Take A Bite

Whenever I get busy at work the first thing that gets weeded out is time for myself- time to read up on industry news, check blogs, tune into SEM buzz etc. I always just figure that what's most important is deliverables to clients and my manager. These are the things that I am under strict deadlines for so I push the fluffier "should-do's" to the back burner. I do the job asked of me and I do it well but when I peel these "non-essentials" away the opportunity cost is huge.

It's hard to realize at the time, but not making time for these things ends up costing me because I fall behind. So when new features or tools are released or breaking news is spreading or industry trends are changing I'm behind the curve, and in this industry that's not an option!

Here are some tactics I'm using to sink my teeth in (they're food themed because I'm hungry):

1. A Daily Serving 
   I have 30 minutes blocked off on my calendar every day to read and explore industry goodness. I used to block off two hours every Friday and not once did I ever sit down and devote an entire two hours to reading industry news. Most weeks I skipped it altogether but when I did engage in it I usually let the urgency of my other work pull me away after about 40 minutes..
2. Bite by Bite
   I only read 30 minutes at a time, which means that if I miss one day I don't play the catch-up game and read an hour the next day. I can't. If I do this one day turns into two days, which turns into three days and then four and before I know it I'm trying to read four hours at a time again and failing. 
3. Balanced Food Groups
   Just reading about what interests me is easy, but doesn't really accomplish what I'm after so I made a list of all of the topics that I should be following and learning and found some sources for each that I could add to my Google reader and subscribe to via email. So every day more resources are pulled into these collection bins for me to sort through and soak up.
4. A Pinch of Sugar
   I schedule my reading when I most need a break during the day because it helps my mind associate it with something calm and relaxing. 

Have any advice? Pleeeease share it! I'll take any help you can give.

Office Personas- The Good

In my last post I discussed negative office personas, and now it's time for a few positive ones and some tips on how you can get the most out of your working relationships with these positive personas.

1. The Mom

The Mom is usually a female but is not necessarily an actual Mother in real life. The Mom goes out of her way to make sure that everyone is prepared for meetings and has the resources they need to complete projects. The Mom tends to remain on an even keel, and is generally upbeat and fun to be around. She is does not often express stress and frustration openly. The Mom is empathetic and will listen to other people's problems and offer advice where needed. Moms can be found in admin roles, HR, and occasionally middle management.

Tips on harnessing the power of The Mom:

• Tell her what you need. Moms enjoy procuring the resources and favor needed to get things done.
• Utilize her connections. The Mom is well-liked and can be your ticket to getting to know people and winning influence.
• Don't just take take take. Even The Mom needs someone to listen and care for her at times

2. The Pinch Hitter

The Pinch Hitter is the all purpose teammate that will fill in as needed and never lets the team down. The Pinch Hitter is not the type of person to refuse a job or task because "it's not his/her job." Pinch Hitters may not always want to help out with certain tasks but they know that the progress of the team is paramount. They may fly under the radar and not get the recognition that they desire, but for Pinch Hitters the public recognition is not their driving factor. Pinch Hitters thrive off of the success of the team and the relationships that they develop within the team. The Pinch Hitter is the glue that holds a team together and can be found in any space in a company.

Tips on harnessing the power of The Pinch Hitter:

• Only ask the Pinch Hitter for help when you really need it, not to lighten your work load. Pinch Hitter or not, no one likes to be used. Even The Pinch Hitter can burn out eventually.
• Thank The Pinch Hitter. Just because they don't need public recognition doesn't mean that they don't want recognition from the people they are working with closely. Relationships are very important to The Pinch Hitter and gratitude will go a long way. 

3. The Ghost

In the old Mario Kart Nintendo game there was a single player mode of the game that allowed you to race a course and then re-race it over and over following a translucent "ghost" of yourself and every time your time improved you'd follow the new faster version. Thus, in a sense the ghost was the best version of yourself. 

The Ghost on a team or in a company is the coworker you work best with- the person that is similar enough to get who you are and how you work and different enough from you to push you to be better. Ghost relationships are usually symbiotic. Hopefully, The Ghost is wherever you are in the company!

