Category: 1-Minute Strategy

Overcome the fear of starting a daunting project by visualizing yourself doing the task quickly and easily. Negotiate rewards for yourself, such as doing something you enjoy once you’ve knocked out a particular portion of the work, maybe calling a friend or taking a hike.

That’s the first rule of conversation. If you deliver two messages, most people will process just one of them.

When assembling a team, ask the group to pick a commander, a collaborator and a communicater. The commander is the leader, the collaborator builds teamwork, and the communicator serves as spokesperson.

On an employee’s first day at one company, a huge tray of breakfast food is placed near her desk. An e-mail invites all employees to come get some goodies and say hello to the new team member.

When you make a faux pas, don’t ignore it and don’t expect others to. Instead poke fun at yourself with an undercurrent of seriousness. Say, “What I just did is an example of what not to do.” Then move on.

“Finish every day and be done with it,” advised essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. “You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; but forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, and you should never encumber its potentialities and invitation with dread of the past.”

Do you handle or see resumes that come flooding into your office? Check those out to see what’s good or bad about them. Use that information to spruce up your own.

When a co-worker comes to you with a problem, find out more about the situation and what the employee thinks before offering your 2 cents.

Be careful what you say if you are jealous, bitter or angry. Negative emotions can lead you to blurt out mean remarks you’ll wish you’d never said.

Don’t volunteer information about your boss’s whereabouts. Telling a client that your boss is at a tennis tournament isn’t going to score points for either of you.