A lot of readers and clients have been asking me what are my favorite and most influential sites I visit. The one that get me excited about work and life.

I do read a lot on the web during my off hours and find there are certain key sites who do a great job to help me stay up on business issues and personal interests. In no special order:

Popurls

My first stop. This is an aggregator site which brings together many other aggregator sites like Reedit, Digg, Metafilter, Delicious, etc. It delivers the best of the best. Be careful, you can spend HOURS here. (Link)

Wall Street Journal

My business info standby. I can whip through this paper pretty quickly – I don’t get caught up in the opinion – I focus on the facts. Who’s up, who’s down, who’s doing something new – it’s all here (I get this delivered in paper form daily). (Link)

The Economist

Deep, deep analysis of the world from an international viewpoint (I also get this in print form too). (Link)

Cool Tools

My favorite gadget site by Kevin Kelly. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. (Link)

Twitter

I follow a number of key influencers – Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble, Ivan Misner, Tom Peters, Alyssa Milano (no kidding – she’s great), Michael Hyatt, Soraya Darabi, and Brian Soils. It’s immediate, recent and I can pop in, read, and pop out pretty quickly. It bugs me when people complain about Twitter (I don’t have the time!) — it’s a tool — use it as a tool, not a TV show.  (Link)

Lifehacker

A great site delivering tips and downloads for getting life and business things done. Unfortunately, they just went through a horrible redesign making their site virtually unusable (owned by Gawker Media – all of their sites have the same architecture and navigation now – I hate it). Still great info. (Link)

Copyblogger & Problogger

Read both of these and you’re writing will most certainly improve. Brian & Darren bring lots of great ideas, innovative topics and powerful info — stuff I would never think about on my own. (Link) & (Link)

Seth’s Blog

The great Seth Godin — he’s a god. Nuff said. (Link)

TED

If you haven’t visited here – you have been missing the best of the web. TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading. All of their speakers and videos are online — I link to them often. (Link)

Inc. & Entrepreneur

Two great magazines who have all of their articles online. Great for the practicing or budding entrepreneur in all of us. (Link) & (Link)

Image provided by OakleyOriginals at Flickr.

Sue Shellenbarger from the Wall Street Journal called me a few weeks ago.

She asked me about what key Time Management tools that I might know of. Over a number of phone calls we discussed the basic philosophy of time management, some key tools that my clients use (GTD, Pomodoro, FranklinCovey), and even introduced her to an incredible coach that wrote a book on time management — Keith Rosen.

In the end, Sue hit another one out of the park with this piece. Check it out!

Dipchand “Deep” Nishar, vice president of products at networking site LinkedIn Corp., doesn’t view online networking as something you do only when looking for a job.

By Jennifer Saranow at WSJ.

The 40-year-old spends about 15 minutes every morning reading his business contacts’ status updates and responding. To keep up his connections, he sends congratulatory notes to those who have received promotions, restaurant recommendations to those who have moved, contact suggestions to those who have changed jobs, and article links to those he thinks might be interested.

About two to three times a month, he reads his social connections’ status and news updates and sends them similar kind or helpful notes. He also posts his own status updates weekly, sharing what he’s reading or a personal project he’s working on — sticking to topics he thinks his networks would be interested in.

Keeping in touch in this way, Mr. Nishar says, helped him get his current job: His connections recommended him for the post before he even knew about it. “Your network is most valuable when you don’t need it,” he says.

To get the most out of his networks, Mr. Nishar is picky about whom he lets in and ignores invitations that don’t make the cut. He restricts his LinkedIn network to professional contacts he knows well and would want to do business with. (Those he’s just met once or twice wouldn’t make the cut.)

He limits his Facebook network to friends and social acquaintances. (Very few present or past coworkers can be found there.) All this eliminates the need to delete contacts down the road. “I try to keep my network unpolluted so I don’t have to sift through it later,” Mr. Nishar says.

