Productivity Cafe

Voicemail Messages are Part of Your Brand!

Who would have thought that leaving a voicemail would impact your reputation?! This morning Kim @ Bike Virginia commented that my message was the easiest for her deal with because I left my name and number twice at the end of the message. Kim takes care of the customer experience and handles loads of calls every day. That my message elicited a comment prompts me to get back online and share the experience with you.

When you are asking someone to help you, make it as easy as possible for them and you're more likely to be at the front of the line. Duh! I know. And, I've seen people that seem to want to be right more than they want to have their problem solved. They're demanding, sometime rude, and sometime just missing a couple of bits that would help them reach their real goal – getting help. Sometime the caller (we) don't realize the customer experience person doesn't have all the background we do and they need to be filled in – calmly. And trust me, if you're asking for help, unless you're the boss, and even if you're the customer, others can make things tough – drawing out the process, requiring extra steps, putting you on hold just because they need to calm down or think that you need to calm down.

Regarding the voicemail example, which is also addressed in another post here: Good Voicemail Messages Matter. When you give the full details for your call you leave a good impression. You build your brand to be what you want it to be. And, you're more likely to get the results that you want. A little planning trick many people use is: jot on a piece of paper:

• Your goal for the call
• Supporting point 1
• Supporting point 2
• Supporting point 3 (max)
• What you're going to ask the listener to do – be specific

This little trick also avoids hanging up, snapping your fingers and thinking, "Oh man, I forgot to mention….."

Having this record also gives you confidence that you made the first call, what you said in case they miss something on their end, and allows you to move on.

Give it a try – let us know how it works!

An Outlook Shortcut to Move an Email Attachment to Stored Document

Do you move documents from email attachments to your folders regularly? If so, I have a streamlined operation to do this for you. As often happens, I learned something accidentally today and I love the shortcut. So here it is for you.

When you have documents to move from an email attachment to a folder there are three options.

1 – You right click on the attached document and on 'save as' in the box that opens. Then you select the folder to store it and hit return.

2 – Some of us double click on the document, pdf or other type of attachment to open it with the related application. Then we File Save from the original program. Then we select the folder to store it and hit return. This is by far the longest route to storing attachments.

3 – You can drag and drop an attachment to a folder in an explore window. (This is the shortcut) note: This operation uses an explore window, not internet explorer.

With the email with the attached document open, open explore. The quickest way I know to open an explore window is hold down the windows key (also labeled start key on some keyboards) and tap the E key.

Left click – hold the left mouse button down – over the document(s) you want to move.

Drag and drop the document in the folder where you want to place the document.

Release the left mouse button and viola – it's done.

The picture below shows this operation. Double click on it to see a full-screen version.

Meetings, Money and Morale

Millions of dollars of time are invested in meetings. Bad meetings mean lots of wasted money. Bad meetings mean diminished morale. Is this problem worse than email domination? I'm not sure but it's up there on the list of things that ruin people's work day.

It's seldom that I review my consulting work with you. Today is one of those rare days. That's because this is a vivid situation that I'd like to share with you and explore over a number of articles here. I'm passionate about stopping waste and especially passionate about stopping waste of such a limited and precious resource as time.

Let's start with the characteristics of bad meetings. There are lots of them. Here are my top 5:

• No agenda
• An agenda that isn't followed
• Starting late and running late
• One person dominating the meeting
• Making everyone hear material again while a latecomer is briefed
• Lack of follow-through (I know, this is #6 but I couldn't pick any to leave off)

What's on your list?

Here's the calculation. This organization has between 6,000 and 7,000 employees. If we can save each one from a badly-run one-hour meeting once a week the savings for the company is in the range of $2,750,000 per year. If we can save them from two one-hour meetings, well, this is an urgently needed improvement.

Going beyond the value of the time saved will be increased productivity. While people are out of meetings they'll actually be getting their work done. And, not having to prepare for wasteful meeting frees up even more time and lightens the workload burden.

And best of all, these employees will be happier. Happy employees mean productive employees. Morale will get a boost when employees feel heard, feel like they're contributing, and determine their time is applied satisfactorily (rather than wasted in some meetings).

