Managers, rejoice! We've just updated our Table View to make it even easier to export summary reports on the status of all your projects. With our improved Table View, you'll notice a few changes: —You can hide or unhide columns using the gear icon in the upper left-hand corner of the table. —You now have the option of exporting exactly what's visible on your screen into Excel so you can format reports with just the information you want to include. —We've incorporated time spent on tasks into the Table View. To display the total amount of time your team tracked using our timer, click the gear icon and select to show the "Time Spent" column. These values are read-only from the Table View, but you can modify them via your time logs and task details. Report Red-Yellow-Green Statuses and Actual Time Spent with our Table View Improvements If you're creating reports for your manager or executives, the new Table View will help you share exactly what they need to see. When you want to provide a summary report with row per project, you can roll up all individual tasks and export only the high-level information to share in your updates. With the help of Custom Fields, you can now report on your projects using "Red-Yellow-Green" statuses. Create a Custom Field for "Project Status" with a dropdown list of the three colors. When you have rolled up all your tasks to show just the project-level information, you can mark the status of each project before you export the file to share it with your executives. If you need to compare actual time spent versus how much time you planned to spend, Custom Fields in your Table View can also help you track your hours. Choose to show the new "Time Spent" column, and create a Custom Field for "Planned Time". Once you enter the amount of time your team estimated they'd need to complete work in your "Planned Time" field, comparing those numbers to your "Time Spent" column will quickly reveal if you went over or under your target. Extra time spent on projects is money lost, so you'll be able to see if your hours are putting you over budget. Stay tuned for more Wrike updates That's just the latest — Wrike is always innovating. Stay up-to-date with all Wrike news by subscribing to the Wrike blog or checking back regularly!
If your team experiences high-stress, anxiety, low morale, and burnout from continuous, fast-paced projects, you may wonder: what can I do to escape this situation? Before you go looking for a new job, know that all is not lost. As a leader and manager, there are steps you can take to fix the poor mental health of your team. These tips are based on advice from an extreme project management expert, and should help restore the health of your team. But wait! Did you read our first post discussing the basics of the fast-paced, extreme project management, and how to decide if it's right for your team? Go read it now and come back to this post when you're ready to learn how to be a great leader for your extreme projects. Leadership and Management for Extreme Projects For extreme projects, being a great leader and manager is even harder because the projects you lead change constantly, which means you must change constantly too. In his book eXtreme Project Management, Doug DeCarlo gives an in-depth overview of extreme project management. According to him, this methodology does not begin and end at managing work in a flexible environment; it also includes adapting your mindset to a new way of thinking and developing a new set of leadership skills. If you are a leader of extreme projects, and you want to work on improving your leadership and management skills, we have some tips to help you be a better leader for your team. Tips to rework your management style: 1. Set priorities. Set project priorities, tell the team why they've been prioritized that way, and if the project is cancelled, give them sound reasoning. If you have standards for determining project priority, your team will feel less frustration when project priorities shift. 2. Communicate constantly. In a flexible environment, projects change a lot. Do not keep your team in the dark. If there is an update, tell them what has changed and why — immediately. Waiting means there is a higher chance someone will have to redo their work in order to match the new requirements. Avoid high-stress situations by communicating every project change quickly and clearly. 3. Set clear roles & ownership. Extreme project management means that there is less hierarchy and time involved in decision-making. That means everyone needs to know exactly who has the knowledge (or ability) to make decisions. Ensure that roles and responsibilities on your team and within management are crystal clear. And give your individual team members the confidence to make their own calls if they see something that needs to be done. XPM is about spreading and sharing responsibility, not locking it into the hands of a few people. 4. Reward your team for a job well done. If you're working on a fast-paced project with changing requirements and ever-increasing scope, chances are you'll be awash in relief when the project is finally complete. As a manager, make sure you recognize the great effort it took to get from day 1 to the end. Celebrate the skills, problem-solving, and high energy your team exhibited during the project before moving on to the next. If your team knows you appreciate and recognize them, it will fight low morale and burnout, and motivate your team for the next challenge. Tips to adapt your leadership mindset: 1. Study your own temperament. Your temperament is a good indication of your behavior during projects. Great leaders learn how to remain calm under pressure, even when their extreme project team is stressed — which will certainly happen with these types of projects. Are you able to be the voice of reason in a difficult situation? Practice soft skills to create a good atmosphere for your projects; read books on better communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, and influencing people. Check out our list of books every manager should read. 2. Learn to accept change as good. Humans like stability; it's in our nature. With everything constantly changing, extreme projects put a lot of emotional strain on the people involved. But you can't resist changes to project plans if you want XPM to work for your team, so learn how to get comfortable with last-minute scrambles. If you can't fully get comfortable, at least be aware of your own resistance so that you can fight your tendencies when they rear their predictable heads. Remember: if your project is changing, it is probably for the better. Don't shoot down new ideas without considering how they can positively impact your final outcome! 