Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high
By Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

It should be required reading for all human beings! It IS REQUIRED reading for Success-Minded Administrative Professionals.

Have you ever found yourself in a conversation with two or more people that you did not know how to manage your way through? Did opinions vary? Were the stakes high? Did emotions run strong? If so, you were having a “crucial conversation.”

The authors make an audacious claim in the first chapter: Master your crucial conversations and you’ll kick-start your career, strengthen your relationships, and improve your health. As you and others master high-stakes discussions, you’ll also vitalize your organization and your community. The authors demonstrate through their research that strong relationships, careers, organizations, and communities all draw from the same source of power – the ability to talk openly about high-stakes, emotional, controversial topics.

Dialogue skills are learnable. This book takes you step by step through the mental and emotional processes to help you begin to understand how you personally react in these situations including the physical and chemical changes that take place in your body and how to overcome them. You’ll learn how to stay focused on what you really want, how to notice when safety is at risk, and how to make it safe to talk about almost anything. One of the key skills the authors teach you is how to stay in dialogue when you’re angry, scared, or hurt, and how to listen when others blow up or clam up. Finally, once you learn and apply all of these new skills, they show you how to turn crucial conversations into action and results.

When this book was recommended to me several years ago, I had no idea the profound impact it would have on my personal and professional life. Now, I apply the principles of how to have a crucial conversation every single day. Some days I’m more successful than others. But the skills are priceless. Learning how to have a crucial conversation is truly one of the most powerful tools that you can add to your skill set and apply to every aspect of your life.

You may visit the Vital Smarts website here and enroll in free webinars they host. Sign up for the Vital Smarts e-newsletter and you can download and read the first chapter and take their Style Under Stress Test.  But don’t wait another day – get online, get to the bookstore, or go to the library – start reading this book today!

What books have you read that have profoundly impacted your professional development?

One way is with a Professional Portfolio of your work and experience. Whether you are actively searching for a new position, demonstrating your value to the team, or simply documenting your career accomplishments, a professional portfolio will set you apart. 

This isn’t just a tool for job seekers! Every success-minded administrative professional should have one.

And now you have no excuse because we’ve taken the headache and hassle of getting started away with our NEW All Things Admin Professional Portfolio Pack.

What is a Professional Portfolio?

A Professional Portfolio is a combination of samples of your work, your resume, documentation of your education and/or certifications, documentation of skills you have, and more.  It can be presented in a variety of ways, but one simple yet professional way is with a 3-ring binder divided into sections with the supporting data. It’s a fantastic tool for job hunting, for annual reviews, and for keeping track of your professional development and accomplishments.

Many professionals know they should have one, but they struggle with getting the process started.  Not anymore!

This all-in-one template is designed to get you started quickly and efficiently. Our Professional Portfolio Pack contains:

Printed samples and ideas to get you started collecting your own materials – simply remove our samples and insert your own information!

• 1 Extended Cover View Binder
• 1 Clear 8-Tab Divider Sheet Protector Set
• 25 Regular Sheet Protectors
• Getting Started Guide
• Template CD with templates for:
  • Portfolio Binder Cover and Spine
  • Portfolio Section Dividers
  • Portfolio Table of Contents
  • Sample project cover sheets and how to document your experience on paper
  • And more!

BONUS OFFERS! As part of our introductory offer, we’re also including these bonus items absolutely FREE.

• “Creating Your Career Calling Card: Your Professional Portfolio” audio class on CD ($49 value)
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  • Personal Business Cards
  • References List
  • Resume
  • Cover Letter

Don’t put off assembling your professional portfolio one more day!  Get started now!  Click here to learn more and order today.

This gives ergonomics a whole new look and feel. I can now type in an almost vertical position with my left hand (the casted one) and more horizontal with my right hand. I’m not back to 100% of my typing speed, but it sure beats “hunt and peck” 1-handed! That’s exhausting. So that’s why the Freestyle Solo Keyboard is my personal favorite pick of the week. You may want to give it a try even if you don’t share my cast dilemma.

If you have a personal admin favorite you’d like to share, let us know by posting a comment to this post.

There is a basic version which is free of charge. It also works great for association committee meeting scheduling. So give it a try and wave bye-bye to charting out the endless email replies when you schedule your next meeting.

