www.1001TopWords.com |
Look Good on Voice Mail
Your use of voice mail tells others a lot about you. Here's how to make a good impression. 1) Present a Positive Image Your outgoing voice mail message should be simple, positive, and professional. State your name and company followed by concise directions. You may want to leave a daily message because it shows that you check your messages and tells callers what to expect. For example, "Welcome to Steve Kaye's voice mail at Personal Quality. Today is Monday and I will be out, helping a client improve profits. Please leave a message and I'll return your call tomorrow." This message lasts nine seconds. Make sure that your outgoing message is unencumbered by music (turn off the radio), rustling papers (sit still), and background noise (close the door). These sounds make it make it difficult for callers to understand your message. Similarly, avoid gimmicks such as singing, reading poetry, or citing long lists of credentials. These appear unprofessional. 2) Practice Professional Courtesy Some people use voice mail to screen calls. Although this may control interruptions, it becomes rude if you never respond to the messages. Those messages are very important to the people who left them. That's why they called. Set aside a time each day to return calls. If the messages were left by people whom you do not want to talk to, have an assistant return the calls. Or call back when the other person will be away from the phone and leave a message. The brief moment that you spend on a return message helps the caller continue business and frees you from receiving additional unwanted calls. For example it takes eight seconds to say, "Hi, Chris. This is Steve Kaye responding to the message you left today. Please remove my name from your call list. I have no interest in cryogenic ant farms." - - - - - - - - IAF Certified Professional Facilitator and author Steve Kaye works with leaders who want to be more effective. His innovative workshops have informed and inspired people nationwide. His facilitation produces results that people will support. Call 714-528-1300 or visit his web site for over 100 pages of valuable ideas. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.stevekaye.com
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Negative Self-talk is Too Expensive I'm always fascinated by the people who lift huge weights,particularly in competitions like the Olympic Games. Thereare events for men and women and they get up on stage tolift a bar with huge weights attached.I often wonder what sort of things they're saying tothemselves as they pace up and down, rubbing their handswith resin powder and taking huge breaths. The Devil We Know "I'm in an abusive relationship," sighed Andrew. "My bookkeeper annoys the hell out of me but I just can't let him go. I keep hoping he'll improve? it's torture. Why do I do this to myself." How To Learn Great Management from Our Kids Learning comes from many places. And one of the most wondrous opportunities is right in front of us. At dinner, at play and at bedtime, every evening. It is there on the sports field, on vacation and during homework. Our children have clues we can use in our business and organisation, right away.. Dealing with Marginal Performers: The Therapeutic Approach --PREPARATION: The purpose of the therapeutic approach is to spark an employee toward improved performance through counseling. The manager's goal is to help the employee recognize the existence of a problem, accept the need for change, and formulate his or her own program for improvement. The manager should critically assess his or her own attitudes and opinions. It is important to try to eliminate all personal bias and prejudice or at least be aware of any such emotions no matter how little effect they seem to be having. For the most positive results, the manager should be noncritical or at least noncommittal toward the marginal performer. In addition, the interview should be conducted in private, without interruptions, and with adequate time. Executives and Emotional Self Awareness A major problem impairing an executive's performance is his Emotional Blind Spots. Emotions, whether we like them or not, have a significant impact on one's decisions. An example is the Enron case where executives ran into severe ethical and legal consequences after falling prey to the destructive negative emotions of greed and self-interest. It is perplexing how many success driven executives, choose to fear addressing the impact of negative emotions on personal and organizational performance. Hiring Great People And How to Be One Yourself: Five Secrets Bad news. Business Innovation ? Tacit Knowledge Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Be a Change Agent ( Part 1) Aligning business organizations to be successful in the present and keep on doing this in the future means to develop a new style of Leadership.To celebrate success in our days a leader most is able to craft a strategic vision, define objectives, design, implement and monitor the execution of a strategy and be a change leader in those same organizations. 10 Critical Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Consultant Talk to as many consultants as you can before hiring one. Even if you have one person or firm in mind, interview at least a few others as a sort of due diligence. You'll probably find that each interview helps you focus on the issues you're hiring a consult to help resolve. Hidden Consultants Within Your Organization You've all heard the old joke about a consultant being someone who uses your watch to tell you the time, and then steals your watch. There's some truth to the story: consultant recommendations are often the same things that your employees or customers have been telling you all along. But while you will listen to a consultant, you don't listen to your employees and customers. Why is that? Why do companies pay more attention to consultants then they do to employees or customers? And what should you do about it? But let's start with an even more important question: why should you listen to employees and customers? Credibility - A Golden Key to Becoming More Influential You have been named a new leader in your organization, or you are a long time leader with some new people in your organization. Or maybe you aren't a formal leader but are working on an important new project. Or perhaps you are staff person with expertise that can benefit the business? but only if you can get others to see your perspective. CEOs Role in Family Business I first met Roland (not his real name) in 1972. He was a high school student working a summer job in his father's business. Argue Your Way To Business Success "Jack" (not his real name) is a vice president of a publicly traded company. Recently, Jack's stress and anxiety levels have been high enough to impact both his working and his personal lives. (I'm using an alias because he's concerned about his story becoming public ? for good reason!) What is Knowledge Management Anyway? When you think of all the things companies have, you do not always consider the knowledge they have. For instance, a company is only as good as its employees, its resources, and its knowledge. But, where and what is that knowledge? How is that knowledge managed within the company? Choosing the Right Corporate Training According to a Gallup Poll, 80 percent of employees said the availability of company-sponsored training programs was a factor in deciding whether to accept a new job or stick with a current one. And yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the average number of hours of formal training per employee per year is only 10.7. Effective Meetings by Phone - Part 2, How to Hold a Teleconference Even a well-planned teleconference can go poorly. Some people treat any meeting as a casual social activity instead of as a serious business project. And a teleconference brings special challenges because people attend them in the privacy of their office without being able to see or be seen by the other participants. Five Essential Hiring Practices Recruiting and hiring are often done in haste, leaving the company to repent in the long run. Today, there's a reason to be concerned about negligent hiring. Negligent hiring means you and your company can be sued if one of your hires injures other employees, especially if you could have foreseen a problem but did not do a thorough check of the new employee before hiring. Vampire Meetings and How To Slay Them Meetings can be like mythical vampires ? sucking the life out of intelligent and creative people. And sucking the funds out of businesses. Unfortunately, there are too many of these meetings in business today. Employee Orientation: The 90 Day Difference Why do some new managers succeed while others fail? It all depends on the first three months ? the critical time when the new hire is learning the ropes. The new manager's boss plays a vital role in the orientation process. Here are four strategies to quickly get the new hire up to speed and working productively 5 Ways to Work More Effectively With Your Administrative Assistant Stop hiring new administrative support staff. And learn how to retain your existing administrative staff. |
© Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |