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Good Boss, Bad Boss: What’s the difference?

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What’s one thing that almost every person in the working world loves to complain about? Here’s a hint: it’s one of the most popular things to talk about on first dates, has become a cliché in western movies, and it’s the primary source of conversation between co-workers behind closed doors. In case you haven’t guessed, it’s bosses! It could be an unreasonable manager who doesn’t show any empathy when something goes wrong. Or a short-tempered time bomb who explodes on employees who don’t deserve it. Sometimes it is even a bad leader who leads a team to failure or kills any sort of progress within a company. Whatever the reason, employees love to complain about those in charge. There seems to be some sort of backwards rule that authority comes to those who least deserve it, and bosses who rise to the top aren’t the best for the well-being of employees and customers. So what traits are present in a leader that brings them to this position? What makes a good boss good, and a bad boss bad?

First, it should be clarified what a good or bad boss is. An effective leader is someone who inspires people to work hard and achieve company goals, but also who makes employees feel like they can be comfortable in the work environment and have a say in the company. Defining a bad boss is much easier: someone who is unfair, treats people poorly, is bad for business, or who don’t fulfill their duties and responsibilities as a manager. A good boss maximizes the experience for the business, the employees, and the customers all at once. When one of those segments are neglected, they become a bad leader. So how can those with authority make sure there are no compromises in those big three areas of a business?

Well, the way the business world works in a capitalist market is always putting the customer first. The responsibility of most managers is to ensure that customers get the highest quality product or service that the company is capable of offering. When the customer’s needs are met and exceeded, bosses then look after the company. Margins must be maintained, profits maximized, and extra costs kept to a minimum. This is how businesses sustain themselves and are the reason that employees keep their job in the first place.

Meeting these two goals are not easy, but possible for most people. A manager can push themselves and their employees to meet the needs of both customers and the company’s bottom line. However, when balancing the needs of those two, the needs of the workers are often left out. Authorities are pushed to achieve, and therefore must push the workforce they oversee to do the same. This is truly where great bosses are separated from the rest because leadership skills are tested to the extreme. Managers need to maintain the customer’s level of satisfaction while producing income for the company and preventing employees from becoming overworked or having low morale. It is harder than it seems to do so, and that is the reason why it seems there are so many “bad” bosses out there. Those rare leaders who balance the needs for profits, satisfied customers, and happy employees are the good ones.

Going With the Flow: Using Flowcharts in Your Business

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A flow chart is a visual representation of a plan or a process. They show steps, represented through boxes about a process that should be taken. Whether we realize it or not, flowcharts are used all around us, most commonly in the form of an algorithm. An algorithm is the more complicated version of a flowchart where it uses calculations or other problem-solving operations in order to carry out tasks. These operations usually take place in the form of computer software. However, in the world of resource management simple, standard, flowcharts are most commonly used.

The reason flow charts are commonly used by companies is because they are simple ways to understand what needs to get done, effectively. For example, when looking for a new job position a flow chart can be created in order to understand the process.

Clear and Concise

A flowchart shows every step of a process in clear fashion, that is easy for anyone to understand. Even the most complex procedures are made easier to follow with visual representations. The direction of the arrows leads to steps on the chart with a natural order making it easy to follow. This helps you make a process known to those unfamiliar with it and your business. For example, new employees and outside members are able to clearly understand what needs to be done while reducing the time needed to learn the details of your business processes.

Workflow Management

Workflow management is another reason to use flowcharts. Documenting a process that needs to get done, not only lays out the process clearly while getting your work done in a timely manner. The benefit of this is that you are in charge of the workflow; having a say in what needs to be done, for whom it’s done for and how long it is going to take. All of this can be represented in a flowchart. In order to meet the needs of your customers and clients, you need to take control of the processes your business should be following. With an organizational flowchart, you can also clearly recognize areas for improvement and create new charts that strive to meet your new goals.

You’re In Charge

Imagine this: you are in a business meeting, where ideas are being thrown at you left, right and center debating on how to improve your resource management. The ideas given are ones that you would like to incorporate into your business. However, all of these comments and ideas are just being thrown at you disorderly, with no given procedure or action.

