On managing remote teams and creating an atmosphere similar to your office: Recently, I did a webinar with TIE and fellow women founders on Managing remote teams. A lot of you asked for the extensive list of tools that I mentioned in the webinar. So, here it is!

When we are in an office environment, we have the luxury of meeting each other, share our learnings, provide instant feedback, infrastructure, facilities, etc. which helps teams to be productive and well-bonded. Unfortunately, we don’t get all these facilities in a virtual team and environment.

Here’s my list of the best alternatives to in-person situations, for remote teams:

Best alternatives to Physical, In-Person Team or One-to-One Meetings

When working virtually it’s advised to avoid channels that can cause misinterpretation. It’s better to avoid textual channels when doing important discussions. Make a practice of using the following channels in the given order:

1. Video Calls (even if it is a 2 min conversation, prefer this mode)

2. Audio Calls (only if the video call is not possible)

3. Chats (nonurgent & important communications)

4. Emails (only for official communications)

For video calls, you can use tools like

Zoom — In a free account, it allows up to 100 participants for 40 mins. After 40 min, you need to rejoin the meeting. It also has features like Recording the meeting, screen sharing, whiteboard, private meeting links, chats, file sharing, etc.

Webex — During Coronavirus pandemic, they’ve made it free for up to 100 participants and there is no limit on meeting duration. Features are similar to Zoom.

Best alternatives to replace Water Cooler Conversations

For co-learning & team-bonding, it’s important to create virtual spaces where people can share their learnings, hobbies, good reads, etc. You can know who is active, who is working, online, offline, etc in such tools. You can create channels or virtual groups in the following tools.

Slack -In the free account, all standard features like …….. are available with limitation of search possible in only recent 10k messages.

Microsoft Teams — In the free account, they have unlimited chats and video callings. Meetings can’t be scheduled in the free plan.

You can also organize games for your teams on video conferencing tools. Let me know in the comments if you want to know how we did it in our company?

Best alternatives to White-boards & Brainstorming

Being able to visually represent your thoughts, research, and ideas is the core of a team brainstorming session. It gives clarity to the other person.

Miro — It’s very easy to use and has features like mind-mapping, flow charts, sticky notes with the ability of real-time collaboration. It has 100s of use cases that you can find in their templates. the free plan, you can have up to 3 boards.

Best alternatives to In-Person Feedback: Recording your screen to provide feedback effectively

If you review your colleague’s work use a video medium to provide the feedback instead of screenshots or texts.

Loom — You can do your screen recordings along with your audio and video. It generates a cloud link that can be shared. It also gives statistics if someone opens or watches the recording. It’s easy to use and during Coronavirus pandemic they’ve increased the limit of recordings from 25 to unlimited.

Best tools for remote Documentation & Collaboration

Documentation is key for working remotely. Using a cloud tool makes it easy to share and access anytime.

Google Drive — Simple to use, create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. It allows multiple people to edit the same document in real-time along with the version history. It’s free to use for up to 15GB of storage.

Notion — You can create notes, docs, knowledgebase, databases, etc in one interface. No juggling required. In the free account, you can use up to 1000 elements.

Canva: Collaboration on social media posts. It’s free and has numerous attractive templates.

Best tools for remote Task Management

You need a tool for managing all team tasks and goals. It’s an old saying that What Doesn’t Get Measured Doesn’t Get Done. You can use the following tools to track your tasks

Trello — Easy to use and free to use. It helps you organize, assign, and prioritize the tasks. It also shows them in a calendar.

Best Tools for Recording Productivity & Time spent on each task

If you want to know how your team is spending their time without indulging in micro-managing. It’s good to know where the money is flowing and can help in making smart decisions. Use the following tools:

Time Doctor — Advance time-tracking, automated screenshots, web and app usage, etc. It’s a paid tool starting at $12/user/month.

Best tools for Scheduling Meetings and Managing Calendars remotely

Fixing a meeting requires a lot of to and fro communication. In the virtual team’s meeting scheduling tools saves a lot of time which is wasted in such conversations.

