Keep it Simple, Sally!

Make it easy for your clients and contacts to reach you.

1. Include all contact information -- yes, even your email address -- in your email signature.

Not all recipients will be able to click "reply," especially if they receive your message as part of a forward.

2. Keep your email address simple -- your name, company name, or some easy variation.

Turn your name/email into a cute pun, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Imagine you're on a conference call trying to explain how to spell "knitoneURL2" for your web-based yarn business. It ain't pretty.

3. When leaving a voice mail, say your phone number twice.

Once at the start, and again at the end. You never know if your contact has a bad connection or is trying to frantically capture your number as s/he boards a plane. Speak slowly, too.

Plan for FAILure

Know when to pull the ripcord.

In my Presentation Skills and Train-the-Trainer workshops we discuss how to prepare your presentation, what makes it good, how to plan and include activities, and how to handle problem participants (like the guy who won't shut up).

What about when your planned activity or icebreaker fails? You know -- you want to do the Human Rope game, but no one is up for it. Or this is the only activity you planned -- and only 4 people are in the room. (Too few.)

Plan for failure before the class. Have a back-up activity ready to go, or know when to say, "Okay, that's not gonna work, let's go back to our workbooks." Sometimes, in a really messy situation, there's beauty in just admitting that something didn't work, and "let's move on."

Hey, HR pros! Listen up!

I came across this brilliant piece on AOL today, An Open Letter to Recruiters. It's honest and addresses so many of the issues today's job-seekers come up against.

I would add to Jason's letter: "Don't count me out because I'm over 40." Although age discrimination is illegal, it happens a ton, and for BS reasons. The Gen-Xers and Boomers bring a lot more to the table than most 23-year-olds who are tech-savvy, but still obsessing about who got kicked off "Idol" last night.

Jason's Open Letter to HR/Recruiters:

Dear Recruiter (or hiring manager or HR):

I see you have some job openings that you are making decisions on. I'm sure you are getting hundreds of résumés and are overwhelmed by the amount of information you have to go over, just to narrow it down to a few good candidates. I wish you well as you go through this tedious process.

Right off the bat, you'll see a problem with me as a candidate for this position. You see, for the last eight months I've been unemployed and busy looking for another job. I was....keep reading

Say nothing negative

When I observe presenters, I see a lot of this crap:

• "I didn't really prepare, and I don't know all this stuff, but here goes."
• "My boss was supposed to give this presentation today, but she's out. I'll tell you about this, but I'm not as good as her." 
• "I'm not the expert on [Topic], but I'll go through this anyway."

Why add a negative qualifier up top? What good does it do the speaker to give the audience an immediate, negative perception? 

If you set an expectation for crap, the audience will expect crap.

Never begin with "I'm not the expert." Really? You're not? Then why am I wasting time here?

You don't have to know every single thing -- but you do have to be professional. Kick off your presentation with a good start, and say nothing negative. There's no reason to put a bad view in your listeners' minds. Show us how good you are -- and what you do know.

Better openers are:

• "I'm happy to talk to you today about [Topic]."
• "Susie is unexpectedly out today, but I'm stepping in. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them at the end." 
• "I've been working on [topic] for six months, and I'm here to present [whatever it is]."

That's all you need to say. No qualifiers about what you do or don't know. If you get a curveball question, say, "Let me check on that. I'll get back to you," and then do so.

Dress for success

I'm gearing up for another Professionalism class this week. One of our simple lessons that seems to be unknown everywhere is "dress for success."

This doesn't mean you have to wear an expensive suit; but know: 1) where you work, 2) with whom you're dealing, and 3) what's appropriate and what's not.

Some people show up at work dressed like Britney Spears or Kid Rock on a bad day  (or would it be "good day" for Kid Rock?) and think nothing of it. The repeated comment I hear is, "It doesn't bother me; why should it bother anyone else?"

Because this is business. And because everyone is not like you. Who are your clients? Where are they located? Are they younger or older than you? Are there other cultural standards (religion, family, etc.) that influence how they do business?

How you dress demonstrates respect for you and those around you. Be appropriate. What does your outfit say -- "I have respect for you and myself" or "I just came off a bad bender"?

Quick tip: Back to your desktop

Hmm, bossess and snoopy co-workers will probably hate me for this, but here goes:

There's an easy, effective way to minimize all your windows at one time, quickly. It's called WIN-M. (Get it? Windows-Minimize.) Sorry MacNerds, but this is a PC trick.

Look down at your keyboard. See that little flying window key? It's called "Win." When you have multiple windows open, one of which is your latest shopping at Gap, and the boss is heading your way, simultaneously hit Win and M, and watch all your windows hide.

Enjoy!

...and please learn how to spell

Okay, listen up and know that the number one reason for failure in business is poor communication. 

And guess what? Even if your listener/reader/customer/whomever takes your meaning just fine, they may not be cool with the way you communicate it.

Case in point: I teach Business Writing. I see misspellings all the time. And from what I gather, most people don't think their spelling is important. "They'll know what I mean." "I'm on a Blackberry."

Erm, not so fast.

Today I read a post by a local real estate agent who talked about sellers "loosing money." Really? People are setting their money loose?

Or are they losing money (from the infinitive "to lose")?

I happen to be in the market for a realtor, and this guy's poor spelling tells me he pays zero attention to detail.

Buh-bye.