If you have an administrative resource you’d like to share, let us know by posting a comment to this post.

For OUTLOOK users starting from Excel or Word:

1. Copy the entire column of e-mail addresses desired.
2. Paste the column into the TO / CC / BCC of a blank Outlook E-mail message. 
3. Click out of the field you pasted the information in, and click into another field.  The list of e-mail addresses will automatically convert into the e-mail format that Outlook requires to send the message.

Note:  Depending on how often the list is updated, you may want to save this list in Word for future use.  Or you may want to copy and paste it into the notes portion of an Outlook Contact named with the distribution list title for easy use and retrieval again later.

Here is another way to create an e-mail distro list if the steps listed above don’t work for your e-mail editor program.

From Excel:

1. Copy the entire column of e-mail addresses desired.
2. Paste the column into a BLANK Word document.

Continuing From Word:

In Word 2003:

1. Make sure each cell has only one e-mail per cell in the column of information.  If it has two per cell, add a row and give each e-mail address it’s own cell in the column. Remove any commas or other punctuation that was separating the two e-mail addresses in the cell.
2. Select or highlight the column of e-mail addresses.
3. Click on Table
4. Click on Convert
5. Click on Table to Text
6. Click on Separate Text With Paragraph Marks and Click OK
7. Click on Edit Menu
8. Click on Replace
9. In the Find What field enter “^p” or click on the special button and select the Paragraph Mark from the list.
10. In the Replace With Field enter whatever symbol your e-mail program uses to separate multiple e-mails in a series (i.e. the semi-colon or the comma).
11. Click on Replace All
12. You should have a list of e-mail addresses separated by the desired punctuation ready to copy and paste into the To, CC, or BCC lines of your e-mail program.
13. If you want to save this list in Word for future use, you may.  Or you may want to copy and paste it into the notes portion of an Outlook Contact named with the distribution list title for easy use and retrieval again later.

In Word 2007

1. Make sure each cell has only one e-mail per cell in the column of information.  If it has two per cell, add a row and give each e-mail address it’s only cell in the column.
2. Select or highlight the column of e-mail addresses.
3. Click on Table Tools Layout Tab
4. Click on Convert to Text Icon
5. Click on Separate Text With Paragraph Marks and Click OK
6. Click on Home Menu
7. Click on Replace
8. In the Find What field enter “^p” or click on the special button and select the Paragraph Mark from the list.
9. In the Replace With Field enter whatever symbol your e-mail program uses to separate multiple e-mails in a series (i.e. the semi-colon or the comma).
10. Click on Replace All
11. You should have a list of e-mail addresses separated by the desired punctuation ready to copy and paste into the To, CC, or BCC lines of your e-mail program.

This tech tip will save you hours of work when you don’t have to enter each e-mail manually, especially if you are working with large group distribution lists.

For questions about this tech tip, to share a tech tip, or to request a tech tip you’d like to learn more about, please send an e-mail to Julie Perrine CPS/CAP at Julie@julieperrine.com.

• Business Cards – 2 sided, full color, recycled paper (and you would never be able to tell!)
• Postcards – 4X6, 2 sided, full color, recycled paper

When you visit their website, ALWAYS click on their “special offers” or “monthly specials” to see the latest specials. Their pricing is amazing! And their print quality is FANTASTIC! They also have a great sample pack that you can request when you click on “FREE SAMPLES” at the top of their site.

You should never have white space on the back of a business card, so update your look, get your message on the back for less than a regular reprint would cost, and give WGI Print a try.

Their postcards make great follow up pieces for direct mail campaigns or use the extras at an upcoming trade show as a marketing piece for a very economical price!

EXPRESS COPY – www.expresscopy.com

• Standard Postcards
• Jumbo Postcards
• Panoramic Postcards
• Giant Postcards

What I love about Express Copy is they are a one-stop printing, addressing, and mailing shop. All you have to do is design the postcard (and they even have templates you can look at), upload the file, upload your mailing list, and they will mail the printed pieces at their bulk mailing rate for you. So you’re not only saving time on the mailing, you save money on postage, too. If you do a lot of direct mail campaigns, Express Copy will be your new best friend.

To your administrative success!

Julie Perrine CPS/CAP
Certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Administrator – ESTJ