Best tools for Getting Signatures on contracts remotely: Use e-sign instead of physical signatures

Speed up your approval processes by using an e-sign solution for your business documents, contracts, proposals, etc. You can save up to weeks of time which is wasted in transporting a document from one location to another.

Adobe e-sign — Adobe eSign Services helps you to electronically sign and send business documents. It’s free for 3 months than at a very nominal price annually.

Best tools for remote HR Management and Tracking Team Attendance

If you want to manage your team’s attendance and leaves, use the following tools:

Jibble — it allows check-ins and checkouts with selfies for unlimited users in the free plan.

Best tools for To-Do Lists and Checklists

If your team does some repetitive works and there are no processes then productivity will leak through cracks and you will not even know. If not complex processes, you can start with simple checklists for publishing content, doing a release, creating videos, etc.

If you have found any tool which is helping your Team to work effectively, do share in the comments. We will add them to the list mentioning your name, and it’ll help others. :)

Read my stories

Originally published at https://hackernoon.com on May 17, 2020.

This women’s day I thought of writing a letter to all my fellow women. I want to share some of the learnings of my journey from a small town to a place where I am leading a 40 people team in a Technology company that I founded.

First of all, salute to all lovely ladies around the world. Wherever you are, I know you are providing strength to yourself and to everyone around you.

Any man, family, or workplace is always incomplete without a woman.

When I look around, I see all of you everywhere. You are either celebrating, working, helping, protecting or battling.

To Mothers,

Though every mother has a unique essence, all of you you are beautiful and define selflessness. You don’t let egos come in between. You will do everything to protect your family. The family draws strength from you, leans on you and when anyone falls you always manage to catch them.

It disheartens me when I see that sometimes your dear ones take you for granted and at times disrespect you. When they don’t value your love or care and shout at you for a smaller mistake.

If you feel not respected or hurt, I will ask you to not devote all your life to your loved ones. No matter what, keep a little for yourself. Keep it for your likings, hobbies, passions, and friends. Find time for all the things that you wanted to do when you were younger. Learn all that you missed when you were fulfilling your responsibilities and duties.

When you will have goals or bucket-list, you will not feel alone.

My mother is the strongest pillar and foundation of my life, she has made me strong, fearless and at the same time patient. She does not hold degrees, but is an astute observer and a quick learner. You will always feel that degrees are secondary when in conversations with her. She has always guided me in following the right directions and ignoring the fuss of society. I feel grateful every single day to have her as my mother.

To Daughters and Young Girls,

You are my adorable darlings. You are young, dynamic and Daddy’s princesses. Who doesn’t love you? Everyone cares for you and protects you. They will pick you up, drop you, carry your luggage and shower gifts, flowers and chocolates on you.

You will not know and you will enter into a comfort zone. But my dear, do not ever get settled in there. Life comes at us in waves. We can’t predict or control those waves, thus we need to be brave and stronger. In any case, never give up on your education, passions, career, and ambitions. You will have to break a lot of stereotypes.

So, act for your dreams, things, and people that will matter to you even after 10–15 years.

Also, you are innocent, young, attractive but, emotionally weak. Guys will get drawn towards you. I have seen those guys circling around you with no pure intention. Don’t trust anyone easily and quickly. Listen to your guts, and do share these things with parents and people you trust and seek advice.

My father is my real-life hero. He has always supported me and has always pushed me to the boundaries. I am fearless because he never let any fear hold in my mind, be it that of climbing, driving, making tough decisions or even insects :D. He never let anyone come in between my education and ambition. When my female cousins were getting married at 18, he decided to not get me and my sister married unless we are financially independent and were standing on our feet. All his caste-based relatives and family members broke away when I decided to do inter-caste marriage. But he stands still and is a wall upon which I can lean. This might seem alien to you, but yes that’s the reality of the society from which I belong.