Mr. Nishar uses Facebook to stay up-to-date on the lives of those who want to share their videos and photos there — but he doesn’t include himself in that category. Seeking a greater degree of privacy, he posts his family photos and videos to Picasa and YouTube but makes them available only to those he invites to view them. With close friends, he keeps in touch by phone.

Read more great career-oriented articles by Jennifer here.

Web 2.0 is no longer just for teenagers.

Social networking has clearly reached a tipping point. Sites like MySpace and Facebook boast hundreds of millions of members. Barack Obama’s presidential victory demonstrated that platforms like YouTube and Twitter could transform electoral politics. Yet in corporations where such tools have been expected to bring profound transformations, there has been strong resistance to change.

Many corporate executives either dismiss social networking as a time-wasting distraction or regard it as a risk management problem. Much of their fear has focused on potential risks like security breaches and data privacy.

Web 2.0 evangelists, on the other hand, argue that social software can be used to boost productivity. They say it can facilitate an open-ended corporate culture that values transparency, collaboration and innovation. Most important, it can be an effective way to build a customer-centric organization that not only communicates authentically but also listens to customers and learns from that interaction.

In the current stormy economy, as companies look for new ways to market their products and engage their customers, chief executive officers are finally looking more and more at how social networking tools can extend their brands, create corporate cultures based on listening and learning, and establish their own leadership profiles.

Nonetheless, big brands, generally speaking, haven’t successfully tapped the potential of social media; they tend to regard Web 2.0 platforms as just another way to push out short-term marketing campaigns. They fail to grasp that the new media require new ways of doing business. Old ways need to be tossed out.

One highly successful example of Web 2.0 branding is Blendtec’s YouTube video campaign “Will It Blend?” The video series features Blendtec’s CEO, Tom Dickson, comically attempting to blend all manner of objects in one of his company’s appliances. Thanks to the series’ viral effects, the company’s blender sales have quintupled.

The Blendtec videos cost virtually nothing to produce and distribute, but it is doubtful that TV commercials costing many times more would have produced the same results. That may explain why publicity-conscious CEOs are finally breaking away from the old mass-media approach of a Donald Trump or a Richard Branson to increasingly use videos and podcasts to extend their personal brands.

Most CEOs, let’s face it, are cut off from their most important constituencies, including employees and customers. Their press conferences are carefully stage managed, their annual meetings over-rehearsed, and in both cases the goal is usually to reveal as little as possible. Web tools like blogs can help corporate leaders enhance their credibility by communicating directly and having authentic conversations with key stakeholders.

Companies can use blogs to engage directly with customers too. IBM has a blog network that allows employees to write about their work experiences and so puts a human face on the company, associating real people with its products.

Meanwhile, online retailer Zappos uses the microblogging platform Twitter to connect employees and customers in a friendly, personal way that has proved highly effective. Attwitter.zappos.com, the company aggregates employee “tweets” on a single stream under the heading “Powered bytwitter, Zappos.com, clothing and you.”

Even Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, sends “tweets,” and he has thousands of followers on both Twitter and his blog. Zappos counts more than 10,000 fans on its Facebook page too. The company has made social media platforms and the values they foster part of its corporate culture. In early 2009, Fortuneranked Zappos 23rd in its annual list of the 100 best companies to work for.

Corporate leaders can use Web 2.0 tools not only to communicate but also to learn from employees, suppliers, customers and the public. Many corporations spend large sums trying to find out what people think of them. Plugging into the blogosphere or listening to feedback on Twitter offers a more effective and cost-efficient way of learning how to approach customer relations.

Starbucks is a consumer-focused company that learns directly from customers on feedback sites like My Starbucks Idea and its @Starbucks address on Twitter. These platforms let the company learn directly what customers are saying about its service and products. The key is that Starbucks integrates the feedback into how it operates. Popular suggestions are featured and reviewed, and an Ideas in Action blog tracks the company’s follow-up.

