4 Handy (Free) Web Tools for Team Leaders

These days, there are more helpful tools available online than most know what to do with. Here is a short list of free, easy-to-use Web-based tools that will help with the day-to-day ‘ins and outs’ of leading a team or a project.

• TimeBridge: Check it out for scheduling and planning meetings

Nightmare meeting scheduling have you feeling like an overpaid secretary? Scheduling can be a pain, but it doesn’t have to be. If you regularly arrange meetings between multiple parties (especially if they use different calendaring systems), try TimeBridge. The program allows you to choose several potential meeting times, then allows the group to select the preferred time.

• Adium or Trillian Astra: Check it out for aggregating instant message accounts

Do you communicate with your team members in real-time on instant messenger? If you’ve been doing so for a while, by now you might need to access a handful of IM accounts in order to handle your professional and personal instant messaging. These tools promise to make it easy to access and manage multiple accounts through one sign-in. Try Adium if you use a Mac and Trillian for Windows-based PCs.

• Google Docs: Check it out for collaborating and sharing documents

Sophisticated document management and version control can be crucial in large organizations when many people are involved. However, sometimes you simply need a few people involved, all at the same time, when brainstorming or creating a new document from scratch. Using Google Docs is one (free) way to easily collaborate if you want to keep it simple (no detailed tracking of edits).

• Advanced Twitter Search: Check it out for ideas and updates

We love using Twitter as a resource. With more than 5 million people sharing 140-character updates in the Twittersphere throughout all hours of the day and night around the globe, it’s no surprise that it’s a great place to find up-to-the-minute new ideas, best practices, examples, news stories and resources. Search by keyword or, if you’re a Twitter user yourself, sift through to find helpful people and organizations to “follow.”

Other great places to find useful Web-based tools are Mashable, LifeHacker, ReadWriteWeb and WebWorkerDaily.

What are your favorite tools? Have you used any of the tools listed here? Leave a comment with your tips for other readers.