You demonstrate your work ethic in many ways – in your handshake, appearance, or even your approach to difficult situations. But another – and arguably, one of the most important – indications of work ethic comes across in completed staff work. That is, in sales reports, proposals, research papers, technical documents, or any other form of written material.

Whether prepared electronically or in print on paper, your written material is a direct reflection of your work ethic. Almost naturally, your colleagues will assign values according to the manner in which your work is presented. That’s why it’s essential that your written material arrive clean, checked, and completed.

Here’s what I mean by this:

• The pages are clean. That stamp of your coffee mug ring may look authentic when advertising for organic coffee beans, but keep the food and drink away from the desk so that readers will take your work seriously.
• The copy is uniform and consistent. Your report should have no more than two fonts throughout. Use more and you’ll distract the reader from what’s really important: the content.
• The prose is checked for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and correct usage. Take extra time to fix any errors. If you’re unsure, have a second pair of eyes do the proofreading. Others will respect your work more if they don’t have to overcome these obstacles.
• The sentence structure reads well and the messages are clear and understood (by the reader). Is every part of your report coming across the way in which you intended? For example, “producing independent leads” is different than saying, “independent lead production.” Having someone else read your document can also be helpful here.
• The information is correct and reflects thorough research. The Internet is a great place to search for information, but never assume that everything you find is accurate. Opt for reliable websites (EPA.gov rather than IKnowAWholeLotAboutEnvironmentalStuff.com, for example) and list your sources.
• The layout is easy to read and presents well to the eyes. Shorter paragraphs are easier to digest than longer ones. Using bullet points, italicized words, and boldface type can also help with reading, especially in electronic communication. Notice we’ve used this here.
• Binding is neat and secure. Professional binding is extremely affordable and can be done at your nearest office supply center. Spend the extra time and money, and you’ll project a professional image that gets you and your work noticed.
• The submission meets, or precedes, the deadline. Scheduling staff work can be time-consuming for your colleagues. When your written material shows up on time, it signals that you not only take your time seriously; you take theirs seriously, too.

With today’s competitive professional environment, it’s more important than ever to project a positive work ethic through your written materials. By following these protocols, you can ensure that your work product serves as an extension of you by reflecting your positive professional values.

(c) Sylvia Henderson. All rights reserved.

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Have you ever had so many ideas churning around in your head that you didn’t know where to begin? Do you find that you have trouble remembering all of those great “light bulb” moments?

The good news is that you are not the only one; the bad news is that you are not the only one. The inability to preserve multiple ideas is inherently due to the makeup of the human brain ⁽¹⁾, but it doesn’t have to stop you from documenting each and every one of your important thoughts.

In this article, I’ll introduce you to three methods you can use to record your ideas. This way, you no longer have to worry about losing those your moments of brilliance in the midst of a distraction.

Write it down.
When we write down our ideas, we give ourselves permission to validate their existence. They are no longer captives to our minds; they are liberated words on the page of potential. Keep a notebook at your bedside, in your bag, or even at your desk. You never know when your best idea will strike. And it doesn’t matter if you’re ready to develop the ideas today, tomorrow, or in one year. By writing them down, you get them out of your head and free up valuable brain space for developing the most relevant ones.

Say it.
Like putting pen to paper, speaking your ideas brings them to life—maybe not right away, maybe not tomorrow, but sometime in the future when you deem necessary. Keep a portable recorder with you whenever possible (or use one of the applications available for your Smartphone) and record your ideas on the fly. Again, this method creates some breathing room in your mind, and you can always revisit your ideas at a later time.

Share it.
Inevitably, there will be times when a group project forces you to collaborate with others. Whether this occurs in your professional or personal life, take advantage of these opportunities to grow. By sharing your ideas and perspectives with others, and hearing theirs in return, you could just find yourself involved in the next great product, service, advertisement, or concept. And in the meantime, all those wonderful ideas will be out in the open for everyone to improve upon.

By using these three methods of writing, speaking and sharing your ideas, you avoid losing potential “next best things” and start to make room for realizing what the most important ideas are right now.

