Your Answering Machine Said What?
Posted by Barbara Jones on July 7, 2009 – 1:32 pm -Most answering machines play a polite greeting from the owner and take a message. Nothing fancy, just good old-fashioned automated communication. There are exceptions, though, to all of this bland harmlessness. I was talking recently with David Wachtel of Hauticam Consulting about business etiquette mistakes we can’t believe happen. High on David’s list is answering machine greetings that include the phrase, “…and I will return your call at my earliest convenience.”
If this phrase is on your answering machine don’t blush, don’t stammer, just erase the message right now and start over. Say what we all hope you meant to say like, “I will call you back as soon as I can.” Call several friends or colleagues when you know they are not available and listen to their messages. Borrow some of their nice wording for your own message.
If you really do resent having to interrupt your workflow to respond to inquiries there are better ways to express that. One simple one is to say your current workload means you cannot check voicemail more than once a day and will not be able to return calls until a certain day and time in the future. Such a statement is honest, is not derogatory, and doesn’t make you sound like a jerk. A much better solution all around.
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Employee Training by the Golden Rule
Posted by Barbara Jones on July 10, 2008 – 4:29 pm -Every employee who has to sit through the training you are planning hopes you will remember the Golden Rule. In this case, “Do unto others…” means don’t bore them, don’t waste their time, and don’t make them sit through a presentation you would hate. Successful training takes the employee into consideration at every stage. Here are a few suggestions.
Plan to provide training at a time when employees can get the most out of it. Avoid scheduling training programs during peak times, near deadlines, or at the busiest times of the business cycle.
Plan to provide training during work hours. Requiring employees to attend training outside of work hours increases their commuting costs, requires special arrangements, and creates resentment. From their point of view, if you really value the training you will find a way to hold it during work hours.
When thinking about content beware of speech-making or lecturing. Lectures and training presentations are different animals. Lectures are directed at employees who listen passively - and are often bored. Training presentations treat employees as participants, involve practice exercises, and provide feedback on performance from instructor and other participants.
Lectures can be educational and can lead employees to embrace new ideas. However, after a lecture each employee may apply the new ideas in different ways and no change to behavior may be visible. After a training program employees returning to work will perform new tasks, or perform old tasks in new ways. Supervisors and managers will be able to observe these new behaviors, encourage them, and discourage old ways.
This brings up a key point in applying the Golden Rule to training. Make it very clear to employees what changes are expected. Be prepared to incorporate and reinforce change as soon as training is complete. If a week goes by without the opportunity to practice newly learned skills, much of what was learned will be lost.
One of the greatest myths related to learning is that smart people only need to hear something once to learn it. People need to hear new information as many times as they need to hear it. It has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with reinforcement and retention.
Give employees something in writing or online that they can take away from training and use for reference when they are trying to practice new skills. Don’t let supervisors or managers fall into the habit of being impatient or overly-critical. Everyone needs to be prepared for lots of repetition and lots of judgment-free feedback when introducing change.
In some industries employees must attend legally-mandated training (OSHA, FDA). Bosses, supervisors, and managers need to be aware that their approach to requiring attendance, and even the way they talk about such training, tells employees whether compliance is important or not. If management disparages safety training, for instance, there will be little compliance with safety standards.
It is surprising how many of the issues related to employee training are the same as business etiquette issues. Be considerate, be respectful, don’t bore people, don’t waste their time. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
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Why Bother?
Posted by Barbara Jones on March 31, 2008 – 4:58 pm -Why bother with Business Etiquette - or character or integrity or ethics? There are plenty of people who don’t and sometimes they seem to be getting the upper hand. People who deceive, cheat, and conduct business as if it was a war, don’t worry about showing respect for others.
Perhaps it is the destruction they leave in their wake that gives the rest of us a reason to live differently. Developing character is the hard work of a lifetime. Following our personal sense of ethics in business is not always the easiest thing to do. Those who advance civilization have, up to this point, always stayed ahead of those who destroy it - maybe because we work so hard at it.
It is up to those of us who value character and ethics to carry on the fight. Every day each of us decides whether we will use respect for others to build a civil society or sink into rude indifference. Business Etiquette is about being civil to each other. That is what we choose. That is why we bother.
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Holiday Traditions That Should Die
Posted by Barbara Jones on January 9, 2008 – 2:33 pm -Top 3 Holiday Business Traditions and Why They Should Die
Business offices celebrate the traditions of the holiday season because their clients and employees expect it. But ask around and it seems everybody has a least favorite office holiday tradition. Something they would happily do without forever. There isn’t a lot of scientific data to back this up, but there are lots and lots and lots of stories. Based on stories I have heard over the years, here is my completely unscientific list of three business holiday traditions that really should die.
- Gifts Exchanges/Gifts for Boss and/or Subordinates. A big category and one with many variations (forced participation, voluntary, voluntary sort-of, white elephant, gag gifts, one dollar gifts, etc.) all of which would be little mourned if gone. A collection for a worthy local charity would be a great substitute. Everyone would feel the money was better used.
- Getting Drunk at the Office Party. It is hard to kill a tradition that is so widely practiced, but we should try. It is amazing that anyone still thinks it’s a good idea to drink so much they lose control of their mouths, balance, and bodily functions in front of people they work with. It is true that it can be entertaining at times. Sometimes it is the only entertainment at an otherwise dull occasion. On the downside, though, the drunk addresses loud, inappropriate remarks to people who don’t want the attention. A delicate stomach leads to volcanic eruptions that clear an area while drawing every eye in the room. So many apologies are owed, so few are given.
- Office Decoration Gone Wild. There are offices that look like Christmas exploded, and business suffers. When employees can’t walk through public areas because of Christmas clutter they get testy. Visiting clients wonder if business has been put on the back burner for the holidays. Too often, they are right. The larger the office, the more likely that it has a more culturally and religiously diverse population. The desire to be festive needs to be balanced with a little consideration and tolerance. Special attention should be paid to limiting the number of motion-sensor activated noisemakers, whether the noise is music or singing, or excessively cheerful greeting. Many people prefer to set these creatures off no more often than once a day.
Business Etiquette does not demand that offices follow any particular set of traditions at holiday time. Etiquette simply suggests showing respect and appreciation for clients and those we work with every day. Do that, and your business is sure to have a happy new year.
Tags: Business Etiquette, business holiday, Holiday Etiquette
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