A 20-year talent development professional, Tara Powers is an international best-selling author, award-winning leadership expert, and sought-after keynote speaker. She has worked with more than 200 companies and 15,000 leaders worldwide, building and launching talent initiatives that deliver high touch and high impact for her clients.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with Working From Home 5

Chapter 1: Setting Up Your Workspace 7

Choosing the Right Spot in Your Home 8

Picking the best room 8

Creating an effective layout 10

Getting All the Equipment You Need 11

Desk and chair 12

Computer and monitor 13

Printer and scanner 14

Internet access 15

Phone service 15

Noise-cancelling headset and camera 15

Storage 16

Organizing Your Work Life (And Keeping It That Way) 16

Time 16

Workspace 17

Paperwork 17

Computers and other devices 18

Books and other reference materials 19

Adding Some Personal Touches 19

Chapter 2: Ensuring Success with Important Work-at-Home Skills and Behaviors 21

Setting Goals and Priorities 22

Starting with goals 23

Deciding on priorities 24

Managing Your Time Well 24

Creating and sticking to a schedule 25

Making to-do lists 27

Conquering procrastination 28

Establishing Routines 29

Being Your Own IT Department 30

Increasing Your Healthy Productivity 31

Watching Out for Distractions 32

Overcoming Isolation 33

Staying Positive and Motivated 34

Putting positivity into practice 35

Understanding personal motivation 37

Being a team player and knowing you matter 38

Making Sure You Still Have a Personal Life 39

Establishing expectations 39

Setting boundaries 39

Chapter 3: Following Virtual Team Meeting Etiquette 41

Checking Your Background 42

Looking Camera Ready 43

Minimizing Noise and Using the Mute Button 44

Speaking Clearly and Making Eye Contact 45

Remembering a Few Important Do's and Don'ts 46

Engaging in virtual meeting best practices 46

Steering clear of common mistakes 48

Practicing Patience 49

Part 2: Staying in Touch with Slack 51

Chapter 4: Getting Started with Slack 53

Reviewing Slack's Different Versions 53

Free plan 54

Standard plan 54

Plus plan 55

Enterprise Grid 55

Changing Your Slack Plan 56

Upgrading 56

Downgrading 56

Beginning Your Slack Journey with the Workspace 57

Creating a new Slack workspace 58

Signing in to an existing Slack workspace 59

Accessing your new workspace via a web browser 61

Using the Slack desktop app 62

Using the Slack mobile app 63

Introducing the Slack user interface 63

Summarizing Slack's Different Roles and Permissions 66

Administrative roles 66

Non-administrative roles 68

Managing member roles 69

Enterprise Grid roles and permissions 72

Starting Your New Workspace off on the Right Foot 73

Expanding your existing workspace 73

Configuring your member profile and key account settings 76

Chapter 5: Targeting Your Communication with Slack Channels 79

Introducing Slack Channels 80

Exploring the Different Types of Slack Channels 81

Public channels 82

Private channels 83

Multi-workspace channels 83

Shared channels 85

Creating Public and Private Channels 86

Creating your first public channel 87

Building an intelligent channel structure 89

Viewing basic channel information 91

Adding Members to Existing Channels 93

Manual additions 93

Default workplace channels 94

Exploring Existing Public Channels 95

Communicating via Slack Channels 97

Posting simple channel messages 97

Understanding channel etiquette 98

Chapter 6: Entering the Wonderful World of Slack Messages 101

Understanding Slack Messages 102

Sending a message 102

Performing basic message actions 104

Formatting your messages 106

Finding people in your workspace to message 108

Editing messages 109

Deleting messages 110

Muting conversations 110

Setting message-specific reminders 111

Saving direct messages and channel messages 112

Pinning direct messages to conversations 113

Creating special types of messages 114

Converting group direct messages into private channels 118

Using threads to create topic-specific containers 118

Sharing in Slack 120

Sharing files 121

Sharing messages 123

Forwarding Email to Slack 125

Communicating Outside of Slack 125

Chapter 7: Staying Informed with Notifications, Statuses, and Feeds 127

