Category: Development and Training

Last week, we shared with you the first two tips in the four Fs to great leadership. Director for Organization and Employee Development Dawn Hecker helped us finish this list with the remaining two tips. As she said before, there are hundreds of tips for becoming a respected and effective leader.

1. Firm

Being firm means maintaining accountability. Have respectful and direct discussions about a problem in order to give proper feedback about your expectations. Start with the facts of the event that occurred, make sure there’s an understanding among all parties, explore possible solutions, try one out and then evaluate. If you are firm with what you want, employees will respect your expectations.Continue Reading… What Does Leadership Look Like? Part 2

Entering a new leadership position may be intimidating if you’ve never been in one before. Director for Organization and Employee Development Dawn Hecker says there are probably hundreds of tips on how to be an effective leader, but here are two of four simple and easy-to-remember tips to start better communicating with and leading your coworkers.

1.       First

Before you begin working with a group of people, you must model the behaviors you want in them first. Set some standards and expectations at the pace you want before delegating anything. Focus on the mission at hand rather than a specific task and remember to keep a positive attitude.Continue Reading… What Does Leadership Look Like? Part 1

• Did you know that you can “pin” your most used applications, folders, websites or files to the task bar at the bottom of your screen? For an application, right click the application and choose “pin to task bar.” For websites, files or folders, drag them to the task bar and let go. Then to access your “pinned” items, right click the pinned program used to create them to show a “jumplist” of your pinned items along with the most recent or frequently accessed items.

• I know we have all done this: in the middle of composing an email, you realize you accidentally hit caps lock? All caps are like YELLING in an email so you delete it all and start over.  An easy way to fix that is to highlight the text and hold SHIFT then hit the F3 function key (in the top row of the keyboard that few ever use). This will change the text from upper to lower case or vice-versa, and a third time changes it to title case, capitalizing the first letter of each word. This works in most Microsoft programs.Continue Reading… More Windows 7 Tips (until Windows 8 is upon us)

Disagreements can stem from anything, but many of them could be avoided with better listening. HRD Facilitator Rosemary Ward explains how being a better listener with your co-workers, or any other peers, may keep you from misunderstanding each other and help you find better solutions to problems. Check out the video here.

To learn more, consider attending Rosemary’s new class, Listening Communication Link on Tuesday, July 24. Visit the EBS Portal to register or view other course offerings.

Do you feel good about yourself and your work? We all get into mental ruts, but with the right attitude, we can improve the way we feel and work. Today, Karen Corley from Residential and Hospitality Services offer tips from her personal development class, Building a Better You. Check out the video here.

Building a Better You covers personal growth, leadership skills, attitude and goal setting. The class will be offered again on Wednesday, July 18. Visit the EBS Portal to register or look at other upcoming courses.

Have you ever wished your presentations looked as good as the slides from a meeting you attended? Did you know that Communications and Brand Strategy has created PowerPoint templates to help all of look like experts? Go to http://cabs.msu.edu/toolkit/powerpoint-templates.html to view all three options.

Once you decide which template set to use, click on Download and then Open with Microsoft Office PowerPoint. The Template will open in Slide Master view. Click Close Master View, select the Design tab and expand the section as shown above. Select Save Current Theme, assign a name and click Save.Continue Reading… PowerPoint tips for the rest of us

Writing for business involves a much different process compared to creative writing. Today, HRD facilitator Jackie McCarroll offers her top tips for writing business-related communications. Watch this video and learn simple steps that can help improve your writing efficiency.

If you’re interested in learning more, consider taking Jackie’s Ten Tactics for Powerful Business Writing course on Tuesday, July 31. Register through the EBS Portal or check out the summer course catalog at SpartansLearn.msu.edu.

Have you ever been in a meeting where someone was sharing their screen for a presentation and with a few keystrokes, they had a different screen displaying? The presenter probably used the shortcut of select and hold ALT+TAB to display icons for all open programs then press TAB to move to the program you want to use. Do you lock your computer when away from your desk? A quick way to do that is to press the Windows logo button and the letter ‘L.’

Here are a few more that you might find handy:Continue Reading… How did they do that? The magic of keyboard shortcuts!

Affect vs. effect, ensure vs. insure, their vs. there…the list goes on and on! In the writing world, there are many commonly confused word pairs along with other grammar blunders. To begin improving your grammar and proofreading skills, watch this video by HRD facilitator Jackie McCarroll. Jackie shares her top tips for how you can enhance your business writing skills.Continue Reading… Practical Grammar Tips