"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."

John F. Kennedy

“I have many years of experience in my bag, I can handle any situation with available resources without letting panic set in. I don’t think technology can replace your experience and skills,” says John, who is working as a senior marketing manager at a reputable advertising agency.

John is also a good friend of mine, but I beg to differ in this regard. Whether you have substantial experience behind your back, or are new to the leadership role, you must accept the age-old saying that “learning never stops”

There’s always room for improvement, and trying different tools and techniques to improve the quality (and quantity) of work is a continuous process. In this ever-changing world, being open-minded and versatile are two traits any leader must have.

Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or a manager in a well-established company, the onus is on you to take your organization forward by effectively using both technology and human resources.

Why Leadership and Learning Are Synonymous With Each Other

As a leader of the team, you have a great responsibility on your shoulders. You have to make many tough decisions daily. Your employees look up to you for inspiration and guidance. In a dynamic, tech-driven business environment, leaders must be on their toes all the time.

You may have great intentions for your business, but if you do not have the right tools at your disposal then you are only making things tough for yourself. A leader has a bag full of tasks and responsibilities to carry out.

Leaders who are open to adapting the latest technology to support employees and make them feel valued can be more successful in their role. Additionally, developing your leadership skills can also improve the learning prowess of your employees and their ability to contribute to overall organizational goals.

Let us now move to read about the best software and tools that can help leaders boost their skills and improve overall team performance.

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Incredibly Effective Tools for Leaders

1. Toggl

“20% of the average workday is spent on “crucial” and “important” things, while 80% of the average workday is spent on things that have “little value” or “no value”. - Shirley Fine Lee (a.k.a. The Meeting Wizard”)

No matter what position you hold, tracking time can be one of the biggest challenges in any organization. Many managers and entrepreneurs face the common problem of employees wasting time in non-work related activities, or taking longer than expected doing certain tasks.

Toggl can help you big time with effective time management. This easy-to-use time tracking app offers an overview of how much time your employees spent on tasks assigned to them. The tool can be used both online and offline. All it takes is a single-click to start or stop tracking time.

Key Features Include:

• One-click timers
• Tracking reminders
• 100 plus app integrations
• Manual time entries
• Calendar integration
• Project dashboard
• Team dashboard
• Flexible data reporting

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2. MyHours

My Hours is built with one job in mind – tracking time so you can run profitable projects. It is one of the best time tracking software apps as it excels at simple time tracking (timesheet or real-time tracker) and offers advanced but clear reporting.

With unlimited projects, tasks, clients, and team members you can lead small or large teams to run profitable projects from start to finish. You can organize your projects, track your time, analyze through reports and create invoices all in one place.

With a rich set of features, My Hours offers excellent user experience and price performance. MyHours also has one of the best support teams on the market.

Key Features Include:

• Project and task organization
• Billable rate management
• Detailed time tracking
• Custom and appealing reports
• Timesheets and log approvals
• Email reports for clients

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3. ProofHub

“File sharing, time tracking, email integration, Gantt Charts, and budget management are the top five most used and requested features in project management software.”

If you’re facing difficulties in improving team collaboration, and lack control over your project, then ProofHub is the right solution. This all-in-one project management software is designed to help leaders keep every team member in the loop and make everyone accountable for their actions.

ProofHub has all the tools you and your team needs for better team collaboration and simplified project management in one location and does not charge a per-user fee. You can create and assign tasks, organize files, create custom roles, visualize task progress, track time, create custom reports, and much more. 

Key Features Include:

• Online proofing
• Custom roles
• Task management
• Online chat
• Custom workflows and Kanban Boards
• Timer and time sheets
• Online discussions
• Calendar
• Custom reports

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4. Slack

“86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.”

Worried about the lack of a unified and responsive communication hub in your team? Relax, Slack is here to help you! This channel-based messaging platform helps to bring all your team communications in one online location, which can be searched and accessed instantly from any connected device.

Leaders can create channels for every project, team, or topic to bring order and clarity to work. You and your team get a shared view into the work being done. Everyone in the channel can work in tandem and new members have full context when they join.

Key Features Include:

• Channels
• Slack connect
• Voice and video calls
• Workflow builder
• File sharing
• Enterprise key management
• Data encryption
• Two-factor authentication

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5. Zoom

“By helping to shorten project timelines, video calling tools can save companies anywhere from 15%-30% of the total project cost.” - Katherine Stone

Sometimes instant messaging might not be adequate when the situation calls for more clarity and purpose in communication. Team leaders can use Zoom, a popular video conferencing software, to discuss key details of the project. Another benefit of this easy-to-use and affordable tool is that you can see all the participants and read their body language to get an idea of their overall well-being or approach to work.

Zoom allows you to host online virtual meetings, conduct training sessions, and host webinars. You can invite up to 1,000 participants and 10,000 viewers at a time! Offering high-quality video, audio, and screen-sharing capabilities, Zoom can help leaders take team collaboration to a whole new level.

Key Features Include:

• Enterprise video conferencing with real-time messaging and content sharing
• Zoom conference rooms
• One-touch join
• Powerful meeting security
• HD audio and video
• Enterprise cloud phone system
• Video webinars
• Reporting and analytics
• Live streaming
• On-demand viewing

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6. Evernote

“Evernote remains the Top 45 free productivity app and the Top 9 grossing productivity app.” - askwonder.com

Frustrated with cluttered, poorly organized misplaced notes? If yes, then Evernote is the right solution. This cloud-based, comprehensive note-taking app allows you to create to-do lists, prioritize tasks for projects, capture, and organize material anywhere.

User-friendly and highly configurable, Evernote keeps your text documents, photos, videos, audio files, or even web pages stored up in the cloud. Evernote Business can be used to manage projects, tasks and deadlines, clients, and meetings with ease. Plan, keep records and manage projects from any device–even offline.

Key Features Include:

• Sync and organize notes
• Web clippers
• Templates
• PDF and DOC Search
• Spaces
• Search handwriting
• Document scanning
• Integrations
• Annotations and mark-up

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7. ezClocker

If you own a janitorial, construction, landscape, or other service-oriented type of businesses then ezClocker would be a great fit for you. ezClocker is a simple to use time tracking and scheduling app built for small business owners. One of the reasons ezClocker is highly rated on the AppStore is because of its simple design where even a non-tech person can figure out how to use it.

Employees can clock in using their phone with a touch of a button, view their schedule, and total hours worked. Employers use ezClocker to view timesheets, create schedules, view overtime, and export time entries to process payroll.

Key Features include:

• Clock in/out GPS location
• Online scheduling
• Prevent employees from clocking in early
• Support for labor job costing
• Overtime calculations
• Employee clock in/out notifications
• Block employees from clocking in without GPS turned on
• Kiosk app that will turn your tablet into a portable time clock

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Coming to a Conclusion

Depending on the number of people you lead and the industry you’re working in, using one or more of these software applications to automate tasks can help you to be an even better leader than you already are.

As a responsible leader, the onus is on you to incorporate the latest technology to help you and your team collaborate better and simplify those complex tasks that take much of your time and effort.

Remember, your desire to improve can inspire your team to do better, which will eventually lead to improved work performance (both individual and group) and good results for the organization you work for. Using the right tools can be the perfect way to do it!

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