It's curious that well run, well prepared meetings seem to be the exception rather than the rule. How is it in the company where you work? Comment below so we can start talking about this meeting culture.

Keyboard Shortcuts Everyone Should Know

How to use a computer effectively was a 5 minute interlude during a meeting on Holding Effective Meetings with a client on Monday. That discussion resulted in this quick, and hopefully relevant & useful, pair of tips because these seasoned computer users were eager to learn the tips and hadn't learned them in all their years using PCs.

Searching your folders is often done via Explore in windows. The quick way to open the explore window is to hold down the windows logo key (between the ctrl & alt keys on most keyboards) then tap the e key (for explore).

  Try it now!

 

The quick way to open the find dialog is to type windows key then tap the f key (for find).

Try it now!

Will that save you time? Keep you on the keyboard rather than grabbing the mouse?  If yes, use it at least 3 times every day for the next week and they'll be as automatic as typing words are today.

Handing Out Business Cards – You Mean There’s a Guide for That, too?

Handing out business cards is one of the most annoying things that you can do to another person. Neil attended a lunch-n-learn session on Networking in his building last year. As some people entered the room they made a performance of putting their business card in front of each of the other attendees in the room and the empty seats in the room. Neil's eyes scanned left then right to see what other people were doing with the cards as he wondered, "Should I be distributing my business cards?" Of the 12 people at the session, 6 had piled their cards in front of him. What is he going to do with those? What would you do with them?

Neil was doing the best thing by seeing that he connected with someone before exchanging cards with them.

Putting your business card in someone's hand before you have a good reason is:

• Confusing. Why are you giving a total stranger your card?
• Useless. Without some sort of credibility there is no reason for the recipient to keep your card.
  
• Wasteful. Is there is a possible return on the investment of even this little inexpensive card?
  
• Risky. You might just be offering your contact information to someone who wants to recruit your for their multi-level marketing project and now you're on their recruiting list.
  
• Good for firestarting. Most people could start a blaze with the box of 'dead' business cards they have around their office. But is that why you gave them your card? People just don't throw out the cards of people who handed it to them but they don't do anything with them either.
  
• Misguided. Someone along your career path said, "Get your card into as many hands as possible, you never know what will come of it." Come on people, nothing will come of it. That's the 'throw it on the wall and see what sticks' technique. You appear desperate doing this.
  

The key to good form when handing out your business card is the mindset of exchanging cards. You're offering your card as a second step to connecting with another person. The first step is talking so you find that you have something in common, a follow-up action to take, or

 

18 Popular Outlook 2003 Shortcut Key Combinations to Save You Time

Outlook is in millions of user's hands. Yet, the way most use it is like building a house with a hammer and nails vs a nail gun. With the hammer you will get the job done with consequences… it's slower than the nail gun, it's more tiring than the nail gun, and sometimes the hammer is less accurate than a nail gun (think at driving the nails to the best depth for connecting the pieces vs just deep enough). Here are some nail gun style keyboard shortcuts for Outlook 2003 to help you migrate from hammer to nailgun.

Notes:

ctrl-X means hold down the control key then type the X key where X starts the action described.

Alt-X means hold down the alternate (alt) key then type the X key where X starts the action described.

Switch to Mail	Ctrl-1
Switch to Calendar	Ctrl-2
Switch to Contacts	Ctrl-3
Switch to Tasks	Ctrl-4
Send the message you've been typing	Alt-S
Start a new message (you must be in mail)	Ctrl-N
Move a word to the right / left	Ctrl-{right arrow} / Ctrl-{left arrow}
Forward an email	Ctrl-F
Start a new appointment in calendar, task in task list, email message in email	Ctrl-N
To add sender of an email you received to your address book: open the message and hover over their name in from:	Right mouse click then click on add to contacts.
Make some text bold (in Word & email)	Ctrl-B to start, type the word(s), ctrl-B to stop
Print	Ctrl-P
Change windows (programs)you're working in	Alt-tab
In a folders list	Proceed the folder name with a symbol to move it to the top of the list
Reply to an email	Ctrl-R
Open the Inbox	Ctrl-shift-i
Cut selected text	Ctrl-C
Edit	F2