3. Trust your team to be responsible, capable adults. If you come from traditional management styles, where all decisions are made slowly after being reviewed by countless people, XPM will probably make your head spin. Decisions are made faster, and without the red tape that comes with big companies and complex hierarchies. Trust your team (and yourself!) to be intimate enough with the project that they will make the best decisions for your project without requiring extra input each time. If you have communicated the project goals clearly and thoroughly, then everyone should be able to make informed decisions for the team. Leadership is a Constant Work-in-progress I argue that leadership and management skill sets are not the kind you can master — they are the kind that you constantly work to improve. People look to you to make the best decisions, to always know what is going on with every aspect of every project, and to remain calm under the pressure of intense project environments. You have to be a hero among heroes, and that is hard. In order to be the best leader and manager you can be, it requires constant vigilance and education. Are you leading an extreme project team? What tips can you give for being a better leader? Share your wisdom with us in the comments. Related Reads: 3 Lessons on High-Performing Teams from TED Talks 15 Books Every Manager Should Read Why Employers Value Emotional Intelligence Over IQ (Infographic)
The success or failure of a project can depend on efficient stakeholder management. Stakeholders include the project team getting work done, the project team's managers providing resources and directions to the team, and anyone and everyone who could be impacted by the outcome of the project — whether they are the client, or a different team whose work depends on successful project completion. If these people aren't in constant communication, the entire project could be delayed weeks or even months. A project manager is the glue bringing all the different stakeholders together. Their greatest challenge is efficiently juggling all these people without the power to "lay down the law". They manage everything laterally, and that means they're asking instead of telling. Sometimes projects go off without a hitch. Sometimes it seems different stakeholders live to make project managers go crazy. We want to have an open discussion with the project manager community (and anyone else who is interested) around the challenges about working with project stakeholders, and some best practices for managing those relationships. This Friday, March 13th, two members of the Wrike team will be hosting #PMChat, run by Robert Kelly. Our two hosts bring a wealth of experience working with various project stakeholders: Errette Dunn, Productivity Coach at Wrike (previously with Airbus and Toyota) and Tom Treanor, Director of Content Marketing at Wrike (previously in project management at HP and PwC Consulting). Accredited and accidental project managers from around the world join in the #PMChat every week, so take this opportunity to get ideas and feedback from your community. Jump in to talk about challenges, successes, and suggestions related to project stakeholder management. How to participate in our #PMChat: Join our #PMChat on Twitter on Friday, March 13, 2015 at 9AM PST (12PM EST). Never participated in a Twitter chat before? It's easy — and you don't have to sign up in advance. Enter #PMChat on TweetChat, and authorize the app for your Twitter handle. This tool will help you follow along with live conversation in a chatroom format. You can easily respond to our questions, retweet others' answers, and talk to your fellow PMchat-ers. Every time we ask a question, we'll start with Q1), Q2), etc. That's your cue to share your thoughts. Questions we plan to cover and learn about during our #PMChat (subject to change): Q1) Who are the different stakeholders that project managers need to keep on the radar during a project? Questions about project team members: Q2) How do you motivate or lead project team members who don’t report to you? Q3) How do you get the managers of those people to provide enough of their time for your project? Questions about project sponsors: Q4) How do you keep sponsors championing the project vs. being passive observers? Q5) If you have multiple sponsors, how do you avoid scope creep? Questions about people impacted by the project: Q6) How do we identify those people who might be impacted by the project? Q7) How do you proactively identify potential issues that will come up and diffuse them early? Q8) What are the best ways to communicate with these people regularly during the project? Q9) What other stakeholder issues do you see in projects? How do you address those? When you're sharing, start your response with A1), A2), etc. to match our question. If you use Tweetchat, it will automatically add #PMChat to the end of your response so that it shows up in the #PMChat feed. Otherwise, if you're adding a tool like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or the Twitter app, add the #PMChat hashtag on your own, so everyone can see your response. Check out this blog post for more general information and an example of how to use Twitter chats. Looking forward to talking with you on 3/13! Image credits: Designed by Freepik
Constantly chewing on Tums to get through a bad day at the office? Sounds like you may be dealing with a toxic work environment. All joking aside, negativity at work can have serious consequences for your health and personal life. If you think that you're dealing with a toxic environment, you need to come up with permanent solutions to make your office a better place to work. Ignoring the problem or telling yourself it will sort itself out eventually isn't good enough when your health is involved. Here are some tips to help you toss the Tums in the trash and turn your situation around: 1. Anticipate problems and solutions If you are regularly stressed at work, learn to predict what creates the problem. Is it that daily 1:00 PM meeting that always causes arguments? Is it working with a specific person? If you can anticipate stressful situations, then you can walk into them prepared to engage extra willpower in order to remain calm and collected. 2. Talk it out If there is an identifiable problem, create a constructive environment with someone who can help remedy the situation. Micromanaging boss? Underperforming teammate? Set up a meeting to exchange feedback. To make sure it doesn't feel like a one-sided attack, share what you think is working well, what you think could be improved, and allow them to do the same for your performance. Since you expect them to take your feedback seriously, take theirs seriously too. And pick your battles carefully — not everyone will be open to your mature conversation. 