Management Information

Middle-Aged Managers, the Forgotten Digital Divide

The digital divide is defined by the role computers play within widening social gaps in our society, as the condition of one group having an advantage over another group in regard to computers, technology skills and Internet access.This is usually thought of as being a divide between the white middle class and minority communities; but there is another often overlooked class of nonusers, the middle-aged corporate manager.

Managing Employees Is A Little Like Herding Cats

Q: I started my small business about a year ago and it's grown steadily. I like having my own business, but I'm having a tough time managing people.

Creating Your Own Business Upturn - Powering Business Development

We all see it . .

Selecting A Collection Agency

If you run a business, you are sure to have some customers who require a lot of follow-up before they pay you. Often you spend too much time and energy to collect money that is rightfully due to you.

What is Data Visualization?

Data Visualization is InteractiveHave you ever booked your flight plans online and noticed that you can now not only view seat availability but also choose your own seat? Maybe you have notice that when you want to look up information online on another country, you may find a website where all you have to do to get political, economical, geographical, and other information is drag your mouse over the area of the country in which you are interested.

Increase In-House Nursing Homes Collections

The following nursing home collections report outlines 11 guidelines you can follow to increase the amount of in-house long term care collections your facility collects.1] Have A Defined Long Term Care Collection PolicyOne of the major causes of delinquent nursing home receivables is that the facility has not clearly defined to its residents/responsible parties and business office staff when the accounts are to be paid.

Overcoming the Document Tracking Challenge

"Where did it go? It was here yesterday. Wait.

Communicating In Chaotic Environments

How do you, or would you, communicate in a chaotic environment?That question was put to me by a reader who works in big, frantically-paced telecommunications company. Many projects operate at the same time, and many connections exist among the project teams.

Project Management - Preventing Project Slips

Can Project Managers prevent projects from slipping?Ask a techie to come up with a schedule for a specific list of activities, and more often than not, he/she will present a fairly accurate estimate. Some activities might be underestimated, others overestimated, but overall, the plan will be fairly accurate.

Presenteeism: The Hidden Costs of Business

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Communicating with Offsite Workers

How do you, or would you, communicate with employees who work offsite?Perhaps you have telecommuters reporting to you, or sales reps who work out of offices in other cities. How do you communicate with them?Let's start with the strategic issues: what do you want to accomplish by communicating with them? And, why would they want to communicate with you?Strategic means you'll probably want to deal with issues like productivity, accountability, and predictability.

Do You Need a Personal Assistant?

It's great to be multi-skilled?be able to type your own correspondence, do your bookkeeping, answer all phone calls, prepare your PowerPoint presentations, organise your own travel, seminars, pick up and send your mail, pack orders, do your own marketing, do all the photocopying, ring your clients and prospects. However it may not leave you with enough time to focus on what really matters.

5 Ways to Work More Effectively With Your Administrative Assistant

Stop hiring new administrative support staff. And learn how to retain your existing administrative staff.

Balancing Power in Outsource Contract Agreements

The practice of outsourcing business processes has long been subject to the discussion how best to ensure optimal benefits for both parties involved in the outsource agreement.In conventional outsource agreements conflict often arises between the objective to minimize cost and the necessity to continually develop the service.

Prepare A Winning CV

There is every chance that elements of this article may not be appropriate for everyone in every situation - and that's precisely the point! Every situation is different. No two projects are the same.

Why Outsourcing Could Be The Best Thing You Do For Your Business

While it's probably not true to say that the traditional 9-5 job is on its way out, it IS true that more and more businesses these days are starting to see the value of outsourcing the jobs they can't cover themselves. Things like copywriting, PR, programming - even secretarial and admin support - are being outsourced to freelancers working from home or running their own business.

Six Sigma Training 101 - Better Management Basics

What is Six Sigma?Six Sigma is a quality management program that is designed to achieve a "six sigma" level of quality for products. In the mid 1980s, Motorola pioneered Six Sigma and it has since been adopted by many other companies and manufacturers.