For more information on organizing, developing, and selling your ideas in an intelligent, methodical way, check out Sylvia Henderson’s book, Hey, That’s My Idea!, online at www.springboardtraining.com/products/invest-success.

⁽¹⁾ Note: Search, using your favorite search engine or tool, the terms “research on too much information” for a multitude of studies—both scientific and social.

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1. Shoulding All Over Your Ideas

Communication – whether verbal, physical or written – has helped us transfer information, spread ideas, and solve problems for centuries. However, when text messaging entered the conversation in the late 1990s (and exploded in the early 21st century), it operated under a new set of communication principles: shorter, simpler and fewer statements.

Knowing when to text message is crucial for protecting your personal and professional reputation. By the end of this article, you’ll know the right situations to text and can leave the rest to a good old-fashioned telephone call.

It’s time to text when you need:

• Reassurance – Sending a quick, factual update can be helpful. “Just leaving the airport”, “Be there by 5″, or “Running late…again” are completely acceptable.
• Specificity – When specific information is requested, such as a daily stock alert, a text message is a good idea. For example, “Mocha-Cola closes up 3/4 at 19 7/8.”
• Immediacy – Mass text messages are sometimes used by companies to announce earnings, new products, or emergencies: “CEO update on new product @4PM EST.”
• Informality – Text messages are inherently brief and casual, making them acceptable among friends and work colleagues. For example, “Lunch @ pizza parlor 2day. Noon” would bolster that feeling of solidarity.
• Intimacy – Many spouses and romantic partners conduct supportive, thoughtful or sassy “I’m wearing THAT dress!” communications via text to maintain intimacy throughout the day and when schedules are hectic.

It’s time to abstain from texting when:

• Talking with the boss – Texting when expected and when conveying specific information is acceptable, but the majority of corporate leaders will not appreciate the quirkiness of an afternoon “wazup.”
• Arguing – Due to the already cold and peremptory nature of text messaging, using it when you’re angry will only make matters worse. Pick up the phone or arrange a meeting so that your messages are easier to convey – and understand.
• Tempted to sext – Never forget that your text messages live in cyberspace long after your time on Earth. Avoid sending risqué thoughts and photos; not only does it risk your reputation forever, but it’s also dangerous.
• You’re unsure of the receiver’s circumstances – It’s wise to remain text-free if you do not know what the recipient is doing or whom they are with. While the beauty of text messaging is that the recipient can control when and if they will respond, you’d hate for your text to interrupt an extremely important occasion.

Remember that text messaging, when used correctly, is an indispensable skill for achieving personal and professional success. The “right” and “not-so-right” situations listed here are simple suggestions that can help you communicate your message clearly, efficiently, and conveniently. Whatever you do, consider each situation on a case-by-case basis before hitting send.

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Allow me to share with you a plethora of quotations I regularly find and refer to that get me through the day. They cover a range of topics. You’ll have to scroll down until you find the quotation that “reaches” you.

TIP: Use a quotation to begin a presentation or speech. Sprinkle a quotation within your written materials to break the rhythm of your voice and to add validity to your words. I can help you use quotations in appropriate ways so that you show you’re as great as you say you are! Contact me at Sylvia@SpringboardTraining.com to schedule a telephone or Skype meeting. Follow me on Facebook (Workplace Success) and subscribe to my blog (Blog.SpringboardTraining.com).

If you have a favorite quotation that gets you through the day, please share and I will add it to this page. Use the “Contact Us” tab above to send it to me.

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—–o—–

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That’s an interesting idea, but…
We tried that before and it won’t…
You should –

• be careful about…
• watch what you…
• slow down
• re-think
• re-consider
• wait until…
• get more…

Not!

You have an idea or suggestion or something you want to try. You figure out how you want to implement your idea and whose help you need to do so. You determine a plan of action and even read the book Hey, That’s My Idea!, by Sylvia Henderson, to figure out how to communicate and present your idea. You put your idea out on the table—communicate to other people—and they “should” all over you.

“Should all over you” means you hear comments like the ones at the beginning of this article. Most of the feedback includes the word “should” or something similar. You think you have a great idea when others say something to you that plants doubt into you about moving forward. It’s so easy to should our ideas out of us!

