Category Archives: Management Tips and Tricks

Posted on

Microsoft Teams: Complete Starter Guide for Business Owners

For organizations that are settled into Microsoft’s family of apps and services, the obvious collaboration platform is Microsoft Teams. And the killer feature is that Teams supports a robust API for add-ins.  The more far-flung your organization is, the more your people need software to help them communicate and collaborate.  … Teams integrates a collection of Microsoft 365 online services, making it possible for members of your organization to talk face to face, chat, hold virtual meetings, share files, and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and other projects in real time. The chat capabilities cover the same ground as those found in Slack, while the meeting and video conferencing features compare favorably with those available in Zoom and other video conferencing tools. And the killer feature for Microsoft Teams is that it supports a robust API for add-ins …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Has your business taken a serious look at the entire Teams platform yet?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

When More Information Leads to More Uncertainty

How can I figure out which news sources and leaders to trust?  Every day we are faced with a torrent of information from news articles, cable networks, social media, the White House, the Center for Disease Control – and yet, there are no clear answers.  As humans, we innately find uncertainty to be an aversive state and are motivated to reduce it, even at a cost. …

Harvard Business Review click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How do you deal with uncertainty?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Cybersecurity: Four ways you can keep the hackers away

CIOs are under more pressure than ever before when it comes to cybersecurity concerns, especially now that many or even all of the staff in their organisation are working from home, perhaps using unfamiliar software and hardware as they try to do their jobs on lockdown.  The array of devices and applications that they have to take responsibility for has been rapidly expanded by the coronavirus crisis, and criminals have been keen to exploit any organisations thrown off-balance by the rapidly changing circumstances, which means taking a fresh look at what IT security really means. …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How are you protecting your business?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Harvard Business Review: How To Deal with Collaborative Overload

Collaboration is taking over the workplace. As business becomes increasingly global and cross-functional, silos are breaking down, connectivity is increasing, and teamwork is seen as a key to organizational success. According to data we have collected over the past two decades, the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by 50% or more.  Certainly, we find much to applaud in these developments. However, when consumption of a valuable resource spikes that dramatically, it should also give us pause.  …

Harvard Business Review click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How do you deal with collaboration overload?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Great Leaders Are Thoughtful and Deliberate, Not Impulsive and Reactive

You set aside the first hour of your day to work on a strategy document that you’ve been putting off for a week. You haven’t been disciplined about getting to it, but you’ve had one crisis after another to deal with in the past week. Now, finally, you’ve carved out 90 early morning minutes to work on it.  First, however, you take a quick peek at the email that has piled up in your inbox overnight. Before you know it, you’ve used up the whole 90 minutes responding to emails, even though none of them were truly urgent. By the time you walk into your next meeting, you’re feeling frustrated that you failed to stick by your plan. …

Harvard Business Review click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

What has been your most surprising management lesson learned?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

 

Posted on

How to Make Smarter Decisions in Chaos

How does a business leader strategize in chaos? It’s a question many of us are facing as we currently shelter-in-place and navigate a volatile world economy. … Moving forward, leaders need to both respect the moment and lean into the next business space. In an interview last year, marketing veteran Seth Godin said one’s next best move comes from asking one important question: Do more people trust you and pay attention to you today than six months ago…

Inc.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

Are more people growing to trust you or fewer?

Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Microsoft Teams: Now free version lets you create video meetings

Users of the free version of Teams, the Microsoft 365 online collaboration platform, can now create video meetings.  … The move is likely to be another effort from Microsoft to go to battle with Zoom, the biggest winner in video calling and conferencing since the global coronavirus pandemic shoved the world toward teleworking. …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How will you use Teams now?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Your insurance policy probably doesn’t cover ransomware payments

Long aware they’ve been in hackers’ crosshairs, law firms are currently under attack by a new breed of ransomware and attackers.  However, when law firms are hit with a ransomware attack, some are shocked to find out their insurance policies don’t include coverage for ransomware payments. Indeed, ransomware is a 21st century business threat that older insurance policies weren’t drafted for, observers say.

