While communication plays a vital role in every industry, its importance to construction industries can’t be stressed enough. Poor communication on building projects will result in unforeseen issues down the road, like customer disputes. Worse, it can lead to safety hazards which may cause injury or even death. Some of the best managers even find themselves battling the communication gap between them and their clients. They often find themselves asking, “Does my client fully understand the concepts, technicalities, and timeline of the project? Do they consider possible delays or potential risks involved?” If you find yourself constantly worrying about these gaps, chances are you need to improve your client communication. These tips will help you put a halt on these worries and develop productive relationships with your clients. 1. Establish credibility through first impressions Turns out this adage still stands true to this date: “You never get a second chance to make a great first impression.” Your first meeting with your client will build a foundation of trust. So make sure to brag about similar projects you’ve worked on and how they relate to their project.  The confidence you imbue during the first meeting will set the tone for the entirety of the project duration. By doing so, your client will more likely trust you when dealing with future problems or delays. 2. Always stick to the facts Sticking to the facts plays an important part in the construction industry. Keep in mind that personal opinions or feelings have no place in the workplace unless they are essential to the project. Avoid extraneous information and don’t overelaborate; remember to always stick to the facts! 3. Avoid jargon and buzzwords Using industry jargon and buzzwords to non-industry clients can be deemed as problematic for many reasons. First, jargon and buzzwords hinder clarity. Your client will have a hard time understanding your point about the details of the project. “But they can always ask questions,” you might ask. Well, some clients are embarrassed to ask for an explanation. Be the bigger person and explain your point in such a way they will understand. Second, it’s bad manners. Even if you’re doing it unknowingly, such excessive use might make you come off as arrogant or snob. 4. Become an active listener The truth is, most people are not good listeners. Research shows that we only remember about 25 to 50 percent of what the other person is saying. Over the years, simplifying our form of communication through e-mails and SMS made it even worse.  Having recognized this problem, you must practice active listening to avoid tense client relationships along the way. Friendly reminder, poor listening ruined a lot of marriages; it can ruin a client-contractor relationship just as well! Improve your listening skills by making eye contact. Eye contact shows that you’re interested and it also encourages your speaker to speak better. But only gauge the right amount! Aggressive staring often comes off as intimidating. Also, try to paraphrase what they’ve said. In this way, it will let them show that you’re listening, plus, it helps you retain the newly learned information. 5. Manage your client’s expectation As much as possible, write a form letter to inform your client about the typical construction in detail. This will give your clients a useful resource to keep them informed. Make sure that your letter includes answers to frequently asked questions like who is in charge, what are the acceptable forms of payment, and who are on-site during the construction project. 6. Communicate using visuals Visual communication is as important, if not more, as verbal communication to the construction industry. It is necessary when talking about the project’s scope and design. A lot of construction professionals tend to forget how hard it can be for non-construction professionals to make sense of two-dimensional plans. That’s why you must take advantage of a 3d construction software.  It will help provide your client with a better understanding and visualization of your plan as a result. 7. Always be transparent This is mostly important to avoid problems when handing the invoice. Delays and unexpected costs are a natural part of every construction project. Consequentially, extra charges will come naturally to the invoice. This might result in a nasty reaction from your client — which can be bad news for them, as well as for your company’s reputation. Problems will occur if your invoice isn’t transparent. Remember that it must cover all the costs — even the unexpected ones — including suppliers falling through and extra hours. In this way, you don’t have to deal with nasty surprises from your clients.

