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Asking for Help
For many of us, asking for help is a difficult concept. It can require a certain amount of vulnerability. We may feel as if we are admitting a weakness that the world would not have known about, had we not asked for help. Ironically, it’s been my...
How To Set Up Your Small Office Home Office And Avoid Paying $2,000, $3,000, Or More
When starting out in business there are great temptations to buy
"the best of everything" and spend too much money in the
process. This is one of the potentially devastating mistakes
that new companies make and it can be a killer from the...
Managers, Got a Grip on Your PR?
What are you trying to do with your business, non-profit or association public relations program? Get a little publicity for a service or product? Or, perhaps, you’re doing what you really should do, persuade your key external stakeholders to...
The Value of Conferences for the Independent Publisher/Author
Copyright 2005 Black Butterfly Press Dr. Maxine Thompson http://www.maxinethompson.com http://www.maxineshow.com I often hear many writers lament, “I only sold 7 books at a conference,” and they sound very disappointed. But they are missing the...
Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk. (Part Two)
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to...
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Those Little Things
Moving to another state meant finding a new dentist. I tried one a neighbor recommended who seemed friendly, competent and eager to please. But, I never went back. His office was a case study on the importance of little things.
The coat hook was missing a screw and falling from the wall; waiting room magazines were outdated; the posted office hours were taped over with an index card and new hours written in marker; the credenza was overflowing with mail and claim forms. There are plenty of dentists to choose from, and while he might be a competent one, why chance it?
It's the same at work. Bosses choose which people to give a great assignment to, take a chance on or consider for a project. Customers choose which businesses to frequent. All those little things really aren't so little. They're impressions. And those impressions help others make decisions about you.
Does it matter if you don't spell check your email? It's only an email, right? Wrong. It's an impression about the way you work. Does it matter if the address label is crooked on the letter you send a customer? Who looks at the envelope anyway? It matters. It's an impression highlighting that the company (or individual) has poor attention to detail.
Does it matter if you're habitually late for meetings or don't show up at all? I'd say so. It's an impression about what you think of other people's time. What about a voice mail message saying, "Your call is important to me. I'll get back to you as soon as I can." When it takes two weeks to call, that little thing is an impression about the real importance of my call and your credibility.
If I ask you for a business card and you can't find one among your overflowing scraps of paper, it's a little thing. But it leaves an impression that you're disorganized. If your presentation looks
like a six-grade term paper, it's hard to have confidence that the executed idea won't be as well. How it looks is a little thing that entices us to take a closer look (or not).
Three more comments: first, don't confuse little things with big things. You can't just do all the little things well and think that's it. Content is king on the internet and television; competence is king in the workplace. The competent performance of your job is central to any winning at working strategy. Second, this is not a message encouraging perfectionism. You can't be perfect. If you try to be, you potentially limit yourself and get lost in those little things. Third, some people have a talent for details and noticing little things. But everyone can learn.
Start by noticing those little things which create an impression on you. Little things like the cashier doesn't take off the sensor tag; or the babysitter is late again; or your name is misspelled on an invitation; or the orthodontist staff presents a rose to your daughter after her braces come off; or the repair man arrives at the designated time. What do those little things communicate to you about the person or business who delivered them? Consider what your little things are communicating about you.
Bottom line? If you're not paying attention to the little things, you're losing opportunities or business. If you want to be winning at working, you have to pay attention to little things, too.
(c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Sign up to receive Nan's free eColum,, Winning at Working, at http://www.winningatworking.com. Nan Russell has spent over twenty years in management, most recently with QVC as Vice President. Currently working on her first book, Nan is a writer, columnist, small business owner, and instructor.
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Oral Presentation Advice |
Your presentation should not replace your paper, but rather whet the ... Below I consider goals for academic interview talks and class presentations. ... |
www.cs.wisc.edu |
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Presentation Skills |
This site contains annotated links to resources concerned with presentation and communication skills. |
lorien.ncl.ac.uk |
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Presentation Helper - Free PowerPoint templates, help, advice and ... |
Resources on how to make effective presentations. Includes tips on PowerPoint and topic ideas. |
www.presentationhelper.co.uk |
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Neurobehavioral Systems, Inc. |
Neuroscience stimulus delivery software can be used for cognitive psychology, fMRI, erp and single unit research (Windows). |
nbs.neuro-bs.com |
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Why tables for layout is stupid: problems defined, solutions offered |
Why tables for layout is stupid:. problems defined, solutions offered. Tables existed in HTML for one reason: To display tabular data. ... |
www.hotdesign.com |
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The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation |
This presentation prepared with the help of Microsoft Powerpoint Autocontent Wizard. ... Permission is granted to use this presentation in any course or ... |
norvig.com |
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Presentation Zen |
I love the clear presentation of the ideas in the book and the fact that the ... In the context of presentations, moving info away can help you and the ... |
www.presentationzen.com |
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Presentation Tips for Public Speaking |
Better Public Speaking & Presentation - Ensure Your Words Are Always ... On the Job: Public Speaking Tips - Twelve Steps to Great Presentations by Elise ... |
www.aresearchguide.com |
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Presentation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Presentation is the process of presenting the content of a topic to an ... You should plan to rehearse your presentation out loud at least four times. ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
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OSCON 2005 Keynote - Identity 2.0 |
“A barn-burner of a presentation. I loved this.” - Cory Doctorow. “I watched it twice, and greatly enjoyed it both times.” - Jon Udell ... |
www.identity20.com |
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Presentations - Effective Communication - Public Speaking |
Tips and tools for creating and delivering presentations: text, techniques and technology. |
www.presentations.com |
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Presentation Information Resources - Presentation Technology News ... |
Presentation Information Resources - Comprehensive presenter's resource providing instant access to up-to-date information on technology and techniques for ... |
199.249.170.231 |
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Effective Presentations homepage |
In addition, the skills needed to prepare an oral presentation can be used ... A spiffy presentation discussing Effective Teaching with Powerpoint from the ... |
www.kumc.edu |
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Impress |
Your presentations will stand out with 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, ... Slide show Animation and Effects bring your presentation to life. ... |
www.openoffice.org |
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PRESENTATIONPRO - experts for Microsoft PowerPoint |
A series of products and services to help enhance PowerPoint presentations with templates and backgrounds. |
www.presentationpro.com |
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Leadership - Presentation Skills |
Presentation, PowerPoint, and Leadership. ... Presentations and reports are ways of communicating ideas and information to a group. But unlike a report, ... |
www.skagit.com |
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Presentation: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with presentation on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
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Secretary of State Addresses the U.N. Security Council |
My friends, this has been a long and a detailed presentation. And I thank you for your patience. But there is one more subject that I would like to touch on ... |
www.whitehouse.gov |
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Rubric |
Organization, Audience cannot understand presentation because there is no sequence of information. Audience has difficulty following presentation because ... |
www.ncsu.edu |
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Presentation Skills |
Presentations are one of the first managerial skills which a junior engineer ... This article looks at the basics of Presentation Skills as they might apply ... |
www.see.ed.ac.uk |
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