The 25 best blogs nov: Five

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Five Best Chat Programs For Your Small Business

pexels-photo-177707 If you work with a small business team, you know the importance of communication. Oftentimes, you quickly need to get an idea across to someone who’s not in the room. Rather than relying on calling, which is time-consuming, and texting, which some can see an invasion of their personal digital space, many businesses now rely on an internal digital chat system. There are many to choose from, depending on your team’s needs. Here are the most effective chat solutions for your team.

Skype: The Old Standby

Of all the apps and programs on this list, Skype is the most established, having been one of the big players in online communication for more than a decade. With all that time to refine their product, Skype offers a consistent experience across nearly all platforms, including adaptability with many enterprise systems. While Skype specializes in international voice calling, video chats, and group chat, there aren’t many other killer features. Still, these functions should be just fine for small businesses that are looking for a no-frills chat client.

Google Hangouts: The New Standby

While Google Hangouts doesn’t offer many more features than Skype, it should be the preferred chat client for businesses that have gone Google. Besides compatibility with other Google products such as Calendars, and Google Docs, Hangouts does have one pretty cool feature: Hangouts On Air. With this feature, users can broadcast live to the public or even host a talk on a private channel. If you’re looking for a new way for your business to connect with its customers, you might want to take a look at this feature.

Slack: Making Waves in the Chat Solutions

Slack is a relatively new mover and shaker in the digital communication sphere, but it’s quickly winning over hearts and minds with its setup. Rather than having your team focus all their communications on one or two chat groups, Slack suggests making separate channels for each project you’re working on. Channels can be set to viewable by everyone or made private for certain members. If you’re willing to change the way you do messaging, your team may just find this option more efficient.

Basecamp: Tons of Features for Getting a Project Done

Live chat is a huge part of Basecamp, but that’s not the only thing this platform has going for it; Basecamp is also a full-fledged project management system. Among its features are a message board for posting announcements or ideas, automatic check-ins that pose regularly-scheduled questions to team members, and boards for documents and other files.

Kik: The Up-and-Comer in Chat

You may not associate this chatting app with business use, but if you’re part of a team that’s looking for less distractions and more communication, this may just be your option. By default, Kik is available for mobile only, but this can be inconvenient for businesses that don’t rely on mobile communications. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t use still use Kik from your computer.

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Five Best Chat Programs For Your Small Business

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Five Things I Learned In Five Years

According to the US Department of labor—the average tenure at at job for 2014 is 4.6 years. In less than a month, I’ll be celebrating five years at Edelman, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect in what can be learned in five years, not just on the job but in life as well. I’m a big believer that looking back can help you look forward, so here are are a few things I’ve learned over the past five years.

Mentorship Comes In Many Forms
The traditional image of a mentor is someone who takes you under their wing, puts time aside for you, and imparts wisdom—often a more senior person who you view as established or experienced in areas you yourself seek experience in. But mentorship is really another way of thinking about relationships, and growing from them in the process. I can think of several relationships I’ve established in the past five years both with people senior to me and junior alike, where I learn and grow from. As a result, I’ve come to view mentorship, both giving and receiving it a bit differently. It’s a mindset about relationships more than a formal arrangement.

Travel Requires Discipline
I do my fair share of traveling. Not as much as some of my colleagues or peers outside of my company but also more than others. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that it requires discipline. Sleep, food, drinks, work and even socialization—they can all be overdone or just the opposite. Business travel requires a certain level of discipline and balance as it represents a state of living, that isn’t the same thing as your everyday life (unless you indeed travel every day) and stresses like flight delays can sometimes threaten to throw the balance off. I’ve found that all things in moderation help keep the road from getting the best of me.

The Enterprise Adapts (And That’s How It Should Be)
Five years ago, tablets weren’t even introduced in the market and when they first arrived—they weren’t seen as viable work devices. Today, it’s a different story and the same goes for mobile devices of all shapes and sizes. We’ve moved beyond work happening on desktops and laptops, and our IT and infrastructure has had to adapt whether they wanted to or not. A lot of technology change happens in five years.

We Are A Collection of Our Experiences
When we have new experiences, we grow. My biggest professional growth spurts in the past five years either happened from taking on a challenge that was a stretch from my core competencies, jumping on a project or engagement doing something I had not done before. Once we do it—whether we «succeed» or not, we learn from the experience. And learning is growing.

You Have To Make Time For Yourself
The higher you move up in an organization, the more people expect you to give of yourself. Giving is a noble thing and many of the great leaders I know are generous with their time, knowledge and attention. But nobody is going to help you make the time for yourself to replenish your well. I’ve learned to block out some time on the calendar so I can catch my breath—on weekends, I’ll huddle in my office or a coffee shop. In the past five years especially, I’ve learned that time is precious and should be treated as such.

Five years is half a decade—no doubt that I’ve still much to learn, but it’s definitely more fun learning by being surrounded by great people who strive to do great things.