Productivity Hacks

Every company has people in management that use certain types of leadership styles. Depending on how your personality clicks with the leadership style used, you can either prosper in your position or despise going into work. There are six leadership styles that you can find in the workplace. Leaders can adopt one or a combination of all styles to best suit the company’s and person’s needs.

You may see your boss using the visionary leadership style. This style works well with new companies or ones needing a new direction. Visionaries see all employees working as a team to meet the same goal and company dreams. They visualize what needs to be done by having an innovative spirit and love of experimentation. This leadership style believes productivity relies on taking taking risks, but at the calculated level. Visionary leaders do not concern themselves with the day-to-day activities of how the group will achieve the visualized goals.

The second type of leadership style you may find in the workplace is known as the commanding style. Think of a military leader and strict disciplinarian, and you can better understand this type of leadership. If your boss barks out orders and does not concern him or herself with your response or ability to do the task, they are using the commanding style. Criticism is common and positive feedback almost nonexistent. Common results of working with this type of leader are poor productivity, lack of morale and minimal, if any, job satisfaction among employees.

Another leadership style involves coaching. If you thrive in dealing with bosses who like working with you on a one-to-one basis, this leadership style is for you. Coaching styles work best with employees who the initiative to work up the corporate level while improving individual skill sets. This style concentrates on helping employees reach their potential by improving performance, productivity, communications and working on goal setting. Coaches believe that when employee goals align with company goals, great things can happen. On the negative side, the coaching leadership style can be perceived as micromanaging employees. This can come across as not trusting the employee’s judgment and capabilities.

You will see the democratic leadership style in use when your boss thrives in creating a group of people with a variety of skills and knowledge that can be used to the group’s advantage. He or she will work with the collective wisdom of the group to meet goals. This style believes that goals are achieved by building consensus among the group. On the negative side, this style is not appropriate in times of crisis. Crisis warrants quick decisions, and this leadership style does not fit that bill.

The affiliate leadership style feeds off team work by creating group harmony. Goals are achieved by increasing communication among group members. Leaders are comfortable giving praise for a job or idea well done. This leadership style increases employee morale, restores trust in an organization and helps form a bond among team members. Since this leadership style depends upon praising so much, poor behavior can not be dealt with properly. Mediocrity can come across as being acceptable.

The sixth leadership style you can find in your workplace is known as pacesetting. If your boss sets very high performance standards and appears obsessed about getting things done quicker and more efficiently, he or she is probably using this style of leadership. Everyone is expected to perform at the same level. When used extensively, this style can undercut employee morale and negatively affect the work environment.

Many times, management personnel can adopt one or a combination of all leadership styles to best suit the company’s and person’s needs.

Finding the right leadership styles can make or break a company!

leadership styles leadership styles leadership styles

What are the benefits of using Teamlab, an open source solution, for creating your corporate portal?

TeamLab is an online hub application that allows users to edit documents, manage projects, create tasks and send instant messages, all from an Amazon cloud-based platform. Project managers can enable and disable the various modules on demand, allowing TeamLab to be customized to the unique needs of each user. Other features include blogs and forums, image uploading, poll creation and a simple registration process.

The best thing about TeamLab? It’s free. According to Teamlab.com  the freemium open-source model is a business process management application designed for small and mid-size companies that need an effective platform for hosted project management. Supported operating systems include Windows Server 2003-2008, and Windows 7, Vista and XP.

TeamLab Development Timeline

First launched on July 7, 2010, TeamLab was developed by Ascensio System SIA of Latvia, a IT solutions provider. Founded in 2009, this fast-growing company also has offices in London, UK, offering most of their services and features for free.

According to their July 28, 2011, corporate blog, TeamLab now has over 115,000 worldwide users in 148 countries, representing a 300 percent increase over the past six months.

Current TeamLab Features

Improvements and updates to the TeamLab application are occurring frequently as the Ascensio developers respond to user feedback and beta test results. As of August 18, 2011, the following features are included in TeamLab:

• Project Management: Using the Project Management module, milestones can be created along with lists of active, completed and overdue tasks, and due date notifications. Tasks can be designed and delegated to specific team members, and discussions between team members are enabled. Managers can use the time-tracking tools to generate detailed project reports, and the access rights feature (for Premium subscribers) allows for the creation of different visibility levels for files, tasks, milestones and discussions.

• Business Collaboration: These features enable users to create and manage corporate profiles, manage internal announcements and develop polls. Photos can be uploaded to the cloud server and shared using the blogs and forums tool. There is also a wiki section to a create corporate knowledge base through the TeamLab portal.

