, information technology and personnel are definitely a plus. A general ability to understand timelines and all of the inputs to a particular project tend to help realistic and long-lasting foundations as well.

A good education can also give you an edge over the competition. Many people who have the necessary experience often turn to online education to enhance their options and career status. Before you take the plunge, a good way to test the waters is to listen to one of several podcasts offered by capella university. Students and faculty discuss their experiences with online education in a format that many would find beneficial. From there, you can more easily determine the best educational route that will make your career a success.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

The Artist In You

The Artist In You

I just finished watching our local station V-CAT Comcast Channel 27 here in Vallejo and caught the tail end of a discussion with Harold Beaulieu about the importance of art in our communities. He made the important distinction that art is important as far as creativity is concerned, in that we would still be trying to figure out how to make fire if it wasn’t for creativity.

That made me think about how far down our educational system here in California has gone down – no mystery to anyone who walks, talks and thinks. Usually the first to go are arts programs, and then some people wonder why our children act so crazy these days. I’m going to involve my own personal experience with creativity for a moment. If I can’t find a creative outlet on a regular basis, I can sometimes feel like I am going to go insane. I have to be doing something with my hands – gardening, knitting, crocheting, writing, I’ve even ventured into making furniture and am quite proud of an ottoman I made a few years ago and still use. My creative outlets do more than just produce something, they give me balance and often help me find solutions to other problems or challenges in my daily life. Sometimes I even view those outlets as a sort of meditation, and without them, I’d feel bottled up and frustrated indeed.

I’ve noticed that the least creative of our species could care less about arts programs for anyone, let alone those dwindling programs for children because it takes one creative mind to truly understand another. Harold Beaulieu, Art Commissioner for Contra Costa County is increasingly at the forefront of keeping art programs alive in the bay area and is focused enough on this goal to make a difference. Hopefully over time his efforts will gain enough recognition that others around the country can use his model to restore balance in education through the arts in our schools.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

Thoughts on Cormac McCarthy Interview

Thoughts on Cormac McCarthy Interview

When asked by Oprah Winfrey if he cared whether people read his work or not, Cormac McCarthy answered ‘no’.

No? Well if he doesn’t care, why bother publishing it? That’s my first question. I can understand his other viewpoints, as far as not wanting to be interviewed on television and so on and so forth. I thought the interview was a little boring, but he was otherwise very interesting to me and I may even decide to check his book out at some point. As of this writing, he ranks #19 on Amazon’s book list and I’m sure he will continue to remain at the top for quite some time.

Earlier this morning I thought about just how lonely writing can be, and it may be why I’ve distanced myself from it from time to time. What I find even more lonely though is trying to establish one’s self in the marketplace. I say any advantage you have, take it. Writing in my opinion, is meant to be shared, unless you’re keeping a personal journal. Writing encourages thought, discussion, perspective and formation of opinion. To write and not care if other people read it to me is different, even Oprah thought so judging from her reaction to his statement. Nevertheless, that type of character displayed in McCarthy is the exact type that creates the masterpieces and standards in our society. Reclusive and mysterious, like Prince in many ways, is part of what makes him so sought after.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

Professionals and Online Education

Did you know that construction on The Pentagon began September 11, 1941, and sixty years later American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the side of it? This military building houses the U.S. Department of Defense, which is the headquarters of The Joint Chiefs of Staff. The structure is so impressive that tours are held for the public, which began on May 17, 1976 and have only grown in popularity.

The Pentagon may well be a historical landmark, but it is still buzzing with some of the most significant activity in the world. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has 2,000 military members who support him – and those members also need to be trained. Look no further than Claudia Chladek, who is the Program Manager for the Joint Staff Training Program at the Pentagon. Chladek turned to capella university for her educational needs, like so many other professionals around the globe.