3. Don't complain in the office Fruitlessly venting can put you in one of a few situations: (1) your boss overhears you complaining, (2) your team thinks you're whining or dislike your negative attitude, which makes it harder to work together, or (3) your coworkers also start engaging in the negativity, which just feeds the toxicity of your environment. When you're in the office, the best thing you can do is to remain positive in the face of hardship. If your coworkers are the ones who start complaining, try not to engage. Put on headphones or take a well-timed bathroom break. 4. Find an outside support system Finding that "talking it out" is too difficult, either due to the person you're having a problem with or your own shyness? That's fine. Always closing your eyes to prevent yourself from rolling them while you're in the office? We can't always help it. If you're boiling in the negativity, release your emotions outside of the office. Confide in your patient spouse, a friend and a glass of wine, your dog, a counselor, or your diary. Finding a supportive outlet for your frustration — not someone you work with — will help you tame the itch to lash out at your toxic colleague(s). 5. Learn to let it go You can't control other people, their actions, or the outcome of a dinner with multiple cooks in the kitchen. When things go awry, learn to take a deep breath, tell yourself that things could be worse, and help yourself move on. Holding onto negative thoughts builds up in your brain and can make a bad situation feel much, much worse. Remember to let go of the negativity, and you might realize your environment is not as toxic as you thought. 6. Make sure you're not the problem This is a hard one to confront. Before you throw up your hands and quit your job, make sure that you aren't the main source of toxins at work — or the negativity could follow you forever. A good way to do this is to ask your boss or a trusted colleague for specific feedback on ways to improve your performance. If they seem to think that you have significant room to improve, it might be time to reflect on how you can improve your work demeanor. Is it time to move on? Not every job is a perfect fit, so if you have already tried our tips above and nothing is working, it's time to move on. Learn what you can from your current company and go find a job that makes you feel healthy again. Make sure to let your contacts (outside of your current company, of course) know that you are on the market, update your LinkedIn profile, and start searching for an escape. Ever worked in a toxic work environment? What did you do to improve the situation? Share your wisdom in the comments and help out everyone who is struggling right now. Related Reads: How to Communicate Like Super Bowl Champions Team Conflict & Resolution: The 2-Minute Guide 4 Strategies for Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders Top image credit: Nicolas Raymond on Freepik. Changes made. Some rights reserved.
"A proverb a day keeps distractions at bay" ... Okay, you caught us. That's not a real proverb. We just made it up, but it's true nonetheless. We collected 10 well-known proverbs about productivity and backed up their claims with insider business tips and facts to encourage you on those difficult work days. Today, we'll give your our first five insights. Post them on the wall by your desk for inspiration, or share them with your friends and colleagues when they feel like throwing in the towel. 1. "It is possible to move mountains by carrying small stones." Have you ever looked at a project and felt completely overwhelmed without a clue for how to start? If you have read The Progress Principle by Theresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, then you know about the power of "small wins." They say that small wins ignite our motivation to work and make further progress possible. By moving one stone at a time, eventually we will have moved so many that the entire project is complete. For the best productivity, one study says you should work in small chunks of time as opposed to straight through an 8-hour day. Split your progress into 90-minute work sessions followed by 15-minute breaks to increase your focus by 16%. 2. "A picture is worth a thousand words." Whether you consider yourself a visual learner or an auditory learner, that fact is that we process visual information faster than written information. Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text. This is why marketers love infographics, why Instagram and Snapchat are so successful, and why you hire a photographer instead of a journalist for your wedding. Pictures just work. 3. "A dull pencil is greater than the sharpest memory." Do you have the memory of an elephant or of a goldfish? A study by the Dominican University of California shows that people who write down their goals (and share them with a friend) are 33% more likely to accomplish their goals than those who only rely on thought formulation to push progress. Next time you have a bright idea, grab a napkin and the closest writing utensil - be that a dull pencil or your child's favorite green marker - and write it down to keep you more accountable. Or better yet, jot down your idea in Wrike for safe keeping! If you're constantly jotting ideas down with nowhere to put them, consider researching how to set up an office at home, and ensure you've got plenty of storage around you to keep things organised. 4. "No living man all things can." If you find yourself mulling over work 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, it's time to re-prioritize your work life. The Harvard Business Review shared this fun fact: 41% of a knowledge worker's daily tasks could be handled more competently if they were delegated. Easier said than done, we know, but the benefits are worth it. Harvard Business Review said that knowledge workers who redistributed their tasks saved themselves about 6 hours of work and 2 hours of meetings per week. One man can't do everything, so learn to rely on others. 5. "A stitch in time saves nine." If you can fix it with one stitch now, you'll save yourself nine stitches in the future. The GTD method recommends that if the task will take less than two minutes then tackle it without delay. If you comply to this method, you won't have to waste future efforts on the small task AND any mistakes that have resulted from not fixing the issue early on. You'll thank yourself later. Feeling inspired? Share these with friends and colleagues, print them out for the office, and make everyone's productivity shine. And don't forget, this is only the beginning. If you liked these, we bet you'll love the next five proverbs, too. Stay tuned to re-examine more tips that can give you the extra boost you need.