Admit it or not: construction projects often look like chaos, be it tangibly or non-tangibly. It’s hard to wonder how to be productive when everything is all over the place. From the constant screaming of managers and workers to messy paperwork, it surely takes a day for a non-construction professional to lose his hearing and sanity. Kidding aside, messy sites even heighten the risk of dangerous situations and accidents.  In this regard, staying organized is vital to develop a safe and well-regulated working space. Part of being organized is improving your productivity, too, especially when dealing with the non-tangible aspects of a project. Additionally, maintaining productivity helps improve team performance, employee accountability, among other things.  Follow these techniques on how to be productive, so your team will always be ahead of the game. How to be productive? Follow these techniques: 1. First things first: time estimation Accurate time estimation is essential in every project management. It enforces deadlines for delivery and project planning, and it determines the pricing of contracts. In this matter, time estimation will put a good word for your team’s competence. Moreover, it will increase your project’s profitability in commercial terms.  To obtain accurate time estimates, make sure that you prepare credible data including project objectives, resources, risk analysis tests, and results of the performance of previous similar projects.  When estimating time, always set time for project management administration, communication with outside authorities, quality assurance, and meetings. Additionally, make sure that you also allow time for unanticipated events. This includes accidents, missed deliveries, and other priorities and schedules.  2. Invest in a time tracking software There are a lot of reasons to switch to time tracking software. To name a few, time tracking software can capture all your costs, keep your project on track, and help your clients see the break down of costs and hours. Before investing in a time-tracking software, prepare a list of features that would benefit your projects the most. One of the most vital features to look for is cloud-based technology. A cloud-based time tracking system stores all the time information in an online database. In this way, you will be updated with the latest information in just a tap of the WiFi button. Make sure that your time tracking software is user-friendly. A user-friendly software often means that the developers thoroughly tested their products to ensure a good user experience. To tell if a system is user-friendly,  look at the simplicity of its interface and its consistent performance. 3. Conduct productive meetings When conducting a meeting, ensure that you spend the time discussing actionable plans. Your meeting must have a definitive agenda and goals and must come up with action items and due dates. This will help cut down irrelevant topics and narrow down the agenda. Following the meeting, don’t forget to delegate the tasks to your team and follow up on tasks assignments. 4. Communicate effectively Want to know the secret to building strong relationships? Strong communication skills! When the project manager is clear with his commands and plans, chances are that the projects will be handled correctly.  Always make sure that you communicate effectively when speaking to stakeholders (field workers, foreman, architects, etc.). Likewise, a team leader who communicates effectively also listens effectively. It is his task to ask questions, clarify details, and make sure that communication with the stakeholders is crystal clear. By doing this, he can prevent future problems, especially time-related mishaps  From capturing all your costs to keeping tabs on the business, time tracking makes the job easier. As a team leader, you can ensure the best for your team by following all these productivity tips.

As the COVID-19 pandemic dominates the international headline, team leaders are left to deal with an unusual predicament. Normally, their team shares the same office, greets each other with a handshake, and fills the same table during a meeting. Sadly, as the old normal takes a full 360-degree turn, team leaders are left with no choice but to adapt to a new tack. A lot of questions were raised after the new workplace set-up. Like, how will they hold a meeting via Google Hangouts rather than face-to-face? How will they handle upcoming deadlines? Most of all, how will they motivate their team to do as good, if not better, than ever before? For team leaders, this host of new challenges will surely test their aptness, professionalism, and patience even more. But as much as work-from-home can be fraught with challenges, a great leader surely knows the way out of the labyrinth. After all, they equip themselves with the right mindset and solutions to ease the transition. Here, we have identified universal ways of how great leaders manage a remote team. 1. Organize a daily check-in From one-on-one calls to team calls, depending on collaboration, every successful team leader reserves time to check-in on their remote employees. Their calls act as a forum in which employees can evaluate their concerns and impediments. 2. Establish positive reinforcement An effective leader knows how to hand out positive comments to employees who deserve it. Positive reinforcement is a great teaching tool that encourages an employee to repeat the performance you want to see more of. One great technique they apply when giving a positive buildup is providing a clear picture of their commendable performance. For instance, rather than saying, “Great job on the report,” they say, “Hey John, good job on your well-constructed report! I love how you included those extra data analyses. They were very creative.” In such a way, the employee will aim to achieve that same favorable performance again. 3. Don’t micro-manage remote employees It’s natural to be curious about how engaged your remote staffs are with their on-going projects. Sure they might ask, how will they be able to produce quality outputs while keeping themselves and their loved ones safe? But a leader must always see the forest through the trees. Instead of focusing on the inputs, they focus on overall outputs and accomplishments. Even though productivity may not be as strong as it was before, they assume the best in their employees and trust that they’re doing the best they can. 4. Provide open communications Being approachable doesn’t mean you have to be everyone’s friend. But a great leader always ensures that their employees feel comfortable bringing news, be it good or bad. They skip the “how’s it going” portion and instead engage remote employees by asking genuine questions. Moreover, a great leader sets clear rules on how and when they want to be contacted by their team. In this way, they are giving their employees the chance to consult them while establishing boundaries still. 5. Persist tirelessly Leaders feel a blast of energy even when logging in to a meeting at 3:00 in the meeting. Oftentimes, managing remote workers means different time zones. And different timezones mean long working days and oddball hours. They are not fixated on a 9-to-5 mindset. Instead, they adapt to a flexible schedule by implementing tactics like including breaks between work hours. 6. Offer empathy and emotional support With most workers juggling endless distractions and struggles, effective team leaders always try to listen to their concerns and challenges. They know what to say to express the support their team needs, especially through these bizarre times. The company’s people are its most valuable assets. Leaders acknowledge and validate that by sending their fair share of support to their employees who need it at the moment.

