Once again, Mark and Mike at Manager Tools hit a very important pet peeve of mine, how to use voice mail effectively. It amazes me that we still have to educate people about this, but anyone who has received voice mail knows that there is a problem.

My favorite tip from this show, "Move the conversation forward!" For me, this is the main issue. No more "Call Me" voice mails would be top of the list for Christmas this year. (SMILE)

How to Leave a Voicemail

This cast describes how to leave an effective voicemail.

If you’ve ever gotten a voicemail which sounded like, “[your name], this is [their name], call me,” you know why we’re doing this cast.

Phone manners have been steadily decreasing for decades. When boys used to call for Mark’s daughter Kate, they would slouch verbally through, “Is Kate there?” and Mark would answer, “Yes,” and hang up. He safely assumed that any person who asked that question was a boy, and not enough of a gentleman to be allowed to speak with her. (At first she rolled her eyes, but later she liked the hurdle that Mark’s demand created: those boys that never got it ended up being…well, boys.)

What about at work? The “Bob this is Joe call me” is only one example. It ranks right up there with “saw that you called, what’s up?” answered with, “did you, errrrr…listen to my voicemail?”

In this cast, we have recommendations for how to leave a voicemail. We think of this as the first cast on phone skills…out of several hundred to come.

(Via Manager Tools.)

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Readymade is from the folks over at Readymade magazine, a great monthly available via subscription or on the newstand.



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On the recommendation of a fellow Friends in Tech member -- Chuck Tomasi -- I began to listen to the Manager Tools podcast with Michael Auzenne and Mark Horstman. I have been very impressed with what I have heard and wanted to take a moment to recommend the podcast to all of you.

Now, don't let title put you off. Even if you are not a manager there is a lot of useful information to be had here. Listening to the podcast can help you to better understand your managers and develop ways to manage yourself not matter what your position in a company.

In each podcast, Michael and Mark, provide step-by-step instructions to approach and manage a host of management situations.

You can subscribe to Manager Tools by visiting the web site or subscribe directly using iTunes.

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