What company has the most accessible channels & structure to reach senior management & there-for-our-employees behaviour that you know of? And why?

Whenever you assign them a task, break down the task into small chunks. Make the chunks as small as you can (within reason, and to the extent that your knowledge allows), and tell your devs that if any chunks seem large, that they should further break those chunks down into bite size pieces. For instance, for the overall task of making a new webpage, _you_ might break it down as follows: 1) Set up a database 2) Make a form that takes user email, name, and phone number and adds them to database 3) Have our site send an email to everyone above the age of 50 each week When your devs take a look at it, _they_ might further break down the third step into: A) Set up an email service B) Connect it to the client database C) Figure out how to query the database for certain users D) Have it send emails to users over 50 You can keep using Asana, or you could use something like Trello which might make more sense for a small company, and might be easier to understand and track by yourself. In Trello you'd set up 4 columns titled, "To Do", "Doing", "Ready for Review", "Approved" (or combine the last two into "Done") You might want to tell them to only have tasks in the "Doing" column if they/re actually sitting at their desk working on it. For instance: not to leave a task in "Doing" overnight after work. That way you can actually see what they're working on and how long it takes, but that might be overly micro-manager-y At the end of each day / week when you review the tasks completed, look for ones that took a longer time than average (since, on average, all the tasks should be broken down into sub-tasks of approximately the same difficulty). Ask them about those tasks and why they took longer to do. It may be because they neglected to further break it down into chunks as you had asked (in which case you ask them to do that next time), or it may be that some unexpected snag came up, or it may be a hard task that can't be further broken down. In any case, listen to their explanation and you should be able to tell if it sounds reasonable, and if it sounds fishy, google the problem they say they encountered. You'll be able to get a better feel of their work ethic and honesty by how they answer the question, without worrying as much about what their actual words are. Make sure that when you ask for more details about why a task took longer, you don't do it in a probing way. Make sure they understand that you're doing it for your own learning and to help predict and properly plan future timelines.

I am based in Canada and ended up opening a US bank account with Harris Bank in Chicago without physically visiting their office. This was about 4 years ago. So maybe contact them and see if they could help you.

That would depend on what you're trying to accomplish and who you are as a manager and individual. Off the top of my head I can tell you that Podio, Asanna and Basecamp are all popular project management tools. Which one you use really depends on you and the features you want. On a personal level I use Trello which I make work for me. It has the features I want and allows me to display information that seems logical to me. I suggest that you play around with all them and find which one works best for you. If I'm off the mark and you're asking about a specific system I suggest scrum. Although scrum is most talked associated with building agile products I've successfully used it on a wide variety of projects technical and non technical. Hope this helps and best of luck!

For the first 90 days, listen and plan - but don't do anything. You need to understand why they are under performing and 9/10 it's because the previous Manager was just not a good Manager, could not recognize people's strength's, had them in the wrong roles, tried to do their jobs etc etc Read "First break all the Rules" - get to know your team, get to understand their strengths, get people in the right roles (plan a change if reqd) and then your focus after that is break down the barriers that stop your team being successful and get out of their way. “Now, discover your strengths!” that Swier suggests is also a marvellous book\resource to help you in this task. You are in a very fortunate position - there is nothing more rewarding than turning this situation around and there is only one way to go.... up... and that will get you noticed. It is much harder to take over a high performing team and either keep that going or further improve on it, as it's very unlikely you'll get the chance to really meet the previous Manager and understand why they had success and that team's loyalty will be with the previous Manager - this team will be looking for someone to lead, guide them and help them be successful as no-one goes to work wanting to under perform. Show and help them to achieve that and they will do and achieve remarkable things and you will be so proud of them as you watch them develop, achieve, grow in confidence and keep going. So, give thanks for having landed such a great career opportunity and go enjoy it.

There is a legendary example of this: Jack Dorsey being the CEO of both Twitter and Square simultaneously. Yes, it is possible to hold two jobs. It's even possible to be the CEO of two billion-dollar companies. It's far from easy, but it's possible with an extreme dose of discipline and time management. I heard Jack personally tell the story of how he managed his time at a fireside chat he did in New York. The closest I can get to an online article that talks about it is this: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/13/technology/dorsey_techonomy/ Take a look at the way he splits the days of his week into themes. Each of his 6 working days has a purpose. Monday: Management meetings and "running the company" work Tuesday: Product development Wednesday: Marketing, communications and growth Thursday: Developers and partnerships Friday: The company and its culture Saturday: (no work) Sunday: Big picture strategy But he then goes next level and splits his time between two companies by alternating mornings and afternoons in each office. The article mentions him working 16 hour days – 8 hrs at each company – but when Jack told the story himself, he said he was splitting mornings and afternoons between the companies. Monday Morning = Twitter Monday Afternoon = Square Tuesday Morning = Square Tuesday Afternoon = Twitter Wednesday Morning = Twitter etc This might be an approach you can think of taking. It means you make it clear what your schedule is, when you will be working on different aspects of each job, and then be incredibly disciplined about sticking to the schedule so other people can accommodate and work with you.