Here are a few practices you can implement to make sure that no personal data escapes your company:

• Don’t copy any data to your laptop, PDA or cell phone. You may bring these electronics to work with you, but be sure to keep the data within the confines of your secure company. The security that you may have on your personal electronics is probably not as impenetrable, nor are they monitored by the Information Technology (IT) department in your company.
• Keep your work inside your office. Don’t be tempted to take sensitive data home, or anywhere else, to work on. If you have extra work that you want to catch up on, talk to your supervisor about times when it’s best to complete that work.
• Use only a secure server. If you do receive permission to work on your personal computer or laptop outside of your office, make sure you’re accessing the Internet with a secure server. Use a password-protected connection that you or someone you know and trust created.

• It will show your employees that you’re not afraid of a little hard work. They’ll also respect you more when they see that you don’t think doing their work is beneath you.
• It will keep you involved in the workflow. If your employees are complaining that a process needs fixing, the best way to evaluate the problem is to dive in and experience it first hand.
• It will give you empathy. You’ll understand your employees concerns much more when you face the same frustrations they do.

To change your Excel application’s color scheme:

1. Launch Excel and click the Office button.
2. Click the Excel Options button to open the Excel Options dialog box.
3. If necessary, choose Popular in the left pane.
4. Choose either Blue, Black, or Silver from the Color Scheme dropdown list.
5. Click OK to apply the new color scheme.

• Don’t say: “I have 250 claims to process before I’ll be able to get to yours.” Your customer doesn’t care how many claims you need to process, and putting a number on it just sounds whiney.
• Say: “I will get to that as soon as possible. You should expect the situation to be cleared up in two to three business days.” This gives the customer a time frame when he can expect his problem to be resolved.

Scenario: Three of your coworkers called in sick, and you’ve been swamped and stressed all day. A customer asks you to remove a duplicate charge from his account.

• Don’t say: “I’m doing the work of four people today, and I have no idea when I can get to your request.” It’s not your customer’s fault that you’re understaffed, and he shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of your frustration.
• Say: “I will make sure this gets taken care of. If I’m not the one who takes care of it, my manager will see that your problem is resolved.” The customer will be happy that you are being proactive in finding someone else who can help him if you can’t.

In many companies, the HR specialist can help you solve a wide range of problems.

Consider asking your HR staff for advice when:

• An employee is risking termination because of an attendance problem.
• An employee has an ongoing attitude problem that you cannot resolve.
• An employee is engaging in potentially illegal activities at work.
• You don’t know how to get started on the training that your boss wants done.
• An employee is producing inconsistent work.
• You notice a general disregard for punctuality and courtesy in your department.
• The suggestion box remains empty despite your repeated pleas for ideas.
• You sense a morale problem in your department or in the company.
• Your meetings are dull.
• You hear offhand comments about various company policies.

To do so, use the following simple steps.

1. Make sure the Web toolbar is displayed in Word.

2. If not, select View | Toolbars | Web from the menu bar.

3. Now, click the Favorites button on the Web toolbar followed by the Add to Favorites option from the displayed list.

4. Click on the Add button in the Add To Favorites dialog box.

Now you can add your frequently used documents to the Favorites folder so that you don’t have to try to remember where you’ve saved them. Also, you can open the document from inside Internet Explorer without having to start Microsoft Word first.

Nobody likes criticism, but learning how to accept constructive criticism will help you to succeed in your future career goals. If you find it difficult to maintain your self-esteem when criticism comes your way, use these three tips to help you cope:

1. Ask for specifics. Don’t be bogged down simply because you don’t have all the needed answers. If someone is criticizing you, ask for the facts before you jump to conclusions. “Continue to ask for details until you understand what the other person is saying,” states Annette Richmond in her article “How to make criticism constructive not destructive.” You can try to ask questions like, “What part of the report didn’t you like?” or, “What didn’t you like about the way I handled the account?”
2. Own your mistakes. If you have truly done something wrong, it’s best to own up to your mistakes so that you can begin to learn from them. Never take one mistake and dwell on it to the point where you feel like you’re making mistakes all the time. Chances are you’re not doing something wrong all the time, but it is just one slip up. No one is perfect, so don’t beat yourself up over it. Learning from your mistakes will help you avoid those situations and cut down on the criticism that you receive overall.
3. Recognize the positives. Likewise, try to focus on the positives for every negative criticism that you receive. Focus on the praises that you hear and not just the one criticism that you encountered. This will allow you to keep your self-esteem intact and enable you to handle future criticism. You should always be aware of when others criticize constructively or destructively by noting what they’re trying to get across to you and how. If they are criticizing you in an unprofessional manner, then chances are the criticism is not to your benefit and you should blow it off.

If you’re one who struggles with delegating tasks, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I afraid that my employees will be able to do the job better than I can? This isn’t an uncommon thought. If you never share the knowledge, you’ll be the only one with the skill. While that may bring you a false sense of job security, think again. That train of thought really hinders your own growth as a supervisor.
• Am I worried that another employee can’t do the job as well as I can? This is another common thought many supervisors have. If you’re afraid that you will look like a failure if your employee messes up a task, think again. Mistakes can be remedied and you should give your employees the chance to rise to a challenge.

One way to break the do-it-yourself mentality is to prioritize your workload. Make a list of the tasks you feel are most important to your job and set those aside for yourself to tackle. Then, make another list of the tasks that need to get done but that are mostly busy work for you, and delegate those responsibilities to some of your employees.

Delegating some of your tasks to other employees will benefit both you and your employees in a variety of ways, including:

• It will free up some of your time to really focus on the important aspects of your job.
• It will show your employees that you trust them to handle some of your responsibilities (just make sure that you aren’t dumping all of your work on them).
• It will enable you to take some much-needed time off. While you are out, you will have peace of mind knowing that things can run smoothly when you’re not around, and that’s okay.

1. Right-click on the check box and choose Format Control from the resulting shortcut menu.
2. Click on the Properties tab and deselect the Print Object check box.
3. Click OK to apply the setting.

While it often goes unnoticed when other departments in your organization cut out of work for an afternoon function, customers will recognize when the service reps are gone and nobody is there to help them. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get your team out for an afternoon. Whether it’s a teambuilding retreat or spring picnic, if you follow these tips, you’ll be able to get everyone on your team involved in the fun:

• Stagger the shifts. One way to get everyone involved in a team activity is to stagger the workload. Keep a few of your reps available for helping customers, and rotate that shift each hour or half hour. This way, each employee will miss only a small portion of the activity. Keep in mind that this works best when your activity is taking place onsite.
• Enlist some help. Check around with other department heads to see if any of them or their employees might be able to staff the phones or the floor for a few hours while your team gets out for an activity. Equip them with light training a few days before the event, and provide them with a cheat sheet for anything urgent. If a situation arises that they can’t handle specifically, instruct them to take a detailed message and let the customer know somebody will get back to them within 24 hours.
• Plan ahead. Be sure to take care of any arrangements well in advance of the function. Be courteous of people who work in other departments who may be pitching in, and realize that they will have to juggle their workload to help. If necessary, post a sign the day of the event or change your voice mail to let customers know that there may be a longer wait time with fewer customer service reps on duty.