Career Management

If there’s one technique that can instantly improve your business writing, it’s this: Trim and simplify. When writing in a hurry, it’s easy to include unnecessary words or cram too much into a single sentence. Result: Business writing easily becomes cluttered or “grandiose” sounding. Trimming can eliminate redundancies, while simplifying can make sentences easier to understand.

In the workplace and the sporting world, teams that buy into their coach’s vision have a much better chance of success. How can you get your team all working toward the same goal—your goal? Start by following these four steps to build support:

Question: “Does having a CAP or any administrative assistant certification mean a better position or salary, and does it help when seeking new employment? If it does add to my résumé, how do I get certified?” — Holly

Online social networking sites provide a variety of benefits to organizations. They can help you collect industry-based knowledge, reach new customers, build your brand and publicize your company’s name and reputation. But those benefits come with their fair share of legal risks. You need a comprehensive social media policy to guide employees on your expectations about their online behavior.

Interviewing for a job? Ask whether this is a new position or whether you are replacing someone ... Avoid misunderstandings by asking others to repeat what they heard ... Trade in old electronics for cash or discounts ... Humanize interoffice communication by relaxing some of the grammar rules you grew up with ...

One important way to judge your success as a manager is by the success of your employees. The best managers aren’t just the ones who can extract the most productivity from their people, but the ones who produce great future managers. How can you be sure that your best people will someday be top-notch leaders themselves? Start with the following basic yet effective tips for developing managerial skills among your employees.

Your best employees are probably eager for promotions. But when only one slot is open, promotions often leave several well-qualified candidates disappointed. To keep disappointment from leading to lawsuits, consider offering career coaching for those employees who didn’t make the cut.

Each month, AdminProToday.com puts together a digestible collection of 1-minute strategies that help you save time and stress. Here are the 10 most recent time-saving tips:

Question: “I recently left a very toxic workplace. I never again want to work in such a fearful, backbiting culture. Next time, how can I make sure that I’m entering a healthy work environment?  Should I ask to take a tour or interview some co-workers?” — Cautious

We never saw this coming: scholars studying the business model of the Grateful Dead. But a handful of fans did. Emerging from their archives is a portrait of visionaries in what’s now called customer value, social networking and strategic planning. Here’s how the Dead pioneered business practices embraced much, much later by corporate America.