Getting Your Arms around Notifications 128

Channel-specific notifications 130

Keyword-specific notifications 133

Direct messages from individuals and groups 134

Missed calls 134

DM reminders 134

Member join and leave messages 135

Threads and notifications 135

Concurrently notifying multiple users 136

Letting Others Know Your Availability 137

Setting your status 137

Viewing your colleagues' statuses 138

Editing your status 139

Clearing your status 139

Setting yourself to away/active 140

Unplugging with Do Not Disturb mode 140

Configuring Device-Specific Notifications 143

Enabling notifications on mobile devices 143

Understanding when settings collide 144

Finding Other Ways to Stay Current 144

Receiving emails on recent activity 144

Viewing mentions and reactions 145

Part 3: Focusing on Zoom 147

Chapter 8: Getting to Know Zoom's Suite of Communication Tools 149

Zoom's Core Services 150

Zoom Meetings & Chat 151

Main features and benefits 151

Plans and costs 152

Add-ons 155

Zoom Video Webinars 156

Main features and benefits 156

Plans and costs 156

Zoom Rooms 157

Main features and benefits 158

Plans and costs 159

Supercharging Zoom Rooms 159

Zoom Phone 161

Main features and benefits 161

Plans and costs 162

Chapter 9: Setting Up Zoom 163

Taking Your First Steps 163

Creating a new Zoom account 164

Modifying your Zoom plan 167

Downloading and installing the Zoom desktop client 170

Signing in to the Zoom desktop client 172

Completing your Zoom profile 174

Getting to know the Zoom user interface 174

Reviewing Zoom Account Management 176

Adding new users to your Zoom account 176

Deactivating existing accounts 178

Deleting existing users from your Zoom account 178

Unlinking users from your Zoom account 179

Unlocking the power of Zoom user groups 180

Discussing the Importance of Zoom Roles 183

Reviewing Zoom's default roles 183

Creating new user roles 184

Changing an existing user's role 185

Chapter 10: Connecting with Others via Zoom Meetings 187

Getting Started with Zoom Meetings 188

Reviewing Zoom's meeting-specific roles 188

Locating your personal Zoom information 189

Augmenting your Zoom meetings 191

Hosting Zoom Meetings 193

Inviting others to your current meeting 195

Planning a future Zoom meeting 197

Letting others in to your current meeting 203

Joining others' Zoom meetings 205

Putting your best foot forward 207

Performing Mid-Meeting Actions 208

Using virtual backgrounds 208

Managing and interacting with meeting participants 210

Using breakout rooms during meetings 212

Chapter 11: Looking at Zoom Contact Management and Chatting 215

Managing Your Zoom Contacts 216

Adding contacts to your Zoom directory 216

Removing an existing contact from your Meetings & Chat directory 218

Inviting an existing Zoom contact to a new meeting 219

Adding internal contacts to an existing meeting 219

Performing contact-specific actions 220

Understanding User Status in Zoom 221

Getting familiar with Zoom's status icons 221

Changing your status in Meetings & Chat 223

Staying current with Zoom notifications 225

Chatting in Zoom 226

Exchanging messages with your individual Zoom contacts 226

Holding group chats 227

Creating threads in Zoom 230

Saving message drafts 231

Editing and deleting your messages 232

Referencing other Zoom members in a group discussion 233

Adding some flair to your messages 234

Uploading and sharing files in Zoom 236

Sending screenshots 238

Performing message-specific actions 239

Part 4: Taking Advantage of Microsoft Teams 241

Chapter 12: Navigating Microsoft Teams 243

Downloading, Installing, and Opening Teams 244

On the web 244

On a laptop or desktop computer 245

Taking a Quick Spin around Teams 248

Activity 248

Chat 249

Teams 249

Calendar 249

Calls 250

Files 250

Using Teams across Many Devices and Platforms 251

Chapter 13: Starting Your First Team and Managing Your Settings 253

Creating a New Team 254

Inviting People to Your Team 259

During the team creation process 259

After the team creation process 260

Managing Your Team Settings 261

Managing Your User Settings 264

General 266

Privacy 266

Notifications 267

Devices 267

Permissions 267

Calls 267

Chapter 14: Staying Connected to Others with Channels and Chat 269

Chatting in Teams...