Law.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Are you certain that your business is properly covered?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

7 Common Mistakes Good Leaders Make That Cause Great People to Leave

Any leader worth his or her salt has a pretty good feel for toxic behaviors to avoid that can lead to an undesired culture at work. And they know feeding such a culture leads people to leave. But not all flight-inducing foibles are created equal. Some are easy to miss and happen despite the best intentions of a leader.  Over a 30-year corporate career, I have seen many good leaders create an unplanned exodus by not addressing or being aware of what follows. Here are the seven most often overlooked traps that cause people to leave…

Inc.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

What was your biggest mistake and what do you do now?

Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

The Key to Real Productivity is Agility

I guess one could define agility as the ability to change direction quickly, but it’s so much more than that. To be agile requires the ability to see not only the direction you are going, but the change you need to make to get there. It reminds me of that experiment that gauged our powers of observation. ….

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How agile is your team?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Home office technology will need to evolve in the new work normal

The new normal for work will be more remote, spur a home office innovation wave, make edge computing more mainstream and require more automation, immersive experiences and robotics. … Our assumptions about what it meant to work from home were wrong collectively. We had this idea that work from home was about work/life balance. You were working or you were doing home stuff. That was what worked from home had to deal with. And what we almost immediately discovered was it wasn’t that simple. In fact, there were at least four different contexts that people had to live in or experience sitting at their desk at home at any given time over the course of the day. …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

What issues have frustrated your employees the most?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

10 Commandments of Modern Marketing – actually 24…

Number One. Thou shalt build revenue FIRST and brand SECOND. Brand matters, but the primary goal must be sales. It’s possible (although not recommended) to sacrifice brand at the alter of sales and still recover. But you cannot sacrifice sales at the all-holy alter of brand and hope to survive. Number Two. Thou shalt write offers…not slogans. Slogans might win awards, but they don’t make sales. Great marketing inspires ACTION! It does not merely inform or entertain. (Also, there’s a special place in marketing hell for advertisers and marketers who stack up awards for their “creativity” but who have never owned or influenced a sales number. They would do us all a favor if they stuck to finger painting.) …

LinkedIn.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Which commandments are you violating?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Best password managers for business in 2020

Everyone needs a password manager. Period, full stop. It’s the only possible way to maintain unique, hard-to-guess credentials for every secure site you, your family members, and your team access daily.  The 15 programs listed in this guide share many core features.  On a Windows PC, a Mac, or a mobile device, you install a stand-alone program or browser extension that does the work of saving sets of credentials in a database whose contents are protected with high-grade, 256-bit encryption. To unlock the password database, you enter a decryption key (your master password) that only you know. …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

What do you like your current password manager?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

 

Posted on

This 3-Minute Exercise Will Change the Way You Solve Problems

Structured thinking is about building a big answer by asking many small questions.  Anyone can improve their structured thinking with practice. The best thing to do is ask yourself pointless questions, ones you can’t easily find the answers to online. Writer Hannah Yang shares a prompt that should take you about three minutes to figure out: How many customers visit your favorite restaurant every year? Here, I’ll give it a shot. I live in Munich. My favorite restaurant is Lemongrass, a Vietnamese place around the corner. ….

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Will practice using this technique? Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Harvard Business Review: Management – Begin with Trust

Trust is also one of the most essential forms of capital a leader has. Building trust, however, often requires thinking about leadership from a new perspective. The traditional leadership narrative is all about you: your vision and strategy; your ability to make the tough calls and rally the troops; your talents, your charisma, your heroic moments of courage and instinct. But leadership really isn’t about you. It’s about empowering other people…

Harvard Business Review click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

What has been your most surprising management lesson learned?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

How to improve communication with coworkers during social distancing

In this era of physical distancing, social cues are limited. Here’s how to maintain—or even improve—relationships with your coworkers during this tough time.  In this era of social distancing, it is hard to get these social cues. Low-bandwidth internet can make it hard to catch the tone of voice or the facial expressions of people you’re talking to.