The workplace disruption brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a higher rate of demotivated employees. Unfortunately, a large majority of employees are struggling with loneliness, isolation, and low-motivating force. The same number also complains about the difficulty to collaborate and communicate online.  As the pandemic continues to spread at a  fast pace, we have to admit that this work-from-home setup won’t go away anytime soon. Yet, it is your duty as a team leader to keep your employees inspirited and motivated — one way or another. After all, you are assigned a greater responsibility to look after your team’s productivity and at the same time, their physical and mental health. From regular team huddles to virtual coffee chats, we’ve come up with a list of productivity tips for your team as you invest your time in this quest. Be sure to implement these tips and talk with your team about it on your next huddle. 1. Maintain a strong remote workplace infrastructure Essentially, a remote workplace includes many, if not all, of the same elements as the traditional one. This includes workspace, equipment, and collaboration. However, it can take you an arduous amount of effort to ensure that all your employees have the right tools for an effective virtual environment.  Instead of doing all the work by yourself, discuss with your team your expectations during this new work environment. Let them know that you are obliging them to establish an ergonomic and comfortable workplace to help keep their productivity inclined. Make sure that each employee has a desktop or a laptop, a working web camera, a microphone, and a reliable internet service. Additionally, ensure that they  have access to their respective accounts. Determine if they will be needing anything else to access them such as VPN access and secure ID token.  2. Be empathetic The pandemic is thrusting people into situations that they never once expected. Those employees who have never worked remotely before are now struggling to adapt to the new setup. As a team leader, try to be more understanding and expect less from them. Sure, it might be tempting to push them harder. But effective leaders know that it’s more important to put their people first in these trying times.  If the business is slow, assign your employees to work on beneficial tasks like administrative tasks and professional development. Take it easy with the high expectations and don’t attach strict deadlines. During your regular one-on-one meetings, be sure to tackle the challenges that they are currently facing. Not only will this resolve individual problems, but also teamwide problems. 3. Keep your team members accountable In this disruptive time, you must recognize your employees’ concerns and questions while adjusting to the new setup. Establishing clear communication and creating structure can help give a sense of normalcy and keep your team members accountable. You can do this by making yourself available to your employees. Respond to their requests promptly and institute protocols and expectations.  Be consistent with the communication channel you’ll be using to stay connected. Agree with your team about this through a meeting. While you’re at it, take advantage of the time to talk about the security and safety measures that are needed to be practiced, especially data security.  Moreover, be sure that you keep track of their progress. Determine when and how you will check your team for updates on tasks and projects. 4. Keep the meetings short and productive Meetings can be dreadful, be it the best of times or the contrary. Virtual meetings can be especially dreadful for a lot of individual reasons. If the meeting is purely informative instead of focusing on the solutions, you are not solving problems — you are just delaying it. To keep your meetings productive, start by streamlining your meetings. Invite only those who need to be there. Most importantly, focus on the problems you can solve together and ideas you can develop. 5. Give practical tips to increase productivity A compassionate team leader knows to put himself in an employee’s shoes. Before getting mad over their shortcomings and failures, try to understand where they are coming from. Your employees may be disrupted with children who are also studying remotely. Not everyone is granted the privilege to have a big house to accommodate multiple remote workers and students. The best thing you can do in this situation is to provide practical tips for your employees. Tell them to establish boundaries when working remotely with your housemates so they know that they are unavailable at the moment.  Let them know that they are allowed to discuss with you if they want a more flexible schedule to accommodate their working situation at home. Above anything else, encourage them to take a break from time to time. Make sure that they also prioritize their well-being while staying productive during work hours.

