Communication among team members is vital for business success. When a team is not communicating well, it will lead to a loss of efficiency and will have other hidden costs. Here are some ways to keep your team cohesive and functioning as a unit.
Frequent Meetings
While many people dread meetings, they are a valuable tool for enhancing communication. CIO says that people are more likely to hone their message when they have to say it in a person’s presence as opposed to online. Employees are more conflict-averse when they are speaking face-to-face, so a meeting is a useful tool to get people working together. Frequent meetings are a means to make sure that people are being heard and have a chance to express their viewpoint. Most people like an audience for their ideas and appreciate the opportunity to share what is on their mind. Also, meetings are a motivating metric to make sure that people are prepared and are doing their work.
Online Project Management
EPMA recommends that every project can have a dedicated site where team members can collaborate, share documents, raise issues, and so on. Online project management provides a centralized depot for your team to communicate with each other. When the information is in one dedicated place, it is easy for the team members to log on and access what they need. Also, this type of online communication means that any idea that is expressed by a team member can be easily seen by everyone, as opposed to having to broach the idea separately to each individual.
Team-Building Events
Having your team get to know each other outside of the work setting can help facilitate their communication on the job. The Bizarro Blog says that when employees have an understanding of who the other employee is as a person, they will be more likely to show them the personal respect that is needed to maintain the proper communication. Scheduling occasional team events outside of the office will help your team learn about each other. Be creative in planning these types of events in order to encourage employees to take the time to join them. Consider scheduling them during work hours to obtain the highest level of attendance.
Teams can communicate well when management sets the right tone. This can be achieved by finding various means to encourage people to not only share their point of view but also do so in a respectful manner.
Someone reads a dating profile or sees an Instagram post, etc and instead of just skipping over it- they feel motivated to be an arbiter of taste and the body police and share with you all the shortcomings they see or don’t like. One of the reasons I agreed to talk about body shaming as a young gay man for the 2018 TEDxProvincetown was to use my voice and my story to draw attention to it my own way.
However, some longtime friends and colleagues who are behind the Building Healthy Online Communities project have been hard at work on a new, anti-rudeness campaign, named “NiceAF,”. They hope that it can help make the world of dating apps — and by extension, the community — a kinder and healthier place for all. They are looking for real people to help make it happen. The first places they plan to tackle are gay/bisexual dating and social apps.
The NiceAF.org campaign is intending to address the harsh reality, that for some, insults can have profound, lasting effects on how someone can feel about themselves and disrupt a persons ability to thrive.
How can you help?
Be willing to record and share a personal story;
Have you dealt with the kind of stigmatizing messages like “no fats, no femmes, no oldies,” “no blacks or asians,” “clean guys only” that are so pervasive online?
Even if you haven’t experienced this kind of painful rejection yourself, you could offer a perspective based on what you’ve seen.
How to do it?
You could choose to make a short video.
Share your real or re-created online dialogue or story.
Once the folks at NiceAF.org begin to receive the video links and stories, they are working with the participating dating apps to encourage their users to go to the NiceAF.org website, look at what others have posted and submit their own videos and stories, as well.
What do you think? Can you help?
Check out the website https://NiceAF.org and click one of the two pink Submit boxes today.
Having remote employees can really benefit a contemporary business. Off-site workers can reduce overhead costs substantially, first and foremost. Working remotely can even assist in bringing teams together, and enhance worker productivity. If you want to do your part to encourage your remote staff members to thrive, despite some of the challenges, Facebook is still worth considering as a social media platform that may be able to help you stay connected. Here are some ways to use it for a range of uses.
Communication
Communication is a central component of working well with a team of remote employees. It can be a hassle to have to deal with nonstop telephone calls. If you want to simplify communication efforts among your remote staff, then the assistance of Facebook can be priceless. Facebook makes it simple for employees to reach each other via messaging. If you’re interested in effective communication practices, Facebook can help you a lot. Facebook also allows for topic-specific groups with assignments of admin and moderator roles. The groups and pages are independent of the host’s personal account which allow for a clear visual rebranding, sharing of images, etc.