Tips on harnessing the power of The Ghost:

• Be clear about your goals and the obstacles you foresee in getting there with The Ghost so that you are both on the same page 100%. The Ghost will help get you where you're going by pushing you to do the work to get there.
• Offer to work with The Ghost on as many projects as possible.
• If The Ghost moves teams/divisions/offices/gets a promotion, etc.don't let go of your Ghost buddy. Find a way to work cross functionally in order preserve that relationship.

There are probably a million positive personas out there. Feel free to leave a comment with some of your favorites!

Office Personas- The Bad & The Ugly

At a recent conference I attended they were discussing buyer personas. At the most basic level there are four buyer personas: spontaneous, humanistic, methodical and competitive. These personas are neither good nor bad, they are just differences in personal characteristics or predispositions that indicate how people will go about making purchase decisions but this made me think of some "personas" you might meet in the typical office scene. Office personas, on the other hand, CAN be positive and negative. Here are a few negative personas, and some tips on working with them:

1. The Bro (aka The Meathead)

Think Jersey Shore. The Bro is typically male and thrives in a competitive field- sales, business development, recruiting, etc. When it comes to relationships, The Bro values quantity over quality because  he wants to be well liked. The Bro does not take kindly to being criticized or questioned. The Bro is stubborn and likely will not change his behavior, even if it if deemed as unprofessional.

Tips on working with The Bro:

• Don't volunteer to work with him.
• Address issues with The Bro address privately. Do not challenge or question The Bro in front of others.
• Do not misconstrue The Bro's jovial nature for a trustworthy business relationship. The Bro will probably not go to bat for you should you ever need it.

2. The Busy Bee

The Busy Bee is busy being busy. He/she loves to boast about being busy either to garner sympathy or establish superiority. Busy Bees like to make plans and are eager to engage in projects but will remind others at every step just how busy they are (even when they are not any busier than anyone else around them).

Tips on working with Busy Bees:

• Being busy is closely tied to the Busy Bee's sense of self- never suggest that perhaps the Busy Bee is not as busy as he/she is suggesting.
• Give Busy Bees the opportunity to help out with projects- you'll already have to hear about how busy they are so you might as well make it true :-)

3. The Guru

The Guru loves to be right. You can find the Guru in management, investors, communications, and social media. The Guru will always relate a particular problem/situation/opportunity that is facing the team or company to something from his/her past. There are actually subject matter experts out there, but the Guru claims to be more than just that. The Guru sees himself/herself as the foremost authority on the industry, your job, or just life in general. 

Tips on working with The Guru:

• The Guru will almost never be wrong, just get used to it now. It's likely that you'll never make any headway on this front.
• Suggest other "rights"- The Guru doesn't necessarily have to be wrong for you or your team to be right.  If you can get The Guru to latch onto "your right" you will have him/her on your side as a promoter.
• If you suspect that The Guru is making the wrong call and his/her idea/solution may not pan out, make a back-up plan. It's never a bad idea to have something to fall back on!

In my next post I'll address some positive personas; but in the meantime, if you have encountered any other negative personas feel free to add the in the comments!

35 Minutes And We're Nowhere

This week our team scheduled a live demo of some software we were evaluating. The presentation was a hot mess! The man conducting the presentation made just about every mistake you can imagine during this presentation.Take a lesson from the following recap:

• Poor Preparation
  The company did not send us the information for the GoToMeeting ahead of time so we booked a conference room and assembled the team only to end up twiddling our thumbs waiting around for the information to be sent.
• Going Nowhere Slowly
  After 35 minutes we hadn't really gotten anywhere- we were still on the first main feature of the software. The presentation was absolutely crawling, causing boredom and frustration on our end. 
• My Way or The Highway
  Since we were running out of time I suggested that we focus on the feature that we were most interested in- the deal breaker for us. The presenter then blatantly told us to wait until he finished going through his presentation on the first feature in full before he would move on.
• Exclusive Offer
  When we finally got to the feature we were most interested in the presenter showed it for a brief instant and quickly moved on. He did this because the feature was incredibly weak, especially compared to the industry. Instead, he showed us "an exclusive feature"... translation- a feature that no other company is bothering to offer because anyone with the internet can do the same thing.
• Why Use It For Free When You Can Pay For It?
  When we asked to see what they could offer in the way of reporting they showed us some very basic reports and mentioned that more could be done. I requested to see an example of what he was referring to and the presenter informed that I could use the data to make something better in Excel. Umm, why would I pay for software that doesn't give me anything as good what I could create in Excel for free!
• Problems? No Problems Here!
  After explaining a particular requirement of the software the presenter asked, so what do you think? With the way we operate that requirement would be incredibly inefficient and annoying. I tried to explain that politely but was rebutted by the presenter who told me not to worry about it because it would be fine. I again explained why that requirement would make it harder for us and he basically just replied that we'd have to deal with it.
• Do You Like Me? Do You Really Like Me?
  For whatever reason, our presenter felt the need to make bad jokes, explain them, and then ask us to laugh. He would also follow up almost everything he showed us with "Pretty cool huh?" or "What do you think? Great right?" This was annoying in and of itself but on top of that, there were times when what he was showing us would not be useful to us at all. In those cases it was awkward because we then would have to explain why we didn't think it was "cool" or  "great" or "awesome." The presenter, however, could not be dissuaded. He would follow-up by reminding us that no one else was offering what they offer, as if that would suddenly create a need for what he was showing.

