Business Career Center.com

Email is such a convenient way to communicate that sometimes we forget it can also be one of the biggest time-wasters in the office. You have to manage your email just like you manage all your other communications, so here are a few tips for email management that can help you succeed no matter what business career you have.

1. Use filters. Be sure to set up and use your filters so that they drive spam directly to the trash. You shouldn’t be wasting your time deleting spam.
2. When you are working, keep your email program turned off. You do not want to be in the middle of a difficult project and hear “you’ve got mail.” It is too distracting.
3. Select the right time of day to answer your email. Many executives handle their email first thing in the morning, but if morning is your most productive time, you may not want to do this. Use your most productive time of day to do your difficult projects, and answer email during a time when your body naturally slows down. Choose a time and stick to it

Whether you are looking for a new job or hiring someone to work in your company, you should know that a job description is a powerful thing. It attracts new employees, but more importantly, it creates expectations. Workers, whether consciously or unconsciously, base their job performance on the job description. If they read something that sounded like a slacker’s dream, they’ll act that way and if what they read is extremely businesslike, they’ll act that way instead. So let’s take a look at what a good job description should do:

• It creates agreement among managers and others in terms of exactly what duties are expected from each employee.
• It gives the human resources department the information it needs in terms .of knowledge, skills, education, and so forth, so it can do its job effectively.
• It informs candidates for the position exactly which duties they will hold.
• It protects the employer legally if he has to demonstrate why a certain candidate is not appropriate for a position.

When it comes to a career in business, you simply must pay attention to the basics. If you do, you’ll be miles ahead of most of your cohorts, who work only for their own gain, neglecting the little things that make them indispensable to employers. Some of those basics are:

• People Management Skills
• Handling Office Politics
• Marketing Yourself

Whether or not you are in a management position at the moment, you must aspire to be in one eventually. If you want to be there, act the part. You need to operate in such a way that you make others feel important and involved in projects, while ensuring that everything is done properly. Take the good manager’s “the buck stops here” approach, and you will gain respect. Office politics are another item that can be a bugaboo for many in business. Don’t get involved! Smilingly refuse to listen to gossip and focus every conversation back to the work at hand. Finally, others may not know what a good job you are doing unless you market yourself. You simply have got to make sure that your supervisor is constantly updated on all your project goals and accomplishments. If you finish work ahead of time, find a subtle way to make sure your boss knows. You are your own best publicity, do don’t fall down on the job and you will advance quickly!

If you want to move ahead in your business career, there are a few simple steps you can take to make yourself rise above the others in your field. They may seem elementary at first, but once you begin to put them into play you should notice that few others take the time to follow these tips, and as a result they will make you stand out.

1. First of all, be nice! Nerves get frayed easily in stressful situations, and most people begin to snap. Don’t be one of them. Always be a cheerful face that is forgiving of mistakes and welcoming the input of others. People will like having you around, and that counts for a lot.
2. State your opinion even if it goes against the crowd. This does not, as you may at first believe, contradict the tip above. You don’t have to be mean or hostile about it, you are simply offering your point of view. After all, you were hired for your ideas, and your coworkers and bosses deserve the benefit of it. Those who dare to express ideas that may at first seem radical are the ones who make changes in the end, and move the company forward.
3. Befriend your company’s PR person. If you manage to get quoted in articles or appear on air as an “expert source,” you will attract plenty of attention and respect.
4. Know the company. Study the company you work for, the way it does business and the products it distributes, even if the information isn’t relevant to your particular job. You’ll soon be seen as the go-to person for any type of information.
5. Notice other people’s efforts. Read the company newsletter and congratulate those who are mentioned in it. They’ll see that you are involved in company information and that you stay up on the company’s current events.