Marketing
Marketing is one of Facebook’s strongest suits. If you want your remote staff members to achieve better digital marketing outcomes, then you need to make the most out of Facebook. This social network can assist remote employees who want to spread the word about exciting new products that are on the horizon. It can also help employees who simply want to reach out to customers through messages, such as to answer questions about business hours or restaurant menu adjustments and additions. If your team doesn’t know how to use Facebook for marketing, have them look for tips for getting the best results. They can search for suggestions by paying careful attention to some of your company’s rivals.
Facebook can come in handy for professionals who want to stay ahead of the competition. If you don’t want to fall behind your competitors, you can encourage your remote employees to stay updated on all of their efforts. They can evaluate competitors with regard to their new offerings. Facebook also makes it easy to check on their events, marketing practices, giveaways and more. It makes it simple for businesses to stay in the loop within their fields and industries. Facebook streamlines the process of analyzing others. A bit art of this us learning how to use the extended features of Facebook from “events” to local activities, to the new “recommendations” and “jobs” tools.
Advertising through Facebook is becoming something that’s more and more unavoidable by the day. If you’re trying to find advertising techniques that may benefit your remote staff members, you should look into your options via Facebook. Facebook advertising has been a major force in the digital marketing realm for several years at this point. Businesses of all kinds depend on it as well. It isn’t uncommon for businesses that are part of food service, fashion, technology and health care to rely on Facebook advertising pathways. The coast will very on Facebook from full curated development of campaigns to simply paid post promotion. but you have some targeting available to get a custom fit for who will see the ad.
Facebook can be a terrific motivating factor for professionals who work remotely. If a remote employee needs to get inspiration for a major assignment or project, this social media platform may be able to provide it. You can analyze Facebook any time you’re in the middle of productivity or innovation ruts. If a remote staff member feels stuck, they can head to a Facebook page in order to jog their mind and get their creative juices flowing again.
Mental Breaks
Occasional breaks can do wonders for remote staff members who are exhausted and on the verge of burnout. There is much research showing the importance of taking breaks while at work. There are many delightful ways to pass the time on Facebook. If you want to help your fatigued remote employees, then you can send them Facebook links to make them laugh or grin. There are Facebook pages devoted to various lighthearted topics, like the world of wacky and hilarious animals, or pages of jokes that remote workers in your field can relate to well. If you want to give your remote team members welcome breaks once in a while, turn to the unrivaled strength of Facebook.
Facebook is a well-known social media platform that can give remote employees beneficial insights into human behavioral patterns. This can be invaluable to staff members who need to be in tune with consumer habits. If you want your employees to be able to comprehend the way consumers’ brains operate, then Facebook can be extremely useful. Your team members can check out Facebook pages that encompass all sorts of categories. Facebook profiles can help people who want to delve into consumers’ aims, pastimes, basic lifestyles and much more. If you want to take complete advantage of Facebook, then you need to comprehend it in significant detail. Your remote team members need to understand it thoroughly as well. Don’t rush into employing Facebook for your business aims. Give yourself sufficient time to get acquainted with the social media network if you’re new to using it for your work communications. The better you understand Facebook, the better you’ll be at using it to help your remote team succeed.
Returning to school when you haven’t been in the educational environment for years can be daunting for many past, present, and future students. Life can take us away from education because of family, work, or other circumstances. Sometimes the timing just wasn’t right for you then, but now it is. Nothing should stop people who want to pursue their education. In fact, those, many of those who return to the classroom after several years away, tend to do better and have a better context to the work they are studying. Even if you were only away from school for a year or two, if it was because of traumatic experiences or personal struggles, it can be hard to want to go back. While you are beginning your plan to return back to school, keep these things in mind.
Focus on the Benefits
Think about how much of a difference it will make to earn your degree. The benefits of having a college degree are immense. Graduating college can add as much as 10 years to your lifespan. It can also help you to meet new people and find better career opportunities. While there are challenges along the way to getting your degree, they should be outweighed by all the positives.
Socialize
A thorough social life in college can help you to enjoy your experience much more. When you aren’t constantly worried about classes and grades, you can end up clearing your mind and performing better as a result. You need to be careful to ensure that you aren’t neglecting class time to party. If your social life is lacking, look for clubs on campus that you believe you would fit in well. Your college experience should be one of joy, not stress.