We’ve all been in a situation where compressing our emotions is the next best thing to do. This is usually true in the workplace; showing personal emotions in the workplace is still deemed as taboo. But these emotional responses can be inevitable. Sometimes, it doesn’t just happen with hidden tears in the bathroom. It also occurs when a deadline gets moved closer or when a boss sends a cryptic email like “see me in my office now” or when a co-employee gets credit for something they didn’t contribute to at all. Sadly, we can’t change the way other people act or how situations occur; the only thing we can change is the way we react to them. And it is important that we resolve these emotional issues especially when it becomes overly intense. Overly intense emotions can block effective communication and hinder problem-solving. These tips will help lessen the severity and duration of your emotional outburst at work and will help you stay calm while dealing with such situations. 1. Identify your emotions Identifying the emotions you are feeling can be harder than you think. For starters, start with the four basic emotional categories: happiness, anxiety, anger, or sadness. Once you identify your emotion, you will be able to take the power away from that emotion as you work your way to resolve it. It is important that you acknowledge your own feelings. Are you angry? Frustrated? Anxious? Or Sad? Assess your own feelings and work your way through it with the succeeding tips. 2. Manage your emotions After assessing and identifying your emotion, you need to learn to manage your emotional behaviors. You can manage your emotion by identifying your physical responses, like feeling a tight knock in your stomach or feeling scattered.  Once you get to identify your physical responses, replace your self-talk and physical responses with in-control responses. In-control responses are techniques that you can use in order to decrease the intensity of your emotion. For example,  you can take two-or-three deep breaths, go for a short walk from your office to the end of the hallway. 3. Throw the negative thought away Most of us find it helpful to throw the negative thought away by writing it down on a piece of paper as they question it. By throwing away the paper, you are mentally letting go of the things that are bothering you. However, it does not apply to all cases. It still depends on the severity of the situation, some situations may call for professional help. 4. Challenge your negative thoughts We tend to entertain negative thoughts by letting our imagination go beyond our emotions. Furthermore, we tend to create other scenarios from a single situation which can only trigger anxiety. By isolating your thoughts, you can separate the negative thoughts that accompany intense emotions. Ask yourself: Is the thought true? What are the facts that support it?  What would be the effects on my actions or behaviors if I do not have the thought? When you get to answer the questions yourself, you can apply some thought interruption techniques or verbal interruptions. For example, you can tell yourself to snap out of it or snap a rubber band on your wrist when you recognize that negative thought. 5. Seek professional help Sometimes, intense emotion and long-term stresses can lead to feelings of withdrawal or overwhelm. You don’t have to take on the world by yourself. You can talk to a professional with whom you can assure comfort and can help ease all manner of difficult emotions you may have. Your professional counselor can offer alternative tools and suggestions especially if your emotions stem from something you’d prefer not to share even to your closest friends. Additionally, your counselor will provide a prescription if he/she thinks that medication will help as you work through your emotions.  It is important that you get to maintain your composure on the job. Maintaining your composure includes managing your emotions and stress. For instance, when you are feeling blue, try to assess yourself and don’t address your emotions through compulsive resorts. If worse comes to worst, never be afraid to seek professional help. Remember that your health is just as important, if not more, as attaining success. Always look after yourself.

