Project Management Certification - Programs That Work

By : Rafael Tassini

In order to successfully succeed in project management, you must be thoroughly trained. Project management is not the type of skill that is to be taken lightly. Project managers handle an important part of any business that can cost the company a lot of money if they aren't done properly. This means that specifications must be adhered to, deadlines must be met, and communication must be fluid at all times. As manager you must make sure the project team works together in order to make this happen. This certification will get you started so that you can be successful along this career path.

How can you find a project management certification program that works? When looking for the right program for you, it is always best to consider the educator's reputation. Would you really train with a school that is reported to have more complaints than successes on record? Are the alumni of the school satisfied? Are they proud to have graduated from the school? Did the experience and education make their lives richer? Schools usually have testimonials from their students. Look them over carefully to get a good idea of what kind of experience you'll have while attending classes.

Perhaps you find yourself too busy to take your certification classes in a traditional school. Does the school you want to attend have long distance learning for your program? This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do your classes online either. While this is popular, especially among project management certification programs, there are other ways to do distance learning. Perhaps your school can send you books you need or lectures you'll need to hear on DVD or some other format. The more flexible your learning experience is, the better your program will work for you.

There are other things to consider as well. Who are your instructors? Are they experienced in project management? What are their credentials? Learning from someone more experienced than you in your field is the only way to truly learn your trade. You'll not only learn what to expect, but what is expected of you as well. A good project management certification program won't just teach you the basics. It will go in depth, teaching you terminology, practices, and project management standards. You'll become familiar with your responsibilities, and how to handle them. A good certification program will give you all the knowledge you'll need to succeed in the business world.

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Tips For Finding Your Best Business Success Mentor

By : Jeffry T Clark

Many people go into business using only gut-feel to make their way through the intricacies of running a commercial venture. While this has worked in the past and has even produced some winners and successes, it's not always a guarantee. More factors come into play, such as the viability of the business, the quality of the product, pricing, marketing strategy and business direction. To improve their chances of enjoying business success, many people turn to a mentor for guidance. Do you need one? Here are tips you can use to help you in finding the best mentor for your success:

Determine your business goals

Think carefully about what your business is and what you want it to become in the future. Be detailed if you can and don't just throw in generalizations such as, 'I want a successful business' or 'I want my business to make money'. Know what you truly want to achieve and what your short-term and long-term goals are.

Consider the strong and weak points of your business. If you see these clearly, it will be easier to find the best mentor to guide the growth of your business.

Look for someone who has the expertise in the field or industry you want to excel in

This will increase your chances of learning the right kind of skills and knowledge to help you thrive in your chosen business. If your business is in IT or Internet marketing, you might not maximize your learning with someone who is heavily into the retail or construction industry. Their experience and knowledge may be irrelevant or insufficient to be of any use to you.

Have a good idea about what you wish to achieve from a mentoring relationship

Identify your purpose/s and desired results. The best mentor for you fully understands your needs vis-à-vis your capability and willingness. If it's clear to him what you hope to achieve, you can eliminate the possibility of confusion regarding your expectations and his role as your guide.

Identify the most probable sources of your mentor

It's possible that the best mentor for your business is one that is already familiar with your business. Try to identify possible advisers from members of your business association, management team or even business acquaintances whose success and experience in their own ventures you admire. You may also consider a business owner with an excellent track record in the same industry.

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How Do You Handle Your Boss Who is Acting As a Bully?

By : Dr. Joseline Edward

Recently on a social blog, a female IT professional mentioned her boss' behavior. She mentioned that her boss was snooping and spying his direct reports also he forced her to work for long hours every day without remuneration under threat of dismissal. Besides she was threatened in front of others. I was really shocked to see the manager behavior.

At some point of time in our career, most us have faced or may face these kinds of bosses. A study by the Employment Law Alliance was reported in CIO magazine reveals that almost half of all employees have been targeted by a bullying boss at some point of time in their career. The detailed result shows that 81 percent of bullies are managers; among, 50 percent of bullies are women managers and 50 percent are men managers; 84 percent of targets are women; 82 percent of targets ultimately lost their job; 95 percent of bullying is witnessed. They cause high turnover rates, reduced productivity and increased employee absences which are bad for an organization.

In general most of us would like to have a good working relationship with our superiors, but what if our bosses are impossible to work with? I would like to suggest three-step-process to handle such situations.