FastCompany.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

What is the biggest hurdle you have to overcome in our new remote communications?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Microsoft Teams: How to master remote work beyond the basics

Want to make yourself more productive with Microsoft Teams? Use these eight tips to master command-line and keyboard shortcuts, connect to external apps, and make useful content easier to find. …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Have you tried Teams, yet?
Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Ensure Success Using the Top Ten Remote-worker’s Checklist

Now that millions are working from home, the challenges will become clear. Here are 10 to watch out for. …  to help you keep the company ship afloat – while also preserving your sanity.  It is  important to secure enough bandwidth…  it is important that security concerns stay top-of-mind throughout the entire process. A global crisis is a playground for cyber criminals…

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Are you taking care of your top 10 needs?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

How much and when: Check your stimulus payment

The federal government has started making direct deposits to tens of millions of Americans to help people survive financially in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The first payments began showing up for some people on April 11, and millions more were deposited on April 15.  When and how much can you expect to receive? Check the IRS’ new Get My Payment tool. …

ZWRAL.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Have you received funds yet?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Working from home? Stay connected using Microsoft Teams, for free

Microsoft Teams is a collection of online services that you can access through a web browser (at https://teams.microsoft.com) or through the Teams app, which is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android. … That combo of apps and services gives you the ability to invite people to join your organization and create teams for different groups; everyone in your organization can chat, with Slack-like channels within each team for group conversations; and private chat capabilities allow 1:1 and group conversations, with the option to add audio and video and share screens.

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Have you used Teams yet?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

How to Tell If Your Employees are a Cybersecurity Threat

The biggest threat to your business and its data does not come from the outside.  It originates from your own employees. Either through well-meaning ignorance or active malice, they have the potential to put your data at risk to an incredible degree. Here’s how you can tell you’re at risk.  Like it or not, the greatest threat to your data comes from within. …

Technative.io click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How do you protect your office?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Business Loan Forgiven

The SBA’s paycheck protection loan program is “really more of a loan that converts to a grant.” … Small businesses with fewer than 500 employees qualify, as will some larger companies. The program is aimed at helping businesses maintain their payroll during the significant business disruption caused by the coronavirus crisis.  Here’s how the loan forgiveness works:

Inc.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Have you applied yet?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Zoom 101: A starter guide with important tips and tricks

Offices are closing. Travel is restricted. Employers are scrambling to knock together hasty virtual setups and access to corporate networks for workers now required to work from home. … One of Zoom’s key strengths is its simplicity, but this does not mean that the platform is without a variety of advanced features that remote workers will find useful for improving their productivity. …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Do you use Zoom? Is it working for you? Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

The Dos and Don’ts of Online Video Meetings

In the age of coronavirus, many of us have transformed overnight from office workers into telecommuters. And we are increasingly relying on videoconferencing apps like Zoom and FaceTime to correspond with our peers.  But inevitably, with our homes and workplaces merging into one, the boundaries between our personal and professional lives are beginning to erode — and awkward situations have ensued. …

NewYorkTimes .com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

What other do’s and don’t are there?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

New Study Finds: Working from Home Makes Workers More Productive

People no longer want to deal with the frustrations of driving to and from work: In fact, new research shows that one in four employees has quit a job because of a long commute. Many job seekers now rely on the flexibility of remote work to avoid these inconveniences. The real question: How do virtual and in-office workspaces differ? …

Inc.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Are you more productive at home?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page! 

Posted on

Routers hacked to point you to coronavirus-themed malware

For almost a week, a group of hackers has been breaking into people’s routers and changing DNS settings in order to point unsuspecting device users to coronavirus-related sites pushing malware. …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How do you protect your home from these threats?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

How to Be Productive Working from Home (and anywhere else)

As coronavirus continues to spread, many of us are forced to work remotely to help reducing contagion. At first, working from home sounds like the dream: pajamas all day, working from the couch, slacking off… But it can quickly get unproductive if you are not indistractable enough. …

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How do you keep from distraction?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Don’t Let Perfection Be the Enemy of Productivity

Productivity isn’t about getting more done. It’s about what you get done. Three aspects of perfectionism can interfere with your ability to prioritize the most important tasks.  1. You’re reluctant to designate decisions as “unimportant.”

HarvardBusinessReview.com   Click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How do you decide what is truly important?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

 

Posted on

People Who Achieve Their Goals Live By These 7 Habits

So, if this is something you’re looking to improve in yourself, here are 12 simple ways you can start practicing the art of self-discipline:  1. Don’t set a goal without knowing how you’re going to track its progress. …

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

How important is discipline in your life?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

Posted on

Coronavirus: Effective strategies and tools for remote work

Whether or not coronavirus becomes a full outbreak, the trend of working from afar is currently experiencing a major boost as businesses shift to digital channels and more people avoid physical gatherings. Here are key approaches and tools to get the most from remote work. …

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

Do you have an emergency work remote from home plan?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!