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Articles by Helen Wilkie

• Lively Listening: Nine Simple Rules
  Listening is underrated and underused, but it is one of the most important communication skills. Good listeners are valued by those with whom they interact. These nine simple steps will help you become an effective listener.
  Published 12Jan2008, viewed 168 times

• Employee Morale, Employee Retention and Common Civility
  Employee retention is an ongoing challenge in today's workplace. Employee reward programs are an integral part of the solution, but the root cause of morale problems can easily be addressed with no financial outlay at all.
  Published 05Jan2008, viewed 154 times

• Include Team Members In Setting Goals for the Year
  New Year is traditionally the time for great plans and schemes to be hatched by those at the top of organizations and teams. But implementation is often doomed from the start, because all the team members were not included in creating the plans. If you include team members in setting goals for the year, you'll have a much better chance of success.
  Published 30Dec2007, viewed 160 times

• Leadership and Communication: the Broken Connection
  Leadership and communication are supposed to go together, and communication skills are often cited as a top requisite for leaders. But when it comes to communicating organizational strategy to those who must implement it, the connection is not often made. It's not surprising, therefore, that plans often die at the implementation stage.
  Published 15Dec2007, viewed 180 times

• Presentation Handouts: Three Ways They Can Kill Your Presentation
  Conventional wisdom says you hand out materials at the beginning of your presentation, or even have them distributed before the audience arrives. There are, however, three inherent problems with this method. This article explains the drawbacks and offers a better alternative.
  Published 08Dec2007, viewed 354 times

• How to Deal with Difficult People: Egos at Work
  How to deal with difficult people is a challenge for many in the workplace, and a common complaint is about the perceived "ego problems" of co-workers. In this article, Helen Wilkie explains that the best way to tackle the situation is to look for the behavior that is causing the problem and deal with that.
  Published 24Nov2007, viewed 153 times

• Increase the Value of your Written Report with an Executive Summary
  The executive summary is an excellent report writing tool that is underused and often misused. This article explains the three essential components of an executive summary and how to write them.
  Published 10Nov2007, viewed 163 times

• Business Networking: Three Tips to Make it Easier and More Successful
  Career networking is important, but it can be intimidating. Walking into a room full of strangers can be a challenge, but these five tips will help make it easier and more successful.
  Published 03Nov2007, viewed 255 times

• Holding Effective Meetings: nine simple rules
  Business meetings are a fact of life, but too many of them are conducted inefficiently and simply waste everyone's time. This article provides nine simple rules for holding effective meetings.
  Published 20Oct2007, viewed 254 times

• If you want good answers, ask good questions
  Asking questions is a great way to get the information you want or need, but not if you ask the wrong questions. This article illustrates how to ask good questions to get good answers.
  Published 06Oct2007, viewed 222 times

• Briefing Notes Keep Everyone "In The Loop"
  Keeping senior management informed on various projects and other business activities can be a challenge, because their time is at a premium. Briefing notes are the answer. This article provides an overview of the structure of a briefing note and how to write one.
  Published 30Sep2007, viewed 158 times

• Presenting Ideas Effectively: Speak To The Audience's Interests
  Presenting your ideas persuasively takes a bit of work. The first thing you must do is figure out how to frame the problem, and your solution, in terms that are clearly in the interests of the people you are trying to persuade. This article will help you decide on your best approach.
  Published 23Sep2007, viewed 270 times

• Take Responsibility for Your Own Communication and Take Back Your Power
  Taking responsibility for your own part of communication at work can actually empower you. This article give you specific ideas for reclaiming your power at work through more responsible communication.
  Published 14Sep2007, viewed 153 times

• In Communicating At Work: Keep It Simple
  Whether we're talking about sales conversations, meetings, e-mails or other written messages, presentations or reports, if we want to improve communication at work, we need to learn to keep it simple.
  Published 08Sep2007, viewed 173 times

• Benchmarks In Presentations: Is This Good, Bad or Indifferent?
  Benchmarks in presentations are essential tools to help your audience understand the impact of information. They help people decide whether a stated fact is good, bad or indifferent.
  Published 03Sep2007, viewed 139 times

• Business Meetings: Who to Invite
  A major reason business meetings fail is that the wrong people are in attendance. Here are some questions to ask yourself in deciding who to invite to your business meeting.
  Published 25Aug2007, viewed 142 times