Step 1: In general we can classify bullying managers into two categories. The first category managers do not bully intentionally, they do it by mistake. On the other hand, the second category managers do this intentionally. The managers who come under the first category can be educated to correct their behavior. The victim can have a one-to-one session with the bullying manager to explain how his or her actions hurt the individual both personally and professionally, this would help to change their behavior. A boss who was bullying his subordinates without intentions would most likely understand the situation and would correct his behavior.

Step2: Your boss is continued to behave as he or she was. In this situation, you can approach your Human Resource (HR) department for assistance. You need to keep all evidence to answer questions from HR. Most likely the HR team would help you. Besides, you can try to find a job within a company with some other departments if you really like the company and wanted to stick with the company to develop your career.

Step 3: Now, let us assume that the HR department was not able to help you, your boss continues to behave as he or she was. Besides, you are not able to find a suitable position within the company. What is the best approach for you now? I would suggest you to need find a good job and quit the company. If the company was not able to retain good employees like you, let them bear the burden. It is not a loss for you, Instead, a loss for the company.

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Demonstrating Your Return on Investment in Training

By : Vincent Stevenson

What do we have to do to convince our boss that further training will be a real enhancement to the business?

For those of us who have been in training for a long time, there is a simple formula which when delivered to the boss, makes it difficult for him or her to resist.

It's called Kirkpatrick's evaluation model for training. Donald L Kirkpatrick was a professor at University Of Wisconsin when he published his series of articles in the Journal of American Society of Training Directors in 1959. A training phenomena was born.

Kirkpatrick's training evaluation model uses four levels which are:

Level 1: the reaction of student - how they enjoyed the training experience and felt about it afterward.

Level 2: learning - the measurable hightening of core skills and business flexibility.

Level 3: behaviour - extent of behaviour and capability improvement and implementation/application.

Level 4: results - the effects on the business or environment resulting from the trainee's performance.

All these measures are recommended for full and meaningful evaluation of learning in organizations, although their application broadly increases in complexity, and usually cost, through the levels from level 1-4.

Think back to your last course? Examine Kirkpatrick's four levels and then look for evidence which is demonstrable to your boss, this evidence must persuade him that more spending on your training will have proven benefits.

Your manager needs to know that your recent training courses have had an impact on you as an individual, as well as demonstrating a significant return on investment to the department. So, it's our job to remind him of your phenomenal learning skills.

Remind him of how the last course went: 'It was a brilliant course; the trainer was fantastic, the facilities first class and all of the support staff were really switched on. It was a great experience.

Now move on to level 2: I learnt how to do spreadsheets, calculations, and functions and I became so much more productive as a team member. I am preparing myself to produce even more advanced work.

It's going well - now move on to level 3: My previous training has really made a difference to the team. I am more skilled and productive and now I'm working to develop the skills of less experienced staff when they have a problem. When I wake up in the morning, I jump out of bed because I'm so excited about the work and the professional progress that I'm making.

And now level 4 - what are the distinguishing results of the training? Well at my last appraisal I was told that my productivity has risen by 30% and my error rate has significantly been reduced. I am currently utilising my professional skills in helping less experienced colleagues and I intend to run a voluntary training session in the coming months.

If it's possible to persuade the boss that every cent of expenditure on your continuous professional development will return an amazing return on investment, you are surprisingly closer to that confirmatory signature.

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Hotel Management - Is Hotel Management a New Line of Business?

By : Owais Siddiqui

The hotel management business is getting really popular nowadays. When a hotel has good and organized staff, it makes a good impression on the customers. The time has changed greatly now and the chain of hotels keep on expanding. So there are ample job opportunities available for people who have done hotel management courses. They can either do full time jobs or part time. In part time jobs the salary given is comparatively lower than the full time jobs.

If you have good managerial skills, have great interest in this field and can communicate with people easily; then hotel management would be the most suitable job for you. Generally the tasks assigned to the hotel managers include receiving customers at the reception with diligence, carefully handling the reservations, housekeeping, planning and organizing events at the hotel and also handling the operations on food and beverages. Apart from being so much organized hotel managers are also supposed to be creative and analytic so that they work to maximize the profits, understanding the problems deeply and finding solutions quickly. This way they will get promotions and good salary. It you desire to have all these qualities then you should definitely study hotel management courses.

When you become a manager in a hotel, there are lot things which become dependent on you and you have to handle your responsibilities very cautiously. Of course you will make some mistakes in the beginning of your career but it would be really appreciable that you learn from those mistakes and be extra careful. Like you have to take care of your clients and see if they are satisfied with the arrangements, food and availability of different resources. Besides other responsibilities a manager in a hotel should also keep a watch on the security level of the hotels to maximize the safety of the people inside the hotel. Your main task is to attract more and more customers. If your performance is good you will also get bonuses added with your salary.