Perhaps every employee has had trouble focusing at some point in their working life. Their minds seem to wander off to different places they shouldn’t be until they lose track of time and get no tasks done. There are several factors that affect the mind’s ability to focus including sleep deprivation, distractions, stress, or even a chaotic environment. Our ability to focus on a task until it is complete is a great indicator of our success. However, it is indeed hard to focus in a world full of distractions— among other things. Training your mind to be where it should be especially during working hours is no Herculean task; it is just a matter of maintaining and building good habits. Good thing there are effective ways to help your mind deal with such factors that are perpetually trying to disrupt your focus. If your mind is in a constant battle between staying focus at work and idling, these proven tips could help you beat the latter and keep you focused at work.  1. Create a concrete schedule for your tasks One of the major reasons why we lose focus at work is because we don’t have a proper plan. This causes our monkey mind to unchain itself and travel to unnecessary places. But when we have our schedule and tasks all sorted out, our mind pushes itself to work harder and complete our agenda. Start by identifying your available time and high-priority tasks. Try to schedule your high-priority and urgent tasks the time you are most productive. For instance, some employees are most productive and energetic in the morning while some are in the afternoon. In this way, you can understand what you can realistically achieve with your time while achieving a good work-life balance. 2. Understand yourself Each of us has our own strategies when it comes to habits and styles of work. Some work best when they work in one sitting while others prefer working in small intervals of time. It is important to understand yourself— how your body and brain work. Understanding yourself can help develop techniques to increase your attention span. 3. Take small breaks When you can’t focus on a task anymore, it’s perhaps your mind is exhausted from all the tasks from the previous hours. Your mind needs a break too. Our brains are not designed to retain attention for long hours. It is highly recommended to take at least a 5-10 minute break whenever you feel like you have done enough and well and your mind needs a bit of that rest. In a 2013 article from the New York Times, it is said that strategical renewal, including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, and longer sleep hours boosts productivity and job performance. 4. Organize your table Not only does your workspace reflect our habits and personality, but it also highly influences our productivity. If your table looks as though it got struck by a storm, chances are it would distract you and make you feel lost the entire day. You might use a bit of your idle time to organize your files and other stuff. It takes a little time to clean and organize your workspace, but it can have a huge impact on your mood and will take your productivity to its optimum extent. 5. Don’t procrastinate All of us have procrastinated at some point in our lives. Just like a credit card, procrastinating is all fun and games until you get the bill. The bad thing about procrastination is that it is perpetual; you can’t help but postpone your tasks for the next day until you are a few hours away from your deadline.  The best way to combat procrastination is through timeboxing. Timeboxing is a simple technique in which the idea is to allocate time to finish an activity within that time frame. You will likely finish your tasks when you set deadlines for yourself. For starters, you can reward yourself at the end of every task you have accomplished. 6. Don’t multitask When you try to do two things (or more) at the same time, your brain lacks the capacity to perform the tasks successfully and efficiently. It slows down and decreases the quality of work. When you feel like you aren’t making successful progress in your projects, you tend to lose your interest which would gradually steal your focus from you. Instead of multitasking, why not divide your tasks into a smaller time frame? In this way, you get to be more productive while rendering quality outputs. 7. Keep your phone away Your phone is your biggest rival for your focus. With all those constant ringing, notifications, and messages from your friends, it tends to divert your attention from your workloads. Admit it or not, we always have this urge to pick up and check our phones every now and then. According to a survey, an average office employee wastes 56 minutes a day using their phones for non-work related reasons.  It is alright to use your phone during office hours occasionally or when something is urgent and needs a response as soon as possible. Other than that, keep your phone in your drawer or bag so that it won’t tempt you to check it for unworthy reasons.  8. Use applications With the constant upgrade of technology, inventors have come up with various tools, mobile apps, and work management software that can help employees focus better. Such applications include Brain.fm, Headspace 2.0, and Concentrate to name a few. These apps can help you reclaim your brain and to prioritize the things that matter the most. You can always search the internet for the application that suits your taste best. 