If you're a university undergraduate or graduate student, you should know that we recently announced our Wrike for Students program. We want to give you a Wrike account to keep track of all of your assignments, group projects, and random to-dos completely free — because you're already spending enough on your education. Student projects, especially group projects, have unique requirements. You have to figure out how to collaborate effectively, which is even harder when you can't meet in person every day. Using the Timeline in Wrike is one way to make sure you're getting all your work done on time. Basic Organization for Your Group Project To get started, create a new Project and share it with all the members of your team in Wrike. Inside that project, create individual tasks for every piece of work required to reach your end goal. Assign each of those tasks to the responsible group member(s) in your Wrike account, and set the durations and due date for that piece of work. For example, say your project is to write a group report. If you want to finish basic research six weeks before your final deadline, your task called "Complete basic research" should be due six weeks before the task, "Print & submit the final report." Check the Timeline to Review Your Project Schedule Once your group project is in Wrike, with due dates set and individual assignments doled out, everyone can use the Wrike Timeline to view and track the overall progress. The Timeline will show you what tasks are completed (green), overdue (red), and what deadlines are coming up (blue). Set Key Dates as Milestones Any project-related date that absolutely cannot be shifted should be set up as a task with a milestone date. Examples include final deadlines from your professors and presentation dates. Once you set a milestone, that date cannot be automatically adjusted by the rescheduling of other tasks. Create Dependencies to Automate Task Rescheduling If you have a series of tasks for your project that depend on one another (e.g. You can't start "Write first draft of paper" until "Complete basic research" is done), set them up as dependencies on your timeline. There are four common types of dependencies: Task B can't start until Task A is completed. (Most common scenario.) Task B can't start until Task A has started. Task B can't be completed until Task A is completed. Task B can't be completed until Task A has started. By linking all your tasks together as dependencies, you'll be able to reschedule everything (except milestones) with one drag-and-drop movement on the Timeline. This is helpful if work gets pushed back or moved forward. When you drag one task three days either direction, every dependent task will be shifted accordingly. Add Missing Tasks in the Schedule If you've built your project but missed a key step, you can create a new task right from the Timeline to set the due date and dependencies immediately. Then, click to open your task and you can assign the new task to a group member. More on How to Use Wrike for Student Projects If you want to learn more about how to use Wrike for your student projects, check out these other helpful articles: The In-Depth Guide to Using Wrike’s Online Gantt Chart Maker Achieve fast, easy, efficient project management using Gantt charts 4 Common Mistakes New Wrike Users Make, and Tips to Avoid Doing the Same If you're a student and you'd like to take advantage of Wrike to manage your classwork, sign up for your free student account now.
Today's projects are different from the projects of 10 or 20 years ago. Mostly thanks to the introduction of the internet and subsequent cloud-based software, as well as the concept of what is a professional service coming into play, the way we work — and thus, our projects — has undergone a revolution. The way projects stand now: project requirements can change daily, and responsible teams are expected to handle those situations fluidly. Stakeholders want more involvement with projects while they're still in process, which means that they can change their mind (and create extra work for teams) at any time. News about political, economical, or environmental concerns breaks 24/7, and teams have to shift gears to respond accordingly. Traditional project management (TPM) is typically not equipped to handle this new era of projects. The step-by-step workflow (e.g. the Waterfall model), rigid timelines, and strict requirements have a hard time adapting to the need for change partway through a project. Updates to the plan require team members to jump through hoops and consult several managers before getting final approval. These constraints bottleneck progress and end up pushing TPM projects over budget and past deadlines. Today's projects are often better suited for extreme project management. What is Extreme Project Management? Extreme project management (XPM) is short and flexible where traditional project management is not. Traditional project management means creating a plan and sticking to it, usually for long-term projects. XPM allows you to alter your project plan, your budget, and your final outcome to fit changing needs, no matter what stage the project is in, and usually involves projects that last only a few weeks or even just days. XPM is meant to help you manage the unknown — those variables that change and pop up as a project progresses. At the end of your project, it's about delivering the desired result, not simply the originally planned result. Those people who realize halfway through a project that the original product isn't ideal have the leeway to modify the plan. Teams using XPM must be willing to make several attempts to get it right, instead of simply focusing on completing everything after the first attempt. Is extreme project management right for you? How do you know if your project requires extreme project management? Here are some common characteristics of extreme projects: Fast-paced work Highly complex project needs and outcomes Frequent changes to the project requirements as the project progresses Trial-and-error approach to see what works Self-correcting process when things go awry to get back on track A move away from hierarchy in decision making People-driven projects, instead of process-driven (people don't adapt their projects to fit the model, they adapt models to fit the project) If this sounds like your work, consider XPM and how you can adopt this approach. How to Execute Extreme Project Management Extreme project management is meant to be fast and nimble. Start by gathering a team of people around you who are willing and ready to embrace this Agile mindset meaning. If your team members prefer slow-paced work and getting every decision approved by upper management, it won't work. After assembling your star team, follow these steps: Create a project plan with extreme project management in mind. That means expecting change, acknowledging that timelines may change, and leaving room for error. To ensure success, make sure your plan answers all of these questions (from the book eXtreme Project Management by Doug DeCarlo): —Who needs what, and why? —What will it take to do it? —Can we get what it takes to finish? —Is it worth it? Schedule work in short cycles — a few weeks at max. Have a project kick-off meeting to give everyone the full rundown of the work involved, and get people excited to get to work on a great, new project. Answer every question, and communicate expectations clearly. Make project visibility a priority starting from day 1. Communicate with your client frequently, listen closely to their wants and needs, and relay their feedback to your team immediately. Follow up work cycles with check-ins, review sessions, and re-alignment meetings if the project seems to be getting off-track. When projects or cycles finish, celebrate every win. Make teams feel appreciated to keep them excited about the demanding work. Consider starting every meeting with listing team accomplishments since the last meeting, or going around to have everyone list one accomplishment they're proud of. Do not set up more processes than you need to in order to complete the project. Extreme project management advises to KISS your projects — keep it simple, stupid. Each project will probably require different steps and different templates, so customize each project to suit your needs. If your team insists that you're making processes too complicated, cut out extra steps. Extreme Project Management for Changing Projects If you identified with the troubles of traditional project management or the characteristics of extreme projects, consider reading more about XPM for your team. I suggest the book mentioned above, eXtreme Project Management by Doug DeCarlo. It goes into great detail about everything you should know to get started with XPM, including tips for suggested meetings, dealing with stakeholders, and resolving project roadblocks. Made the switch from TPM to XPM successfully — or even unsuccessfully? Tell us about your experience and what made you take the leap in the comments below. We'd love to learn from your first-hand account. Related Reads:How to Combat the 4 Main Sources of Scope Creep10 Phrases That Can Ruin Your Project Kickoff Meeting4 Tips to Improve Your Next Meeting Image credit: Designed by Freepik
The core of Wrike's purpose is to help teams work better together. Part of that means simplifying the collaboration process for teams when multiple people need to contribute written content for a project. In the past, teams had to pass documents around through email. Person A writes their version; then Person B adds their ideas; finally Person C makes their edits and leaves additional comments. The process was slow, and Person C could be waiting days or weeks to see any work cross their desk. That is no longer good enough in today's Agile environment. With Wrike's Live Editor, teams can work faster. It's more than just a description, it's a live workspace for collaboration! Keeping ideas and documents in Wrike tasks means a few things for your team: 1. Several people can edit work at once The task description in Wrike updates and saves changes automatically. That means you and your colleague(s) can all make edits simultaneously, allowing for real-time collaboration. You'll see what others are typing as they're typing it, so you can immediately modify your own work accordingly. 2. You always have the latest version of work As soon as an email is sent, it's outdated. Plans change. New ideas blossom late in the night. By relying on email, you run the risk of a colleague opening your email a few days late, only to start building their work on an obsolete version of your project. When you keep work in Wrike tasks, everything is updated in real time. There is always one true version of your project, with no chance for colleagues to build their work on an outdated communication. Your colleagues see revisions as soon as you make them, and if they open a task right when you're in the process of updating it, they'll be able to watch as you make changes. 3. All changes are automatically tracked Wrike's Live Editor means you can stop manually tracking changes. Every task includes a time slider, so you can review all previous versions of the work. This is especially helpful if someone removes information from the task description field that you still need. Use the time slider to go back in time, find the missing info, and then copy and paste it back into your task. In another situation: If someone edits your task, but you don't like the changes they've made or your team decides they preferred the original, you're able to completely revert to a previous version using the time slider. 4. Your team improves results To become a market-leading company — and stay there once you've made it — being a fast-paced Agile organization is a must. When work is happening in real time, your team can iterate quickly and improve campaigns in minutes instead of days. No more downtime as you wait for a document to get passed to you, and you can see the latest updates instantly. Using Wrike's Live Editor means your team can get work out the door faster. More Features of Wrike's Live Editor The Live Editor can be found in three places: task descriptions, project descriptions, and high-level folder descriptions. When looking at a task together, a colored cursor with your colleague's name will appear in the place where they are making changes. You can use rich text formatting like bold text, lists, checkboxes, hyperlinks, header fonts, simple tables, and more. You can paste images to the Live Editor in a minimized format to save space in the description, or expand it to a larger view. Read more in our Help Center. Improve the Way You Work with Wrike's Live Editor Wrike's Live Editor enables you and your team to work together and share project updates as if you're in the same room, even when you're in different offices or across the world. It's also a great place to keep meeting notes and brainstorming ideas. Read our post on How to Run Effective Weekly Meetings in Wrike. If you love Wrike's Live Editor, share your success story in the comments below. When was the last time the Live Editor helped you complete work faster?
