Project Management, sounds easy enough right? Just keep track of the work of a bunch of staff members, communicate with clients and create nice looking report – easy.

Sorry to disappoint, but being a successful project manager takes experience, learning and leadership skills. And this is why quality project managers are few and far between.

Some of the more common mistakes that are made in the realm of project management can be easily rectified however, and both new and old project managers can benefit from analysing the common pitfalls.

One of the challenges of working on a Board or Committee these days is that they no longer rely on exchanging paper information. Although some people do still print the relevant documents, most now share and store Information like board papers, committee minutes and other information electronically. This is fine, if you all work for the same organisation, but can present some additional challenges when you do not.

A teacher who only accepts their own way to solve a task. A supermarket manager who has to double-check every item that you’ve stacked. A leader who stifles the creative freedom of his or her staff. Whether in the classroom or at work, leaders who micromanage do more to hinder development than drive desired outcomes.

Effective online collaboration is essential in today’s competitive and innovative business landscape. Remote teams need fast, trustworthy systems that facilitate their practices and communication. Here are the 3 essential factors that will determine to what extent your team is able to collaborate, complete and compete.

Project management tools offer teams effective ways to collaborate on projects, quickly communicate and see deadlines and work assignments. Instant chat can do away with those cumbersome email chains, while a large pool of talent from all over the world can be brought in to achieve high levels of productivity now that your processes and file sharing are cloud-based.

The Olympics project only happens every four years, but involves thousands of people exchanging information across the world. In 2016 the Olympics involves people from 206 countries, 10,500 athletes, more than 25,000 journalists, heads of state and thousands of tourists who will be attending the Olympics and visiting Rio for the first time. Not to mention the thousands of local people making it all happen in Rio.

We all know it by now: cloud-based solutions are here to stay. With the choice we have today, it would be questionable to say the least not to take advantage of what the cloud has to offer. As a small to medium-size business, the path is already well beaten, and the fact of money being saved by using the cloud not even debatable. The ability to minimise the staff needed to run an in-house server is justification enough for moving processes, files and interaction to the cloud.

Whether to meet with clients or partners, make a presentation to prospective investors or to attend an industry conference, business travel expenses will always like to reach high. Especially, small and mid-size businesses tend to suffer here as the best offers are reserved for the major corporations and their hefty booking capability.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for any organisation is change. People have a tendency to get set in their ways, and when something new enters the playing field it’s often met with resistance.

No matter what we at Glasscubes think about remote working (note: we love it!), challenges remain, and, while the benefits of remote teams are undoubted, there are still things that telecommuters and their bosses can do to get better at working from home.