Will You Add? - Business

IT Consulting for Micro Businesses: What You Need to Know
IT consulting for micro businesses is a good starting point for many IT professionals. In addition to the general hardware and software, and peer-to peer networking, you'll need to be familiar with some additional items. In this article, you'll learn what other skills you need for micro business IT consulting.When providing IT consulting to micro small businesses, you will occasionally get requests for support of the big competitors of the basic Windows software for their competiton. Some of these include Goldmine and other kinds of tech management or Peachtree - another accounting package.Virus protection is also real important, so make sure you are comfortable with McAfee and No

ontented cows give better mild: The plain truth about employee relations and your bottom line. Germantown, Tennessee: Saltillo Press.

Connors, R., Smith, T., and Hickman, C. (1994). The oz principle: Getting results through individual and organizational accountability. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Duck, J.D. (1993). Managing change: The art of balancing. Harvard Business Review. November - December.

Halpern, B.L., and Lubar, K., (2003). Leadership presence. New York: Gotham Books.

Harvard business review on change, (1998). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Hersey, P., Blanchard, K.H. & Johnson, D.E. (2001). Management of organizational behavior: Leading human resources. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kotter, J.P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review. March - April

Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business Schoo

Business Grants Can Make You A More Effective Entrepreneur
The world rotates around money, we all know that. We all want to find affordable ways of starting or improving our businesses, but money always seem to be an issue. So then, why don’t we direct our attention towards business grants? Think about it: we are talking about advantageous financial offers coming from the government – tempting, right? But before you make any decision, you might want to ask yourself: “How do I find the right business grants?” Should I Opt for a Small Business Grant? Few of you know that the loans for small businesses are being offered everywhere.If only are you able in your application, to prove that you’ve a sound management plan and credit worthiness, you can r

Productivity during change can be affected positively and negatively by restraining forces and driving forces respectively. Productivity can reach a state of equilibrium between these two opposing forces. However, this balance can be punctuated by a disturbance in one or both of the opposing forces. Therefore, at any given time, the productivity can go up or down depending on the strength or weakness of either the restraining or driving forces. This view of change and transformation is known as punctuated equilibrium.

A leader can use this theory in preparing for change in order to evaluate whether the change is possible to implement and/or to plan actions to better implement the change. To do so, the leader should conduct a force field analysis of both the driving forces behind the change and the restraining forces against the change. He or she can then estimate if there is a reasonable possibility to implement the change or not.

Restraining forces may include market pressures, internal structures and capabilities or resistance from employees. Resistance can be passive or overt. For example, employees may be unenthusiastic to make a change because they have been through previous change efforts which were not totally successful. Because of this, their will to take up another project may be low. In some cases, employees may totally check out of the process, either passively or actively resisting the change. This could include talking negatively about the project with other team members, starting an employee campaign against the project, or other actions which can hurt the successful implementation of the change.

Leaders can do eight steps which will help them manage change efforts more successfully. These include the following:

1. Build an environment of trust with the employees in order to create an environment where employees are more open to ideas and more willing to discuss possibilities and problems associated with change.

2. Link the change effort to a common team value in order to help employees feel they can relate to the change effort at a personal level. This increases the desire and motivation to change.

3. Articulate and communicate a clear message about why the change effort is needed and will help the team. This links the facts and figures supporting the change to the team value. Communication should frequent throughout the effort.

4. Establish a vision with the employees regarding the possible advantages of making the change in order to help the team define for themselves where the change will take them.

5. Collaborate for solutions with team members so that employees have the opportunity to identify the driving and restraining forces in the change effort and identify action steps for implementing steps to implement the change and overcome the restraining forces.

6. Establish and celebrate wins along the way. The leader should actively orchestrate wins and celebrations so employees can see that the change effort is important and see that changes in behavior will lead to positive outcomes.

7. The leader must manage performance around the change. This includes coaching those who need support with the change, disciplining or removing those who continually resist the change or have decided to fight against it, rewarding positive changes, hiring employees who have the new capabilities needed in the change effort, etc…

8. Constantly monitor the process and the results to ensure that the change effort is on track.

References:

Coillet, A., (2005). Changing how leaders lead change. www.accomligroup.com

Beer, M., Eisenstat, R., and Spector, B. (1990). Why change programs don't produce change. Harvard Business Review. November - December.

Catlette, B., and Hadden, R. (1998). Contented cows give better mild: The plain truth about employee relations and your bottom line. Germantown, Tennessee: Saltillo Press.

Connors, R., Smith, T., and Hickman, C. (1994). The oz principle: Getting results through individual and organizational accountability. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Duck, J.D. (1993). Managing change: The art of balancing. Harvard Business Review. November - December.

Halpern, B.L., and Lubar, K., (2003). Leadership presence. New York: Gotham Books.

Harvard business review on change, (1998). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Hersey, P., Blanchard, K.H. & Johnson, D.E. (2001). Management of organizational behavior: Leading human resources. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kotter, J.P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review. March - April

Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School

Good Company or Bad Company: How Can You Tell?
When considering a job offer, how can you be sure that you’re joining a good company and not a bad company?The worst career decision I made early in my career was leaving one job that wasn’t really going anywhere (it was a good company but the job was boring) to a bad company where the job ended up being worse than the one I’d left.I should have trusted my gut and listened to what it was telling me.I ended up leaving this company after 8 weeks and shortly thereafter, I became a recruiter. So in that regard, things ended up ok but I could have saved myself some grief if I’d paid more attention to what I saw during the interview process.Here is some advice regarding ho

raining forces may include market pressures, internal structures and capabilities or resistance from employees. Resistance can be passive or overt. For example, employees may be unenthusiastic to make a change because they have been through previous change efforts which were not totally successful. Because of this, their will to take up another project may be low. In some cases, employees may totally check out of the process, either passively or actively resisting the change. This could include talking negatively about the project with other team members, starting an employee campaign against the project, or other actions which can hurt the successful implementation of the change.