Leadership Tip: Choose the Right Form of Communication.

Should you write, email, text, IM, Facebook message, call, or go in person?  It all depends.  Who are you trying to reach?  How well do you know them?  How urgent is it?  What have you tried so far?  What is that person's preferred mode of communication?

Email is great - except when it isn't.  One of the regular complaints I get from beginning leaders is that they tried to gather a meeting or to recruit volunteers, but no one responded to their emails.  Some people are great email responders, and some just read everything and reply to almost nothing - especially if a reply requires thought or commitment.
One way to increase the effectiveness of an email is to combine it with a text message.  This reminds people to check their email.  (Some just don't check very often.)  Also, it is a small flag noting the urgency of the issue.  However, if the reply can be done with a text message, you might consider skipping the email altogether.    One nice thing about text messages is that people can still receive them while in meetings when they can't answer the phone.  Also, they can save them up and respond to you later when they are on a break.
Another option for email is to start with a mass email to get the easy responders.  Then, move to text message to get the next set of responses.  Finally, close out the slow responders with direct phone calls.

For people in your email contact list, a five minute Instant Message conversation with Google Chat or something similar can be the most effective way to touch base with a short Q and A session.  This avoids the annoying relay of emails with one short question after another.

Korea Tip 128: Filing US Taxes

This is a guest post by David Reed.  (Thanks David!)

Taxes can be daunting, but luckily in this day and age there are several outlets for getting assistance.  Before we get started I have to tell you first and foremost, I am NOT a tax professional.  The information included in this post should not be taken as authoritative or all-inclusive.  If you have questions about your taxes or are unsure in any way contact a tax professional.  For this post I will be using the IRS information posted here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf  All page numbers listed are from this document.

Now that the legal bit is out of the way lets get to work.  I am going to assume you have filed your taxes before in the States and understand the general process.  I will assume you know how to fill out a general 1040 or 1040EZ form using an online program (Like Turbotax) before and don’t need a step by step walk through.  The purpose of this post is to take you through the Expatriate process which is just a couple of extra steps.

First, the federal government states that there are only five different programs that they approve for doing your taxes online.  However, they don’t tell you which programs these are.  I have found two of these: Turbotax and Taxact.  I have used Turbotax in the past and found it very simple and intuitive but it costs $30 to file your state taxes.  This year I used Taxact and although it only costs about $15 to file your state taxes, it isn’t quite as intuitive as Turbotax. 

Korea Tip 119: Gmarket

Gmarket is Korea's Amazon.  Actually, it's owned by Ebay, but it's not an auction-based site. 
It has a pretty good English translation of it's website.  There's even a button for product to use google to translate product descriptions.  This translation is spotty, but the parts that are absolutely necessary for transactions are easy to understand and easy to use.
We recently purchased diapers and printer ink cartridges at about a 40% discount over local store prices.  Also, for many items, especially things over 30,000 won, shipping is free.  Our products were delivered in 2-3 days. 
If you need help directing the delivery man to your address, just have it shipped to your work place and give the Korean secretary's phone number.  Or, if you live in an apartment complex, the delivery guy (Konglish: tech bay) can drop it off at the security office and you can pick it up later.
Another helpful tip for purchasing over the internet: you don't have to pay by credit card.  You can just click the button that says something like: "bank transfer."  Then follow the instructions on the site and make the transfer at an ATM.
Happy discount shopping!