• How to Write a Business Letter: the Eight Component Parts
  A well constructed business letter has eight component parts. Here they are.
  Published 24Aug2007, viewed 307 times

• Presentation Skills: your secret career weapon
  Helen Wilkie says if you want to showcase your professional competence, you must have great presentation skills. According to Wilkie, if you present well, people think you do everything well!
  Published 18Aug2007, viewed 153 times

• Praise Individuals As Well As Groups
  Praising a group for its contribution is a positive thing, but it can be even more valuable to praise the individual group members.
  Published 10Aug2007, viewed 162 times

• Don't ask for feedback if you don't want it
  Making a final decision is a managerial function. Asking for feedback or input on that decision is optional. But if you don't really want feedback, don't send false messages by asking for it. That can sow the seeds of resentment on your team.
  Published 04Aug2007, viewed 198 times

• Business Writing Skills: why yours matter
  Business writing skills are important for everyone in the workplace, particularly for managers. Poor writing skills affect both current job performance and future job prospects, so it's important to sharpen this essential business skill.
  Published 28Jul2007, viewed 163 times

• Constructive Criticism Can Be More Valuable than Praise
  We all know people like to be praised. But constructive criticism is also valued because it helps someone improve --- which can actually make it even more welcome than praise.
  Published 25Jun2007, viewed 146 times

• Avoid e-mail overload and still keep everyone informed
  Trying to keep everyone informed and up to date by sending a blizzard of e-mail doesn't work, and just increases people's stress levels. Here's a better way.
  Published 19May2007, viewed 228 times

• What do you mean, I'm not a team player?
  We all see ourselves as team players, but what that term means may be quite different to men and women.
  Published 07May2007, viewed 245 times

• Professional Presence: What Is It and How Can You Get It?
  People in support roles or just entering a management career need to be aware of the importance of professional presence in their career success. This article discusses how to develop professional presence through visibility, image and relationships.
  Published 28Apr2007, viewed 238 times

• Networking: admit you don't know
  Networking question: why do we think we should be experts in everything? If we acknowledge our ignorance on a given topic, we open up the possibility of learning.
  Published 21Apr2007, viewed 284 times

• Persuasion: getting people to do what you want
  Knowing how to exert influence is a valuable skillset in today's workplace. In this article, Helen Wilkie gives a simple example of how you can use the Laws of Influence to your advantage.
  Published 14Apr2007, viewed 290 times

• If you want to be read, be clear
  We rely heavily on written communication to get our work done, but too often we put up barriers between the message and the reader's mind. This article discusses three of those barriers and how to knock them down.
  Published 05Apr2007, viewed 283 times

• Test Your Grammar Smarts!
  Grammatical errors can do terrible things to your professional credibility. See how many of these common mistakes you can correct.
  Published 31Mar2007, viewed 322 times

• On my own time? What Time?
  Proponents of e-learning often cite as an advantage the fact that people can take the training at their desks, on their own schedule. The problem is everyone is so busy that it's difficult to find the time. There are other disadvantages to learning at your desk.
  Published 24Mar2007, viewed 283 times

• Is this poor communication? Yes!
  Using self-directed questions and answers in place of straightforward factual statements is an annoying new trend, and it's just poor communication.
  Published 18Mar2007, viewed 235 times

• For New Managers, Conventional Management Training Doesn't Fit
  When it comes to management training, one size does not fit all. New and recently appointed managers need a different type of management education.
  Published 09Mar2007, viewed 258 times

• The business letter: still a valuable communication tool
  The letter has traditionally been the central vehicle for written messages in the world of business. In fact, it still is. Even today, in spite of the continuing growth in e-mail, text messaging and other technologies, when we want to send important information in writing to people outside our companies or organizations, the business letter is still the best choice.
  Published 02Mar2007, viewed 334 times

• Employees' Poor Writing Skills Can Lead to Lost Profit
  Employees' writing skills — or the lack of them — substantially affect the bottom line in ways you may never have considered. This article gives some surprising examples.
  Published 24Feb2007, viewed 292 times

• Don't Let Jargon Hide Your Message
  Sometimes our business letters, memos and e-mails fail to communicate our message because we put up barriers between the messag and the reader's mind. One of those barriers is inappropriate use of jargon.
  Published 17Feb2007, viewed 292 times

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