If you've ever seen a really bad presentation, give us the details!

When "Why?" Is A Threat

As a general rule of thumb, if someone asks you why you do something the way you do it and you take it as a threat or challenge to your worth as an employee, you know what you are doing is not the best way to do it. There are some exceptions- like if the person is exceedingly rude about it, or if the Bobs are being brought in to determine if your job is necessary at your current company. But tone and Office Space references aside, "Why?" should not be threatening.

"Why?" can be the best way to determine if your activities are as efficient as they can or if they are providing value. "Why?" can be a new person's way of getting to know the job or the position. "Why?" can be your manager's way of making sure that you can be trusted to reason and problem-solve. So remember, "Why?" does not mean you're wrong.

If you get the sense deep down that "Why?" is an affront to the work you are doing or who you are as an employee, it's probably because you suspect that the person asking really means, "Why on Earth would you do it like that when you could to this instead?" It's that doubt, that suspicion that puts you on edge, and you wouldn't have that if you didn't believe that there was a better way to do what you are doing or drive value with how you are doing it.

My advice is, ask yourself why! Beat your manager, your new coworkers, etc. to the punch! Don't be afraid to answer yourself truthfully, even if it means more work for yourself. It'll be far more impressive when someone asks "Why?" you can say "Well, I evaluated the way we had been doing it previously and for reasons x, y, and z it was going to be more efficient/scalable/comprehensive/valuable/clear/etc. to do it this way" rather then "I don't know, we have always done it that way."

Hello, My Name Is Terrible

At the beginning of each month I run the numbers for the previous month's performance. Each month since I started the numbers have improved over the prior month... each month that is, until March. In March the numbers were below what was expected and below what I would consider acceptable. I wasn't sure what to do- this had never happened before. If you ever run into this situation I would advise that you review the following:

1. The Excel formulas themselves to make sure nothing got corrupted
2. Historical data to account for any normal seasonal fluctuations
3. Whether there are any company efforts that could have had a direct impact (marketing efforts, promotions, etc.)
4. What sort of external factors could have acted to shape the numbers 
5. Whether the reporting structure changed from the previous reporting period

But even after I checked all of those potential sources I still couldn't explain the numbers. So instead of trying to hide them and hoping no one noticed, I brought them to the forefront and I explained honestly that I did not know what was affecting the numbers. Usually I send the data to my manager and let her ask any questions she may have or give any feedback she deems necessary, but this month I felt it important to be proactive. I emailed her immediately and attached the spreadsheet. I explained that the numbers were lower than expected and that I was very disappointed and I asked to meet with her first thing the following day so we could try to figure out what happened and what our plan was going to be moving forward. She appreciated my directness and proactive response, and after meeting the following morning we quickly had a new plan in place to point us back in the right direction.

In case you ever find yourself in one of those meetings here's a list of things you'll want to have:

• Ideas
  You may not know definitively what is affecting the numbers but do you have any ideas of what the cause might be? If so bring them! Make sure you state them as "potential causes" or "possible reasons" and then present them to someone higher than you. Often times he/she will have a broader view of the picture and can help determine if any of those scenarios could be the culprit.
• Historical Data
  Data doesn't mean much if you have nothing to compare it to. By providing historical data you can provide scope. Should this have been your best month out of the year and you absolutely tanked, or should it have been an average month and you're just in a bit of a slump? Historical numbers will provide perspective.
• Plenty of Paper or a Fully Charged Laptop Battery
  Get ready to take notes. Write down everything. Seem engaged and actually BE engaged. This problem is not going to fix itself. Hopefully after some good brainstorming you'll have direction to help reverse the downturn.