When you've formulated a new business idea in your head, where do you go for advice on how to make your dream a reality? Your parents? Best friend? Google? These sources almost always have opinions to share, but unless your BFF is an entrepreneur, you might be getting just that — an opinion. It's better to take your advice from experts instead. We asked 30 experienced business founders and CEOs to share their best piece of advice for new entrepreneurs in any space. If you're confused about what to focus on, how to hire a great team, or ways to prove you're a worthy leader, skip the Googling and read what these successful founders have to say. On Following Your Passion The only thing that will get you through the tough times of being an entrepreneur — and there will be many of those — is being very singular and passionate about what you are doing. If you're not, if you're chasing money or anything else, then the highs and lows of startup life will absolutely wear you out. —Andrew Filev, Founder/CEO @ Wrike If your only goal in your business is to make money, don't bother. Find something you can be passionate about and run with it. Find other people who are committed to the same cause or passion as you, and divide and conquer. —Blair Nastasi, Founder/CEO @ Media Moguls PR Give it your all. You really can't try and start a business and give 50% effort. You need to dedicate as much time and resources to your endeavor as possible. I would also recommend having some skin in the game. Obviously, your time is important but when you invest your own money into the business, it will just make you work even harder. —Jason Parks, Owner @ The Media Captain On the Mental Hardships of Being a Founder There's nothing better than starting your own business but you have to be OK with the ups and downs. You are going to have higher highs and lower lows than you've ever had before. From an emotional standpoint, you need to be ok with this. But in the end I'd advise "just do it." —Will von Bernuth, Co-founder @ Block Island Organics You will have setbacks. They are normal, but the ones who will be successful think outside the box and figure a new way around the setbacks to push them ahead. You need to be innovative and have a different state of mind then the rest. —Marc Appelbaum, Founder/CEO @ Global Branding Central On Smart Business Planning and Change Keep a nimble mind. It's good that you want to stick to your vision, after all it's your baby, but things change along the way. Don't be afraid to embrace change and mix things up. —Brad Zomick, Co-founder/Senior Director of Content @ SkilledUp Double everything. It's like a home remodeling project. If they say it will take 2 weeks to complete a project it will probably be 4 weeks. Same goes for money. If you think it will cost $5,000 it will probably be $10,000. —Kimberly Rath, Co-founder/Chairman @ Talent Plus, Inc. On Growing Your Business I think the most important thing for young entrepreneurs to have is focus. It's not a lack of capital that kills startups, it’s lack of bandwidth. If the idea is good enough, there will be plenty of time to leverage it out to other aspects of the market. Stick to your knitting in the early stage and give yourself the opportunity to expand focus once you have the credibility of the core idea’s success. —Luke Schneider, CEO @ Silvercar [Don't] scale too quickly. It can be appealing to try and get your product out there as fast as possible, but it doesn't always work out. Repositioning and improving your product cannot be considered failures. —Nabeel Mushtaq, Co-founder/COO @ AskforTask.com Have patience. Ideas and businesses are not created overnight. Things will tend to take longer than expected, whether that is fundraising, product development cycles, customer acquisition, etc.... In Silicon Valley, this is tough, because the whole culture here is built around a short-term focus of how quickly you can grow. Have resilience and don't give up so quickly. Survive another day and keep at it. Those who have patience and resilience will eventually find success. —Jonathan Tang, Founder/CEO @ Vastrm Understand what market segment you service and market only to that segment. Become the leader in some aspect of your industry such that no competitor can ever come close to replicating your model. —Louis Altman, Founder/CEO @ GlobaFone On Carefully Accepting and Incorporating Feedback Get plugged in with the entrepreneurship community in your city/state. There are a lot of people there who have done it before and can give you rock solid advice. —Sean Higgins, Co-founder @ ilos Videos Be careful who you choose to listen to. Too much of the wrong feedback and ideas can choke your creativity and your beliefs. Feedback is the lifeblood of a startup, but you need to be able to put the feedback in context. Does the person giving you feedback share your lens? Do they fit your target persona? —Nick Kellet, Co-founder @ Listly Everybody will tell you what you're supposed to do, if you ask them. Don't ask, just figure out what kind of company you wish existed — and make it. Maybe it'll succeed, maybe it'll fail, but either way your odds are best if you trust your instincts and ignore the naysayers. —David Barrett, Founder/CEO @ Expensify On Talking to Your Customers If you haven’t spent at least as much time talking to your customers as you have building your prototype, stop and go have as many conversations as you possibly can. Ask open-ended questions about people’s experiences and challenges and listen very carefully to the words they use. You’ll get more game-changing insights about your product, messaging, positioning and sales strategy than you could ever learn from reading business books. —Alex Turnbull, Founder/CEO @ Groove On Failure and Success “Act more. Think less.” I believe that many entrepreneurs can suffer from “analysis paralysis” and overthink themselves to inaction, which lets valuable opportunities slip through their fingers. I encourage my employees to be proactive in their roles and learn from their experiences — good and bad. Failure isn’t a negative, as long as you learn from what you did! —Rob Bellenfant, Founder/CEO @ TechnologyAdvice It's so important to celebrate the small wins. When you venture into entrepreneurship for the first time, experiencing the frequent and unpredictable ups and downs can be unsettling. Every day is a journey and the low moments of uncertainty and doubt are inevitable. You will question yourself, your model, your team. When that tide turns again (which it will), take the time to celebrate and reflect on that win. It will serve as your foundation for the next bumpy ride. —Samantha Laliberte, Co-founder @ Ezzy Lynn On Leadership The secret of leadership is to create more leaders. You do that by giving up responsibility and [letting] the other person fail on their own. We never learn from others' teachings, we learn from our experiences; please let your managers/leaders