Even cable TV companies, long detested as insensitive monopolies, have discovered Web 2.0. Comcast has a @comcastcares Twitter address that gives customers a spontaneous platform for communicating with the company.

A CEO can use Web 2.0 tools not only to communicate and learn, but also to instigate action and become a more effective leader. Tools like blogs and podcasts put a top executive in more direct contact with employees, cutting through multiple layers of middle managers, who can be motivated by their own agendas to frustrate direct communication. A persuasive CEO can use Web 2.0 tools to boost morale, foster creativity and enhance the values of open collaboration.

CEOs can use Web 2.0 tools to make themselves known as intellectual leaders not only among their employees and customers but also with the media and the public. Public relations people often get nervous when CEOs wants to connect directly, but a CEO who blogs intelligently can enhance his personal brand as an intangible corporate asset.

Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, has led by example, integrating blogging into his leadership life. He spelled out this vision in a 2005 opinion piece in the Harvard Business Review titled “If You Want to Lead, Blog.” He wrote: “For executives, having a blog is not going to be a matter of choice, any more than using e-mail is today. If you’re not part of the conversation, others will speak on your behalf–and I’m not talking about your employees.”

Schwartz encourages his employees to blog as well. Some 3,000 of them–10% of the company’s payroll–do.

Is there any peril in Web 2.0 for CEOs? Yes, there are dangers that corporate leaders must work to avoid, such as confidentiality breaches if financial matters are disclosed, harm to a company’s reputation caused by blogging employees and negative blowback from the blogosphere.

The budget airline Ryanair learned this the hard way in February when one of its employees referred an outside blogger who thought he had found a bug in the airline’s Web site as an “idiot,” a “lunatic” and “pathetic.” Not a smart move. The blogosphere mob swarmed swiftly and mercilessly, and the Ryanair brand suffered.

Another textbook case of what not to do was supplied by Whole Foods President John Mackey. He paid a heavy price in reputation–both his and his company’s–when he blogged with a phony identity to trash a competing food retailer, Wild Oats.

It turned out that Whole Foods was in fact attempting a takeover of Wild Oats. Mackey put up an unequivocally self-interested blog post on a Yahoo! stock forum: “Would Whole Foods buy Wild Oats? Almost surely not at current prices.” The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into his conduct. The Wall Street Journal published an editorial castigating him. The controversy stained Whole Foods’ brand image.

The key message for corporate leaders seeking to harness the benefits of Web 2.0 is that simply deploying the software is not enough. The challenge is to ensure that the company’s corporate culture is infused with values of openness and transparency. Of course, at many corporations that’s easier said than done.

As the management guru Gary Hamel observes, “While the Web was founded on the principle of openness, the most honored virtue among senior executives seems to be control. Most companies have elaborate programs for top-down communication, including newsletters, CEO blogs, Webcasts and broadcast e-mails. Yet few, if any, companies have opened the floodgates to grassroots opinion on critical issues.”

These are tough challenges. But Web 2.0 is finally gaining momentum in corporations, with an urgency increased by the current economic climate. It’s now reasonable to predict that following the Web 2.0 revolutions in personal interactions and politics, a corporate Web 2.0 tipping point is on the horizon.

Matthew Fraser is senior research fellow and Soumitra Dutta is Roland Berger chaired professor of business and technology at the INSEAD business school in France. Their book,Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Change Your Life, Work and World, is published by Wiley. The book’s Web site is at www.throwingsheep.com.

By Phred Dvorak at the WSJ.

Experience can work against you. That’s what Rohit Girdhar found in 2004, when he took a test of his skills as a project manager.

Mr. Girdhar had spent eight years managing software programmers at General Electric Co. and product developers at Teradyne Inc. He says he thought the computer simulation would be a “piece of cake.” Instead, Mr. Girdhar’s project fell behind schedule and racked up errors — largely because productivity declined when he added workers to meet an increased work load, as he had done in his prior jobs.

