I think I’ve spent the past week or so avoiding big projects lying around my computer. (It’s probably been more like two, but I’m trying to ignore that.) Nothing is being written. Nothing is being produced. There is no troubleshooting going on.
It’s not like me to go like this. I blame work-related stress for eating up both my time and energy. Why not? It’s an easy target.
Before you judge me too harshly, I’ve used the time to get a lot done around here. I’m slowly organizing all my photos and graphic design projects. I’m pulling all my writing into one spot and condensing my files by making use of versioning. I’m experimenting with micro-blogging as a possible alternative to my Notebook. I’ve reviewed my to-do lists and organized into projects with timelines.
I’m even finally looking into developing my portfolio. (Any suggestions on this are most welcome.)
So, I may not be getting the big projects done, but I’m still doing some fairly useful things around here. Things that will, in the long run, make things run a lot more smoothly around here.
For more tips on how to be productive, even when you’re dodging actual work, check out this article.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility, Organizing at 7:42 AM EDT
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In an age where grown-ups give their word and then either forget altogether ore simply don’t follow through because they think they aren’t expected to, it can be hard to convince my students that they need to honor their agreements. When you actually
strive to become a man or woman of your word, regardless of your age, interesting things happen. People start looking to you as a go-to person because you’ll suddenly have this reputation for being the person who can get it done. You might even find yourself with more important duties because you’ll find yourself labeled “responsible”. (Some of my students swear that’s the kiss of death, but then whine that their parents don’t trust them…)
Keeping your word makes people want to work with you because they view you as special. You bring something others don’t: the gift of being reliable. This is actually a very good thing.
Even if you aren’t able to keep your word, if you are up front about it, then it keeps your reputation intact, and people actually respect you more for your candor. Don’t make excuses. Just follow some great advice: own up to it, apologize, take care of it, and more value.
Everything you do, every decision you make reflects on you. Make sure the reflection is showing the person you are.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:52 AM EDT
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I guess this week’s accidental theme is being authentic. On Monday, I was thinking about leading authentically. Today, I’m thinking about blogging authentically.
Living online, I think it’s easy to forget that this kind of communication carries a certain skepticism from the readership. Who is this person really? Do they really live what they say? Are they honestly trying to reach me, or are they focused on reaching the search engines?
The internet has such a bad reputation brought about by those who use it as a stage, a place to test out new personalities, to test out ways to gain what they want through not entirely kosher ways that it places a great burden on those of us who do exist on the internet the exact same way we exist in real life to have to fight to prove our own authenticity.
What’s even more fun is that a number of teenagers, that group of people trying to find themselves, to figure out who they are going to be through the early stages of adulthood, are online showing off that growth. They’re being normal kids- posting emotional rants, attacking each other for being different, sharing pictures they find silly, but we would find stupid (Sometimes, I really wish my students wouldn’t feel compared to share these pictures with me.)- but they’re also trying to share their journey. They’re trying to share their writings, their art, their personal expressions as they navigate the same troubled teen years we all had to pull ourself through.
For us, our teenage growth isn’t on display for the world to see. We are sharing our adult lives. For these kids, those teenage experiences that they share with the world through the internet will be available to haunt them until someone finally figures out how to clear all ghosts from the internet.
What this means, and the linked post on blogging authentically is just the tip of the iceberg, is that it’s okay to share your life, to share your struggles. Someone may benefit from seeing how you handled a challenging period of your life, and it may in turn help them through their own struggles. But it’s best to be discreet in sharing your life, and to be yourself even online. You never know who’s looking, and you never know when you’re going to run into your online persona in your offline life.
When you live in harmony, these two personas not conflicting, it makes your life simpler, and people actually appreciate your honesty.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:36 AM EDT
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There are a million ways I could think to start this post, and not a single one of them would accomplish anything useful.
Basically, there are too many times when we rational adults give up the burden of thinking and follow someone else’s thinking. We do it without considering why we’re doing it, beyond the fact our friends or family are following this person. We fail to think about the person’s credentials, about what they’re saying, about our own personal opinions, experiences, and values.
We spend time teaching children to think for themselves, to become critical thinkers, and yet to follow the crowd so they won’t stand out too much.
what message are we trying to instill in these future adults? And what future are we modelling for them when we follow without thought?
These questions have actually weighed fairly heavily on me over the last several months as I’ve moved through work, through my readings, through watching fads and temperaments sweep through friends and family. What leads us to toss aside everything we know to be true and good to follow someone who got a six-figure book or talk show deal. Are we that afraid of finding our own way that we think we have to hang on to someone who managed to accomplish something? Maybe we feel we don’t have enough time to reflect and think analytically?
I actually started thinking that maybe I was just insane, but this post on being your own guru is slowly convincing me that maybe I’m not. Maybe we should all be taking the time to stop, to listen to ourselves (even if we don’t fully trust ourselves), to not blindly follow someone else.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 8:05 AM EDT
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A little self-confidence can do amazing things. It can help you succeed in the job search, during career transitions, and even when starting your own company. When you show a little confidence in yourself, the people around you respect that. In some cases, they even start to find a little self-confidence of their own. It’s like a pebble rippling out, much like a smile or laugh often can.
Need a little help finding your confidence? Try out these tips and let me know how it works out for you!
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers, Skill building, Responsibility at 7:48 AM EST
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For as much as I’ve always hated the interview question about my weaknesses, I tend to be open and transparent in my work. Even if I had to give some sort of bad news, I’ve always gone for empathy and honesty in my interactions with people.
