Everyone has a preferred method of organizing to-dos and notes. Your computer monitor may be littered with Post-its, or you may use your e-mail software to track action items. Increasingly, though, people are turning to web-based tools. The benefit? To access these “cloud-based” tools, you don’t need to be on a particular computer, network or browser. A few suggestions:
When writing a phone message, jot down the correct way to say the caller’s name along with the other information. You don’t need to use the phonetic alphabet, just a note like, “Mr. Behr (pronounced Bear).”
Moving on up can be thorny if you’re not prepared to make the transition from peer to supervisor. David Peck, aka “The Recovering Leader,” offers six points to consider during and after a promotion:
Eye have a spelling chequerIt came with my pea see.It plainly marques four my revueMiss steaks eye kin knot sea. There’s a danger if you rely solely on your computer’s spell checker.
Question: “Our store manager and assistant manager recently ended an extramarital affair after the assistant’s wife discovered it. Everyone at work had been aware of the relationship for quite awhile. Although they’ve agreed to stop seeing each other, the situation is still very uncomfortable. Our regional boss just wants the whole thing to go away. Sales have improved since these two started working together, so he doesn’t want to transfer either of them out. We’ve been told that any employee caught gossiping about the affair could be terminated. The assistant’s wife is furious that management won’t force a transfer, but she doesn’t feel that she can speak up. I would like to contact human resources on her behalf, but I’m afraid of getting in trouble. What should I do?” — Disturbed
A receptionist may be the first person whom customers and clients see. But co-workers and managers can easily forget the pivotal and skilled role receptionists play. As a receptionist, you know about more than making a good impression. Make sure you’re leveraging these two highly valued skills, which a good receptionist should have in spades:
Be prepared to answer two questions when pitching an idea or attempting to influence your boss: (1) How will the organization benefit? (2) How will my boss benefit?
If you berate yourself when you make a mistake, you’ll worsen the damage. But if you say, “I’ll fix this,” or “I sure learned from that,” you turn a negative into a positive.
Be ready to tell your manager how you’d like to grow professionally. In a recent survey, nearly half of all human resources managers say their No. 1 focus is continuing education for workers.