Tell a lie about a co-worker? Never. But there are times your boss doesn’t need to know everything, says Nicole Williams, author of Girl on Top. Here are five things your boss doesn't need to know about you.

Dr. Robert Eliot is famous for saying, “Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.” The cardiologist has even more great advice about keeping stress in check:

How do you gracefully exit a conversation during a networking event, without using the same excuse every time? (After all, there are only so many times you can go to the restroom.) Lynne Waymon, author of Make Your Contacts Count, offers some of her most effective ways to move around the room:

Just because you don’t feel confident doesn’t mean you can’t play the part. It pays off: Confident people get the plum assignments, the raises, the recognition, Trent Hamm says on the blog The Simple Dollar. Follow Hamm's tricks for appearing confident:

While some Web 2.0 tools are about socializing and idea-swapping, LinkedIn is the only tool completely devoted to business networking. Nurturing your online presence could lead to job offers, new knowledge or a beefed-up reputation as an expert.

Be honest with yourself: Do you have a love/hate relationship with Excel? You know the power it wields, but does Excel end up costing you time and stress? Here are a few tips on how to navigate and maximize your spreadsheets:

Whether you're dining with peers at a convention or meeting with a vendor, lunch etiquette can keep you from marring your image with a faux pas. Here are five etiquette rules for business meals, according to Robin Jay, author of The Art of the Business Lunch:

Is bullying marring your workplace? Gary Namie, co-founder and director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, advises going directly to management.

We certainly don’t want to be the subject of gossip, and we know gossip isn’t kind, so why does it occur? Because people need their gossip fix. We’re preprogrammed for it: It comes standard in all human beings. But does that make gossiping OK?

HR professionals are often in the position of having to say "no" to employees. Don't make that negative perception worse with the nonverbal cues you may be inadvertently giving off. Here are five negative "microexpressions" common to women ...

If you procrastinate, you’re stealing time that could help you ace your work. This quiz will help you tell if procrastination is hampering your effectiveness:

With admin conferences coming up (such as the Administrative Professionals Conference in October), you may want to meet some of the presenters. You can, says Keith Ferrazzi, who’s been called the world’s most connected man by Inc. magazine.

To thrive in the business world, you need to cultivate the “five minds” that make up the learning capacities, says Howard Gardner, the Harvard professor who advanced his now-famous theory of multiple intelligences. Those five minds are:

When you’ve forgotten someone’s name, trying to fake it can backfire. Besides, says behavior strategist and author Joe Takash, there’s a real benefit to making sure you get people’s names right: stronger relationships. He offers five tips:

In the days leading up to his start as host of The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien said he felt like a racehorse being led to the gate, rearing and bucking and eager to get started ...

No one expects bad things – and by bad, I mean catastrophically bad – to happen to them. Yet terrible tragedies happen to people who didn’t expect them every day of the year. You can’t take a vaccine to immunize yourself against ill fortune. But you can prepare for disasters before they happen.

At Progress Energy’s quarterly “compliments and concerns” meeting, senior administrative assistant Amy Finelli uses a template for minute taking. As a result, she can quickly send out notes after the meeting “because I don’t have to figure out how to organize the topics,” she says. Here are a few more of Finelli’s power tools for meetings:

Chris Gardner’s life story, turned into a book and movie The Pursuit of Happyness, strikes a chord because it’s really the story of everybody who makes good. Gardner offers maxims for success, including: Without a plan, a dream is just a dream. To help crystallize your plan, be clear, concise, compelling, committed and consistent.

At the next business social event, break away from your comfortable clique and try your hand at networking.

If you truly have a horror of public speaking, use this trick from pop singer Beyoncé Knowles: “I become someone else when I’m onstage,” says the diva, who calls her stage persona “Sasha.”

 

Taking minutes wasn’t getting any easier for Terri Michaels, even after years of practice. “I had become wordy, and the minutes were sometimes eight pages. Each new director or company wanted them done differently,” she says. Finally, she enrolled in a workshop, and things changed. Now she uses these 10 best practices:

Communication is a cornerstone of any relationship—at least any good relationship. So why do so many executives rely on casual, on-the-fly exchanges with their assistants? Joan Burge, an administrative trainer CEO of Office Dynamics, holds a daily huddle with her executive assistant. Here’s how they make the communication work:

Here’s how NASCAR great Mark Martin stays fit as a box of lug nuts and, at age 50, faster than most young drivers, ranking seventh this summer:

Social media, such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter, are leading to confusion over what’s appropriate: Should your boss be your Facebook friend? Can you “tweet” about work? What would your firm’s VP say about your mentioning him in your blog? Some tips from etiquette expert and labor lawyer Joseph Clees:

Instead of networking with potential customers, consider networking with other businesses that can help you succeed, suggests Alan Bayham, president of Bayham Consulting, LLC. With this approach, the companies within your circle of influence refer customers to each other and also share skills and expertise to enhance their own business. Bayham offers these tips to make your sales lead generation endeavors with other businesses succeed: