Month: July 2013 (Page 1 of 2)
When you know something, say what you know.
When you don’t know something, say you don’t know.
That is Knowledge. (Confucius).
Image source: http://goo.gl/o2akx
In twenty chapters this free e-book, downloadable at bookboon.com reveals the foundamentals of good presenting practice. It highlights the major guidelines followed by successful persenters.
Using sets of top tips and ideas, lists of things to do and examples it shows you the simple things that you can do to get the most from your next presentation.
image source http://goo.gl/AwCYA
Cyberspace is inherently insecure. Achieving acceptable information security requires building awareness of what it takes to achieve it, mitigating vulnerabilities in people, processes and technologies and constant adaptation to a rapidly changing environment.
Ed Gelbstein’s ‘Information security for non-technical managers’, downloadable for free at Bookboon.com, provides a concise overview and some useful suggestions covering the information security “problem”.
Bookboon provides a collection of valuable free ebooks for professionals.
All leaders are learners.
The moment you stop learning, you stop leading.
I learn as much as I can, from as many as I can, as often as I can. Rick Warren
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Sometimes we have a hard time telling others “No.” Unfortunately, leaving it unsaid can become very costly for you. You lose time to do the things you really want, or need, to do. And you may even feel resentful towards the other person and yourself.
Telling others that you can’t acquiesce to their every request doesn’t have to be difficult.
Martina McGowan in the article “Saying ‘No’ in 6 steps” published on her blog Martina’s story provides us a few ideas you can put into use:
- Explain
- Delay
- Consider it
- Know what you want and need
- Suggest an alternative
- But…
Read full article on: http://martinamcgowan.com/2012/11/no-6-easy-steps/
Image source: http://martinamcgowan.com/2012/11/no-6-easy-steps/
Project managers spend most of their time managing tasks and resources on projects. This is all true whether the project is being handled remotely or if your team is sitting in the same room with you. It is just that the skills needed to effectively manage tend to skew more heavily on effective communication and the remote aspect can invite some challenges that don’t necessarily exist in the co-location project environment.
To manage a virtual team, it should be given more attention to six key strategies:
1) Hold meetings regularly, not sporadically
Keep every meeting. It can be very tempting to skip what might seem like a meaningless meeting. Even if there is nothing new to report, it is still important to have those touch points with your team to keep them fully focused and engaged. Even if your team status call is only 5 minutes long – you still need to have it.
2) Streamline communications
Consolidate and prioritize communications using email, texting, blogging and staying in touch and being personal. Communications of an important nature should be cohesive and never delivered in fragmentary pieces that have to be pieced together by the receiver. Mutually assess the communication preferences of yourself and your team members to develop a communication plan.
3) Be a good listener
When you are out of easy reach and you are tasked with managing the performance of others it is easy to get into the trap of needing to transmit lots of information. Do not forget the listening part and always be sure to keep an open mind. Be present and try to enter the perspective of those speaking to you. This will help you ask effective questions and identify what direction to go with your own needs and agenda. You might be very pleasantly surprised at how much more information you get from your team this way.
4) Manage deliverables, not activities
In the virtual project world, it is difficult to stay focused – and keep your team focused – on the project deliverables. Do not get too bogged down in managing the minute details because the distance you have between you and those that are performing those activities make that type of micro managing even more difficult. Focus on the higher-level tasks and the overall deliverables and expect your team to perform.
5) Know your team members and manage accordingly
Every employee is different. Mobile workers make it easier for managers to take a more personalized approach in how they work and interact with members of their team. Understanding what enables each employee to perform at his or her best is the most important responsibility of a manager.
6) Leverage technology
Today, the list available tools is endless, choose what suits best for your team and project. Choose a solid tool – like a web-based PM scheduling, status and document sharing tool for teams as an example – and ensure that your project team know how to use it. Putting a web-based solution in the hands of the project team can definitely make project manager’s job easier as task progress update responsibility can be delegated to those actually doing the work.
Read more on: http://bit.ly/PSelYs
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Geoff Smart, a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), in his new book “Leadocracy” explains that there are many leaders without a good training and a private sector- experience, so he provides them some advices to improve their skills: the three “A”
Analyzing;
Allocating;
Aligning.
Are the most important actions that all leaders should keep in mind.
Read full article at http://ldrlb.co/2012/09/3-things-leaders-do/
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A good leader must be a persuasive motivator and a good story can be a powerful leadership tool.
Well told stories can be used by leaders to inspire and motivate their people. According to Annette Simmons, author of “Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins” there are six types of stories that can be used at work:
- “Who I am” Stories, to give a powerful insight into what really motivates you
- “Why I’m Here” Stories, to replace suspicion with trust
- “Teaching Stories”, to make a lesson clear
- “Vision Stories”, to stimulate action and raise morale
- “Values in Action” Stories, to define what certain values mean to you
- “I Know What You’re Thinking” Stories, to show respect for the other point of view while convincing your listener that you’re right.
Whatever story you tell, just keep in mind the following tips:
- Be authentic
- Pay attention to your audience
- Practice
- Create an experience
To learn more: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/BusinessStoryTelling.htm
Image source: Infinityconcepts.net
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