Tag Archives: Leadership

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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.

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5 habits of people who are especially productive working from home

Before many office workers transitioned to remote arrangements, the thought of working from home sounded like a dream. Who doesn’t love the idea of ditching the commute and staying in your sweats? But those of us who have been working from home for years know the reality, and it isn’t always as stress-free as it sounds.  Loneliness, isolation, distractions, and Zoom fatigue are real, and they are challenges to overcome…

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

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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.

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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.

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5 habits of people who are especially productive working from home

Effective remote work involves these five habits, which prevent feelings of burnout and isolation. Before many office workers transitioned to remote arrangements, the thought of working from home sounded like a dream. Who doesn’t love the idea of ditching the commute and staying in your sweats? But those of us who have been working from home for years know the reality, and it isn’t always as stress-free as it sounds. Loneliness, isolation, distractions, and Zoom fatigue are real, and they are challenges to overcome…

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 workplaces?
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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.

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Time Blocking: How to Get The Most Out of Your Schedule

Some of the most productive people in the world swear by a technique called time blocking.  Ever heard of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Cal Newport? Yep – all time-blockers. And they’re not doing it because they like coloring in their bullet journals. They’re squeezing every drop of productivity from their days. It’s simple and it works. And I’m going to show you how. So, let’s see if this sounds familiar: You have too many things to do, and the list never gets smaller. …

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

Do you Time Block?

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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?

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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?

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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!

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3 things you shouldn’t do before a Zoom meeting + 3 you should

Zoom meetings can in themselves bring new stresses that you have to navigate.  I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Don’t do what I did! I’ve distilled the past few weeks of Zoom experience into three simple dos and don’t. #1: Do check your internet connection…

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

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Why You Make Terrible Life Choices

Everyone struggles with dwindling or misplaced motivation from time to time, and I’m no exception. Thankfully, I’ve learned to overcome my penchant for procrastination: getting what I want done, even when I don’t feel like it. Learning the difference between the two kinds of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic, made all the difference. …

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

What motivates you?
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Spear-phishing campaign compromises executives at 150+ companies

A cybercrime group operating since mid-2019 has breached the email accounts of high-ranking executives at more than 150 companies, cyber-security firm Group-IB reported today.  The group, codenamed PerSwaysion, appears to have targeted the financial sector primarily, which accounted for more than half of its victims; although, victims have been recorded at companies active across other verticals as well.  PerSwaysion operations were not sophisticated …

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

Are you prepared for these attacks?
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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.

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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?
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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?
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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

 

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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.

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MIT’s 2020 – Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies

MIT’s  annual list of technological advances that they believe will make a real difference in solving important problems. They include: Unhackable internet, Hyper-personalized medicine, Digital money, Anti-aging drugs, AI-discovered molecules, Satellite mega-constellations, Quantum supremacy, Tiny AI, Differential privacy…

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

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Use This Simple Business Tool to Make Good Decisions Faster

It’s tempting with a long task list to spread yourself too thin. You can stay busy all day and still find you have not much progress to show for it by the end of the night. Now apply the 80/20 rule to your to-do list. …

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

Will this help you make better decisions?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Can’t Kick a Bad Habit? You’re Probably Doing It Wrong

I had just finished giving a speech on building habits when a woman in the audience exclaimed, “You teach how to create habits, but that’s not my problem. I’m fat!” The frustration in her voice echoed throughout the room. “My problem is stopping bad habits. That’s why I’m fat. Where does that leave me?” … The first step is to realize that starting a new routine is very different from breaking an existing habit. …

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

What have you done to overcome bad habits?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Leadership: Wars Are Not Won by Military Genius or Decisive Battles

Losers of most major wars in modern history lost because they overestimated operational dexterity and failed to overcome the enemy’s strategic depth and capacity for endurance. Winners absorbed defeat after defeat yet kept fighting, overcoming initial surprise, terrible setbacks and the dash and daring of command ‘genius’.

Aeon.co click the link to read the rest of the story.  Get our free tools here.

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What Happens When You Stop Talking About Yourself in Conversations

The temptation to always talk about ourselves is a new tradition like Black Friday without the cheap sales. It’s hurting our conversations and over-inflating our egos. Experiment: I tried to go two days without talking about myself in every conversation to see what would happen. Would it make a difference? Would people notice? What would it do to relationships? This is what happens when you stop talking about yourself.

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

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Why procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

Procrastination is an issue with managing our emotions, not our time. The task we’re putting off is making us feel bad – perhaps it’s boring, too difficult or we’re worried about failing – and to make ourselves feel better in the moment, we start doing something else…

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

What are you procrastinating about?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Get More Done In 2 Days Than Most People Do In 2 Weeks

We all deal with countless deadlines every week, even though we dread them. They are the chronological equivalent of a budget. By setting aside a portion of your time to complete a task in advance, you avoid over-spending time.  Deadlines make you take action. …

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

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