My latest piece on Inc.com was 6 Ways to Win Friends and Influence People as a New Manager It starts a bit like: Call it the New Sheriff in Town Syndrome. You’re a new manager at an established company or your own startup. You think of yourself as a fixer, so you quickly set out to implement changes or new processes, often bringing in ideas from your old company. Whoops. While making improvements should be the goal of any manager, you need to be careful. It’s easy to come across as over-aggressive and disruptive, and you could end up alienating many of your colleagues. To read more…
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The Problem With Source Code Escrow
My latest article is now available on Huffington Post. It goes a bit like this: Source code is a collection of computer commands and comments written in a programming language, like Java, C or Swift. When compiled, the raw source code is then no longer human readable but runs very efficiently. Because compiled code isn’t easily disassembled, people cannot create their own versions of the software. That Was Then… Once upon a time, organizations needed a copy of source code, in case a software vendor went out of business. Software vendors didn’t want to give up source code, but no one can ever guarantee they won’t go out of business.…
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The Holiday Traffic Rush Is Right Around the Corner. Here Are 10 Useful Tips to Help You Prepare
My latest Inc column, “The Holiday Traffic Rush Is Right Around the Corner. Here Are 10 Useful Tips to Help You Prepare” is now available on Inc.com. It begins like: It’s baaaack! The holiday peak season for retailers is almost here. By the time jack-o’-lanterns start to appear on front stoops, businesses’ preparations for this busiest period of the year should be well underway. In 2016, holiday sales represented nearly 20 percent of total retail industry sales nationwide for the year, according to the National Retail Federation. To read more, see https://www.inc.com/charles-edge/holiday-traffic-rush-is-right-around-corner-here-are-ten-useful-tips-to-help-you-prepare.html.
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My Latest @Inc Article On Complacency Is Now Available
My latest @Inc article is now online at https://www.inc.com/charles-edge/complacency-is-a-curse-heres-how-to-avoid-it.html. This piece focuses on what to do when things are going really good in an organization: more work! It starts a little like this: Running a company can be really hard. But when everything lines up just right, you hit a stride. The business feels like a well-oiled machine and almost seems to run itself. This is true not just for startup entrepreneurs but also for people who lead departments in larger organizations. But of course, business is never really easy. Just when you’re riding the wave, a crash always lurks up ahead. So if you’re fortunate enough to be in…
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Ways to work together with your employees to help keep their skills sharp
My latest inc.com piece is available at https://www.inc.com/charles-edge/your-employees-want-extra-training-but-youre-going-to-have-to-help-them-get-star.html. It starts off like this, if it’s your kinda’ thing: Employee engagement is dipping, according to a new study by human resources consultancy Aon Hewitt, but as an manager, you can make the workplace more appealing through positive initiatives such as employee training and development. Indeed, I’ve often had people I manage ask for more training. My answer is always an emphatic “yes.” But then something funny often happens: nothing. Giving staff approval for trainingdoesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll do it unless you follow up methodically and even micromanage the process. Why does this happen and what does it show about how employers…
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IT Isn’t Just To Fix Stuff: My Latest @Inc Post
My latest @inc piece is up at https://www.inc.com/charles-edge/5-ways-your-it-staff-can-make-your-business-more-tech-savvy.html. Remember Nick Burns, the “company computer guy” played by Jimmy Fallon on “Saturday Night Live”? IT people have long been fixtures in the office (though hopefully seldom as grumpy as Nick). However, their jobs have been radically changed by two trends — the cloud and consumerization. The cloud has amplified what a small business can do by moving the physical server and network infrastructure that staff or consultants used to be needed to manage, to off-premises locations. To read more, see https://www.inc.com/charles-edge/5-ways-your-it-staff-can-make-your-business-more-tech-savvy.html.
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Let IT Make Your Business More Tech Savvy
My latest Inc.com piece is up and available at https://www.inc.com/charles-edge/5-ways-your-it-staff-can-make-your-business-more-tech-savvy.html. It starts a bit like this (or totally like this as the case may be): Remember Nick Burns, the “company computer guy” played by Jimmy Fallon on “Saturday Night Live”? IT people have long been fixtures in the office (though hopefully seldom as grumpy as Nick). However, their jobs have been radically changed by two trends — the cloud and consumerization. To read more…
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Work On Documents As A Team Without Driving Your Teammates Crazy
My latest Inc.com piece is about collaborating on documents was just published. Collaboration is a huge business buzzword these days. And nowhere does that feel more real than when teams work together on written materials. Whether it’s a sales brochure or an internal proposal, teams must work well together to produce high-quality assets. This can be a challenge if the team members work in different locations. Good habits in creating and editing documents can foster collaboration, save time and reduce headaches. If this is the kind of thing you’re interested in, check it out at https://www.inc.com/charles-edge/how-to-collaborate-without-driving-the-rest-of-your-team-crazy.html.
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Getting Bloggers To Talk About Your Crap
The original title of this piece didn’t last long. That’s too bad. ‘Cause I thought “Getting Bloggers To Talk About Your Crap” was kinda’ fun. But my latest inc.com article ended up getting called “6 Ways To Build Successful Relationships With Online Influencers” – and that’s fine. If you wanna’ check it out, it’s at: http://www.inc.com/charles-edge/6-ways-to-build-successful-relationships-with-bloggers.html.
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Security Considerations When Selecting Cloud-Based Software
My latest piece on Huffington Post: OMG the cloud! Everything must go to the cloud, and now! And sometimes finding a tool is about workflow. And the workflow should make sense and be awesome. But there’s an argument that you shouldn’t even keep a lot of data unless it’s kept confidential and therefore properly secured. The liability of keeping information about other people and what they do is just too great to outweigh what you might otherwise use that data for. Security matters. Workflow matters. And with the number of services out there that you can use for any given task, if any aren’t secure enough then there are probably…