How to Deliver Bad News the Easy Way

You can tell someone bad news and spend the next 45 minutes in a drawn out conversation about the background or justification for the message you had to deliver. Or you can be one of those unique people who can deliver bad news and have the recipient leave quickly, smiling. This is an art form that is grounded in a simple technique. It's called the sandwich technique. The structure of the sandwich technique is:

1. Launch with something positive
2. Delivery the bad news
3. End with something positive

The slices of bread of the sandwich are the positive comments. The meat of the sandwich is the negative news. Its construction keeps us from blurting out things with the power of a Mac truck.  It's a simple formula that could go all wrong if not done carefully. Here are some things to include when using the technique to ensure it will work for you:

• Plan this conversation. Do not improvise because there are too many ways for things to go wrong if you're not prepared.
• Be sincere. Those positive things need to ring true to the guy receiving them.
• The bad news needs to be put diplomatically so that the person you're saying it to can actually hear you rather than jump into a reactive mode.
• If possible keep the criticism, situation, and message focused on the facts. Do not criticize the person, just actions and outcomes.

Here's an actual application of the sandwich technique:

Jay was meeting with Justin to lay him off since their company, RCN, was having extreme financial difficultly.

Justin! {shaking hands}  I'm glad

 

Are You Ready for a New Job?

And, are you ready for your next job performance review?

At this fresh start time of the year make a folder where you can collect backup for the job you're doing or want to be doing. Don't wait until review time or interview time to try to collect your thoughts on all that you can contribute to company. That sort of pressure is too much to do your best recollection. And, the things in front of you now, the tasks you need to complete, the meetings you need to attend, and the requirements of your work & family can prevent you from being thorough when trying to look back on your job for more than a couple of weeks. So, prepare a simple yet powerful tool for you to prepare for what is next for you professionally.

In your email system and your paper filing system create a folder titled, 'My Accomplishments 2008'. Wasn't that was easy!

Now that you're set

 

 

Change Programs Quickly

Hopefully you're using keyboard shortcuts more and more often because typing fast and limiting output is the best way to reduce the amount of time you spend at a computer. You've got other things to do! So, in the spirit of short and simple, try this key combination.

Hold down the alt key then tap the tab key.

A little menu of the programs you have open comes up. You can use these icons to switch to another program. Tap the tab again (still holding down the alt key) to move to the next program. When you release the alt-tab keys you'll bring up the last program highlighted. This is particularly helpful when you're comparing information in two different windows or program.

File Drawer Organization - the electronic catalog

There is an electronic file drawer cataloging systems that mig ht be your best choice for organizing your collection of files. It's called The Paper Tiger software. The benefits of Paper Tiger organization are

• You can use lots of keywords to describe what's in a folder for wonderful clarity. No longer are you limited to what words fit on the tab.
• You can put a couple of keywords into the search box and narrow the results - google-like.
• The system finds your target folder in seconds
• You can print out an index of your folder contents like having a table of contents in the back of a book that tells you where to find specific folders
• This cataloging system can be applied to other types of items you need to track. My favorite application that I've overseen is a video library at a major financial firm. Each tape has a variety of scenes and subjects and many different tapes might have the same subject on them. The producers input keywords such as 'Arizona Site', phone center, or couple talking. Then, the system tells them which 1 or 21 tapes have that subject (keywords). They report saving hours every week and every project while reducing the stress of selecting the best scene.

An example of Paper Tiger flexibility addresses a common problem. In what file do you put the insurance policy for the car? Possibilities are:

• Insurance
• Auto
• Honda
• Policies
• Amica (State Farm, Provident, or any insurance company name)
• Cars

With the Paper Tiger software you could put all these keywords into the description of the folder that contains the policy. By searching on one or two of the words you're sure to be told where to locate the policy.

Ace Professional Organizer Lorie Marrero of Living Order in Texas says, "Filing with Paper Tiger is like using a word processor to write a newsletter compared to filing alphabetically which is like using a craft knife and rubber cement to produce a newsletter."

Consider if it would work for you.