The most effective way to organize your thoughts is through a flow chart. Take a minute, write down all your ideas and then organize them through prioritization. After, continue working on your plan with”if” statements. This advances ideas by thinking, what needs to be done IF something works out or IF something does not. For example, when an item is broken the steps that should be taken are: “If the item can be fixed with minimal cost, do the following…” or “If the item cannot be fixed with minimal cost or is damaged beyond repair, do the following”…

Saving Money

Flow charts are a great solution if you need help cutting costs and budgeting money. It will allow you to visually see what you are spending too much on and the plans required to effectively cut those expenses, saving money. For example: “If the company income is less than $5000 per month, avoid making unnecessary purchases” or “If company income is more than $5000 per month, but less than $6000, spend money wisely.” Using a flowchart, and having the rules laid out can allow you to make wiser decisions about your companies spending habits.

In the end, flow charts are not only great for visual learners but are also extremely useful to anyone else who is unfamiliar with certain business practices and protocols. Make the most out of your workday and take advantage of the numerous benefits of flowcharts.

Benefits of Connecting Through One Software App

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The amount of responsibility a business owner’s job holds can generate a significant amount of stress from the countless tasks they deal with on a daily basis. The to-do list is continual and consists of keeping clients happy, tracking your employees, payments to make, sales to close and many, many more. Having software from different providers, to try and manage certain jobs can become difficult to keep track of. Although, this can be eliminated when connecting through one software app.

A typical business uses multiple software applications in order to keep everything up and running such as one for clients’ accounts, one for ordering supplies, one for transactions and the list continues on. Software depending on the provider and service can be extremely expensive; companies try to make you think it’s worth it to buy one software for a certain task. However, at times this can get confusing to have multiple different software serving many different functions. Although there’s nothing wrong with this, it may end up hurting your wallet in the long run and keeping you disorganized. The solution is a one-stop-shop software application that manages all of your documents, payments, accounts and many more, all in just one software.

As a developing business, your money can be easily spent. One day you may have a great steady income, and your business is thriving and the next, you’re scrambling to make money, struggling to pay employees and making budget cuts. In the world of business management, any of these situations can happen. If you’re tight on money and looking to make budget cuts that won’t be detrimental to you and your company, you could start by asking yourself “How many of different software apps am I using?” If you’re using multiple costly software apps that are breaking your bank account, your business could benefit from replacing all of these different software apps with all-in-one software.

Do you find both you and your employees are getting confused about where documents are located, and which software to use for a certain task? If so, you’ll benefit from having all your information in one place with peace of mind that your documents, tasks, support tickets, client information or payment information aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Not only will this lead to better organization and also lead to less stress about where items are stored. This also helps you save time, so you can prioritize more important tasks rather than taking precious time out of your day to find that one document you’ve been looking for.

In the end, having all-in-one software can not only be beneficial for your wallet but also for your stress levels because all of your resources can be easily accessed at the click of a button.

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Businesses Should Use SMART Goals Too

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SMART goals are one of the best way to set, organize and achieve personal goals. Since the concept was first introduced in the early 1980s, it’s been imprinted into the brains of North Americans through schools, books and workshops. For those that need a refresher, SMART is an acronym for the qualities that goals should have. They should be: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Using each category as criteria and as a guideline, broad goals can be outlined with detail and smaller targets can be set to reach the endpoint. SMART goals have proven very effective for educational, personal, and financial planning when used properly. Anyone with targets to reach should try the method, however, its use isn’t limited to individuals and small groups. Businesses and organizations can also benefit from the outstanding power and structure that SMART goals provide. Sales targets, projects, productivity, and quotas can be empowered using the 5-step outline. SMART can be used by all levels of employees and managers and offers a great way to maximize, track, manage, and review the targets that businesses set for their employees or for the overall company. Here’s how SMART goals can apply to the workplace and improve productivity.

S is for Specific

Without a specific desired outcome, it becomes difficult for businesses to set a goal and actively work towards it. The point of setting goals is to reach something at the end, not just to work for the sake of work. To set specific goals, organizations should agree on what is desired of a task, or what can be gained by having a continuous objective. Goals that seem general or broad to some of the workforce will limit their motivation to achieve, and therefore will be less effective.