How do we get past the negative energy of others—many of whom emote energy in a spirit of helpfulness and good intentions? How do we keep naysayers from nixing our ideas and suggestions? How do we keep creativity creditors out of our idea accounts?

Consider these three approaches to keep well-intentioned naysayers from “shoulding” all over you and draining your idea energy.

Know your goal. Identify exactly what you want to communicate, and why. Be clear within yourself about what is your idea or suggestion, and why you consider it important to implement. When you are sure about your idea within yourself, you communicate assertively. When you communicate assertively you convince others that you truly believe in your own idea.

Situation #1: Miguel has a suggestion for how to reduce the time it takes between receiving an order for website design work and billing the customer in order to begin the work. He believes his suggestion will save the small company for which he works a significant amount of money—enough to enable the owner to purchase a software application that will add new features to the websites they design. Miguel applies techniques for organizing, documenting, and presenting his idea to his colleagues and company owner. When he makes his presentation, he nervously conveys his idea and presents his suggested action plan with a questioning demeanor. Observing his nervousness and hearing his questioning voice, his audience deems his idea as not feasible. When he later asks the company owner why his idea is dismissed, he is told that if he doesn’t believe in his own idea, how can he expect anyone else to believe in it?

Hear them out. Use active listening techniques and give clues that you really are hearing others’ concerns. Ask probing questions in order to clarify what you think they are communicating to you. Determine whether their “shoulds” are well-intentioned cautions, aspects of your idea that you have not fully considered, alternatives that might add to implementing your idea successfully, or barriers that thwart you for whatever reasons they may have to do so. Show that you listen so that others feel that they are heard. Yet do just that—listen—without allowing yourself to be swayed to drop your idea until you investigate the points that you need to further research.

Situation #2: Ellen has an idea for a school project that may evolve into a seasonal business. She talks her idea over with both her older sister who is a manager in a non-related business, as well as with her school counselor. Both people care about Ellen’s success and want her to avoid disappointment in her endeavors. Both offer their advice to Ellen—much of which sounds discouraging to her. Yet she listens to them and shows that she is listening. Then she takes the advice that she hears and sorts the points into “look into these more deeply” and “thanks for your advice” categories. Ellen feels that disappointment is a part of taking risks and life. She looks into the points she feels warrant further investigation and finds that, indeed, she must consider some of the details of her idea more thoroughly before she proceeds to implementing her idea. The rest of the “should” she tosses, yet both her sister and counselor feel that Ellen listened to them and acted accordingly.

Be prudently persistent. Believe strongly in your idea, prepare, and present your implementation plan. Listen, and research feedback you receive so that you avoid avoidable mistakes and benefit from other people’s experiences. Re-establish your goal and forge ahead. When you truly believe in your idea, consider the council of people whose experience and perspectives you respect, and conduct the research that empowers you to make intelligent decisions, you can act on your idea in spite of the shoulds. With a regained focus and commitment, persist in pursuing your idea.

Situation #3: Darned if he is going to let “them” discourage him and stop him from implementing his suggestion! Wayne feels he is doing everything right, and he knows his suggestion is a good one. Everyone else must be short-sighted to not see how great is his idea. His colleagues must be losers to turn away from taking action on his suggestion. That’s okay! Wayne forges ahead and puts his suggestion into action anyway. He’s a persistent kind of guy, and to heck with the feedback he receives about incorporating market forecasts into his suggestion in order to create a backup plan. Wayne feels that caution and “shoulds” are signs of weakness and indications of uncertainty, and these are two characteristics with which he won’t allow association. Persistent—that’s how he wants to be perceived. (Two months later…) Skipped-over for promotion—that’s how he comes to be. His project leader tells him, “Persistence is a good thing. Yet persisting on a path contrary to our recommendation that you further analyze market forces, which would have allowed you to adjust your plan for the impending downturn, was a huge waste of money and time. Reckless persistence is seldom a strong leadership characteristic.”