In case you're wondering what the cause was, we set sales records for other services that we offer that same month, and our sales team is not unlimited. But this is not information that I would have known if I hadn't brought it to my manager.

If you've had a similar experience, feel free to share it!

Enter The Noob

Recently two new full time employees and a part-time intern joined our team. That's sort of huge because prior to this our team was a three person team. So essentially our team just doubled in size. Knowing that all these new people were starting was terrifying to me.

I don't like that in-between time after a candidate has accepted a job offer but before they've actually started because I'm always racked with anxiety. I find myself asking what will he/she be like? Will we get along? How will this affect my job duties? How will the team dynamics change? etc. All of these questions cause dread to build and build as I run through worst case scenarios in my head, so that when the new person starts I'm less than thrilled for him/her to actually be there and I think it shows. As a result, I'm going out of my way to be much friendlier and more welcoming. How? Here are some simple tips to help you out:

1. Go To Lunch
   Taking new people to lunch is very welcoming because it gives you the chance to break bread with them and get to know them personally! It's a gesture they'll really appreciate and never forget.
2. Ask Questions (And Actually Listen to the Answers!!)
   It's great to ask questions about people to engage them and make them feel like you care, but you're likely going to be spending a lot of time with these new coworkers so it's important to make them a priority. Think about it, you're going to be spending 40 hours with these people a week- you're practically in a serious relationship with them. Listen like you would on a first date!
3. Explain The Law of The Land
   Any workplace has politics and unspoken etiquette. Don't let the new people learn these the hard way. Obviously you don't need explain things that are common sense but if there are some quirky things about your office make sure to warn your new coworkers. For example, at our office there are a ton of matching mugs. A new person might think that those are for general use, when in reality each employee was issued a matching mug. Take someone else's mug and you could be in big trouble. Some mugs people have labeled with their names, and other mugs people have just memorized incredibly subtle differences so that they'll know which ones is thiers.
4. Be An Includer
   Explain inside jokes to new coworkers and make sure that you invite them to team events and meetings. Because they just started, new coworkers likely will not have weekly team meetings or special outings programmed on their calendars. Invite them ahead of time so that it doesn't look like you forgot about them when you're all running off something without them.
5. Set Them Up to Succeed
   Give new employees whatever training documents or helpful resources you have. If they are going to be sharing in completing tasks or projects with you make sure that they have all of the elements that they need in order to contribute. This also applies to knowledge! Give new employees the verbal explanations and support that they need to get the job done. 

 The sooner you can assimilate new employees into your workplace the better off your team will be. Going out of your way to get things off on the right foot initially will make the process smoother and more pleasurable for all parties involved; and... you might end up really liking them!

Put Down The Megaphone

Today at work I overheard a coworker of mine going on a rant about how much it infuriates him that his fiance makes more money than he does. He went on to say that as a teacher her job really isn't hard since just has to "hang with kids for a few hours" and she really doesn't deserve to be stressed. He declared that once he was making enough to support them he was "going to squash that."

A personal note before I continue... I think he should go be a teacher if he thinks it's so easy. I know a lot of teachers and it is NOT easy, not if you're doing it right. Okay, that being said, it was completely inappropriate to say this at work. This coworker's reputation is now completely ruined in the eyes of several females that sit right near him. His diatribe was the talk of the office this afternoon.

It would be one thing if this coworker was in a break room or perhaps at the smokers' station outside or in the hall with another person having this conversation and someone happened overhear him, but he stood up at his cube and declared this publically. So before climbing on your soap box and announcing personal details about yourself or personal opinions/beliefs consider who's within ear shot. If you don't know where someone stands on a particular topic, air on the side of cautiousness. It's okay to dish about your life and your outlook on life, just lower your voice if you're not 100% sure that the people around you will be understanding.

What's the most offensive thing you have ever heard in the workplace?

