posted at 08:00:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Motivation

Okay, a slightly strange topic - and tangent - for me I know bt I've been thinking about this for a while now (no wonder my head hurts!) and I actually think that the lessons I've learned whilst running one of my local pool teams - Yes, they let ME be a captain, the fools!! - are quite relevant to the business world and teams in general so, if you'll bear with me, here are the five things I've learned from pool that I think will help you run your team.

Slight disclaimer, I'm not currently managing a team but I used to so that's how I know, okay?!

Photo Credit - Darkas

1. Always be on the look out for new talent

You never know when someone may shine so always be looking around you - at other teams and just in general. Sure, your team may already be complete but you never know when someone's going to move or - heaven forbid - leave.

Try to spot people early, and then keep an eye on them; take an interest and offer to help them. Plus, let them know that there's a space on your team for them in the future - this is one heck of a motivator and will work wonders in your favour in your favour when they actually ask them to join you.

If you a....

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Aug

19th
2008

Jargon Warning - it may be heading to your office soon!

posted at 09:00:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Business

It's summer, your boss has just returned from holiday and all of a sudden all of this new jargon and buzzwords fill the office.

The reason?

Your boss has been reading management books on his holiday!

The BBC has an interesting article on some of the new jargon that could be heading our way - and if you're in the UK you may not be able to avoid it even if your boss isn't in to that sort of thing. David Cameron has a list of books his MPs are required to read over the summer:

David Cameron has set a reading list of 38 non-fiction books for Conservative MPs to work through on their sun-loungers.

And he's not the only boss who'll be dropping new buzzwords and outside-box thinking. Recent years have seen a spate of books marketed at managers, often from the worlds of "behavioural economics" and pop psychology, and yours may be the latest to enthuse about nudges, tipping points, wikinomics, or - for those behind the curve - long tails.

38 Books? Well, I get that's the reason MPs in the UK get about 6 weeks off then!

So, what sort of claptrap are we going to have to put up with?

Th....

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Jun

25th
2008

The Ten Worst Excuses for being late to work

posted at 09:00:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Motivation

An article at CNN.com discusses the "10 best excuses for coming to work late":

More than 27 percent of hiring managers say they are skeptical of employees' excuses for showing up late. It turns out their doubt is warranted: 24 percent of all employees decide to make up a fake excuse rather than tell the truth.

Personally, I think companies are far too rigid in terms of time requirements and would probably find that the work force is happier and more productive it they allowed staff flexible hours and telecommuting opportunities but if you're late to work (like I normally am), the CNN article highlights the excuses to avoid. To think that some people actually tried to get away with some of these:

1. While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog.

3. I had to go audition for American Idol.

9. I was trying to get my gun back from the police.

My next excuse when I'm late is going to be "I have transient amnesia and couldn't remember my job."

Oops! Maybe I shouldn't have blogged that!

....

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Jun

4th
2008

How to make your boss love you

posted at 12:00:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Business

There's an interesting post over at US News, written by Alison Green, called "10 ways to make your boss love you" and whilst it is written in a "Corporate Speak" style (Green is a manager herself so I guess you can't blame her!), there are a few interesting points that the article highlights.

Here's my favourite of the ten:

2. More broadly, have your act together. Stay on top of things, ensure your boss only has to tell you something once, don't let things fall through the cracks, and generally be someone she can rely on. Often employee complaints of micromanagement can be traced back to problems in this area, and fixing this stuff can fix the micromanagement.

I completely agree that most employees who suffer from a micromanaging boss bring some of that on themselves. Whilst they may not be letting things fall through the gaps now, they may have done sometime in the past which could still give their boss cause for concern and feel they have to keep tabs on you a....

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Aug

9th
2007

Review: Solo CRM

posted at 17:43:22
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Review

Disclaimer: This is a paid review from ReviewMe. I will only review products that I think would benefit the people who read this site - no rubbish from me!

solo crm is a tool that would suit most freelance designers and developers very well if they are managing multiple clients or projects.

The services it offers is quite customer-centric (hence the CRM part of the name!) and allow you to manage your projects and clients from one place. For example, you can manage all of your content requests to the clients (after you've created a project-based account for them) so that you're not endlessly ferreting around for an email to prove that you asked for it.

You can upload web URLs, images and content and attach these to tasks so that you and the client can monitor progress quickly and easily.

The part that interested me however was the tasks functionality. solo crm allows you set milestones and integrate a payment schedule with each milestone which is a different approach to other online collaboration tools I've seen that seem to ignore the fact that Freelancers might want to get paid! However they don't seem to have integrated billing functionality to automatically bill the client and link it to something like a PayPal account which is a shame.

There are 4 account types that are based on the number of projects/tasks that you need to run ranging from Free (1 Proje....

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Addicted to Email...?

posted at 16:31:57
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Business

I was pointed in the direction of an article recently (and apologies as I can't remember the source) called "Think You Might Be Addicted to Email? You're Not Alone" which states that 83% of users check email whilst on holiday.

The article says:

AOL, in partnership with Opinion Research Corporation, conducted online surveys with 4,025 respondents 13 and older in 20 cities around the country [The USA] to measure email usage. It showed that email use on portable devices has nearly doubled since 2004, and as a result, people are checking email around the clock. According to the survey, the average email user checks mail about five times a day, and 59% of those with portable devices are using them to check email every time a new message arrives. Forty-three percent of email users with portable devices say they keep the device nearby when they are sleeping to listen for incoming mail.

I haven't checked the full results of the survey (as I'm lazy) but checking email 5 times a day doesn't sound too addicted to me. Blimey, I must check a minimum of 20 times!

I'm not so sad that I listen out for beeps or whistles whilst I'm asleep (heck, I slept through a hurricane, you seriously think that my phone beeping's going to wake me?) but to think that some people do is rathe....

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Jul

13th
2007

Review: EarnMyDegree.com - Online Project Management Degree Programs

posted at 09:40:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Review

Disclaimer: This post is a sponsored post from ReviewMe - Hey, I need to buy shoes okay?! Plus I'll only review something that I think will benefit the audience of this blog.

EarnMyDegree.com has collected a list of over 20 Project Management degree courses at a variety of levels that users can complete online.

The website provides a brief overview of the course contents as well as a handy link that enables you to request free information packs for the course(s) of your choice.

The list of available degrees is quite comprehensive covering Graduate, Bachelors, Masters and MBA levels so there's something there for every level of interest.

EarnMyDegree.com - Online Project Management Courses

Whilst the website provides a link through to each university on the course details page, it would be nice to see the cost appearing here also so that you don't ask for information for a course you may not be able to afford and you also have to apply for the information for each course separately which is a bit of a pain if you wa....

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