MasterTeam: Business, Career, and Personal Success Training

Computer Users Need to Pause and Stretch

2009-12-31T12:23:00.000-08:00

Read our article Exercises to Keep Your Mouse From Biting You

Promote Work-Life Balance to Retain and Motivate Employees

2009-12-31T10:35:00.000-08:00

As a manager, you may cringe when you hear the phrase "Work-Life Balance," which is viewed by many employers as a code phrase for "work less." But is the trend toward employees demanding more balance between their careers and their other obligations and interests entirely negative for employers? Viewed from a positive perspective, Work-Life Balance can be one of your best tools to retain and motivate your employees.

Think of Work-Life Balance not from the point of view of a giveaway, but as yet another form of horse trading. What do you want, and what are you willing to trade for it? Some of the things you might want are: minimum turnover, effective recruiting of high quality employees, employee loyalty, employee motivation, and flexibility in scheduling. For the first four of these, offering Work-Life Balance benefits is similar to offering vacations and health insurance. You hope that employee morale rises enough to compensate for the cost of the benefit. But flexibility in scheduling is a completely different matter.

The concept of Work-Life Balance can become a two-way street - give as well as take. Think of it as an extension of Flex-Time. Flex-Time doesn't create less work, it simply allows employees to rearrange their work hours to fit their life priorities. Work-Life Balance should be the same - an opportunity for your employees to do what is most important in each moment - both taking a day to nurture a sick child, and also taking a Sunday evening to prepare that important presentation.

By taking a leadership position in offering a Work-Life Balance program before it is demanded, you have the opportunity to set the ground rules as well as to position your company as an innovator in human resources. Consider implementing a phased introduction in which employees earn Work-Life Balance benefits. Begin with those employees who have a track record of commitment to the company and to responding with extra effort when unexpected demands arise. Grant those employees a formal Work-Life Balance program, and talk it up as both a great benefit, and also as a two-way bond of mutual trust between key employees and the company. After your most loyal employees have established a track record of not abusing the program, then it is time to gradually expand the program, continually ensuring that it remains a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Ways to Manage Stress at Work

2009-12-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

Read my article How to Use Quick Emotional Releases to De-Stress at Work

Tips for Surviving a Job You Hate

2009-12-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

Read my article How to Survive When You Hate Your Job

Work-Life Balance

2009-12-31T06:04:00.000-08:00

Work-Life Balance is viewed by employers as a code phrase for "work less." It's no wonder that it's viewed negatively.

If there is to be any future in the concept of Work-Life Balance, it must become a two-way street - give as well as take. Consider the concept of Flex-Time. Flex-Time is viewed favorably because it doesn't create less work, it simply allows employees to rearrange their work hours to fit their life priorities. Work-Life Balance should be the same - an opportunity to do what is most important in each moment - both taking a day to nurture a sick child, and also taking a Sunday evening to prepare that important presentation.

A Happy New Year to All

2009-12-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

Start the new year with my Daily Inspiration blog http://blog.DreamThisDay.com

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2009-12-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

We're getting ready for New Beginnings at MasterTeam. Join us soon for great free articles on Leadership, Business, Career, and Personal Success.

The Future of Computing is Google - Should We be Worried?

2009-02-03T08:11:00.000-08:00

The Future of Computing is Google - Should We be Worried?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I didn't just say that Google is the future of the Internet - that is scary enough - and virtually true today. I said, The Future of COMPUTING.

Google has always been a gentle giant - unlike the bravado Microsoft. No rantings and ravings - no pronouncement that "our way is best," or "we know what is good for you." No, Google's way is to welcome open standards and actively promote their competition. For example, their tool to move a blog off their (free) Blogger service is fully as complete and usable as their their tool to transfer a blog onto Blogger. Try getting your data out of a Microsoft product such as Outlook or Hotmail.

Perhaps Google has learned from Microsoft's mistakes. Gentle wins in the long run. This is really good for Google, but is it good for the rest of us. Because Google take such great pains to offend no one, because it is so capable, and because it now has tremendous momentum, Google is taking over more of the world of technology every day.

Google completely dominates my own professional life as an author and blogger to an extent that is more than a little concerning. Google search and Gmail are the least of it. My blogs are on Blogger, but I could use another service. It's not even Picasa, or YouTube, or FeedBurner.

AdSense/AdWords - that's the stranglehold. Google is essentially the only channel for a small business to either advertise of receive advertising revenue on a website or blog. Yahoo and others aren't even on the radar. If I had to, I could use Yahoo's search engine, but if I lost AdSense/Adwords, 80% of my professional activity would vaporize.

In its own gentle giant kind of way, Google is now creeping up on computing and enterprise information sharing. Shared calendars and shared documents for starters - moving quickly toward a complete collaborative computing environment. Just watch - for most users, personal and corporate, the only local software will be a browser, perhaps Google's Chrome. Google's individual and collaborative on-line productivity and authoring applications will dominate for all but the most demanding users.

Should we be worried? Perhaps not, but don't become too complacent.

Facilitation of collaborative group planning

2008-11-25T12:30:00.001-08:00

The age of managers and workers has passed. Enterprises of the 21st century, especially those in high technology fields, are successful only when everyone interacts on a cooperative basis. As the owner or executive of a 21st century business, know this: your most valuable and creative employees have discovered life beyond the office. Pure salary has lost it's power as a motivator. Your best opportunity is to fully engage your entire staff - at all levels - as committed partners in the success of the business. I can help you to achieve that cooperative commitment to mutual success.

Visualize your conference room alive with a product planning meeting that will determine the future direction and success of your company. Is the atmosphere filled with excitement, cooperation, and mutual respect? Or is there bickering, egoistic points-of-view, and fear? As a skilled outsider with no "ax-to-grind," I can facilitate your collaborative group planning on a win-win basis. Ideally, I will meet with a number of the participants in advance to understand their points-of-view, dispel their concerns, and fully engage their participation in the collaborative process.