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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Labels: audio, career, careers, communication, education, effective, employment, high-tech, how-to, howto, management, manager, managers, podcast, work

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This article from Lifehacker.com, provides some great advice, much like I wrote about in my column, A Little Recognition, (June 1998) and Make Your Resume A Blog ( Jan 5, 2007). The notes described in the article are just the type of thing you should be adding to your career portfolio, just as an artist adds there work and show reviews to theirs.

Work: Keep a File of Your Accomplishments

If you're doing a good job at work, keep a record. Office productivity site Slacker Manager suggests keeping a "yay-me!" file:

The basic idea is simple: you just keep a file of good stuff you do. When you figure out some trick new process that saves hours per week, you make a note about (don't forget to datestamp it) and drop it in the yay-me file.

There are two benefits of this practice: first, you can always give yourself a pat on the back when you're feeling down. Second, you're storing up good karma for your annual (or otherwise) evaluation. Do you have a "yay-me" file? Share how you've used it in the comments. Yay-me! file [Slacker Manager]

(Via Lifehacker.)

Technorati Tags: career, employment, job, jobs, work, workplace, portfolio

Labels: career, careers, employment, job, jobs, portfolio, respect, work, workplace

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It is rare for life to present you with a simple either/or situation. Normally, life is lived in shades of grey -- an almost infinite set of possibilities. That said, while talking over career problems with some friends last night, we stumbled across a dichotomy that every careerist faces today. In your career, and in your life, you can either "do something" or have something done to you. You can either control your career or let someone else dictate what you do and when you do it.



Next Friday: July 20, 2007: Immerse yourself in other environments in order to improve your own

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Labels: career, employment, high-tech, job, jobs, podcast, podcasting, technology, work, workplace

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