grow the same way. —Annkur P. Agarwal, Founder @ PriceBaba.com I really encourage any aspiring entrepreneur to view themselves as the archetypal member of the team — focus on building habits and behavior that they want to see in others and that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. —Colin M. Darretta, Founder/CEO @ WellPath Solutions Read, learn, and read some more! The amount of information that can be found on the web is incredible. And don't forget about books — How to Win Friends and Influence People, Lincoln on Leadership, and The Big Leap are great places to start. As a leader, you need to be good at a lot of stuff. Start rounding out your hard edges so that you can make yourself easier to work with. —Arsham Mirshah & Chris Mechanic, Co-founders @ WebMechanix On Hiring a Great Team Never, ever, settle on a co-founder. If it's not right, take a pause. Even if you have to drop the project entirely for a while. Even if you fall far behind. Because a great co-founder will just take you to so many amazing places, so much faster. —Jason Lemkin, Co-Founder/CEO @ Echosign and SaaStr Get great at recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding. Building a world-class team is perhaps the single greatest talent a leader can have, but in my experience, few new entrepreneurs recognize it — let alone work deliberately to develop their skills in this area. —Ben Landers, Founder/President/CEO @ Blue Corona Build a team of people that aspire. You don’t want the person who is the best in the field, you want the person who desperately wants to be that person. —Jessica Jessup, Co-founder @ Giftovus Hire for the person and personality first, specific work skills second. Does the person have the smarts and people skills? Do they have the hunger and determination to succeed? If so, their specific prior work experience is less important, particularly because in a startup everyone wears so many different hats. —Alex Moazed, President/CEO @ Applico My one piece of advice for budding entrepreneurs is to hire people who compliment each other. Not everyone needs to have the same personality to have a great culture. Find complimentary people who work well together. Make sure that the team is involved in the hiring process so there is buy-in. —Deborah Sweeney, CEO @ MyCorporation.com On Remote Employees Actively embrace remote working and invest in the right tools that make it easy. Location shouldn't matter anymore. Embracing this means that you can hire the best people — not just the best people in the vicinity. —Sam Bruce, Co-founder @ muchbetteradventures.com On Nurturing Your Company Culture Culture is something that you should manage intentionally. Culture is not a ping-pong table, beer, and a dog-friendly office. Culture is a competitive advantage and it will be the thing that helps your employees deliver great work. Start by taking the time to identify your values as a company. Then write them down, post them on the wall, and revisit them on a quarterly basis. —Chris Ostoich, Founder @ BlackbookHR Your employees are your most valuable asset. Even more important than your first funding round or your attempts at going viral. You must focus on creating a work environment that is empowering, flexible, and enjoyable, especially if you’re looking to hire millennial-aged (or younger) talent. Also focus on hiring people much smarter than you — if you’re not, you’ve got it all wrong. —Clayton Dean, Co-Founder/Managing Director @ Circa Interactive A culture will naturally evolve and as a business owner it's your job to pay attention and be a catalyst for that culture. If you see employees all heading to the gym over lunch, offer to pay for gym memberships. Try and recognize culture shifts and help your employees bloom. —Jim Belosic, CEO @ ShortStack Share our slideshare! 12 Founders Share Their Entrepreneurial Wisdom What's your best piece of business advice? You may not be a business founder or a startup whiz, but we know you have business lessons to share. Hit the comments and teach our readers something new. Related Reads: The 7 Deadly Sins of Bad Startup Leaders Top 10 Reasons Startups Fail (Infographic) 7 Ways to Fund Your Startup (Infographic)
When any new project begins, success is rarely guaranteed. Collaboration helps improve the quality of work by bringing in extra brainpower, but coordinating efforts between multiple people comes with its own challenges. These 12 experts weigh in on how to make sure your team is primed for collaboration success: Initial Project Communication Communicate the Purpose of Work “Make absolutely sure that everyone knows the purpose of the direction the team is going in, and the reason that their part in it is critical in achieving that end.” —Alexander Ruggie, 911 Restoration Show How Work Aligns with Larger Goals “Make sure that the team goals are clear. Demonstrate alignment in two ways from those goals: one, to the larger organization or company vision, and two, to each individual and the importance of the role they play." —Susan L. Lauer, Certified Business Coach Principal, Aspire Consulting Get Buy-In for the Vision “Collaboration increases when the goals and objectives are really clear. Also, if the team members are involved with the development of the goals and objectives, the buy-in is even better.” —Tatsuya Nakagawa, VP Marketing & Strategy, Castagra Products, Inc. Make Sure Everyone is on the Same Page "Get your team onto the same page, aiming for the same goal. Sit down with the team and explain your short- and long-term goal, and be open to their suggestions. Discuss how you have planned to hit those goals, and then assign each of them their respective work." —Anant Mediratta, CEO & Founder, WiseCalvin Organized Project Roles Know the Strengths of Your Team "Knowing the strengths, motivators, and behaviors of the individual team members can help you put together a better team. Knowing the same about each other will enhance their collaboration.” —Susan L. Lauer, Certified Business Coach Principal, Aspire Consulting Assign Everyone a Specific Project Role "Clearly designate who is responsible for each segment of your project. Your staff needs to know exactly who is in charge of what, regarding the project in question. That way, they'll know who to go to for help and who to follow up with as they move towards project completion." —Andrew Schrage, CEO & Co-owner, Money Crashers Identify a Project Lead with Strong Leadership Skills "A clear group leader is necessary. To define the group leader, someone with strong leadership skills will be the best choice for the team. What constitutes leadership skills? The ability to problem solve (outside of situational training received), to listen, to energize, to support, AND at the same time to add their knowledge and expertise to the outcomes of the team." —Jess Dewell, CEO, Infusion Principle Ask Your Project Lead to Consistently Gather Feedback "Designate a