Wednesday 27 January 2016

Nicholas Calcanes - Understanding Why Data Management is Important

Nicholas Calcanes is the Chief Information Officer at Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Having studied economics and government at college, Nicholas Calcanes started working as Purchase and Sales Coordinator at First Union Brokerage, and later as a Registered Representative and District Agent with The Prudential. He has worked with data management and explains why data management is important for every business.

Nicholas CalcanesData is Important

Understanding how data interrelates with the business will increase your ability to link information, build strategy, and increase performance in the business. Many businesses use a variety of information in their decision-making process; however, this information is only valuable if it has been fed to the system. When decision makers analyze data in order to make decisions, and the information is not relevant, the problem lies at the entry point where the information was entered into the system. Small discrepancies can make a huge impact to a company’s performance, which is why it is extremely important that proper data management solutions and tools are put in place.

One of the most important things in data management is in identifying what data is required and where it is located. When the data is identified, it has to be extracted and prepared to be sent to the data management or storage facility. The transferred data has to be in a usable format so that it can be accessed by decision makers and used in the business. Nicholas Calcanes recommends making sure that your data is relevant and that it is regularly updated.

Friday 15 January 2016

Nicholas Calcanes - How to Make Employee Training Interesting

Nicholas Calcanes has been working at Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina for several years. He has held various top positions and has managed several teams. His leadership skills have helped him in training and motivating his team to take their performance to the next level. Training is important for all bank staff. While it is important, sometimes training sessions can become quite a drag. Nicholas Calcanes offers a couple of training tips banks can use though these training methods done necessarily convey information, it helps make training an enjoyable experience.

Nicholas Calcanes Make Training Fun

If your training sessions are dry and dull, you will notice that it will become difficult for your trainees to remember concepts and theories. Make your training sessions practical and they will remember what they learn, and soon you will see better results in their performance at the workplace. You will also need to change the pace of the training sessions to keep their interest level high.

Encourage Participation

If you expect your trainees to just sit and listen during the training sessions, they won’t learn much. However, on the other hand, if you encourage participation it will make the training session interesting. Engage your trainees to participate in the learning process. Encourage group participation, and allow trainees to speak freely because learning happens when thoughts, ideas, and feelings are involved.

Build Self-Esteem

If you are conducting a training session for your employees, they will like to know what’s in it for them. While most training programs are designed to make more money for the firm or company, you will need to let employees know how they could benefit from the program. It would work in your interest to create a win-win situation to build your employees self-esteem and self-worth.

Nicholas Calcanes recommends making training programs interesting for your employees.

Source: ​http://trainingtoday.blr.com/employee-training-resources/How-Conduct-Effective-Training-Session

Monday 4 January 2016

Nicholas Calcanes - How to Be an Effective Project Manager?

Nicholas Calcanes grew up in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida and went to West Virginia Wesleyan College on a football scholarship. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in both Economics and Government and built a successful career in sales with The Prudential, before moving over to work at Bank of America. Nicholas Calcanes is currently the Chief Information Officer at the Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Working at the bank, he has successfully managed several projects and offers these tips for new project managers.
Nicholas Calcanes
Nicholas Calcanes
Be a Team Player

If you want your team to succeed, you will need to be an effective team player. You will need to learn how to recognize your team’s talents and optimize their expertise. Be open to asking your team for help when you need it, in some cases when you are unable to come up with a working solution to a problem, one of your team members might have the right solution. Don’t just be the project manager, be a team player.

Understand Your Project Management Tool

If you are using a project management software, you will need to understand how it works. You will need to optimize the software and encourage your team to participate in using it to the maximum. If you are overlooking the project schedule, you will need to go over it over and over again to ensure that things are going according to plan.

Take Responsibility

As the project manager, you will need to take full responsibility for the project you are working on. It is your responsibility to oversee every detail of the project. While you don’t have to do everything yourself, you most certainly need to delegate responsibility to your team and oversee things.

Nicholas Calcanes was the Chief Risk & Compliance Officer and directed all aspects of compliance and operational risk programs at Bank of America.