For example, ABC Inc. realizes that employee retention and job satisfaction rates are dropping, and decide to make an effort to improve quality of their employment experience. Instead of aiming for “higher workplace morale”, a specific target would be to “grant employees more freedom to choose what they do in the workplace”. This allows ideas to come more quickly and will improve the speed at which goals are achieved.

M is for Measurable

Objective goals are the best way to measure, track, and analyze an overall goal. Using smaller “stepping stones” along the way, it can be simple and less intimidating to reach the overall milestone. Targets that can be measured on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis will provide a precise guideline for all stakeholders involved in reaching the big goal.

Measurable goals have small targets for growth that are reached in short fragments of time, ABC Inc. could make their goal measurable with short-term steps like: “in the first month, employees should be allowed to choose what times to come into work” with more stepping stones that increase each month.

A is for Achievable

Once the quantitative aspects of a goal have been laid out, it should be considered whether or not a business can use their resources efficiently enough to achieve the desired rate of success. It is important not to overestimate in this area because too much effort into an unachievable goal can be bad for productivity.

ABC Inc. could make their goal achievable by acknowledging the restrictions on employee freedom. Certain boring or repetitive, but necessary tasks may be left out in favour of more “morale-boosting” projects, but neglecting the tedious work can falter an organization’s success. To measure how achievable a target is, organizations should take into account how achieving this goal could affect other parts of operations in a negative way.

R is for Reasonable

The fourth stage of the SMART process is another where it is essential to accurately judge the capability of a business or department. Big, broad goals are great for marketing and for huge risk-taking companies, but the majority of businesses should be logical about the size of their goals relative to the timeframe given. A big, seemingly impossible target renders the concept of SMART ineffective. Improvement is the idea of goal-setting, not necessarily perfection.

ABC in. could make it their goal to pay every employee a 6-figure salary with unlimited vacation time and full coverage benefits, allow complete control over how much work is done, and leave the company’s fate in the hands of all employees. It would certainly increase morale, however,0 their efforts must be reasonable. such a tactic would likely mean the company wouldn’t be around much longer. Something like “the ability to come to work with a smile each day, have room for creativity and control over what they do, and have strong relationships with co-workers and clients” is a much more reasonable goal.

T is for Timely

It’s nearly impossible to spark motivation across an entire organization without setting some sort of timeframe or deadline. Each goal must have a broad timeframe, broken up into smaller stepping stones along the way. If the goal is ongoing, then certain deadlines for small aspects of achievement should still be set.

ABC inc.’s low morality is an immediate issue that shouldn’t have a deadline far in the future. To make the issue timely, they should make a measurable target in the next 6 months to increase employee retention by 50%, with a monthly increase of 7% to track their progress.

Importance of Properly Setting Project Milestones

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The importance of setting project milestones

Every project manager knows the importance of keeping a project on track. When a project falls behind, the team needs to put in a great deal of effort to put ensure it is back on track because of the time-sensitive stages of a project; most of the time it leads to the project being delayed or cancelled entirely. Keeping employees motivated to complete a project can be difficult, the easiest way is with the use of project milestones.

Project milestones are important points on a project’s timeline that employees can look at for the visual progression of the project. The thought behind making milestones is to categorize the parts of a project into digestible sections as opposed to viewing the whole project at once; this should motivate your team to complete tasks on time. However, it is important to understand there is more to making project milestones than just setting them. Setting meaningful milestones will motivate your project team members more than setting frequent or unreachable milestones. Here are some things to consider when deciding your project milestones.

Tip #1: Frequency and Timing

As a project manager, you may be tempted to overuse milestones as a motivational tool to keep the team moving along the ladder to reach the surface of success. Don’t fall into the trap of labelling every task completion as a milestone. With more milestones, each one becomes less momentous, inadvertently taking away from the motivation of work. On the other hand, don’t adopt the other extreme approach by ignoring or not recognizing significant and relevant events as milestones. A good compromise is to consistently designate important deliverables as milestones.

