Notes from Excellence in Etiquette by Lydia Ramsey, Staff Day Keynote

February 24, 2010 · Posted in Librarians · View Comments

Positive first impressions
Getting introduced and introductions
Telephone courtesy
Professional dress
Office etiquette
Dealing with difficult people

What does business etiquette mean?
Why does it matter?
How do you think practicing business manner will affect the library system and your job?

First Impressions
You only have one chance to make a first impression, you have 5-7 seconds to make a first impression when they are visual and one on one
55% of judgment is based on appearance, 45% on what you hear, 38% of that is tone, only 7% is what they are saying

Ramsey’s rule of 12 for making a powerful first impression
The first 12 words – share some form of appreciation, and the person’s name
First 12 steps – the energy you show when you move
First 12 inches – from your shoulder to the top of your head, expression, grooming, women should wear make up, jewelry,
Last 12 inches – shoes, no toes in business world, shoes should be polished & well-maintained, pants should hit the top of the shoe, top of the foot, shirts should be not too short but not too long, knee-length, no long flowing skirts, no mini skirts, mens socks should match your pants, stockings – if a woman is wearing a skirt, she needs to be wearing stockings, no tattoos,
Jackets make a huge difference

Handshaking?
Firm
Limp handshake is awkward and awful
two handed only from religious leaders
People are offended if you don’t shake hands, ok to say you have cold and decline but otherwise need to,
Don’t shake hands when eating
Should library worker offer hand to patron? Situation specific,
Women should shake hands the same way men do in the business world, need to stand,
Always be ready to shake hands, if you’re going into meeting don’t carry things in your right hand

Introducing yourself
To people you don’t know
To people you do know – if you haven’t seen them in a while, if you don’t remember someones name that’s their cue to introduce themselves

Introducing other people
You always introduce the junior person to the senior person
Say name of senior person, then I’d like to introduce junior person

Business card
Carry lots of them, do not run out
Have them accessible and know where they are, put them in you pocket if you have them
Have a system for where you put cards you accept
Cards should be in good condition
Hand them to people so that they are able to read them, correct direction
When someone hands you a card you should take it look at it and make some sort of comment about

The secret to remember names
Book – “How to remember every name every time “
FACE
Focus on the person we being introduced to
Ask – repeat the name
Comment – association
Employ, use the name when you’re speaking with the person

Telephone courtesy
No one likes to be put on hold
People will hold happily for 30 seconds
Transferring calls – never transfer without knowing the person you are transferring to is in and can help the caller
Stay on the line and introduce the caller to the person if you can

Voicemail greetings – personal
Leaving voicemail – say your name and number slowly, leave a message indicating the
Say your name and number at the beginning and at the end
Reason for your call

Cell phones, blackberries and other phone devices – don’t use them at all, even in presentations
Multi-tasking – people want to have your fill attention, no eating,

Your business attire
Depends on industry
Depends on your job
Your geographic region

What your client expects to see
Men should always wear jackets or a sweater, long sleeves, ties
Women need sleeves

Maintaining healthy relationships with colleagues and clients
Engage in polite conversation
Know their likes and dislikes
Respect boundaries
Be kind and helpful

Dealing with difficult people without becoming one yourself
Taking the heat
Hear – let person talk, don’t interrupt
Empathize
Apologize – even if you aren’t wrong
Tell the what you’ll do to make it right,

Tags: <business etiquette, etiquette, professional>

Why I’m over people twittering conferences, meetings

June 11, 2009 · Posted in Conferences, Twitter · View Comments

and anywhere else two Twitter users happen to run into each other.

Its seems like a day doesn’t go by without signing into my Twitter account to see a stream of tweets from someone going by with a #hashtag I don’t recognize. I’m not talking about a couple of tweets, I mean the full-on stream. I’m begging you, please stop!

I’m all for the idea of sending a Tweet when you hear something remarkable, moving, or innovative, but based on the number of Tweets I see flying by every other sentence is worth exclaiming over, somehow I doubt this.

What it really looks like is too many people are using Twitter as their personal note taking system. Get a notebook, a netbook, or a pen and paper, whatever, just stop Tweeting!

If you’re Twittering:

You’re not paying attention – mulitasking is a myth – you can not text as fast as you type, so whatever you are texting likely happened 30 seconds or more ago, meaning you are not paying attention to what is being said now. Stop texting and pay attention, its what you’re there for. Even if you’re tweeting from a computer…
You’re not contributing. Yes, I know there are a few cases where some awesome back channel conversations* happen, and someone rushes off to write an article or a post about it, but most likely you’re not.
You’re crying wolf – If you’re sending 20 tweets an hour, the really awesome super duper things got lost in the crowd of the bagillion others you sent you sent. Pick and choose the really exceptional things to Tweet.
Someone else is saying the SAME thing at the SAME time (most likely). Instead say something new, say something of value, pick the one or two really good pieces and Tweet those, it is much more useful for your followers.
You’re loosing your followers, I don’t mean unfollowing, I mean they aren’t paying attention to you. Sure one or two might love to here a play by play of whats happening right now, but the others don’t care. They don’t care because they don’t want to spend the energy chasing down what the heck your hashtag means, they don’t care because they just popped on so see what their friends are up to and instead all they see is one person, you, filling up their screen. They dont’ care, not because they don’t care what you’re tweeting about, they do, but because they don’t have the time and energy to focus on it right now. They don’t care because they just don’t care.
You’re making it hard for people to find the information later. Sure you can search the hashtag and read through thousands of 140 character snippets of information, many of which say the same thing because everyone else was tweeting the conversation.
You’re not blogging. Yes I know some have declared blogs dead, but f I want real information about a session I missed I’d so much rather find a blog post. Yes a blog post, with everything nicely typed out, not abbreviated in weird formats to fit in to 140 characters, not scattered across tens or hundreds of tweets. I can bookmark one page, not 20.

If you find you absolutely must conference/meeting tweet prodigiously, take a page from my smart friend Maruice’s book and get a seperate account just for conferences.

*I’m not sure how I feel about these back channel conversations, everyone thinks they are so awesome, but arent’ they really just the equivalent of two people talking to each other in the back of the class? It might go unnoticed in a large audience, but in a small group its just rude.

I’m not advocating never Twitter anything from a conference, meeting or pow-wow again, but show some discretion man, moderation in all things, even Twitter.

Tags: <back channel, Conferences, conversation, etiquette, focus, hashtag, meetings, multitasking, notes, notetaking, paying attention, tweet, tweeting, tweets, Twitter, twittering>