To Working women,

You are a Tough nut! You’ve earned the respect of many. Your parents are proud of you. You already know the decisions that turned out to be right and wrong. You are celebrating life and freedom. In the beginning, enjoy and splurge all your money on yourself, for the things you wanted to do, shopping and travel. Start loving yourself.

Then, learn to do your finances. Learn to manage your money, make investments, asset creations, taxes, etc. The early you start, the better it gets.

It’s stunning to watch that money grow on its own. The security which it gives is relaxing.

I will ask not to, lose focus on your ambition because of independence and lifestyle upgrades. It’s not over yet. There are only 29% of women globally in senior management roles. Ref. I have heard the gossips where they say that you got the job because you are pretty. Believe in yourself and shut everyone by making your work speak for you. Become irreplaceable and valuable in whatever you put your mind into. Grab each and every opportunity that comes your way and fight for it.

Don’t just sit and wait for someone to realize your potential and provide the opportunities to you.

To Girlfriends and Wives,

You have picked the man with who you enjoy most and feel comfortable. Before you make your mind further, make sure that the guy is mature and responsible. He should not just offer love and care. He should respect you for your values and who you are because you are giving this person the right to emotionally affect you.

If given a chance I’ll choose respect over care.

Other than romance, you must also plan how both of your finances will be managed. How will you share responsibilities when it comes to living together. It’s important to have difficult conversations.

Having clarity always avoids future problems arising due to untold assumptions.

If you are married, you already know that when you imagined about your marriage, the extent of that imagination ended up being just the tip of the iceberg. Remember trying to fulfill everyone’s expectations, becoming the best version of every relation will exhaust you and in some cases might pull you back from your ambition.

You might get busy, but never give up on your dreams which you had before the marriage.

Deciding the right balance will be the testing times as you can’t leave anyone for another. Having the priorities set and becoming a little determined will help you out.

In the end, I’ll say

People will come and go from your life. You and your dreams are going to be with you forever; doesn’t matter who you are.

Women’s Day for me is not a post on social media or a WhatsApp forward wishing “Happy Women’s day”. It’s a yearly reminder that we’ve got to keep on traversing the journey, however difficult, from who we are to what we can be.

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was not happy at all.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; Why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy?

The King asked the servant, ‘Why are you so happy?’

The man replied, ‘Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don’t need too much — just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.’

The king sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the story, the advisor said, ‘Your Majesty, the servant has not yet joined “The 99 Club”.’

‘The 99 Club? And what is that?’ the King enquired.

The advisor replied, ‘To truly know what The 99 Club is, just place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant’s doorstep.’

When the servant saw the bag, he let out a great shout of joy… so many gold coins. He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were only 99 coins.

He wondered, ‘What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!’

He looked everywhere, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, he decided that he was going to work harder than ever to earn that 100th gold coin.

From that day, the servant was a changed man. He was overworked, grumpy, and blamed his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin.

And he had stopped singing while he worked.

Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. The advisor said, ‘Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club.’

He continued, ‘The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never content, because they’re always wanting that extra 1, saying to themselves: “Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life.”

We can be happy with very little in our lives, but the minute we’re given something bigger and better, we want more …and even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, as the price for our growing needs and desires.

That’s “The 99 Club”…

Zero Membership fee to enter, but you pay for it with your entire life !!!

Credit

The 99 club was originally published in The Story Club on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Our dear PM has wished all of us a happy new year by his great move of economic reform.

Looks like Samsung is not the only one recalling notes.

This move is what I call a real life “check-mate” to corruption, black-money and the fake note industry.

For the first time in our country people with less money are happier than people with bags full of money!

Who all are going to be affected?

Bachelors like me are happy and peaceful during this chaos, because we pay all our bills online. For rest of the transactions on grocery, movies, cabs, shopping, rents, etc we prefer cards or net banking. Because who needs to keep cash nowadays?

Fake note industry.

As many as 250 out of every 10 lakh notes in circulation are fake, according to a study conducted by the Indian Statistical Institute. Banknotes with a face value of Rs 400 crore are in circulation in the country. Every year fake notes of Rs. 70 crore are brought into the system and only one third of them are intercepted.