Mr. Girdhar, now director of corporate development in Asia for German semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies AG, says he is more careful these days before adding people to a project, and tries to question assumptions before making decisions.

The test Mr. Girdhar took is a sign of renewed skepticism among management researchers about the value of experience. Kishore Sengupta, an associate professor at France’s Insead business school who designed the simulation, says users with 10 or more years of project-management experience collectively generated higher costs and more errors and missed more deadlines than less-experienced colleagues. “The more experience we have, the more overconfident we get,” Mr. Sengupta says.

Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, started looking into experience 25 years ago, when considering why some companies failed at long-range strategy. After studying businesses like Encyclopedia Britannica and Sears, Roebuck & Co., he concluded that some managers are so set in past ways that they can’t cope with new situations.

Sears had built its success on department stores in urban areas, and missed the threat from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s discount outlets outside big cities, says Mr. Govindarajan. Encyclopedia Britannica long succeeded by deploying aggressive sales people to peddle $1,000-plus sets door to door, but didn’t quickly confront the challenge of cheaper digital reference sets, like Microsoft Corp.’s Encarta on CDs. That caused profits and market share to plunge in the 1990s.

Companies “overestimate the value of experience,” says Mr. Govindarajan. “Experience becomes a liability in times of change.”

Mr. Sengupta says managers don’t always learn the right lessons from their experiences, particularly when they involve complex projects. It’s hard to judge cause and effect properly when there’s a long time lag between an action — hiring a worker, for instance — and a result such as more output. Other conditions vary, further muddying the picture. Mr. Sengupta says managers typically don’t change course easily, sticking with old habits and goals, even when situations change.

Paul Ritchie, head of global project management for customer services at German software maker SAP AG, says he has seen such problems. In the 1990s, SAP’s project managers typically helped clients install big software programs to control major portions of operations, such as billing, personnel and inventory. Each installation could take more than a year; the project manager had to devise the best way to get the work done, says Mr. Ritchie.

Now, SAP offers smaller, more specialized software that can be installed in a few months — the time it previously took just to plan a bigger project. Managers who previously focused on how to get work done now must worry about what software to install, and when.

That requires greater familiarity with clients’ businesses and a more flexible mind-set, says Mr. Ritchie. Project managers also must deal with new types of customers, work faster and draw on the experience of others. Mr. Ritchie says some veteran managers struggle with these tasks.

For instance, some project managers used to require clients to submit formal “change orders” to tweak software, he says. That made sense for a big payment system. Now, clients may want to change the way sales data is presented on a marketing report; SAP managers must respond more nimbly.

To help project managers break old habits and learn new skills, SAP last year started using its own computer simulations. One exercise asks managers to help new employees adjust after an acquisition. “It lets [managers] think differently about their projects,” says Mr. Ritchie.

Alan Over, a managing consultant at U.K.-based PA Consulting Group who participated in Mr. Sengupta’s simulation, says he now questions his assumptions more. He seeks fresh perspectives from colleagues managing other projects.

In one recent project, Mr. Over was helping a U.K. government agency overhaul its supplier-management process. He started by managing forcefully, which had proved successful on an earlier project.

Then a colleague noted that the government project was expected to run much longer than the previous one, and questioned how agency employees would adapt to a top-heavy management style. Mr. Over says he changed his style to allow employees more autonomy.

“I try to force myself to be nervous,” he says. “Whenever I find myself falling back on what I did last time, or think I’m doing well, I try to unsettle myself.”

Q: What are some of your favorite job sites?

A: Rich Gee, an executive coach in Stamford, Conn., recommends Execunet.com. “It’s a serious job site,” he says. “You cut right through the noise and get to the actual job.”

Q: Execunet charges a fee to respond to its help-wanted ads. So do TheLadders and some other job boards. Are they worth paying for?

A: ”It’s not a lot of money for what you get in return, which is a great filter to get to serious jobs,” says Mr. Gee.

You can see the whole piece here.