Useful Links – “Follow me on Twitter” Edition

The buzz about Twitter has been steadily growing over the past few months so I’m sure you have heard something about it. I’ve recently begun using it and am discovering it is a wonderful way to communicate, network, find useful resources, get questions answered, and connect with other like minded people.

If you’re on Twitter – I invite you to follow me – http://twitter.com/philmontero. I will be sharing lots of ideas, resources, and links much like I do on this blog. Its also gives you a chance to pick my brain and ask your most pressing question about virtual teams, mobile work technology, or remote collaboration.

Now on with the links . . .

OPM announces new governmentwide telework policy: Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry on Wednesday announced a broad new telework plan for employees, in part to deal with growing concern over the spread of swine flu in the United States. Why does it always take something this serious for people to think about the benefits of telework?

Effective Communication for Managing Virtual Office Employees: This article from Entrepreneur.com shares helpful strategies and software to better manage employees from afar.

5 Things You’ll Miss by Not Working In An Office: While there is no shortage of things you won’t miss about the office when telecommuting you may be surprised to find there are a few things you long for. The good news is, once you know what you’re missing, you can find ways to enjoy those same benefits while working remotely.

4 Ways to Make Every Day Earth Day with The Anywhere Office

While we have been preaching the environmental benefits of telecommuting and virtual teams for many, many years -today being Earth Day seemed like a good time to give you a quick rundown of some ways that the tools and strategies of The Anywhere Office® can help you go green and make every day Earth Day.

Here are 4 things you can easily do starting today to make a difference:

Eliminate or reduce the daily commute

Do you or your employees commute daily to a central office?  Consider telecommuting even a few days a week or month.  This can reduce tons of CO2 emissions annually.  Just how much?  Check out the carbon calculator at http://www.thegreenoffice.com/carboncalculator/calculator/.

SunMicrosystems Open Work program saved million in real estate and energy costs and cut carbon emissions by 29,000 tons in 2007.

If you need to access computers or documents in the office you can use a remote access service like GoToMyPC for easy remote access.

Or take a bold leap forward and go completely virtual by allowing your team or organization to work full time from their home offices. Read more

The importance of developing effective virtual leaders

I came across this short thought-provoking video created by Team Builders Plus and some of the
statistics and points it raises are real eye-openers.

What’s it like where you work?

As they point out:

Leadership, trust, and communication are more important than ever, but if your organization is like many today, the intense focus on cost-containment and fears about the economy dominate
the conversation at work.

While millions of people are losing their jobs and an increasing number of companies are going out of business the landscape of business will be changing in the near future.

With more than 25% of the working population reaching retirement age by 2010 a massive workers shortage looms on the horizon. This means organizations will be forced to do more with less and increase productivity from fewer employees.

In a study of more than 1000 organizations, leadership was identified as the single biggest challenge. Increasingly people lack confidence and trust in their managers and leaders.

We’ve found that these issues are magnified when managing remote employees or virtual teams. That is why our training focuses on improving communication and increasing trust in virtual teams when managing virtually. Read more

Thinking about starting your own business? Get some Free Expert Advice from the folks at Changing Course

If you’re like many people the current economy may have cost you your job – or has you concerned about the stability of your current workplace.  You’d love to start your own business but you are not sure if this is the right time.

Our colleagues over at ChangingCourse.com are offering a free 60-minute telephone seminar this Sunday on why this is the perfect time to start your own business and i wanted to tell you folks about it.

Here is their invitation describing the event:

Here’s why this is THE perfect Time to Start Your Own Business

Have you ever thought of simply putting out your shingle and starting your own business? Yet maybe your plans came to a screeching halt because of what’s going on in the economy. Well what if I told you now was THE perfect time to start your own business, would you believe me? Well, here’s the deal, it’s true, now is really the perfect time to start your business.

Did you know that some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies today were started in a down economy? This is just one of the many things you will discover when you sign up for Valerie Young’s call this Sunday, April 5 at 7pm. You’ll hear Valerie interview Tom Kennedy (a former consulting client of hers who took the ideas he got from our brainstorming session and ran with them) as well as two graduates of her Outside the Job Box Career Expert Training, Cheryl Young and Sherrie Porterfield – each with very different personalities, perspectives, and approaches!

All three of these individuals offer a unique perspective on why now is the perfect time to start your own home-based business. Read more

IRS Tax Extension Application

IRS Tax Extension Application.

I hate to feed anyone’s procrastination habit, because sometimes i get it bad (did someone say boomshine?), but the link above will take you to an IRS approved provider website that will file an income tax deadline extension for you FREE of charge if you do it before April 20th. The vast majority of extension requests are accepted and they postpone your tax filing deadline for 6 months, until October 15th.

Taxextension.com is basically an automated, online way to file a Form 4868. As far as i’m concerned, the ability to efile tax forms goes firmly in the ‘computers make my life better category’. The jury is still out on Boomshine…