Archives for March 2020

Anytime you want to ping/start a chat conversation with someone at work, especially if that other person is up in the corporate ladder, don’t type ‘Hi <name>’ and leave it at that for them to respond.

Such niceties are good for face-to-face conversations but not on chat mediums. Instead, say ‘Hi <name>’, and then proceed to ask/say whatever you wanted to say – the reason why you pinged that other person – (and if needs be) adding that you didn’t want to waste their time, so you’re keeping it short.

You’ll never know in what situation that other person is, so do them a favour by making your conversation short. They’ll appreciate your brevity.

This is a newbie mistake, in general. But most managers will appreciate you being succinct – just don’t overdo or overact. Remember the first law in the book The 48 laws of power – Never Outshine the Master! Although, I don’t subscribe to that thought, it depends on how you stage it. Achieve that balance, and you’ll be fine.

Cheers and good luck!

This technique works best with any employee but works great if you are a people manager.

Next time you hop on to a call with your manager and they ask you ‘how are you doing’, it’s time you stop answering it with the usual ‘I’m good, thanks, how are you’ response.

For one, this instantly eradicates the epidemic of predictability from you, so you could stand out from your boss’ other subordinates.

Two, it gets the conversation rolling and,

Three, the most important one, is that it shows you are on top of your game (if you want to be, that is).

So, then what else to reply to the ‘How are you?’ question from your boss? Here’s the thing:

“Well, I just finished my compensation discussions with all the 15 folks, and the product release went smooth, as you know!” — you get the point – just talk anything that you’ve done after your last call/meeting with the boss. It could be an obvious one, but that’s okay. In fact, that’s the point – start with the obvious ones and you’ll be amazed at where that conversation leads. Sometimes, your boss himself/herself is paranoid about what to talk and how to start the meeting. This will not only help him/her, but also puts you in the lead throughout the meeting. The battle well begun, is half won – and a meeting with a manager is no less, because every interaction counts and you’re obviously being scored. So, get that done well with this mindset.

Cheers and good luck!

Journaling every single day at work (best done at the end of the day), in addition to writing down events that happened, decisions taken, meetings with team, stakeholders, and bosses, tasks completed in a Google Docs document (personal) goes a long way in clearing out our memory and our ability to recall tasks, things, happenings easily – even after years! You could either write at the top of every hour, or once at the end of the day (if things to note are less).

You could also record your personal time off, the leaves you’ve taken along with the reasons, any WFH days, and other important stuff,

Just ensure to date your writings so you can revisit them later whenever you want. Here’s a sample snapshot to begin with:

If you want to learn a quick way to insert date/time into your Google Document, I created a video outlining the steps. You can watch it by clicking on that link which’ll take you to my Tech Library TV YouTube channel.

How to Insert Date / Time / Long Date into Google Docs  (opens in a new tab)

Cheers, and good luck!