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

If you work directly with client accounts someday you may lose your flagship account- your baby. The account that you devote the greatest amount of time and brainpower can (and sometimes does) leave you. If you have ever experienced this you may understand what I mean when I say it sort of feels like a "real" break-up. You may crave the regular correspondence you once had with the client, you may wonder what you did wrong, you may be hesitant to get too involved with other accounts. So how do you get over the client "break-up" blues? Follow the four-step plan:

1. Don't Blame Yourself
   It's important to find out why the client left you- Did they choose a competitor? Did their needs change beyond what your company could offer? Was it a personal matter like a death in the family or messy finances? Work with the client before you part ways to get as much detail as possible. In general I would say that if you care enough to be consulting this article and you truthfully do not know why they canceled, it was probably not because you are terrible at what you do and the client hated your guts!
   Once you know for sure why they left, don't personalize it. If it was your company's shortcoming, use that as leverage to push for expanding your services. Become the advocate that that client would have wanted inside your own company. If they chose a competitor, consider pitching to your company whatever factor was attractive enough to cause the client to stray. Objectively weigh your services against that competitor's services and figure out how you can make-over your service to woo more clients like the one you lost.
2. Remember The Bad Times
   In a break-up it's easy to romanticize the relationship and just remember the good times, but no client is all smiles. Remember the times they kept you working around the clock, didn't return your calls, dumped extra work on at the last minute, imposed unreasonable deadlines, etc.
3. Fill The Void
   Now that you have extra time on your hands find something to fill the void, otherwise you'll just mope. Devote extra time to other client accounts, read up on industry news, learn new skills in your field, look for business opportunities/partnerships for your company. Just do something productive!
4. Get Back In The Game
   
   Just because you lost that client doesn't mean you can't attract new bigger better clients. Create training documents for your sales force to recruit new clients, look for opportunities to up sell the clients you already have, or develop an incentive program for your clients to bring you more clients. Get out there and make it happen ;-)

Have any more tips? Share them with our readers!

Win The Gold

During the Olympics my husband and I have been watching an insane amount of Olympics coverage. Being from the Northeast and growing up around these sports, we have a special fondness in our hearts for the Winter Olympics in general. One thing that struck me about this year's coverage of ski jumping was that the announcers kept reiterating that ski jumping as a sport is not particularly difficult to master physically- it is a sport featured around one simple movement. What makes ski jumping challenging and sets amateurs apart from the pros is the timing of that movement, and the strength with which it's held in the air. They explained, that the art of ski jumping is knowing when to lay out over your skis, and convincing your mind to stay there when everything inside you is telling you that you shouldn't be doing that. You are, after all, essentially jumping off a three story building chest-first to a steep snowy landing below. Convince your mind that that's totally normal and safe, and you're on your way to winning Olympic gold.

Sometimes work is like this. Sure, work is a heck of a lot safer, but there are times when your mind seems to be chanting "This doesn't matter" or "Focus on something else" or "Nothing could be more boring than this." I don't care how much you love your job, inevitably at some point you will find yourself wondering if you're making a difference, unable to focus, or trying to complete an annoyingly mundane task. (Note: If this describes the majority of your job maybe you should think about a career/job change, but for the rest of us this will happen from time to time.) It's times like this that set the regular employees (the amateurs) apart from the stellar employees (the Olympic gold medalists). Right, but how do you convince your mind that it's wrong? Just like athletes have different techniques, so too do employees. I tend to use the following tricks (the overall concepts are universal, and the examples are job-specific):

1. Break Big Tasks Into Smaller To-Dos
   
   I feel accomplished when I can cross something off, even if it's something small. I would rather have 8 small/medium-sized tasks on my to-do list than three big ones. So if I have a few major things I need to do I will spell the steps out and let myself cross them off as I go. This also helps you to think through the task and better budget your time throughout the day.
2. Look at the Bigger Picture
   Sometimes if I'm fiddling with small keyword bid changes I can get stuck in the "Does this 10 cents really matter?" trap. By aggregating that and looking at the bigger picture I can remind myself that it does matter to the company at the end of the day. If we can save 10 cents on 100 keywords, that's $10/day, or $3,650/year- on just ONE account. Sure, no one cares about $0.10, but $3,650? Now you're talking!
3. Rely on The Industry
   
   Sometimes it's easy to let yourself get away with doing less work. In my case, that would be something like "This account is small enough that match type and strength of long-tail keywords don't matter much." But, is that true or just what my mind is telling me so I can do less work? Look to the industry's opinions- industry standards would say that both match-type and long-tails are very important. Then you'll have your answer!

So get out there, conquer your mind, and win gold at work! What tricks do you use?

First Impressions And Second Chances

As the saying goes, "You only get one chance to make a first impression." A first impression is important because it sets the foundation for your relationship with your coworkers, managers, directors, and more. If you start off on the wrong foot when meeting someone, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll never get in good with the person in question, if just means that doing so will take a considerable amount of work.

Truthfully, until about five months ago I really didn't believe that this was true. Then, a new member of our team started. I had such high hopes for her first day. I just assumed that she'd come in and we'd click. After her first day I was really upset, she didn't seem to have taken to me like people usually do right off the bat when they meet me. I explained my disappointment to my husband, and he made me reiterate what she had asked in our 1x1 that first day and how I answered. In astonishment he exclaimed, "It sounds like you made a terrible first impression!" I wasn't too concerned because I figured, well, there's always tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that... But my husband knew better, he explained to me that he didn't get started off right at a job he had had previously, and that it took months of working his butt off to prove that he was indeed a knowledgeable, hardworking, trustworthy employee. I just sunk!

As is usually the cae, he was right! I have been working ever since to get in good with her. Here are some tips so that you don't find yourself in the same dilemma:

• Dress appropriately
• Focus on the positives of your job, not the negatives (right away at least)
• Don't take criticism of the processes as criticism of you
• Never assume that the reason you have always done something a particular way is because it's actually the best way to do it
• Be open to change
• Know your strengths and how they benefit the team
• Have some stock ideas ready to discuss that would improve your job/the company

Who else has had to recover after making a bad impression? How long did it take? How did you do it?

Honor Thine Meeting

Outlook is kind of sacred. If you create an Outlook meeting intend on sticking to it. For a while I was working closely with a guy who had terrible Outlook etiquette. He would double book meetings and then blow off one of them at the last minute. He would schedule meetings and then disappear when it was time for the meeting, show up 30-90 minutes later and pretend that there was no meeting ever scheduled. He would schedule meetings, ask to postpone them, and then go play video games in one of our break rooms or hang out and chat with people near me. In short, he drove me crazy!

As a result, I now try to be especially cognizant of the fact that other people plan their days around meetings when I schedule them, and I also try to respect other people's meetings- being punctual, being prepared, and understanding the agenda ahead of time. These actions establish mutual respect and appreciation.

The fact of the matter is that when you have one or more meetings in a day, you prioritize your workload, shuffle around to-do tasks, plan lunch, etc. based on that meeting or those meetings. That's why when someone ignores the commitment that you have made to that meeting it feels so rude.

What meeting scheduling annoyances and pet peeves do you have? Share your bad experiences!

A Square Peg In A Round Hole

Recently at work we had to take the Strengths Finder. After taking the test and letting it score my top five strengths I began pouring through the materials. One of my strengths indicated that I would rather focus on what I do well and use my strengths to the best of a project or role than focus on my weaknesses. The materials praised this "maximizing" tendency and reiterated how important it was to find everyone's core strengths when working on a project or in a role to have the biggest impact.

This weekend at church the same message was reiterated- find your spiritual gifts and serve God in way that is true to those gifts. The pastor stressed the fact that you may be willing to serve God in some way but that may not play to your true strengths, and ultimately the only way to serve God to the fullest is to have everyone serve with their own unique gifts, because otherwise you're just trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

These were two very different settings and yet the message was the same- everyone has different strengths and gifts and figuring out what those are so that they can best be utilized is the only way to achieve maximum efficiency and productivity. This is why I think it's important to have good relationships with your coworkers- to know them as people and how they work best. Then, then you end up having to work with them on a project you'll how best to assign tasks, schedule meetings, meet deadlines, and more. If your strengths don't include the ability to get to know people easily and make these observations about them, just ask. The important thing is to make sure you're using people in way that they work best. Think about it this way: you would ask an accountant to do a marketing plan, or an HR person to do forecast, or a sales person to decide on new partnership ventures. In the same way, you need to play to the strengths of your coworkers- not because it's polite or kind, but because it will get the job done!

When In Rome...

I never had any idea how diverse different regions of the US could be in terms of employment environments. After we moved to Austin I worked in customer care for a short time, and my first week there I was shocked to find out that the company had a happy hour every other Friday in the office during work hours. It was apparently totally normal to have an alcoholic beverage at your desk before leaving on a Friday. People would bring in beer to share, and on special occasions we would sometimes make mixed drinks or frozen beverages. This blew my mind!

At Bentley I had attended on-campus seminars that taught you how to dress for success, eat politely at fancy business dinners, and conduct yourself in an office with professionalism. All of that seemed to go out the window when my first week on the job I found myself sipping a pink mixed drink of some sort out of a solo cup at my small cluttered desk. In fact, when it had been offered to me at first I thought it was a joke. But it wasn't- this was part of the company culture. It felt really wrong to be drinking at work. I suddenly was stricken with fear and conspiracy theories- maybe this was an elaborate plot to fire me (give me a drink and convince me that it's normal to drink at work and then fire me for doing so), or maybe I was on Candid Camera!

The happy hour was carefully planned- no employee could have more than one drink, and it had to be at least an hour before that employee left for the day. It was responsibly handled and it served the company in the same way that any other employee perk does- make the employees happy and they will provide a better experience for your customers.

In the following weeks I came to understand that this happy hour tradition was totally normal. For two weeks we would all work really hard dealing with belligerent/confused/unhappy customers and then we would get a happy hour as a reward. It was actually more strange at the company NOT to partake of the happy hour than it was to do so. Moral of the story: When in Rome do as the Romans do!

You Handle It

When your boss or manager tells you "You handle it" or "You take care of it" it doesn't mean "You do it." It means, you take charge and make sure it gets done. In fact, if you always take it to mean that you have to do everything yourself it'll make you look like a control freak.

I can already hear your retort, "If I do it myself I know it'll get done right and on my time schedule. I'm the one that's most familiar with it. I should be the one doing it. I'll get help on the next project. I can do this one."

I have news for you, if you use this thinking that "next project" will never come. You will keep operating independently and eventually you'll isolate yourself and alienate those around you. So friend, I advise that you put the control down and step away slowly.

I speak from personal experience. In college it looked like I did fine working in groups because I always got good grades. But the other side of that story was that my paralyzing fear that something would get done poorly or submitted late caused me to overstep my duties and take on additional work- essentially carrying every group I was ever in on my back. I did fine in groups all right- I took control and did the work while others sat back and were glad to have someone else do the hard work. More control for me, more drinking time for them. It was a win-win. But that doesn't work in the real world.

Here are some tips for my fellow control freaks to break the cycle of controlling:

1. Be realistic in your time availability- don't over-commit
2. Realize that you are not the best at doing everything- reach out to those that are experts in other areas for better efficency and greater sanity
3. Keep your cool- listen to ideas and opinions that you may not personally support or agree with
4. Trust- have faith that your company hired competent people (they hoired you didn't they?)

The more you can work with your peers and superiors in the company, the more you'll show that you do indeed have leadership potential.

Who else out there is a control-zilla?

Nothing Is Impossible (With Excel)

My husband is the reason for this post. I don't know how we got on this topic but over dinner tonight with our neighbors I was explaining how my new favorite excel function is =COUNTIF. My husband began talking about the many uses of =COUNTIF and went off on a pivot table tangent. I stated that there was something I was trying to do at work today but I didn't think there was a way to do it in excel. My husband explained "Nothing is impossible with excel!"

As usual, he was right. I explained in detail what I was looking to do and in under 15 seconds my husband rattled off the equation I needed. Today I spent 10 minutes rearranging data to do what he could have done in a flash.

What was the most valuable thing you ever learned to do in excel?

General Advice

I sent the link to this blog to some old college friends and family. The response I got back was overwhelming! I wanted to make an area that was just for the advice they provided. Voila, that's what this is!

So, if you have anything you want to share post it as a comment on here and it'll appear in the right-hand nav menu. (I will post what I have been sent so far.)

No One Cares That You Were Right

If you're any good at what you do, you will inevitably come to a point in your career where one of your colleagues has a project/proposal/plan/idea/etc that they come up with that you just know won't work. If you're lucky, your input will be evaluated and the matter at hand will either be scrapped or changed so that it can become viable. If you're unlucky, your company will go ahead despite your warnings.