project lead who will accept responsibility for the project and seek lots of feedback from other team members. The team lead creates accountability, and the high degree of project feedback creates short, frequent check-ins on how the project is progressing." —Sam Balter Marketing Manager, Waterfall Discuss the Flow of Work from Person to Person "To eliminate bottlenecks, you need to delegate tasks on the front-end. Make it absolutely clear what each person's responsibility is, and then discuss the flow of project from person to person.” —Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development Day-to-Day Operations Implement Scrum Methodology “I founded a startup financial tech company in 2012 and recently implemented Scrum, which has turned out to be fantastic way to get my team to collaborate.” —Jonathan Wallentine, AmcoInvestor Hold Regular Meetings for Problem-Solving “We meet almost every day where I ask: What do you need to move forward on this project? Where is it stuck? What can we do to get to 'done'?” —Beth Bridges, Marketing Manager, J - I.T. Outsource Try Setting Collaboration Hours "Set hours for specific collaborations times." —Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development Use Specific Tools for Specific Functions “Use specific platforms for specific functions — don't mix them up! Messages via Slack over Email. All documents need to live in our team Dropbox account. All projects and tasks get defined in our project management tool. No rogue activities! Define and post them so others can see progress/status without having to consult you." —Kenny Jahng, Founder & CEO, Big Click Syndicate LLC Leave Email for External Communication "Use a chat system for exchanges and collaboration other than email. Leave email for coordination with customers/clients." —Trent Erwin, Co-owner/Project Manager, Genesis Net Development Standardize Organization & Naming Conventions "Standardized file naming conventions. E.g. Date first on all files using YYMMDD format, like 150612 for June 12, 2015, so that files sort nicely in folders; and include a client/project short code in all file names (so it is searchable).” —Kenny Jahng, Founder & CEO, Big Click Syndicate LLC Your Team Leadership Empower Your Entire Team to be Leaders "Give your team freedom to take initiative and implement new ideas; that will make them feel empowered and they'll perform well." —Shreyans Jain, Marketing Manager, EduPristine Don't Micromanage, Allow Them to Make Decisions Together “It’s like parenting: How do you split the last chocolate cookie? One child cuts, and the other chooses. Managers should see this as a guiding principle in collaboration. Instead of micromanaging, give a general directive and deadline, then let your team divide up the work amongst themselves.” —Angelique Pivoine, 911 Restoration Show Appreciation for a Job Well-Done and Invest in your Team, Especially Team Building for Remote Teams "Recognize the efforts put in by your team and appreciate it, this will make the team members feel good and it will also increase their interest level and productivity. If a team member has spent several hours on fixing issues, motivate him/her by showing gratitude and announcing his/her achievement to the team." —Shreyans Jain, Marketing Manager, EduPristine What collaboration advice can you share? Have you had to coordinate effective team collaboration? Do you work on a team that collaborates well every day? Share your experiences and advice in the comments below!
"Great men are not born great, they grow great." —Mario Puzo, The Godfather Being a great digital marketer is partially intuition and the ability to speak the language of your audience; but a larger part is continually studying and learning new skills to make sure your marketing team is evolving at an equal pace with the ever-changing digital world. Below are 10 skills you need today to go above and beyond in digital marketing. Take a look, and see what you can improve. Follow a project management methodology Understand SEO best practices Communicate with technical staff and upper management Be able to create or provide direction on creating a digital marketing strategy Understand email marketing best practices Manage your marketing staff and the costs incurred to provide the best outcomes Evaluate your social media options Be able to continually provide business justification of your projects Understand Google Analytics to interpret and communicate data, metrics and marketing analytics Know and drive the entire team toward your project goals Source: Premium IT Solutions What else does it take to be great at digital marketing? If you've worked with great marketers, or you've honed your own skills year after year, share your wisdom in the comments. What does a great digital marketer need these days?
When tasks have multiple components, it can be challenging to track what has been completed versus what is still in progress, especially when different segments must be completed by different people. To help you make these tasks more structured and easier to track, Wrike added a new, useful feature. Now you can further break down your tasks into to-do lists or step-by-step instructions with the help of checklists in your task description. To take advantage of checklists, find the new checkbox button in the task description's formatting panel. This feature will add another level of depth to keep your tasks organized and clean. When listing the task's components in the description, it's up to you to order your list to suit your preference, whether that be by due date, assignees, importance, or simply as ideas come to mind. Once a component is completed and you check its box, the item turns grey to fade out of focus. With checklists, all collaborators can easily see what has been finished and what needs to be done before the entire task is completed. One of the cool things about the checklists is that they can help you avoid confusing scenarios when a task is assigned to several employees. Before, one employee would mark an entire task as completed when only his or her individual contribution was done. Now, when you create one task and assign that task to five different people, add a checklist to your task description for clearer workload distribution. Use this feature and kindly remind John to go to the checklist within the task to indicate that he has finished only his portion. When everyone has checked off their separate line items, the last contributor or task author knows to mark the entire task as completed. Have you heard of small wins? Psychologists say that completing several smaller tasks one after another has a powerful motivating effect when you're in the middle of a large assignment. See how that works for you and your team with the new feature! And for additional benefit, we hope checklists can serve as your convenient alternative while we continue working hard to bring subtasks to your workspace.