Category: 1-Minute Strategy

Hold your drink in your left hand at business events. This keeps your shaking hand from being cold and damp.

Make the most of meetings by choosing a smart seat. Sit in easy view of the person running the meeting, so your contributions will be noted. Don’t sit across from someone likely to challenge your ideas.

Whenever someone offers you a juicy tidbit about a person in your office, say, “She never says anything bad about you.” Then just walk away.

Before trying to lift a heavy item, grasp one edge and slowly try to tilt it. If it’s tough to move, it’s too heavy to lift by yourself. Get a dolly or seek help from a co-worker.

When you need a few minutes to fix a technical glitch during a presentation, ask the meeting leader to call a brief “intermission.” That allows you to straighten out the problem without being in the spotlight.

At the end of each conversation, ask if you can do anything more for the person, whether it’s your boss or a customer. That simple question may prompt the other person to remember something then, rather than interrupting you later.

Feel more rejuvenated after a summer vacation by coming home on Saturday, so you can spend some time Sunday catching up on e-mail and voice messages. Monday morning will be lot less hectic.

Stay in tune with your staff by refusing to multitask when someone pops into your office. Put your work down, look the person in the eye and focus on what he or she has to say.

What’s on your reading list this summer? Slip a business book into that bag of fiction that you’ll haul down to the beach.

Boss send you to a seminar? Create an action list while you are there showing how you will put what you learn to work back at the office. Share it with your boss when you return as one way to prove the value of her investing in you.