As per reported by IB, R&AW, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and CBI, ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s military spy agency) gets an annual profit of Rs. 500 crore. The cost of printing a fake Rs. 1, 000 note is Rs. 39 and it is sold at Rs. 350–400, according to a report. India-Bangladesh border is used to smuggle these notes in India. Source.

Terrorism funding

These fake currency notes are major funding source for terrorism in India.

Some of the names that are linked with the circulation are Dawood Ibrahim, Kashmir-centric Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e Taiba, ISI, Tunda and Indian Mujahideen.

These funds have been used to fuel terrorist activities like the attack on Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in December 2005, Mumbai terror attack on November 26–28, 2008, Bangalore blast in July 2008, etc. Source

Our own dear corrupt Indian people

People holding and hoarding all the black money that they have accumulated by exploitation of either their power or other people. And then, this money is kept under the bed, buried under the floor or inside walls, etc. of their properties.

These are the ones who are going to get heart attacks and will need these Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes at Hospitals.

1. All the property dealers who asks for cash + cheque component when dealing.
2. All illegal drug suppliers and dealers.
3. Owners of Private Medical or other colleges who take money under-the-table for admissions.
4. Jewellers who just celebrated a grand and happy Diwali on the sales of gold, silver, etc.
5. People who go to luxury car show-rooms & buy cars in all cash.
6. People taking advantage of their positions in Govt.

You have been warned before!

All of these people were given chances when Govt. asked people to open the bank accounts, declare the income by Sept 30th, warned about black money and financial inclusion and asked to buy paper gold. I hope all of them took those signs seriously; otherwise the rates of scrap (*raddi) is Rs. 10–15 /Kg.

All of us who are reading these kind of posts, or are posting themselves, are the only ones who don’t have any relation with black money; others are busy counting their notes, calling people, or thinking of ways to blame the Govt.

All the people who are crying about the inconvenience caused to them because of it, please be supportive & celebrate this extended festive season.

Its a request from me to all the readers to educate the maids, servants, labourers, drivers, etc. in our home or around about it. If they need help, please guide them too about next steps.

Please share this article or recommend it if you agree with what is said here. Help me spread this across. Because all of us love to sing:

Mera desh badal raha hai, Aage badh raha hai.

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I recently came across the news where the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav used his veto against bringing the jailed don Mukhtar Ansari (about 30 cases against him) in Samajwadi Party (SP). I really appreciate his valiant efforts of cleansing SP.

But this incident also makes me wonder; why was Mukhtar Ansari nominated in the first place!

So, I began digging into articles about UP politics on Google and newspapers like The Economic Times.

Some say its a political move to improve the image of Akhilesh. If the SP is truly working on cleansing the party then what would be his next steps about the existing leaders with criminal cases against them?

Current elected members in UP government

A study by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows that 54% ministers in the 2012 UP Cabinet had self declared criminal cases against them as per their affidavit filed. Also, 29% ministers out of the 48 analysed had declared serious Indian Penal Code (IPC) charges like rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, dacoity against them.

SP registered the highest number of criminal elements among its ranks in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. SP fielded 40% candidates with the serious crime charges, the BSP had 34%, according to the ADR data.

Here are some of the active members with criminal charges:

1. Abhay Singh (MLA, Gosaiganj) : Charged with Murder.

2. Mehboob Ali (MLA, Amrohi) : Charged with attempt to Murder.

3. Atiq Ahmed (Ex-MP, Phoolpur) : Many cases of murder. Once had 100 cases registered against him. He is on bail now on the murder of the then BSP member of Legislative Assembly Raju Pal in 2005. Atiq first made news in 1995 when he led an attack on BSP’s Mayawati at the Lucknow guest house after she withdrew support for the SP.

4. Akshay Pratap Singh (MLC, Kunda) : Charged with attempt to Murder.

5. Manoj Kumar Paras (MLA, Nagina-Bijnor) : Charged with Rape.

6. Raghuraj Pratap Singh (MLA, Kunda, minister for stamps and registrations) : Charged with Murder.

7. Vijay Mishra (MLA, Gyanpur-Bhadohi) : Charged with Murder. Gangster turned MLA has 62 cases registered against him. He is charged with a murderous attack on the then BSP minister Nand Gopal Gupta.