• Document Management: These are among the most popular TeamLab tools, and let users edit, import, share and integrate documents directly on the TeamLab portal. Document version control is enabled through automatic file saving and organization, including the ability to restore to earlier versions sorted by date and time.

• Instant Messaging: TeamLab users can chat live with contacts through the portal, as well as integrate the corporate messenger with other desktop email clients.

TeamLab Security Features

All TeamLab portals are protected by HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol), which adds an extra layer of digital data protection with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to personal data like passwords, login information, and all the content on the portal. SSL encrypts all communication within the TeamLab environment, making it virtually impossible for hackers to obtain any private business information through the TeamLab portal.

As of August 12, 2011, TeamLab is offering a free online diagnostic system that scans all applications and services automatically during system startup, with the goal of detecting and eliminating threats like viruses, trojans and damaged files.

TeamLab Premium

Launched on the first anniversary of TeamLab, TeamLab Premium is available for $49 a month. Along with the features included in the /freemium/ version, TeamLab Premium users receive:

• 10 GB of cloud-based storage versus 1000 MB in freemium model.
• 100 MB file size upload limit (up from 10 MB per file in the free version).
• User-controlled file sharing, private projects and access rights management.

Premium subscribers also enjoy faster upload speeds in comparison to the free model, and have priority access to customer support service from TeamLab.

Planned Upgrades to TeamLab

Ascensio System Limited has announced the following upcoming features for TeamLab:

• A full mobile version of the project module for Android and iOS devices, with the ability to email team members, edit tasks and comment on events, blogs and forums.
• Email integration via the TeamLab portal, including user-controlled tag-based message filtering.
• CRM support integration including sales and communication tracking, report generation and the ability to import data from Highrise.
• A calendar feature with customizable tracking, history logging and separate work and personal scheduling.

Other improvements to the application will include Gnatt charts for project management, currency conversion tools and customized contact and deals forms.

TeamLab User Reviews

Early users of TeamLab are impressed with the fact that 90 percent of the features are free, it supports multiple languages, and the portal is completely customizable at the point of use.

According to an August 18 post on SoftwardReviewBoffin.com, TeamLab earned a five-star rating because of the variety of collaboration tools, ease of IM client use, and the fact that, “TeamLab is the only project management solution that includes fully featured online editing.”

On AppAppeal.com, an editor rated TeamLab four out of five stars, noting that, “TeamLab offers a unique solution that brings individuals together, no matter how many miles may lie between them.” This reviewer recommends TeamLab for freelancers as a simple, cost-effective (currently free) way to collaborate with clients, as well as small businesses looking for team management software. AppAppeal.com also suggests that schools and nonprofit organizations could make extensive use of TeamLab for work on projects and to facilitate effective communication among stakeholders.

Ryan Stubbs touted his approval of TeamLab in his May 18th post on Appstorm, where he writes, “TeamLab just ticks all the boxes for me.” He points out that all-in-one solutions are usually priced beyond the reach of most start-ups and small businesses, and other applications include features that typical users simply don’t want or need. Stubbs likes the fact that TeamLab has made disabling features “incredibly simple”, reducing portal clutter while improving usability.

::Start-Up and Small Business Applications::

TeamLab developers focused on making this application easy to use for both IT professionals and regular Internet users, with an emphasis on providing collaboration and project management tools for startups, small, and medium sized-enterprises. This product is unique in the way it combines a number of different functions in one user-controlled portal, increasing both security and ease-of-use. For managers and freelancers who require a comprehensive, stable and customizable solution for both projects and ongoing collaboration management, TeamLab provides a cost-effective resource.

While Teamlab is an excellent productivity application, what about solutions for personal productivity? Up Next:  “Using Pomodoro Technique and the Results Curve for Productivity”

iCloud Vs. MobileMe, is there any difference?

With hype surrounding cloud-based services at an all-time high, Apple has officially announced the release of the highly-anticipated iCloud. While many were thrilled to hear about the new development, Apple’s decision to shutter its MobileMe service, in favor of a more efficient and capable cloud platform, left some Mac users concerned about the future of their data and mobile services. Nevertheless, the technology company has stated that the transition should be seamless, as the new service includes many of the great benefits previously provided by MobileMe. All of which begs the question: Is Apple’s newest system any different than MobileMe?

MobileMe first became available to Mac users in January of 2000, as a subscription service that provided, among other things, an email address @mac.com. Following the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008, the service was rebranded as MobileMe, and became available to users across the operating system spectrum. One of the many features MobileMe provides includes the popular “Find My iPhone” function, that allows users to locate their mobile device via the internal GPS tracking dot. The service also offers remote storage options, and the ability to publish websites through iLife.