Keep people from “shoulding” all over your idea and draining your idea energy by knowing your goal and assertively communicating your idea, listening to counsel and investigating points made, as appropriate, and being prudently persistent in acting on your idea. Keep the shoulds away!

End notes:

• Purchase the book Hey, That’s My Idea!, by Sylvia Henderson.
• Take the eCourse. (To be announced)
  
• Download / read the iNFO_NOTE Communicate Your Ideas, With IMPACT!
• Join our Member Development Program for monthly learning programs – Subscribe2Succeed.com
  

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You invest thousands of dollars to exhibit at a trade show or exhibition. Your booth setup is top notch. Your promotions and samples are in place. Your demonstration is prepared and ready to show. The uniforms-polo shirt, khaki’s, Timberlands ™-are distributed to your staff. Your team is selected and travel plans are made.

The show is ready but can the exhibit staff put on the show? How effective is the script? Just what will your exhibit staff say and do to not only capture participants’ attention but achieve your objectives? From what I see at trade shows and exhibitions that I attend, the answer to these questions seem to be “no”, “not very”, and “not much”, respectively. A lot of money and time goes into an exhibition for such answers.

Trade shows are excellent venues for witnessing an appalling inability to convey a message clearly, succinctly, and in a manner in which the “average person” can understand. On the positive side, trade shows are also excellent sources of outstanding half-minute presentations.

Succeed in making the sale

To succeed in “making the sale” at a trade show – however you define the sale based on your objectives for exhibiting – your staff needs to make presentations. Thirty seconds is all the time they have to capture participants’ attention, explain your product or service, and make the sale. The sale may be to get viable contacts for further qualification by getting participants to complete a series of qualifier questions, which is more than a drop-the-business-card-in-the-jar level of information. Answering questions takes time that a participant would rather spend going to other exhibits getting cool samples. Answering questions also requires capturing and holding participants’ attention long enough to ask them. Herein lies the necessity for an effective half-minute presentation.

What is this half-minute presentation? A half a minute of explanation by an exhibitor at a trade show cannot be considered a presentation, can it? Well, let’s look at what occurs in that half minute.

You can’t really call it a presentation, can you? First, the exhibitor-the presenter, speaker, sales rep, whoever-makes a strong first impression. That impression is created through nonverbal means (attire, facial expressions, handshake, stance, movement) and verbally (voice inflection and volume, enunciation, and grammatical retain interest. This is achieved by using props, product samples, graphics, movement, animation, sound, and any other medium that captures people’s attention. The exhibitor’s speech must “hook” the passersby and convince them to continue their relationship with the exhibitor. The exhibitor uses props and visuals throughout the message in addition to the surrounding exhibit setup. A speaker, an appropriate environment, a message with a purpose, accompanying props and visuals … sounds like a presentation, to me.

Grab ‘em, tell ‘em, sell ‘em

Just what goes into this 30-second presentation? The principles of effective presentations are as appropriate for a half-minute trade show “pitch” as they are for a two-minute Table Topics speech, a five-minute formal speech, or an hour’s keynote address. The difference and challenge is incorporating the principles into a thirty-second time frame.

The first principle for an effective 30-minute presentation is that the structure of the presentation has three parts: an opening, a body, and a close. The opening grabs the attention of passers-by even more than the attention-getting exhibit booth. Your exhibitor must make eye contact in order to continue with the rest of the pitch or presentation. I am an experienced trade show attendee skilled at looking at an exhibit, not the people staffing the exhibit, but the exhibit itself-scoping out the promotion offered to see if I want one, grabbing the promotion and heading to the next booth. Your staff’s mission is to get me to look them in the eye with a strong verbal attention-grabber. This must be accomplished within five seconds.

The body is the content of the presentation. In twenty seconds the information that your staff conveys to the audience includes the who, what, when, where, and why of your product or service. In 20 seconds the message must be clear and concise.

Five seconds remain in which to make the close. The close summarizes and solicits the desired action. An effective close results in keeping the participant’s attention and interest longer than thirty seconds so that she or he will submit to your qualifier questions or otherwise give you leads to real business to pursue after the show. After all, is that not why you submit to such expense to exhibit at a show … to acquire additional business leads?

