{"id":1955,"date":"2013-08-12T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T10:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=591"},"modified":"2013-08-12T10:00:34","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T10:00:34","slug":"using-tech-to-be-a-good-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/using-tech-to-be-a-good-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Tech to Be a Good Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We all have struggled either to be a good leader or under a poor one.\u00a0 The good news is that there is no shortage of technology out there to help you be a good leader and communicate better with your employees.\u00a0 However, simply owning or deploying these technologies isn\u2019t a guarantee you will become a good leader.\u00a0 Remote meeting software like GoToMeeting installed on every computer is great, but if your staff still drive to a main office to meet every week it\u2019s worthless.\u00a0 It is how you approach the technology and how you implement it that will make an impact.\u00a0 So how do you make a big impact?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Do More with Less \u2013 <\/b>Not only does technology allow you to do more with less, it opens up brand new avenues that were not possible before.\u00a0 This is something that local government and education based sites have been doing for a long time.\u00a0 In many of these locations it is not uncommon to find 2 people tech departments managing 500 \u2013 1000 user environments.\u00a0 This includes email, iPad deployments, logins, and even multiple site environments.\u00a0 Although most corporations don\u2019t struggle with this lack of staff, we can all learn from their ingenuity.\u00a0 Just because you can afford 2 of something, sometimes you should ask yourself \u201ccould we do with just one?\u201d<\/li>\n<li><b>Offer Trainings Consistently \u2013<\/b> Tech that is underused or unused will be forgotten easily.\u00a0 Even worse, if users don\u2019t feel comfortable using a particular software or piece of equipment, it may be avoided.\u00a0 Offering trainings quarterly (making these mandated may be a good choice) will help keep skills fresh.\u00a0 Following up with staff members that struggled or requested additional training will boost their confidence.\u00a0 Consider including them in the implementation of the software or hardware when it first starts to rollout. This helps them feel involved and gets them hands on from the very beginning.<\/li>\n<li><b>Identify Employee Needs and Provide Support \u2013 <\/b>This can be difficult, but technology makes it easier.\u00a0 Create online surveys and have your staff fill them out.\u00a0 This can help determine needs and issues in your workplace, especially if the surveys are anonymous.\u00a0 You can also use this to figure out who needs more training in what tools, and who needs more training.\u00a0 These questions will however lead to answers.\u00a0 You will have to provide support once the surveys make it clear where the greatest needs lie in your organization.\u00a0 It is recommended you create a tech team with one representative from each department.\u00a0 That way this person can help you provide support and implement new technologies into each department, as well as voice grievances on behalf of that department to you.<b><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Empower your Staff with Technology \u2013 <\/b>Technology should be an open topic for any staff member, not restricted to just IT or Administration.\u00a0 If a user has an idea for a new product, or how a current software or device could be used more efficiently, they should be encouraged to speak up.\u00a0 In fact, asking them to bring up ideas in meetings may be a good way to keep them in the loop of current technologies, and get a different perspective on certain items.<b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These may not solve all your problems, but if you implement technology with these suggestions in mind, you will see positive results.\u00a0\u00a0<b><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all have struggled either to be a good leader [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[508],"tags":[463,464,465],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}