Blog Feed
External Leadership for Teams
When we talk about teamwork, we often focus on internal dynamics: goal setting, communication, leadership and process. It is equally important, however, to build team skills in political savvy and external awareness. These skills help the team scan their environment for new information, and prepare key stakeholders for future steps…
Read More
Five Communication Tips for Teams
Communication is a central activity for all teams. In this post, we review five practical communication tips that lead to better teamwork. Make it common practice to revisit the goal. Many team-focused articles talk about the importance of mission clarity and alignment, but too often, teams don't actually ask, "wait,…
Read More
Making the Most of the Excel Macro Recorder Feature
Did you ever think to yourself, “There should be a shortcut for that!” Well, even if there isn’t, there can be! All you may have to do is record a macro. A word of caution before we begin: The one thing you can be sure of, as new versions of…
Read More
Department of Labor Releases Final Rule for FLSA Overtime Exemptions (Video)
Is your company aware of the recent release of the final rule for overtime exemption? Be sure you are up to date with all the new FLSA updates. In this video, Lisa Smith goes into a brief overview of the ruling. Transcript As you probably know, the Department of Labor released…
Read More
PivotTable from a PivotTable
While it is not technically possible to pivot a pivot table, you can reduce the number of records to analyze by using some of the functionality available in Excel 2010 and later versions. Download Pivot Table from Pivot Table.xlsx to work along. The Steps To accomplish the goal of reducing…
Read More
List of Essential Excel Formulas
There are hundreds of functions in Excel that can be very helpful in crunching numbers and transforming data into information. Here are three categories of critical functions that every savvy Excel user should know how to read and use. See these formulas and functions in action by downloading: List of…
Read More
It’s About Time! Excel Timesheet Formulas
Date and time math is one of the strengths of Excel. However, it helps to know a few secrets and hidden gems to make your timesheet calculations work smoothly. In this practice, we’ll work with several different Excel functions. But first we need a basis from which to understand how…
Read More
Effective Business Communication
It was a cold Christmas Eve, and I was on a conference call at 2am. I cringed as the project manager belittled her team members and complained about having to take time away from her family. She never once acknowledged that everyone else on the call was also missing family…
Read More
How to Write a Business Letter
Twenty-five years ago, business letters and memos were the go-to forms of written communication in the workplace. Today, most of us hastily type emails and instant messages instead. But the business letter is not dead! Use this more formal approach to present official information – such as contract terms and…
Read More
The Email Tennis Match…Business Communication at its Worst
It happened again. I’m copied on an email and have become part of an email tennis match, watching the emails go back and forth between two colleagues. At this point, no one is winning and the emails are becoming more heated with every exchange. Have you ever sent an email…
Read More