Capella University offers online education to over 19,000 students, many who are highly successful business people with not a lot of time on their hands to engage in a formal classroom setting. Chladek also takes time to talk about her online learning experience in the school’s podcast. Capella University continues to educate current and potential students with their podcast series, aimed at giving listeners an inside look at their program offerings and benefits. The series also gives professionals such as Chladek the opportunity to inspire others with their personal accounts of how they manage their professional life and how they’ve successfully integrated education into the equation.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

Summer’s Almost Here

Summer’s Almost Here

Are you ready? I just sort of creeps up on you, I know. Every December, no, every January, after I’ve spent two holiday weeks stuffing my face I realize that I have six months to lose ten more pounds, or whatever my goal is at the time. Then, after that far-fetched fantasy, I grab a bowl of microwave popcorn, a blanket, and pop in DVD which usually catches me snoring. I continue repeat that ‘I still have ---- months to get in shape’ and then lay around on the couch until say around the middle of May and then I realize that I’ve squandered away another half a year or so that was meant to be dedicated to total fitness.

I think this year is different. Although I still didn’t get off the couch until May, I am much more motivated to get stronger and healthier than I am to lose pounds and that might be the big difference in my attitude. Whatever the case, I feel better and stronger than I did last month and I expect that trend to continue. I get as much walking and yard work in as I can and cancelled my gym membership finally. I know that might sound backward, canceling the membership and all, but believe me it was just a crutch and strong excuse for me to not do anything to get in shape. I don’t like going to the gym at all, and I was just wasting money. So I figured out what I could do that I like and have been consistent. When I can’t get out and walk because of the weather or nightfall, I dance around my place. One of the better benefits of all of this activity is even when I don’t feel like doing any exercise at all, before I know it I’m up and doing chores that I would normally put off. So even if you aren’t bikini ready, get up and get moving. You’ll look better, feel better, and it will go a long way toward improving your health.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

Find Some Time To Relax

Find Some Time To Relax

With some knitting or crochet needles. If you’re the creative type and need to do something with your hands, give it a try.

I’ve been crocheting since I can remember. I believe my grandmother taught me how, or she taught my sister or something and I learned that way. Or maybe it was my mother? I guess all of them because as I grew I remember being shown different techniques. Over the years I’ve kept it up, but I would say not until recently have I even attempted to make something I would give away. When I say recently I mean in the past ten years or so.

Knitting is fun too and probably a lot more popular. You’ll find classes, clubs, meetings, and workshops – you name it – geared toward helping you make the best looking since sweater since grandma’s days. I learned to knit a little later in life, around the time I became legal. I used to knit my little hear out! I made a sweater too small for someone but they were nice enough to accept it anyway with excitement. I made a few for myself too in bright colors that only the early 90’s could appreciate and wore those sweaters with pride. They took a long time to make, but it was well worth it. Perhaps I’ll get a refresher on how to follow a pattern and make myself a sweater sometime soon.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

Show Yourself Some Appreciation

It’s so easy to show appreciation for others, how about showing some for yourself? This concept is foreign to many, but the positive benefits of it can astound.

These days, it seems that the sky is the limit when it comes to the possibilities in our career choices, and life choices overall. Sadly, the converse can be true as well, and the amount of stress involved in keeping up with our constantly and rapidly changing environment can wear down the best of us. Our ability to acknowledge and praise ourselves can make the difference between a great life and one that is filled with anxiety and daily pressures.

A new book entitled ‘Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process For Change’ helps the reader become aware of an appreciative approach to themselves and their lives. Designed for career coaches and life coaches, this book by Sarah Orem illustrates the importance of empowerment through framing positive questions and various other tools to strengthen an individual and give them hope for the future. Sarah Orem is an online faculty member at Capella University who co-authored this book with Jacqueline Binkert, PhD and Ann Clancy, PhD. Each of these authors possesses a doctoral degree and with their combined expertise in coaching, consulting and teaching, they have provided a groundbreaking tool to help managers, executives and individuals achieve higher levels of performance and satisfaction in every aspect of their lives.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

The Bachelor: Officer and Gentleman

The Bachelor: Officer and Gentleman

I managed somehow to catch the last two episodes including the finale of The Bachelor. I think the only reason I don’t tune in to this train wreck earlier in its demise is because of American Idol (see my previous entry). And also, let’s face it, I think it’s cheesy and a bit suspect. I guess I find it a bit hard to believe that any of these women actually take the whole thing seriously, but it turns out that they do, at least during the taping of the show. For the second year in a row I sat and watched dumbfounded as a reject rides in the back of a limousine as she smears mascara all over her face with her tears. It seems that at least one of the women had decided that she was deeply in love with the bachelor and cannot fathom why he would have rejected her.

It’s interesting how first, the bachelor slobbers all over several women during the course of a few weeks, decides he could be in love with at least two or three of them and manages to drum up just enough anxiety for the cameramen over his impending decision. And likewise, in a very short period of time the bachelor is able to narrow down the woman of his dreams, mainly while the camera is rolling.

I have to admit that reality television can be quite compelling. If you can allow yourself to get swept up for just a little while, you can manage to pick your favorite bachelorette and talk to the television as if you’re talking to the bachelor and tell him which one to pick. Then, it’s even easier to tell yourself that you never, ever, in a million years, would put all of your business out there like that for the world to see.

The truth of the matter is that there’s no telling what most of us would do for a few dollars and a few minutes of fame. Their lives will never be the same, that’s for sure, and I wonder how many of the past contestants have found their reality television stint to be an advantage in their personal careers and lives, and how many wish they had just stayed away from the camera.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

American Idol Withdrawal

American Idol Withdrawal

Every year about the same time I experience a sense of loss and confusion. Programmed internally to park it on the sofa and turn the television on every Tuesday night at 8 PM and Wednesday night at 9 PM, I find that I no longer know what to do with myself now that my weekly dose of American Idol will be administered.

You know this situation started out easily enough a few years ago. At first skeptical about the show, I was drawn in by the poor performers during the search in each city for the singers who would go to Hollywood. Then, the emotional roller coaster began as the top ten were chosen. All of my friends got involved and every Tuesday night after the show and every Wednesday morning I would find an inbox full of emails from around the country about the performance the night before. Every year we swear we won’t get so involved the next year, and every year we repeat the same behaviors.

I think I’m starting to recover though – I didn’t watch the finale, and instead enjoyed a phone conversation with an old friend without the television playing in the background, distracting me. Perhaps next season I will have the strength to even resist the simultaneous call of the remote control and pretend that AI doesn’t exist – maybe.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

Deciding On How To Invest Your Money

Deciding On How To Invest Your Money

Our economy is constantly changing as we operate in global markets. When my parents were raising our family, a sound investment was in a house that they paid for outright and a good solid savings account and some cd’s. With home prices fluctuating, especially here in California, investing in a home isn’t exactly sound unless you’re in it for the long run, and even then, one never knows what the marketplace will do next. Buy that house to live in, but perhaps we should all be thinking of different and creative ways to invest our funds.

Precious metals are a tried and true commodity that will continue to increase in value. When most people think of precious metals, gold comes to mind, but silver is increasingly becoming the metal that provides a solid investment value. Did you know that silver is slightly harder than gold? Silver is great for jewelry and ornaments, and a lot more practical than gold for making dining silverware, which actually has germicidal properties. Silver coins make fine collectibles and best of all, silver is the symbol of friendship.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

Make Those Complaints Work For You

Make Those Complaints Work For You

Who’s complaining? Surely not you. Yeah right.

There’s so much to complain about if you’re really good at it – your job, your spouse, that ex, the mailman, that crazy neighbor. You know the one.

One day I made a conscious effort to monitor my own thoughts, and although I have been called a Pollyanna on occasion, I was really sort of amazed at the amount of complaints I logged in my brain by the minute, even by the second. Most of them against myself – ‘Why are you eating that?’ ‘Can’t you move a little faster?’ ‘Why aren’t you a millionaire, you can be so lazy you know’ and the list went on until I had to give myself a time-out.

One thing I managed to gain from listening to myself is that I realized that I still have a lot of unfulfilled dreams and even simple tasks and goals that I need to address. Now I’m not going to sit up and say that I waged a barrage of complaints against myself all day, please! There’s the economy and the government and everything else in between. The one thing that helped me move along (I have to admit I can feel stuck from time to time in my daily life) was to write them all down. I wrote them down, and I noticed how much better I felt and how uncluttered my mind started to feel. Once I wrote them down, I considered what I could do to resolve my complaint so that I wouldn’t have to give it any more energy from that point on. What I realized is that when I get away from writing down my daily to-do’s and big and small goals, they start to kind of back up in my head and I just sit there wishing and complaining, and trying to figure out how I got into task backlog and that emotional rut that creeps up from time to time when things don’t move as quickly as I want them to.

Feeling like everything around you needs to be adjusted somehow, but know that most of it can’t be until you do something about it? Just write it out. Be your own best customer and receive those complaints and take steps to resolve them so you can make everyday a little better.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

How To Avoid A Cult

How To Avoid A Cult

The term ‘cult’ is used in so many ways. Many people who get involved in religious organizations and see or experience something they don’t like decide that they have gotten involved in a cult and get out of dodge. Others have had legitimate run-ins with cults, and the rest of us just want to make sure that it doesn’t’ happen to us.

Let’s first look at what it means to be involved with a cult. One basic definition of a cult is ‘a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies’. A more specific definition of a cult is ‘a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader’, which is what most people think of when images of Jim Jones and the like come to mind.

Religion is a powerful and important part of most societies and a way in which individuals choose to express their spirituality. Many people, men and women alike who are affiliated with a religious organization and attend church or any other type of religious meeting on a regular basis are said to experience better health, stronger familial ties and an overall feeling of happiness and optimism than those who choose to go it alone.

Then, there’s that gray area. Let’s say you have found a small church that you like, and you start going regularly. Some appointed leaders interact with you on a variety of life situations, and once you’ve decided that you trust them enough with your biggest life issues, you tell them your deepest secrets and/or entrust them with your financial situation or anything other challenges. Several things can happen. That appointed leadership can advise you, make recommendations, and trust that you have been instilled with the wisdom and spiritual food to find a meaningful solution. Or, you might receive some specific advice, and you may not always like what you hear, but you take what you can use and discard the rest but the relationship with you and leadership remains intact and respectful. Unfortunately, the scenario that many people have run into is the one where they have made themselves vulnerable in every way to religious leadership, and find themselves used and betrayed.

What does that abuse and betrayal look like? Let me give you an example. If I am your religious leader and I call you into my office for a meeting in which I tell you that I don’t think you really believe in God enough and that you have to do certain things to prove to me that you do have enough faith, then you might be looking at the beginnings of a cult. Here’s another example – let’s say that your religious organization is consistently pressuring you to give of your time and resources at the neglect of your family, job, finances, etc. – and threatens to dismiss you or alienate you from the congregation or body of worship, then you might want to get away from that cult.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say from my experiences that a religious experience should be one that helps you grow closer to God, and not one that requires that you debase yourself before another human being. True spirituality comes from a loving and charitable heart, and a demonstrated lack of judgment of others. Be wise in your dealings with others and strive for balance in your spiritual and natural life. Listen to your instincts and know yourself and no one can pull the wool over your eyes.

Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review

Online Education and Your Career

Online Education and Your Career

I recall being in college and wishing at times that I didn’t have to make that trek across campus just to sit in a lecture that I wasn’t going to listen to. Now don’t get me wrong, I generally listened when I attended class, about 90% of the time. As a matter of fact, that was how I did well – if I wasn’t interested in the subject in class, I wasn’t likely to do that well in the course overall. The professor generally had my attention or he/she didn’t.

Students are very fortunate these days with the introduction of online education into our learning system. Most schools and universities still require that students attend class regularly, but just think of how convenient and easy life has become for the majority of students who can retrieve lecture notes and discussions from professors and fellow students? The combination of formal classroom settings and online tools and resources can be an unbeatable forum for learning.

Consider the power of online education for those who work full-time or are otherwise unable to attend a formal classroom setting. Many people have achieved master’s degrees and brushed up on much-needed skills through online courses and programs. Yet another component of online education relies on podcasts. Podcasts have emerged as a way to introduce a specific audience to a career path or an inside look into a chosen discipline or career. Capella university, an accredited online university with more than 19,000 students, is providing ongoing education with their ‘Inside Online Education’ series. If you’ve ever wondered if online education is for you, or if real people actually succeed in life with it, their podcast series can help answer some of your most pressing questions. With people working in their actual career or field talking about their daily experiences and the benefits they have derived from online education, everyone is sure to benefit from this offering. What is most amazing is that someone like Carla Chladek, who is Program manager for the Joint Staff Training Program at the Pentagon, is lending her insights to thousands of listeners who may otherwise never hear what she has to say about her experiences in pursuing a master’s degree in education at Capella University.

Podcasting as a viable component of online education will continue to gain prominence as schools such as Capella University continue to find creative ways to educate people form all walks of life.


Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
Producer
North Bay Media Review