8 Specific Tips to Work Around Business Meetings

Time is money. Time lost means money lost. Time wasted means money wasted.  One of the leading causes behind businesses losing and wasting a lot of time and money is the amount of time they spend in business meetings. Middle managers typically spend 35% of their time in meetings while those who belong to the upper management spend 50% of their time. Employees, in general, spend up to 6 hours every week just to prepare for status update meetings. According to Bain and Company, 15% of the collective time of an organization is spent in business meetings and this has… Continue Reading

8 Key Tips for Creating a Positive Work Culture

Creating a positive work culture is a critical element in the success of any company.  In fact, 94% of business executives and 88% of employees surveyed believe that a distinct corporate culture is critical to the success of a business.  Your culture at work can have a huge impact on the performance of your employees and the overall goals of the company in terms of: productivity creativity potential revenue value of the firm rate of growth Basically, your work culture plays an important role in attracting, retaining, and motivating employees. Creating a positive work culture: turns your office experience into… Continue Reading

Workplace Communication Techniques and Strategies

No matter what role you have in an organization - a manager, a vendor, a consultant, or an advisor - each comes with its own challenges, particularly in managing workplace communication issues. Effective communication is the lifeblood of any successful organization, and navigating these challenges is essential for fostering a productive and harmonious work environment. These communication issues often involve conflicts in employee relations. It's usually the nitpicking or annoyance from the older hire that shows. Or, complaints about too much communication overhead or lack of proper onboarding internally primarily caused by the lack of Wiki or other documentation in… Continue Reading

11 Better Ways to Manage Teams Without Tedious Meetings

As a firm evangelist of the values of asynchronous communications, I’m strongly opinionated when it comes to meetings. Meetings are not all evil. I’ve covered some workarounds for meetings (when necessary) and several reasons to set up a meeting. But beyond that, meeting creep is so prevalent—especially in the context of remote/hybrid environments—that productivity and work satisfaction are almost non-existent right now.  According to a study led by Microsoft, virtual meeting hours increased by 252 percent. As a result, today’s experts (including me), are full of suggestions for improving meetings or simply how to avoid them. In the coming 3… Continue Reading

How to Get Better at Asynchronous Communication

Allocating your time and creative juices on just whatever and whenever you feel like it can be great. However, in most business dynamics, you can’t really escape the reality of having to sync over client meetings - as well as handle communications following requirements in different formats (such as video drips, email threads, screencasts).  In the early days of my career, I worked multiple jobs at a time with more or less flexible hours. My second real full-time job was a promising venture at first - until I remained the only project lead on-site at the office. I worked as… Continue Reading