Tip #2: Visibility

Milestones need to be placed prominently in the project’s schedule and tracked periodically. Make sure that your milestones have been incorporated into your project scheduling, calendar, or another project-tracking software program. This promotes positive work productivity closer to the goal; similar to a runner getting closer to the end of a marathon.

Tip #3: Accountability

Milestones are commitments that must be met on time. If a milestone is missed, it needs to be addressed immediately by re-examining the resources to determine if they are properly matched to the objectives. This reinforces the meaning behind each milestone and the importance of the impact when achieving each milestone.

Tip #4: Fallibility

It may sound counter-intuitive, but you should select challenging milestones that carry a degree of risk for failure. Treat milestones as learning experiences and opportunities to make adjustments, so the final product can be flawless. People learn from mistakes; applying this philosophy to your projects will assist you to do your best work.

Understand project milestone management and reporting. Contact Entry Software for more information.

Biggest Workplace Pet Peeves

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Workplaces, for most, can be a place where a vast majority of your time is spent. However, it can be very easy for workers to become annoyed with co-workers in the workplace, regarding their actions. People want to keep their workplace as an enjoyable/tolerable environment since they spend a significant amount of time there. Time management and organization are common areas employees lack. This can lead to late assignments, messy work areas and lost files down the road, which is not the “ideal” employee managers and owners want. Pet peeves are always rising issues within the workplace, although with simple solutions it can be fixed

Procrastinating is a rising cause of poor time management these days, from the rise in technology and social media. Time management is an area many people struggle with, especially in the workplace. For instance, imagine you are working on a project that has a short timeline with a co-worker, and as the due date approaches you realize that your partner has little to nothing done. This can become quite frustrating in workplaces, as it not only hurts the worker that can’t manage their time but also has a negative effect on co-workers and the company.

Lack of organization is yet another pet peeve that highly occurs in the workplace. Why? Organization and time management go hand-to-hand with each other if someone is unable to manage their time it can lead to poor organization. This adds a negative, unwanted weight to the company that isn’t helping them. From a manager’s perspective, they are responsible for making sure their employees are productive with completing the required work. If employees are not being efficient with their time, it can become very annoying for the manager. Failing to manage time can raise many problems down the road, creating unhappy managers, owners and customers. Easily enough there are many tactics for both employees and managers to help ease their “annoying” traits in their workplace.

Create a List

Keeping track of what you have to do for either a day or month can help remind you about important deadlines or tasks that are coming up. Seeing visually all the tasks that need to be done can help you organize the importance of each task; helping you accomplish each in time. Now, having forty tasks jotted down on a piece of paper is too overwhelming and can cause you to fully ignore the list entirely. The key to a list is keeping it very simple so that you can instantly see what needs to be done.

Set Reminders

Nowadays technology has become very popular, and with this, we are able to do many things on just one device. Setting reminders on your phone, about important projects or jobs that need to be completed for work, is a great way to keep yourself on track with meeting deadlines; keeping your manager happy.

Set Deadlines/Goals

Set a deadline for a project or task you have been assigned to, and try to stick with it. To help you from being late on projects, set your deadlines a couple of days before it is actually due, so that if any unexpected circumstance arises you have extra time to ensure it will be completed on time.

Project Management Systems (PMS)

As an owner or manager, you may find it very beneficial to invest in a good project management solution, to help boost your time management. These solutions are usually always, easy to use and extremely useful when it comes to keeping businesses on track. PMS’s organize and display tasks and assignments that need to be done and what employees are working on what. With this, managers can assign employees different tasks and delegate tasks efficiently. PMS’s can also help identify the areas employees or the company is lacking, which allows managers to add extra time or help to make sure the work is getting completed on time. PMS’s come with many strong benefits that can assist managers with their time management in a much easier and more organized way. This saves crucial time, that can be used in other areas maximizing the work efficiency, leading to an increase in success for a business.

All in all, there are many pet peeves like time management and organization that occur within a workplace irritating co-workers, making their work environment unenjoyable. In addition, having poor time skills can lead to problems that may hurt the company down the road, with unhappy customers, partners or clients. It also does nothing towards your reputation but bring it down. However, not to worry, because there are many easy solutions previously mentioned, that can help you stay on top of your assignments at work!