Good morning … or is it?
Most admins would probably agree that saying a friendly “hello” or “good morning” to co-workers and bosses is good office etiquette. So what do you do when your greetings fall on deaf ears?
Category: People Skills
Motivate with the right phrase
Your word choice influences whether people warm up to you, put up a fight or ignore you. Notice the difference between the following lively phrases and their uninspiring counterparts.
How to be gracious at work
Letitia Baldrige, author and formal social secretary and chief of staff to First Lady Jackie Kennedy, offers her advice on remaining gracious in a world that sometimes forgets its manners:
Should you decide … or ask the boss?
Admins make roughly $15,000 worth of decisions every year, according to an IAAP Benchmarking survey. Yet it’s sometimes hard to know whether to make a decision on your own or wait for the boss to weigh in. Here’s one litmus test for determining whether to forge ahead or wait for a nod from the boss.
Coping with toxic co-workers
You know the types: the co-worker who seeps negativity and hostility; the gossip-monger; or the critic, who always nitpicks others’ work. So, what happens when you have several in one workplace? In some cases, a toxic work environment is a result of a laissez-faire manager …
You want it perfect … but does the boss?
Phil, an administrative assistant, recently lamented that his efforts to improve his boss’s communication were going unheeded. But perhaps it’s not what Phil’s boss wants from Phil. When someone hands you his work to look over, first determine what he wants in return.
Caught in another ‘question trap’ on the job?
Sarah spent the afternoon working on a quarterly report for her boss, only to hear this when she delivered it at day’s end: “This isn’t a final version, is it? It won’t be a problem for you to work overtime today and fix this, will it?” Her boss just delivered a question trap—a leading question.
Follow this Rx to ease the trauma
When you have to deliver bad news to someone, follow this protocol that medical doctors use to tell patients about dire prognoses:
Handling a hothead … while staying cool
Don’t let a hot-under-the-collar customer or co-worker cause you to lose your cool. Instead, use these four tips:
Keeping a ‘meetings warrior’ organized
Not all executives are content to have access to documents only on their smartphones, tablets or laptops. If you work for a boss who still depends heavily on paper and attends up to a dozen meetings a day, here’s an organizing solution for you.