Spring has sprung, and with it comes a new sense of optimism about the work we do, especially here at the Bureau. We have a dedicated group of business leaders helping one another succeed, and every week I share an email newsletter containing words of wisdom from these fine people (okay, and from me). I think it’s a highly useful resource, if I do say so myself, and I’d recommend signing up for it here. But I’ve also collected the tl;dr of our April newsletters here, so read on for the distilled goodness!

From 1 to 5, How Many F**** Do You Give?

Nobody has the time and energy to put their all into everything they do, so we tend to triage what really deserves our attention most. And now we can quantify it through the GAF index, giving a 1 to 5 score on how much you care about something. The GAF can help you understand your priorities and even deescalate conflicts on the team. You can use it to evaluate the different tasks in your workload, or compare scores on one topic with others on your team to see what’s worth pushing your perspective on. 

Proposing Improvement

Whenever we get a ton of messages on the Bureau Slack about a really fundamental topic, I know it’s important. And that’s what happened when we talked about writing better proposals. After much back and forth, we decided that the best proposals are specifically tailored to the audience, and are straightforward without being muddied by jargon. They also provide relevant examples of your work and leave open the possibility of adaptation as needed. And one other key element was following up after they are sent.

Managing PM

On the tools side of things, we took a good, hard look at the many, many project management tools out there. We evaluated all the positive and negative comments, along with pricing options, and boiled it all down to a top ten list. For a glimpse of the conclusions, here were our top three:

  • ClickUp

    • Pros: Highly customizable, integrates with over 1,000 apps.

    • Cons: Steep learning curve, limited mobile app functionality.

    • Pricing: Starts free; paid plans from $7 per user/month.

    • Website: ClickUp

  • Wrike

    • Pros: Extensive task tracking tools, robust security options.

    • Cons: Can be overly complex for smaller teams or simpler projects.

    • Pricing: Custom pricing upon request.

    • Website: Wrike

  • Asana

    • Pros: Great integration capabilities, strong free plan, user-friendly.

    • Cons: May feel limiting for complex, large-scale projects.

    • Pricing: Free plan available; more features on paid plans.

    • Website: Asana

Stiff Competition

Finally, we took a look this month at the new FTC ban on non-compete agreements. We looked at it from the perspective of employees and employers. For employees, it can increase earning power and give them more power over their prospects, but it could also mean reduced job security. Employers, on the other hand, can strengthen their reputation with more employee-focused policies, but retention becomes more challenging with no defense against the competition taking your people. In the end, it will require some adaptation, but we’ll adjust as we always have. 

Links

Finally, here are a few of the useful links to tools and resources that we shared in our newsletters for April.

That will wrap it up for this month. We have a ton of great activities coming up over the next little while, including some truly excellent leadership camps. An easy way to keep up on the latest happenings is to sign up for the newsletter. And I’ll be back with another wrap-up post next month. Have a great May!

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