Apple’s announcement of its new cloud-based services means that MobileMe will be shelved, as the company’s focus shifts towards providing storage options and contact management to a larger swath of tech consumers. Though the service will no longer be available, many of the great functions MobileMe provided will be available through the new cloud platform. In fact, the new service even offers features that MobileMe users were previously unable to access.

Mail synchronisation, contact management, and Find My iPhone will all be available to MobileMe users who choose to migrate their data to the new service. Documents in the Cloud, iTunes in the Cloud, and Photo Stream are further benefits that will be available to all iCloud users. In spite of all of these great features, however, MobileMe users will lose some features previously available to them. Individuals who previously synced system preferences and applications with MobileMe will no longer be able to do so. Furthermore, iCloud does not offer an email address, nor the ability to publish web sites.

As Apple’s cloud offering gains clout in the technology world, many other companies that already provide cloud-based service have been catapulted to the spotlight. Many of these companies provide similar functionalities as those provided by Apple. Furthermore, their immediate availability is of particular interest to those who’d like to begin utilizing such services immediately.

Amazon CloudDrive vs. iCloud

One of the biggest companies to announce cloud-based services is Amazon. Better known for its massive online shopping destination, Amazon has begun expanding itself into the technology market in recent years, with such developments as the Kindle eReader. The Amazon CloudDrive is a major competitor of the Apple cloud platform, and is already available to consumers.

Just like the Apple’s new system, the Amazon CloudDrive offers 5 GB of free storage to all users, with additional storage available at the cost of $1 per GB, per year. Pricing for additional storage on the iCloud is not yet available. The iCloud offers a music-streaming application that allows users to play the audio files in their digital database, and is available on any device that supports Adobe Flash. While the Apple cloud system is available to both Mac, iOS5 and Windows users, however, functionality is limited for those using Windows.

• Both provide 5 GB of free storage and the option to upgrade for additional storage.
• Amazon CloudDrive is available for all devices that support Adobe Flash; iCloud offers fully functionality only for iOS 5 devices and Mac users
• Amazon CloudDrive is managed through a browser-based protocol, whereas the iCloud syncs with applications in the background.

Google vs. iCloud

Google has also released its own offering in the world of cloud-based services. Unlike the Amazon CloudDrive and the iCloud, Google offers different storage quotas for each area of storage available. For example, users can store up to 1 GB each of Google Documents and Picasa files. 7 GB of general storage are offered free of charge, and additional storage up to 16 TB can be purchased. The Google Music Beta allows users to upload up to 20,000 songs from their personal libraries.

• Offers 7 GB of general storage, and 1 GB each for Google Documents and Picasa files; iCloud offers 5 GB of free storage.
• The Google cloud can be accessed by any device with a web browser; Full-functionality for the iCloud is only offered to iOS 5 and Mac users.
• The Google Music Beta allows up to 20,000 songs to be uploaded; Apple iCloud offers immediate storage of all iTunes purchases, and the ability to match existing music in the cloud for a fee.

Dropbox vs. iCloud

Finally, Dropbox is another popular cloud service that has gained popularity in the past year. Dropbox offers a desktop client that can sync files with the server, or it can be managed through a web browser. Dropbox offers 2 GB of free storage, and also has a music player for audio files uploaded to the cloud. Further storage space can be purchased, for a fee.

• Dropbox offers 2 GB of free storage; iCloud offers 5 GB of free storage.
• Dropbox operates through a desktop client or a web browser; iCloud acts invisibly in the background.
• Dropbox offers a music player for uploaded audio files; iCloud automatically syncs purchased music to the cloud.

Web users have many different storage options available to them. Whether they prefer options like Amazon CloudDrive and Dropbox that act as digital storage lockers, or are looking for a service like the iCloud that invisibly syncs content as it is created or purchased is a matter of personal preference. One thing important to remember is that it can be difficult to keep all of your files organized and keep contact management under control.

One great service that allows such management is the critically acclaimed Scrubly service. This service removes duplicate files from your many different contacts and address books, allowing freelancers to be more productive and organized. Another great feature Scrubly offers is the ability to fix formating errors in contact information.

Regardless of your specific cloud needs, the plethora of options means finding something that works for you should be a piece of cake. Armed with a contact management service like Scrubly, and a cloud service that keeps your files safe and sound, you’re ready to conquer productivity in one fell swoop. Cloud services help keep you better organized and more productive, making them a freelancer’s dream.

While iCloud is useful for online storage, up Next: “Microsoft’s Newest Cloud Offering, Office 365”