When I was in college and working in retail, this actually led to customers returning and asking specifically for my assistance. In my current job, this has led more than once to parents who were disgruntled when I had to talk to them being bright friendly and chatty with me, even while they’re driving my directors mad.
When you aren’t afraid to say, “Hey, look, I’m sorry. this won’t be handled the way we initially expected because of (insert a brief explanaton here),” people respect that. They appreciate the heads-up, especially if you give it to them as soon as you know.
A little honesty can go a long way as customer service.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:30 AM EDT
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There is article after article advising interviewers to follow up on their interviews with a thank-you note. A thoughtful gesture on your part, and it allows you to bring some feeling of closure to that section of the interviewing process.
What about bringing closure to the entire interviewing process? That’s really in the hands of the company, and it’s where many companies these days seem to fall apart.
At the beginning of the interview process, companies are great about sending out form letters to let prospective candidates know whether or not they’ve made the cut. Somehow, they forget to tell last round candidates that they haven’t been selected. Since these are the people the company has been courting through the entire interview process, they are also the people who definitely deserve to be told formally that they are not being extended a job offer.
Even if the reason for not sending the letter is because the company really liked the candidate and is looking for a position to hire them into, it is still considerate to let the person off the hook for the position they interviewed for.
What’s really uncomfortable is the fact that seems to be happening more and more. Companies are letting interviewees learn their fate through discovery rather than direct disclosure. It makes the company look bad (and downright gutless), and it can serve the company as poorly as bad customer service. The interviewee can be left with a bad taste in their mouth, and is likely to recommend that colleagues not apply with that company in the future. They may even decide they don’t want to do business with the company if they applied for the job because they were a fan of the company.
The rejection letter is a formality, and a courtesy due to any interviewee. It should be handled politely and tactfully, but it absolutely must be done.
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers, Freelancing, Entrepreneurship, Responsibility, Leadership and management at 8:15 AM EDT
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Scott Ginsberg recently posted on the need to be specific when making statements to promote credibility. Those of us who in some way make a living from conveying information to people are told this repeatedly. Be able to demonstrate where your information comes from. Be able to explain or defend it.
In both the education world and the museum exhibit world, we are also taught to introduce an idea generally and then move to the specifics. Again, that is about getting down to the specificity that people respond to well. Scott does a great job of illustrating the need for being specific, for citing the provenance.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 7:50 AM EST
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I’ve mentioned in the past about how good customer service can save a bad situation. What I may have neglected to mention is that it also can makea bad situation worse.
Last night, I went to a birthday dinner for a friend. She selected a new Italian restaurant in Lincoln Center for the venue (a chain just opened up this shop). The atmosphere was wonderful. The banter was fun. The food was divine.
The service, on the other hand, ruined the night.
My friend’s boyfriend had set up the reservation beforehand. When he did, they told him nothing about their policies regarding large parties (and at fourteen, we were definitely a large party). My housemate and I got to the restuarant about ten minutes before the reservation, and the staff had not even started setting up the table. (I’ve done my time in food service. Unless you’re trying to drive your staff to quit, you have your big party tables set up and ready to go in a timely fashion.)
Once the table was set (nearly twenty minutes after the reservation time), they seated us and gave us all very strange menus. The server then walked off without explaining the menu to us. We all tried to make sense of it, thinking we had been given normal menus. The server finally returned, more interested in filling drink orders than trying to help us understand what we had been handed. We finally managed to get him to tell us that they don’t offer the normal menu to large parties. Instead, they do a family-style situation where the group picks two dishes from every category, and then serve themselves smaller portions from the large ones brought to the table. The cost for this lovely service: nearly $30. A number of us in the group aren’t that well off to begin with, being students or entrepreneurs trying to hold down one or two part-time jobs. This didn’t sit well with us, and it didn’t sit well with the boyfriend who had arranged the entire dinner because he wasn’t warned about it up front.
The servers were fairly rude to us most of the night. We were the only table in the place after ten (when they close), and they showed little interest in doing anything beyond keeping our water glasses full. A manger finally came by to see how we were, and our fearless organizer pulled him side to talk about what happened. The manager never apologized, never agreed to pursue any sort of action. In fact, it became apparent that he didn’t even know about the menu policy.
The waiter who essentially ran our table came over around eleven and asked us to hurry and handle our bill so he could let his wait staff go, and he wasn’t particularly nice about it. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was thinking, "If our food had been delivered promptly for each of the rounds, then I’m willing to bet we’d have already vacated the restaurant."
On the service alone, I don’t think I’d ever willingly want to visit this place ever again, and I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone either.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 10:32 AM EST
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I was so busy working on the website and trying to make sure I had everything together for club that I completely spaced blogging yesterday. Not something I would normally do, but I’m sure I’ll be forgiven with a new feature I’m rolling out for the blog tomorrow!
It turned out to be a good thing, as this morning, I found a great complement to the link I wanted to share!
Those who’ve read this blog for a while may remember that I posted some links on customer service. Customer service is very important because it shapes so much of how your business is perceived. One poor customer service experience can cost you a minimum of five customers. Not that customer service is easy by any stretch of the imagination. Those in customer service are often confronted by people who are upset, but may not be able to state what their problem is effectively (link via Angie McKaig). The customer service specialist must endure threats and insults as the customer tries to explain what they perceive the problem to be.
Amid this treatment, the customer service person is expected to keep their own feelings out of the situation and fix the customer’s problem. The key here is to handle customer complaints in a manner that makes the customer feel that they are being heard with a big dose of patience and compassion. Treating the customer like they are important during the process can do much to earn your company a lifelong customer (or at least one who will be more forgiving the next time a problem occurs).
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 8:57 AM EDT
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