By Christine Liu

Staff Writer

Practicing proper etiquette in the workplace leads to stronger relationships with co-workers as well as clients. By presenting yourself in a favorable fashion, you demonstrate to them that you care to maximize your business potential and, ultimately, success in the workplace. What you do, and especially how you do it, is a reflection of what kind of worker you are. By wisely maneuvering your actions around the workplace, such as knowing what to say and when to say it, simply giving credit to a coworker, or making a good impression with the right e-mail or phone call, you can show your superiors as well as your colleagues that you are an important asset to the company or the client. Here are some useful tips you can utilize to impress your future boss (or current one—it is never too late to start!) and colleagues.

Business Meetings

 Communicate beforehand the objective, expected duration, and items to be discussed

 When using statistics, reports, or other information, distribute the hand-outs at least a couple of days prior to the meeting so that everyone attending the meeting can be well prepared

 Acknowledge the most executive participants in the introduction or opening remarks

 Allow more senior members to contribute first in discussions

 Never interrupt anyone—note what has been said and return to it later

 Be brief—no one likes someone who hogs the discussion

 End the meeting on time, unless every-one agrees to continue

 Remember to thank meeting members for their time and participation; show how they contributed to the meeting by distributing minutes to the attendees and absentees

International Business

 When traveling on business to a foreign country, make sure you learn as much as you can about the culture in order to make a good impression.

 Be flexible and adapt to what is appropriate—what is appropriate in the U.S. may be inappropriate in another culture

 If it is a long-term stay in a foreign destination, make an effort to learn the language, but do not pretend to be fluent!

 Get to know the food traditions and table manners

Phone Calls

 Return all calls. If a caller asks a question and you do not have the answer, call back and explain what you are doing to get the information

 Have someone or an answering system pick up the calls when you are out and have them tell the caller when you will be back or when they can expect a call back

 When you call someone, first identify yourself and the reason for the call

 Personalize the conversation! Speak as if you are face-to-face with the person

Email

 Make the subject line specific. Do not use a generic subject line (i.e. “Hi” or “Meeting”)

 Do not forward messages with long pages of mail-to information preceding the actual content. Delete all the extra info such as all the “Memo to,” subject, addresses, and date lines

 When you are responding to a question, do not just write “Yes” or “No.” Make it a full sentence so as to not confuse the reader or make their question seem unimportant

 Address and sign your e-mails. You are communicating with a person, not a computer

 DON’T TYPE IN ALL CAPS. It is too intense and can make you seem somewhat bossy.

Interruptions

 Try to avoid interruptions of discussions, work sessions, meetings, or phone calls

 Understand that interrupting work sessions of subordinates can mean a less productive brainstorming session

 If you must interrupt a conversation or meeting, always apologize. Briefly and quickly state what you need to say

 Show consideration that you are interrupting their work so that your co-workers do not feel that their work is undervalued

Giving Appreciation and Credit

 Always pass along credit and compliments to everyone who contributed to the effort

 Speak well of your coworkers and when introducing them, point out their accomplishments to any interested party

Doing these will make them eager to work harder and feel validated in their work

Dress and Appearance

 Basic rule: dress for success

 Impeccable grooming shows your coworkers and clients that you care

*http://archive.insideoffice.com/insideoffice-20-20040917BusinessMeetingEtiquette.html

*http://www.ravenwerks.com/practices/etiquette.htm