These tasks may sound too difficult to handle, but in reality they will make your life better. These are the steps which should be taken by everyone to improve their lives but they are so reluctant to do so and then face a lot of problems. So all in all, hotel management will also teach you to become more organized and it will be very helpful to lead a good life.

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Hotel Management - How Can You Learn Hotel Management at Home?

By : Owais Siddiqui

One of the most popular study fields of today is hotel management. The hotel management courses teach you to handle tasks like housekeeping, conventions, reservations and handling catering in a hotel then you can earn good salary. If you have interest in this line and the skills required for jobs related to this field then you should definitely do hotel management courses.

Today people can learn these courses from home if they have problems due to which they cannot do it by going to a particular training centre. These courses can be done online on the World Wide Web. This way a lot of your time and money will be saved but you will be required to attend management training courses outside your town which would not be a big hassle for you. There are a lot of reputable universities and business training agencies which are offering these courses; you can easily find them over on the internet.

However these universities are virtual universities. They are either offering degrees in management or short courses online. The fees of these study programs are comparatively lower and affordable than the others which are based on regular classes. However you should contact to your university and make sure if the examinations are given online or in the classrooms.

In the first couple of years of your program you will be taught how to handle the mundane duties. Do not think that you would not be taught online what they teach in classrooms. All of the material is the same except that in homes you see it visually and in the classrooms you see it physically. After some time you will be given assignments to give theories on staffing, hotel décor or conventions.

After you are done studying, you will be offered jobs like hotel manager, catering manager, food and drinks manager or convention service manager. Your salary will also be low but when you will gain experience in this field you will earn good stipend. If you performed well you will be able to get bonuses along with your salaries or you will be promoted.

Presently, there is a lot of demand for the hotel managers because these hotel businesses keep on rising not just in this country but internationally and the best thing about these managing courses is that it is not necessary to have a four year degree, you can even get jobs easily by studying short courses.

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Women Who Manage Work and Home

By : Ricky S Khan

It is a fact that in today's day and age a working woman faces more stress than a man. They need to meet deadlines at work even if they have a sick child at home, look into their children's school work and assignments, be competitive and perform well at work, create a healthy environment at home and manage household chores. But after a point this begins to take a toll on a working woman's life. It affects her and the people around her in a negative way.

Tips on perfecting the balancing act

Women are very capable of multitasking, but they need to draw a line after a point. When accommodating to everyone's demand leads to stress, it is time to stop. Women stress a lot on keeping their house clean. Don't spend your precious time at home, by spending hours on cleaning it. Get some house help instead. It is an investment worth making. This free time came be utilized by bonding with your family or just relaxing with a good book and a cup of coffee.

Try and fix quick but healthy meals for the family, instead of lavish treats. That can be done during time off from work. A basic preparation during the weekends can make it easy to make the meals when you return tired from a long and hectic day at work.

Some tasks can be split with the spouse when it comes to doing household work. Set up a carpool system with the neighbors to help pick up and drop kids. The daily routine should be prioritized from most important to least important things. Maintain a calendar and set reminders for tasks that need to be done.

Basically if the daily routine is managed well, there will be no stress. Learning to manage stress can contribute towards success and personal well-being.

Different ways to manage stress

Stress can be a motivator and help a woman in achieving her goals. If there is an important presentation at work, which affects her position, she will work extra hard on it. But if she has to prepare her kids for an exam the same day, the stress level rise. That's when things may get out of control and she may even forget to pack their lunch or even keep the most important documents in her briefcase. That's why managing stress is the key to a balanced life.

There are different ways to manage stress. When stressed, always focus on your breathing. Take deep breaths and once your mind is calm, try and work out a solution to the problem. Eat healthy meals in small proportion and at frequent intervals during the day. This keeps the energy levels in control throughout the busy day. Never neglect your health, because if you are unwell, you won't be able to take care of your work and family. Perform regular exercises, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and join the gym or aerobics class. Make time for your friends and socialize in order to unwind. Make room in your schedule for meditation in the morning. This will be a perfect start to a day.

Even the busiest woman should find the time for herself at least once a month and treat herself to a shopping spree or a relaxing day at the spa. Make time for a nice relaxing bath with soothing music and fragrant candles around. Not only does this calm the senses, it also helps in unwinding from the daily hectic schedule that seems like and endless road.

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