Improve Your Time Management
Feeling anxious about going back to school can come from feeling like you won’t have the time to get everything done. The reason students can succeed with a full course load is that they know how to manage their time. Having time management skills means starting on assignments right away and following a proper sleep schedule. It takes time for these to pay off, but when they do, you can feel like there’s no stopping you.
Consider Therapy
No problem is too small for therapy. If going back to school has you especially worked up, you need to find help. Psychotherapy has a host of benefits for students, including reducing and managing destructive behaviors, learning healthy coping mechanisms to help you through emotionally tough times, an increase in focus, attention, organization, and time management, and much more. Talking to a qualified psychotherapist is more than worth your time. No matter your original reason for being away from school, when you go back, and set yourself on a path of success, you have nothing to fear. It may be challenging, but as you focus on the good, reach out to others, improve your time management skills, and seek help when necessary, you will be able to astound even yourself with the results. Some of the best students are those with experiences outside the school environment. Remember that you are not alone in this exciting educational journey!
For help in figuring out your transitions, professionally or personally, from your workplace to dating and socializing and more, let the Mentor SF’s Explorers Program (EP) help!
Most communication has gone to an online format. Sales and marketing live on the web. Even team meetings are held with off-site team members using a computer to be virtually present. While no one expects that everyone in your workplace can serve as an IT specialist, it is very helpful for all employees to have some basic technical knowledge. Here are three tech skills that you should encourage your staff to learn.
Basic Tech Skills
Technical glitches can take away from the efficiency that technology provides. It is both distracting and frustrating when a team member is unable to log in or establish a good connection. Teams that will be working in virtual meeting rooms should know the basics of how a network functions and the connections that need to be made. At the very least, everyone should know multiple ways to restart devices and re-establish connections. Computer Hope reinforces that knowing the basics will free up your IT professionals to focus on more advanced issues. It will also help everyone be able to be the most productive they can be.
In addition to troubleshooting skills, every team member should be able to use industry standard tools. These include Microsoft Office Suite and G Suite applications. Both options provide essential productivity tools and professional email management for small businesses. Each and every member of your team should be able to confidently operate these applications. You’ll see tremendous improvement in productivity when everyone is up to speed with these tech basics.
Cybersecurity
Independence University reports that cyber attacks and data breaches seem to be in the news every day, with hackers finding ways to break into organizations’ mainframes and steal valuable info. Smart, trained, capable computer specialists with the skills to stop cybercriminals in their tracks and prevent the loss of sensitive information are urgently needed.
At the same time, every staff member who works within your network needs to know the basics of cybersecurity in order to secure your team’s work from cyber threats. A common threat to cybersecurity is phishing, which is when scammers send phishing emails in an attempt to get passwords, usernames, financial details, and other sensitive information. You can work to prevent data breaches by using a spam filter on your email account, using two-factor authentication when logging in, and implementing security for different types of malware and spyware.
Team members need to know the meaning and importance of a strong password. Strong passwords should contain more than 12 characters and include a combination of numbers, symbols, capital letters, and lowercase letters. You should also regularly change your password for greater security. Your team should also be aware of the ways that email can be used to infiltrate systems. They also need to know how to work with antivirus software and the warning signs that a computer is infected with a virus. A few basic precautions can keep your system running safely.
Emerging Skills
When a great deal of your business involves an online presence, it is helpful for employees to know some of the essential programming languages of the web. A great place to start is Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML. SkillCrush explains that with this tool in hand, employees can do basic web design, allowing them to share ideas pre-formatted to work with an internet browser. Such formatting makes it easier for other team members to see how a person’s ideas are structured—improving communication.
The basics of HTML can be learned quickly, making your team feel more confident about working with technology in general. Aside from knowing coding basics, you can also take advantage of coding tools. WYSIWYG editors make it possible for programmers to see what their code will ultimately look like while they create and edit the document. This simplifies the coding process by allowing users to see what their code will look like in real time. Popular programs include Adobe Dreamweaver, HubSpot Marketing Platform, and Google Web Designer. Some basic training in technology will help your team function smoothly and improve communication throughout your business. Much of this information can be learned in an afternoon seminar or two. A little time invested in technology training will produce large dividends in efficiency and productivity.
Your organization can always improve, there are always areas that can be revised or tuned up. One of the best ways to improve as an organization is with group workshops or trainings. Check out MentorSF and see how your organization can improve today!