By the way, similar principles apply to participation at a job fair only there your staff is selling your company to job applicants. The result is to acquire strong leads for potential employees whom you will then interview for further qualification after the job fair.

Do it again and again

Once the presentation structure is established the next principle of a 30- second presentation is to practice. Practice is the name of the game so that the show comes off smoothly and polished. The benefit of a polished presentation is more obvious towards the end of the day when your staff is tired, hot, cranky, and fed-up with us attendees who have grabbed more than our share of promotions and bypassed your content.

What you say as well as what you do

Principles of verbal and non-verbal communication apply for trade show and job fair presentations. Staff are most effective when they project their voices, speak clearly and succinctly, smile, use firm handshakes, eliminate jargon and acronyms, and have fresh or minty breath.

Invest in your exhibit or job fair staff’s people-skills and presentation skills as much as you invest in your exhibit and products. The 30-second presentation, presented well, is more valuable than that cool promotion with your logo on it.

Originally published in HR.com. Written by Sylvia Henderson.

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This post is a “brag”, although there is a quotation – by either Will Rogers or Walt Whitman depending on the search results you get – that states, “If you done it, it ain’t bragging.”

The Washington edition of SmartCEO Magazine interviewed me for their “Technical Difficulties” section about communicating across generations. They learned of my book TXTVERSATIONS: How Old Farts Must Communicate With Young Whipper-Snappers (And Vice-Versa).

Read about how to get your management, your employees, and yourself all speaking the “same language” (across generations, using technology as communications tools).

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Practically every motorcycle owner who purchases a bike from a dealer finds a way to personalize their machine. Some can afford only handlebar fringe or a unique saddlebag to separate themselves from the other factory-made bikes of the same model. Others essentially strip their bikes and create new ones.

Your business card is your means for personalizing your brand and stating your uniqueness. You can express your true personality or create a virtual business identify through your business card. Here are three tips to make your cards more effective.

• Your card should bear your name, position in the organization, the business name and logo, address, and information about how to contact you. If space is extremely limited, a web URL and phone number are more important than an address as you can place detailed contact information on your web site.
• Use a standard size business card – 2 inches by 3.5 inches. If your card is too large to fit a card case it will end up in the back of a drawer on in the trash. Think about how many cards you receive in the course of conducting your business and what you do with them!
• Use card stock on which people can write notes. Gloss finishes and colors are expressive and memorable, but recipients like to be able to add their own notes directly on the card to better remember you. If you use a gloss finish, do so on the card front and leave the back “writeable”.
  

The purpose of a business card is to introduce yourself and invite communication with the person to whom you give your card. Make your business card clear, memorable, and informational.

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There ought to be a lemon law for language. States and the District of Columbia have lemon laws. These are laws that establish standards for when vehicles – motorcycles, automobiles, or other road-legal vehicles – should be repurchased or replaced by a manufacturer. A new vehicle gone bad is considered a lemon.

One of the elements to communicating effectively involves using words correctly. We have ample opportunity to misuse words, especially in print. Print communication is one-way, from sender to receiver, with little opportunity for the receiver to clarify the intended message. Messages where words are improperly placed within sentences, misspelled, incorrectly chosen, or taken out of context result in sometimes-humorous misinterpretations.

A fine example of the humor in such misinterpretations appears weekly on the late-night talk show “Tonight”, hosted by Jay Leno. He dedicates one show a week to headline humor sent to him by viewers from throughout the USA. For your funny-bone pleasure, the following are examples of bad things happening to good words.

• Include Your Children When Baking Cookies
• Asbestos Suit Pressed
• Man Held Over Giant Brush Fire
• Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge
• Collegians Turn To Vegetables
• Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
• Dog for sale. Eats anything and is fond of children.

The serious message from these humorous examples is to use words carefully, especially when you write. Bad things happen to perfectly good words when they are poorly used. Read what you write, then read it again. Ask someone else to read it and ask how they interpret what you wrote. If they interpret exactly what you intend to communicate, then good things happen to good words.

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