The amount of hard work and initiative is a critical factor for success when you are a small business owner. When you are starting from rock bottom, there is no assurance that your business will thrive despite having a strong financial landscape. The competition can be really tough especially in crowded markets dominated by large companies with household names. Every decision you make is a path that can either lead or waiver you from success, there is no in-between. But there is no need to lose hope. After all, there is still plenty of room for small success business owners to succeed so long as they have the right approach.  Success is never guaranteed; you have to push further in order to aim your objective. Here are some effective tips to help you make that happen. 1.Develop a concrete business plan Your business pan is basically your blueprint to success. It guides you towards making reasonable decisions. Plus, a well-thought-out business plan can help prove to banks and potential investors that you are taking your business’ future seriously.  Because when the time has come to apply for a line of credit or a loan, lenders may ask for your business plan as proof that you have a strong financial plan. Put your ideas into writing so that you can clarify your strategies regarding some questions that will define your business. It is important that you do your research in questions such as: What are your main goals? How will your product or service aid your target market? What makes your business different from other businesses that offer the same products or services?  A business plan is strategic in nature. It shows where you start, along with your necessary resources and abilities. It also shows where you want to get to at some point in the future with an improved set of abilities and resources and an increase in assets and profitability. In order to write the perfect business plan, you must know your business’ nature, your product, your competition, and the market. Always do your research and be responsible enough to know everything you can about your business and the industry you are in. 2. Find a trustworthy small business banker Make sure that you create a list of bank options before you sign on with any particular bank. Allot time to meet personally with small business representatives who would be working with you at each of those banks  It will give you a wider idea of what kind of support the bank can provide you and your business. Choose a bank that understands small businesses with tools and resources. It is necessary to always consider creating a relationship with people who can assess you financially and can help your business move forward. 3. Pay attention to your cash flow The cash flow profile is the key to every business. While it is important to assess the growth in sales and profits, it is just as important to have enough cash inflow to cover the cash outflow. There are several ways on how you can manage your cash flow. For example, a credit card may give you access to funds to increase your investment in your business. Ask assistance from your bank on how you can manage your cashflow.  There is a corresponding tool for every situation. It varies on several functions, including how long you’ve been in business and when you expect your business to prosper. 4. Get to know your target market  It is easy to lose sight of your goal when you don’t have strategies or media to choose from. These strategies and media platforms are based mostly on your audience. You have to know your audience, inside and out, considering that they have the potential to become your full-fledged customers. After all, small business success is not just about the product or service itself— an entrepreneur must also know its audience. Do your market research; there are census information sites that could provide you key pieces of data about specific demographics. Additionally, one of the best tactics used by businesses is creating a customer persona. A customer persona is like a fictional character where you create an outline for your ideal customer. This would help you conceptualize your average target customer. Always maintain open lines of communication with your target audience. 5. Use outside tools for efficiency Most small business owners rely solely on their own abilities. One example is the implementation of a manual inventory system. Instead of doing it manually, why not invest in a computerized inventory system to help speed up your processes and avoid possible human errors?  Instead of building everything yourself, you must consider the benefits of full-service solutions by asking for help from outsourcing companies. Taking advantage of high-quality, mass-produced solutions will help your life easier and will help manage your processes better.

There’s always that one person on the team—  the type of employee whose presence bothers the other team members. They like to infiltrate the workplace with their complaints and unethical behavior.  Such toxic behaviors can bring the team morale down whether they spread gossip or they are constantly complaining about their workloads. While firing him is not really the first option to have in mind, it’s better to address the problem head-on in order to mitigate the damage they may cause. According to Dylan Minor, an assistant professor at the Kellog of Management, she refers to this type of employee as “toxic” because they cause harm and spread their behavior to others. “There’s a pattern of de-energizing, frustrating or putting down teammates,” Christian Porath, the author of Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace claimed. “It’s not just that Joe is rude. The whole team suffers because of it.” While the first step as a manager is to ensure that you don’t hire toxic people in the first place, sometimes it can be inevitable. Instead, you need to take another step to resolve the problem brought upon by the toxic employee in your team.  1. Find the reason behind their toxic behavior Before you call them out for their behavior, it is best to dig deeper behind the cause of their behavior. Is he unhappy about his job? Does he have personal problems? Or is he having trouble with his co-workers? You can have a heart-to-heart talk with them at a coffee shop after work hours and ask how they’re doing— at work and at home. If you find the reason as to why they’re acting the way they are, you can always lend a hand. If the person is going through a divorce or is having a mental health issue, you could offer them a counseling resource. Give them time off work just to attenuate the underlying issue. 