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Conduct Successful Meetings

Do you announce a meeting and find either no one shows up on time, they come with their own agenda, or the meeting goes on and on? If this is true in your case, then worry no more.Here are six steps to help you develop successful meetings:1.

What Every HR Manager Should Know About Hiring Productive Employees

The characteristics of job applicants have a strong influence on whether or not they get hired. Their characteristics also indicate the level of their productivity.

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Overcome Boredom

Do you find yourself easily becoming bored or tired at work for no apparent reason? If that's the case, then pay close attention. Research has shown that fatigue and a worn-out feeling are often caused by unproductive mental attitudes.

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Maximize the Two People Inside

Every one of us, in reality, has two people inside: The person we are today and the person we can become tomorrow and in the future.We go to work every day, are never late or absent, earn a promotion; and receive occasional raises.

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Become An Effective Executive

In his book, The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker pointed out that the effective executive is the person who focuses on making a contribution.This focus on the making of a contribution is the key.

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Conduct Successful Training Activities

Whether you are training preschoolers in the classroom or executives in the board room, here are 15 premises you might want to keep in mind the next time you're designing training activities.1.

Ten Problem Solving Techniques

Do you ever need to find some good ideas, or come up with a solution for a persistent problem? Learn some simple problem solving techniques, and start applying them. Choose a few of the methods below, and get in the habit of using them in your personal life and your business.

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Enhance the Motivational Climate of the Workplace

It has been well documented that employees' productivity and job quality increase when we are made to feel welcomed at work. In other words, when the motivational climate is enhanced to meet their needs they produce quality work at the 100% rate.

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Reduce the High Cost of Employee Absenteeism

Employers pay a high price for absenteeism, often more than they may realize, in terms of both financial and production losses and employee morale. Managers may view the tasks of finding a substitute employee as a short-term inconvenience; however, absenteeism frequently has more serious long-term effects.

Implementation the Catalyst of Change for Management to Reach that Next Level of Success

From the personal and professional experiences of other colleagues and myself, one of the more critical success factors for management is implementation. Through my observations, I have discovered that people and organization spend a great deal of resources including time, dollars and the cumulative total of the energy generated from these efforts to create business or strategic plans.

Getting to Consensus

The need to get people in an organization to pull together comes out often in discussions about communication.Let's think of it as getting to consensus, to roll a bunch of similar issues into one ball.

Can Your Corporate Policy Pass the Monkeys, Bananas, and Water-spray Experiment?

Five monkeys were placed in a cage. A banana was hung on a string and a ladder was placed below it.

Ten Business Reasons Why Asking for Help Works

In fact, bringing your people - any of them - into your confidence and asking for help, is a very powerful tool indeed. The form of words' "I need your help", works best.

Looking through the Glass Ceiling - Women in Management

Women have made tremendous contributions to society at every level; consider Joan of Arc, Golda Meier, Indira Gandi, Condalezza Rice.In writing this article my attention is to open the eyes of small business and no way patronise female mangement or give offence.

Will a Workplace Bully Bankrupt Your Company?

Safeguard Your Company Against Harrassment ClaimsTwenty-five percent of employees suffer with peer to peer bullying and its on the rise, according to the National Institute of Safety and Health. Dina Beach Lynch, a 12 year workplace strategist and mediator, has the answer: Conflict Coaching.

Pitching to Employees

The senior flight attendant on the WestJet flight was starting the routine safety talk: the bit about flotation vests and emergency exits that we ignore at the beginning of every flight."If we could have your attention, please, we would appreciate it - in fact we'd be downright shocked," she said.

How To Get 10% More Work Out Of Your Employees

It is getting harder to run a business for a profit. Weare faced with rising costs, lowered demand etc.

Climb out of the Box - How to Hold Effective Meetings

Out of the box thinking is a popular fad today. And yet, in order to leave a box, you have to realize that you are in one.

Look Good on Voice Mail

Your use of voice mail tells others a lot about you. Here's how to make a good impression.

Make It Easy to Reply - Voice Mail That Works

If you are like most business people, voice mail has both simplified and complicated your life. On the good side, it helps you exchange information.

The Crisis of Modernity

Since the beginning of the industrial era our world has been facing what some historians call an ongoing "crisis of modernity". As fast as we adjust to new circumstances, the circumstances change again, and, the rate of change seems to be multiplying exponentially.

6 Steps to Effective Communication

Effective leaders are known for being excellent communicators. Here's what to do.

The Power of Positive Communication

Communication is the key to your success at work, at play, and at home. Here are six tips that will make a difference in your life:1) People judge others by their actions.

Check Your Communication Skills

Use this check list to assess your communication skills.Focus* Do you pay complete attention to others when they are speaking? (A wandering focus discourages open communication.

Conflict at 36,000 ft

This was supposed to be one of those sleepy flights that leaves late, crosses two time zones, and arrives at 11:00 p.m.

How to Say No

Rejection hurts. No one likes to give it or to receive it.

Key Control - Who Has the Keys to Your Kingdom?

Key control, or more accurately the lack of key control is one of the biggest risks that businesses face.What is the risk?Imagine, you have fired a trusted employee, unknown to you that person had a spare key to your business, they come back after hours and steal business secrets, account lists, equipment or anything else of value.

Treat Employees Fairly, Car Wash Entrepreneur sets Industry Standards

I believe that whether corporations expense their stock options is besides the point, especially when the stock is worthless. We have studied over the years the rift between employees and employers and we have discovered many great brand names are eventually destroyed from internal strife and friction within the company itself.

Listening Strategically

Usually, we're most interested in communicating outwardly; getting our messages out to others. But finding ways to hear what's going on around us can be just as important.

Organisational Culture for Continuous Improvement

I have been working with leading Business Improvement guru, Tim Franklin, preparing the PR for his latest book which offers an introduction to Continuous Improvement (CI) at beginner level, encompassing Lean, TQM, Six Sigma and the other related methodologies of CI.He was developing an analogy of a geographic expedition to describe Continuous Improvement.

Strategic Clarity for Communication Management

Over the past few weeks I've been developing plans for a communication project, a media relations campaign.That's prompted me to reflect again on the communication management process by which we transform communication ideas into operational activities.

Difficult Staff - It Pays To Get To Know Them Better

It's very easy for a business owner or manager to fall intothe trap of condemning one of their team as a no-hoper or aproblem child.It may turn out that this person shouldn't be on your teamhowever as Abraham Lincoln once said about someone he had aproblem with - "I don't think I like that man, I must get to know himbetter.

Motivation - It Starts with Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement is about recognition or attention fromanother person. It can be physical such as - a pat on theback, a touch or a handshake.

Managing People - No More Mr Tough Guy

I believe the media and our culture sends the wrong messagesabout how to manage people and this makes it difficult forBusiness Owners and Managers. We've all heard the old cliché "nice guys don't finishfirst" and that has a huge impact on how managers deal withtheir people.

Managing People - No One Shows You What To Do

Imagine the following scenario - you pay a visit to yourdoctor one day and in the course of the conversation he orshe lets it slip that they have no formal medicalqualification. However, everything's okay because they'vebeen involved in the "doctoring" business for years, hadlots of experience and have read several books on thesubject; I bet you'd be out of there like a shot.

Managing People - Why Is It So Difficult?

Managing, supervising, being a team leader is the hardestjob in the world and I'll tell you why.Imagine what it's like to drive a car.

Personnel Access Poses a Continued Risk

The Security Consultant's Perspective..

How To Use Outsourcing To Beat Your Competition

Outsourcing is when you hire outside professionals orservices to take on part of your business workload. Youmay want to outsource part of your work because youdon't have the room, you need an expert, you have periodicbusy periods, or you need more production to get ordersout on time etc.

Creativity and Innovation Management - Psychological Reward

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.