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March 19, 2018 0 Comments

4 Resources for Remote Teams

Successfully managing remote teams is becoming more necessary as telecommute jobs are more widely available.  There are countless tools and options to make this possible, and we’ve narrowed down some of our favorite options.

Whether you’re looking to track time, communicate with your team, or send professional invoices and billing notes, we have something for you!

Slack

Slack is a great communication and messaging tool that keeps everything in one place.  According to Creative Boom, with Slack you can “hold conversations that are open to others or private; organize and prioritize conversations based on topic or project; share files; connect up your favorite tools; search the archives later” and more.

It also integrates with several other productivity products and allows your workflow process to be more streamlined.

Google Drive

Google Drive offers everything you need to communicate! You can create documents via Google Docs, spreadsheets via Google Sheets, forms via Google Forms, slideshows through Google Slides, and so on.  It also automatically saves and updates, so you can make changes in real time with your team.

You can search for and share files, create folders, and generally work together on projects as they’re happening.  Google Drive offers “online storage, so you can keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos – anything,” according to their website.

The first 15GB of storage is free, then goes to $1.99 per month for 100GB.

Moon Invoice

Moon Invoice is a simple billing and invoice tool that lets you complete tasks such as businesses accounting, estimates, purchases, payment reminders, and so on.

According to their site, “Not only you could add and manage multiple business but you can also create unlimited invoices.  Irrespective of the nature of business, whether you are trying to simplify the complex business model and process, maintain databases, remove errors and simultaneously increase the efficiency online invoicing, Moon Invoice lets you do it all effortlessly.”

Moon Invoice offers a free trial and then costs $14.99 to purchase with unlimited invoices.

For Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/moon-invoice/9wzdncrdchr8

For Mac: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moon-invoice-easy-invoicing/id1109397812?mt=12

Basecamp

Basecamp is a great tool for teams, and it comes with many features.  It’s a great project and client management tool that offers messaging, to-do lists, schedules, file storage, document storage, chat, and more.  You can share information with your team and/or your clients, and it keeps everything in one convenient location.

You can also sync it with Google Docs, so if you want to take notes in a separate location, it can all be stored in Basecamp in the end.

If you’re looking for more tools with helpful descriptions, check out this comprehensive list from Creative Boom.

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August 28, 2017 0 Comments

4 Top Qualities of the Best Managers

Being a good manager is more than simply showing up and giving orders.  In today’s world, it’s important to develop an array of qualities that bring out the best in your employees.

According to a study by Dale Carnegie Training, “29% of the workforce is engaged, 45% are not engaged, and 26% are actively disengaged.”  These are alarming numbers, and much of employee engagement deals directly to the employee’s immediate supervisor and manager.

Read along for some of the top attributes in being a successful manager with engaged employees.

Empathy

Empathy is fast becoming the number one trait of managers! When we express empathy, we’re relating to the feelings of others.  As a manager, being empathetic will allow you to interact on a more personal, effective level.

When your employees sense that you care about them, their current situation, their workload, and so on, they’re much more likely to come to you before things get bad.  This allows you to increase employee retention and put out those fires before they get too big.

Present

It’s a tough thing to be present in today’s technological world! As a manager, your presence is not only appreciated – it’s necessary.  When you’re present and communicative with your employees, they feel that the matter, and they’re more likely to stay in contact on a consistent basis.  When you have work from home employees, this is especially a bonus!

According to OfficeVibe.com, 69% of managers are uncomfortable communicating with employees.  When we’re uncomfortable, we tend to stop communicating and leave things in a confusing state.  Once you’re disengaged and uncommunicative, employees begin to question motives and lose morale.

Trustworthy

As a manager, your actions are always on display.  You become the example for your employees, so “Do as I say, not as I do” will not work! This does not inspire confidence in your employees.  Your actions and words must match, which is the hallmark of a trustworthy person.

When your employees trust you, it gives them the confidence that you’re capable of leading them.  Like it or not, employees want some reassurance in their work and the direction of the business.

Another way to establish trust is by being direct.  It’s important to be empathetic, as we’ve stated before, but to keep employees trusting that you’re looking out for their best interest, keep things simple.  From your requests to your meetings, keep to the point as much as possible.

Driven

It’s hard to expect your employees to work hard and feel fulfilled in their job if you don’t.  We all ebb and flow in our job satisfaction, but as a manager, you need to work to ensure that you stay positive – or make a change.

Stay driven in your business purpose and work to drive everyone else and keep morale high. If you’re miserable, how will your employees act?  Your drive will show in your daily work and communications, so do all that you can to remember why you started this business, and why you enjoy doing what you do.

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