2. Be honest with your feedback Most of the time, the toxic person is unaware of their toxicity. They don’t realize how destructive they are unless you tell them; they are too preoccupied with their own behaviors. That’s why you need to let them know of the damage that they are causing the team. Of course, you have to ground it in the work. Tell them what you expect them to change. Give them a chance to give a positive impact on the team. However, be open to the idea that some people won’t change. While you have the hope that anyone can change if they really want to, accept the fact that some people don’t want to change. Porath’s research stated that 4% of toxic employees engage in such behavior just for the hell of it. They believe that they will get away with it.  If such is the case, you need to take further actions and explore more serious responses. 3. Document everything If the best way to resolve the issue is to fire the person, it is important that you have all the needed proofs about their offenses and the responses you’ve offered— but didn’t work —  so far. You must establish their pattern of behavior, the responses you took to address it, and their failure to change. 4. Separate them from the other team members Once you put some physical distance between the offender and the rest of the team, chances are that the rot won’t spread. When people are close to a toxic person, they tend to become toxic themselves. However, the risk recedes quickly if you take precautionary measures. You can take precautionary measures by rearranging desks and reassigning tasks. This is the action that Porath refers to as “immunizing” the others; it’s the process of protecting other people in order to decrease the number of run-ins and cognitive loss.  5. Don’t be distracted  You should still keep track of the important matters when you are taking extra actions in order to alleviate the situation. Don’t dwell on that toxic person’s repercussions to the extent where your other priorities fall by the wayside. To counteract the negativity, always surround yourself with positive people and look for the purpose of your work. Always observe self-care and take some time off if necessary. When taking the matter into your own hands, remember that the first best action is to try to understand what’s causing the behavior. Give concrete and honest feedback while giving them enough space to change. Look for ways to minimize their interaction with other employees so that the behavior won’t outspread. Most importantly, look after yourself too and take some time off when you feel like their behavior is affecting your mental health as well. 

Time management is all about managing yourself some may consider it easy and some consider it hard. No one can really bend through time and fit everything inside it. However, you can control and manage your activities. Time is an important asset to you and everyone else as well. So we listed down 10 time management techniques in order to help you. 1.) Plan your day Planning is the most common technique in managing time as it helps you keep track of what to do next. Without planning you might just end up doing whatever that you feel working on or that is urgent. Planning also helps you to become disciplined as you continue. Creating a plan has become easier since there is a lot of technology out there that you can use. You can use digital calendars, todo-lists, sticky notes, etc. To help you on track in your day-to-day activities. Another tip is that you should always prioritize activities based on their status to conserve time. 2.) The Pareto Principle The Pareto Principle or also known as the 80/20 rule tells that 20% of your work can produce 80% of your work. The principle just basically points out how you should perceive your time on your tasks. If you want to save more time on activities, you should know which are tasks that best fit your remaining time as they can produce more output. 3.) Be Productive When you are given a task make sure you analyze it before placing it on your todo-list. There a lot of things to consider when you analyze your tasks: Make sure to check its priority. Is it time-consuming and important? If not, then leave it for later. Apply the Pareto principle on your list of tasks as this can help you set your flow. If time is really out of your hands you can always ask for somebody’s help. Never postpone any tasks if you have time as this can lead to panicking which can lessen the quality of your work. 4.) Saying No is An Option Saying “no” to a request is an ordinary response because everyone has their own limits. Simply letting know other people that you cant handle their tasks is important, in that way they can efficiently distribute tasks to those who are suitable for it. Make sure to provide a proper reason when rejecting tasks so that they can understand.  5.) Effective Meetings Meetings can be considered as a time waster if you have no proper plan on how to conduct it. Always set an objectives on a meeting to make sure that you’re not eating everyone’s time. 6.) Be Organized Organizing tasks isn’t the only thing you need to worry about, you should also be organized in your workplace. Creating a healthy work environment can boost your productivity. Start by cleaning your desk, removing useless items that can distract you, redesign your desk setup, and organize your tools as this can help you be productive in the future. 7.) Eliminate Procrastination Procrastination can eat up a huge amount of your time for work. Make sure that you stay away from objects that can cause your procrastination. A nice practice you can do is keep your phone away from you during your working hours as this can distract you. 8.) Eat The Frog According to Mark Twain “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” To simplify it, prioritizing is the key to proper time management. As you go through your tasks make sure that the important comes first and slowly make your way to the less important one. 9.) Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand Have you ever heard of the rocks, pebbles, and sand story? If not then I’ll only tell you the gist of it. You need to fill up a glass jar using the three items mentioned: rocks, pebbles, and sand. The rock indicates the important and urgent things, the pebbles are also important but not so crucial, and the sand is the not so important things. In order to fill up the jar, you need to put the rocks first then pebbles, and lastly the sand. if you change the priority of the items then you won’t be able to fill the jar. The story basically just tells us what and how we should prioritize our life and the same can be applied in tasks. 10.) Take Breaks Be sure to take breaks every now and then. Your brain won’t function properly if you’re constantly working. You can go to a park, read a book, etc. Free yourself from stress so that you can refresh yourself and go back to work later. Also, be sure to check your health, neglecting your health can lead to many complications. You can’t work if your body can’t move. Therefore, take care of your health.