The thing that you need to understand is that if your company moves ahead and then the the item ends up failing, no one cares that you were right. What they care about is turning it around so that it can succeed, or backing out gracefully.

What I've found is that it's human tendency to want to relish in "I told you so" boasting (especially if it's your first time being right publicly). After all, you just had a career breakthrough right?! You proved that your business acumen can be trusted and that you're a credible source of knowledge. In the long run that will go a long way in establishing your credibility in the company and building your own confidence, but in the short term it doesn't matter much. What matters now is how you're going to fix it.

So instead of gloating remind yourself why you predicted it would fail, and what proof you now have that it did, indeed, fail. Here are some of the most common reasons for failure:

1. Wrong Numbers
2. Inconsistency with Overall Company Mission
3. Incorrect Assumptions
4. Lack of Targeting
5. Poor Cross-Team Communications
6. Lack of Full Organization Buy-In
7. Financial Constraints

Once you know why it failed you can help your company decide whether it should be abandoned or re-worked. If you attach yourself to being part of the solution it will show maturity and a strong sense of commitment to the company's ongoing success.

Tell me about a time when you knew that an activity was going to fail at your company. Why did it fail and what did your company decide to after? How were you part of the solution?

Post-Interview Snafus

After an interview you may want to do something clever to set yourself apart from the competition. I once read an article that compiled a list of cheesy bizarre things that people had done after interviewing with various companies. The strange actions ranged from mailing a bowling pin to the company with a note that said "I'll bowl you over" to creating a pop-up book resume to leaving a shoe to "get a foot in the door." These are all terrible ideas! You'll stand out to the company all right, but not in a good way. No company is going to hire the crazy man/woman that brought an extra shoe to the interview to leave behind. While I tend to think very few people would engage in these "extreme" activities I also caution people that are doing "normal" things like following up with an email or phone call or hand-written letter. Be careful! Before you send anything make sure you've checked it and check it again!!

This is a true story: One time at work a candidate came in to interview and several days after he had come in, our female HR director got a nice hand-written card that read "I can't wait to work you" inside. I don't know if he would have gotten the job or not, but he certainly didn't get it after she read that card. What I'm assuming was a simple mistake displayed that candidate's lack of attention to detail and ineffective communication skills. (Either that, or he thought our married HR director was hot and decided that a hookup with her was worth not getting the job.) Either way, not a good fit for the company.

Here is something awesome to get your creative juices flowing: Unique business cards

If you've done anything interesting in the past to make a name for yourself with a company where you're interviewing, let us know!

Making The Best of Unpaid Internships

While I was in college I had three unpaid internships. For some of you, the idea of working for free may seem strange, but in the Boston area this is incredibly common. This is due to the fact that there is a huge student population around Boston so businesses know that they don't need to pay students to attract them as long as they promise the kind of experience that can be touted on a resume later on down the road.

Having one or more internships before graduating is standard at Bentley. I had internships at a financial planning office, an internationally known shoe manufacturer, and an events planning company. The common thread between the three was that I was mislead before accepting all of them. Going in I was told that I would be doing one thing (i.e. something that had to do with my major) and I ended up being asked to do something totally different (i.e. grunt office work, manual labor, and needless busy work). The moral of the story here is that when you accept an internship expect to do things you never signed on for. What will decide how beneficial the internship ends up being to your professional networking and career development is how you handle those unexpected duties. If you grudgingly do the least amount of work needed to complete them you'll end up getting bitter and cynical. It's very easy to fall into that trap! You think to yourself, "I'm paying $35,000/year to get an education where they tell me I need an internship and then I get one and I'm filing all day without even getting paid for it?!" But trust me, if you find a way to turn it around you'll get a huge payoff!

Here are some tips to make the most of those undesirable tasks:

• Go above and beyond- provide more than you were asked for, and provide it sooner than expected
• Find room for improvement- make the process more efficient, more complete, or more detailed
• Do it without being asked- if you see something that needs to be done just do it
• Brainstorm- come up with ideas to supplement what you've been asked to do

If you've had the same experience share it with our readers! What crazy things have you been asked to do at your internship(s)?