8. Kailash Chaurasia (Child Development Minister) : Charged for Intimidation, Forgery.

9. Dhananjay SIngh (former BSP MP, Jaunpur) : accused of murdering a Chief Medial Officer linked to the infamous National Rural Health Mission scam. He and his wife are also charged with the murder of their domestic help.

UP also has the highest incidences of attacks on policemen. The idea, many feel is to bring the security system to its knees so that the powers that be can have a free hand.

The History

Political analysts often hold Mulayam Singh responsible for the criminalisation of politics in the state after he brought surrendered dacoit Phoolan Devi into the SP fold, dropped all criminal charges against her and fielded her from Mirzapur in 1996. She won and served as the MP. Phoolan Devi was accused of 48 criminal offences including murder, plunder, arson as well as kidnapping for ransom.

It really terrifies me to the core after reading Phoolan Devi’s story. She was a true vigilante. But as they say in Arrow (TV series):

Once you kill a person, it changes you forever.

To read more about Phoolan Devi.

Mulayam Singh also fielded slain dacoit Dadua’s brother Bal Kumar Patel, who became an MP, and then roped in the Dacoit of Chambal Malkhan Singh for the political mileage.

Why do Parties Nominate such Candidates?

Its not just about UP. The similar is the case in most of the states. The strategy seems like :

The bigger the Criminal, the better the chance of Electoral Win.

Honest people don’t want to enter politics as there are significant entry barriers, high operating costs with moderate or no income. It makes politics unattractive to them.

Both dirty and clean people enter politics, but clean people fight elections based on Integrity, Ideologies and Developmental Policies, while rest, attract voters by distributing money, promising undue favors to particulars castes, religions or communities. I guess right now India demands more of the second type rather than the first, which is what the results show.

Why are we choosing such candidates?

People visits booths to vote but they don’t know the person who is standing in the election.

Urban people are typically disillusioned by politics by the time they come to the age of voting. But after Mr. PM Modi, people (especially youth) have started taking steps to aware themselves and speak about it.

Majority of Indian voting population is in rural areas. These people don’t understand the importance and power of their vote (similar to The Brexit Referendum) due to lack of education and the bigger picture. These voters are struggling for basic needs like water, sanitation and food. These people are more than happy to sell their vote for the exchange of limited period guarantee of these needs being fulfilled. Often these promises are made based on caste and religion.

As they say :

In India one does not caste his vote, one votes his caste.

As long as we identify ourselves as XYZ Caste/Hindu/Muslim first and Indian second, this will keep happening.

Conclusion

15 year ago Election Commission of India (ECI) made it compulsory to swear an Affidavit giving details of criminal cases against candidates and details of wealth. Organisations like ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms) releases such informations to voters to inform them. Unfortunately, it reaches to only few.

To read more about similar information about other states and its leaders. Check this ADR website.

You can also search directly about any Political leader or a Party at website named myneta.info.

This website has detailed profile of a candidate, their declared assets (movable and immovable), status of PAN and Income tax returns, liabilities and criminal cases.

Biasing against someone just because they have criminal cases against them is also not going to work. Because sometimes rival parties makes false allegations to the candidate just before elections. This is why ECI doesn’t stop anyone before he/she is convicted by court.

Blaming rural people, parties or leaders is not going to do anything but make ourselves feel that we are not the one responsible for the situation. We need to make ourselves more informed and careful before casting our vote and take responsibilities of the people around us.

Here I am doing my bit. What are your plans?

Please share this article if we think alike. Help me spread this across. Because all of us love to sing:

Mera desh badal raha hai, Aage badh raha hai.

Note

The author has neither inclination to any political party nor has any connections to them. The author is also not intending to target any individual but raising some questions which everyone has to answer for themselves.

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