Just about every manager has dealt with a difficult employee. They may be good at their job— an excellent one at that but their behavior reeks of trouble and toxicity. We often refer to them as “toxic” or “problematic” people— the kind whom no one wants to hang out with after office hours. The type of person whose negativity could force a ripple effect throughout the office until everyone else is infected. For this reason, managers are stuck with a big problem– and that is how to deal with toxic people at work. The unfortunate thing is, managers tend to get held hostage to these people. They spend an unfortunate amount of time dealing with them, emotionally and physically. This is but a sad reality and an inevitable landscape for managers. However, it must be addressed head-on so that it doesn’t affect the productivity and the relationship of the entire team. What should an excellent manager do in this situation? Here are ways you can do to deal with difficult employees. Here’s how to deal with toxic people at work: 1. Establish your expectations for employee behavior beforehand It is an essential responsibility of a manager to set their expectations for employees. It eliminates confusion and increases the likelihood of a healthy relationship. For starters, your employees are not mind-readers. You need to give an overview of your expectations for their output and behavior. It’s obvious that each one must maintain basic human decency. However, managers should still make it clear for the employees. Let them know that you value a positive and respectful attitude. Express how you want them to work with honesty and integrity. Be clear about how you want them to conduct themselves professionally even when they are off duty. So when things get out of hand, for instance, after all your laid out expectations, they still turn out to be problematic, you have the advantage to address it better. It will be easy for you to call them out (take note: professionally) and give them a warning since you provided them with expectations beforehand. Another helpful technique is to create an annual employee performance review. All the employees in your team should participate. Establish how you want them to work with each other and how you appreciate a positive atmosphere within the department. Read: 4 Proven Ways on How to be Productive 2. How to deal with toxic people in the workplace? Confront them diplomatically Most managers don’t want to deal with knotty personnel issues. Nonetheless, in the case where it’s bothering you and your employees, you have no other choice but to do so. When confronting the employee, make sure you stay calm and give clear behavioral feedback. Giving straightforward feedback is one of the most uncomfortable things to do. Yet, it is something that you have to learn to do reasonably well. Don’t describe their issue as an attitude problem. It may sound subjective and will seem like a personal problem rather than a behavioral policy problem. Try to cite policies that you or the company had set. This will draw the difference between their negative behavior and expected morale for the employees.  Be consistent with your complaint. If you are not okay with their performance, don’t beat around the bush. Do not be okay with it but sometimes be okay with it. Sugarcoating your words won’t help at all. 3. Refer to the HR Managers may not be able to handle the trouble effectively, but the HR sure can. The HR people have had training and seminars that funded them with the methods on how to tackle such issues. They will advise you on the best way to handle the issue in accordance with the organization’s culture. Additionally, they will provide you the needed documentation and time frames.  When you take matters like this with your own hands, you are making your workplace better for everyone. Sure, confrontations are too dramatic for you, it’s totally not your forte. But let your employees know that you value your own expectations. Let them know that you appreciate the contributions of your hard-working and trouble-free employees.  Read: 6 Ways Great Team Leaders Manage Remote Teams