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Articles by Helen Wilkie

• Business Presentation Skills: Lessons From Public Speaking Contestants
  Business presentation skills are vital to career success, but too many folks haven't polished them to the degree they should. Learn these lessons from contestants in a public speaking contest.
  Published 14May2011, viewed 191 times

• Upward Delegation: An Expensive Mistake
  Are you, as a manager, doing work that should be done by your people? As an example, are you rewriting their reports instead of sending them back for them to do the work? This is called upward delegation, and it's very expensive. Author Helen Wilkie offers some suggestions on how both sides can correct the problem.
  Published 29Jan2011, viewed 153 times

• Effective Staff Meetings: 3 Ways to Stay on Track
  Conducting effective meetings is an essential management skills. This article provides three easy ways to keep your meeting on track and finish on time.
  Published 15Dec2010, viewed 185 times

• Networking: Change Your Focus, Reduce Your Stress
  Many people are less than enthusiastic about networking events, largely because meeting and talking to strangers stresses them out. This simple switch in focus can take the stress out of networking events, and perhaps even let you enjoy them!
  Published 01Dec2010, viewed 108 times

• Networking: Make Yourself Memorable with a Little Extra Fact
  When you stand up at networking events to introduce yourself, don't blow your opportunity with one of these two mistakes!
  Published 26Nov2010, viewed 144 times

• Dress the Part If You Want People to See You As a Manager
  Helen Wilkie advises new managers to be careful of their image, and dress for the part. If you want people to perceive you as a person of authority, you need to look like one. You may not like that, but it's a fact of business life.
  Published 04Nov2010, viewed 165 times

• Time Management for Managers: Urgent vs Important
  Time management for managers often comes down to the ability to distinguish between the important and the merely urgent. This article provides guidelines on how to make that distinction.
  Published 30Oct2010, viewed 413 times

• Management Skill: Dealing with Interruptions
  Dealing with team members' questions is part of a manager's job. But how do you get on with your own day when it seems to be filled with these interruptions? Here are three techniques that will help save your time and develop your people at the same time.
  Published 07Oct2010, viewed 141 times

• In Team Building, Trust is Vital
  New managers need to learn how to build and manage their team. One of the most important factors in team motivation is trust. This article talks about why this is, and gives specific ways to build trust on your team.
  Published 14Sep2010, viewed 298 times

• Starting Your Presentation: Get Right Into the Action
  Are you starting your presentation with the right signal to your audience? Do they think you'll be boring or interesting? Your opening words can decide.
  Published 13Jun2010, viewed 138 times

• Time Management for Managers: You Need a Better To Do List
  Time management for managers is a tricky thing, and we often set ourselves up for failure by misusing the traditional To Do List. Better time management req
  Published 10Jun2010, viewed 141 times

• Can You Still Make Money Selling Ebooks?
  Are ebooks dead? Not on your life! Despite the rise of other information products such as audio and video, you can still make lots of money selling ebooks. You just need to know how to go about it.
  Published 06Jun2010, viewed 332 times

• Business Problem Solving As a Management Skill
  Problem solving is one of the most important of management skills, and it's not just one skill, but several. Careful analysis is needed before deciding the nature of the problem and the right approach to a solution.
  Published 06Jun2010, viewed 194 times

• Business Problem Solving: Keep Asking Questions
  Managers have to solve lots of problems at work, but that doesn't mean they have to jump in with a solution in the blink of an eye, every time. Here's a system for drilling down to find the root cause of a problem before looking for a solution.
  Published 05Jun2010, viewed 157 times

• Communication Breakdown at Work: Four Point Action Plan
  A communication system is only as good as the communication skills of the people using it. If they don't have those skills, even the best communication system will break down. Here are four action steps to ensure your team is communicating.
  Published 08May2010, viewed 532 times

• Internet Marketing Advice: Don't Be Sucked Into Buying Something You Already Have!
  Sometimes all that hypnotic copywriting can fool us into buying stuff we already have without realizing it. Here's how to save your money and your sanity by avoiding that mistake.
  Published 03May2010, viewed 175 times

• Relationships At Work: Managing Former Peers
  One of the first challenges facing new managers, particularly if they have been promoted from within, is managing people who were once peers, or perhaps even friends. This may be the first opportunity to develop the important management skill of conducting a difficult conversation.
  Published 27Apr2010, viewed 289 times

• Business Email Etiquette: Don't Abuse Internal Distribution Lists
  If we all observed business email etiquette, this fine technology could be the excellent communication tool it was designed to be, without the frustration it often seems to create.
  Published 14Apr2010, viewed 315 times

• Mind Mapping: How I Use It to Take Notes
  With all the information on the Internet, on podcasts and webinars, it's easy to end up with pages of notes that will never be used. An excellent alternative is to create a mindmap while you are reading or listening. Here's how Helen Wilkie does it.
  Published 07Apr2010, viewed 153 times

• Business Meetings Are All About Applied Communication
  A business meeting may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word communication. But if you think about it, a meeting is the really the ultimate example of what I call applied communication.
  Published 04Apr2010, viewed 179 times

• Business Email Etiquette: Why It Matters
  Business email etiquette is as important as any other form of etiquette in the workplace. It makes business go more smoothly and keeps the workplace a happier place. Here are three ways to make sure your email messages are effective and welcome.
  Published 04Apr2010, viewed 142 times

• Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace: How Do You Measure Up?
  Emotional Intelligence affects how well you work, how much you enjoy your work and how you affect those around you. Here are four factors that govern you emotional intelligence.
  Published 26Mar2010, viewed 177 times

• Build and Manage Your Lists with Your Shopping Cart
  You don't need separate software or services to build and manage your lists. You can do it all with your shopping cart.
  Published 26Mar2010, viewed 127 times

• Affiliate Marketing: Your Own Web Site Is Essential
  Some people would have you believe you don't need a website to have an affiliate marketing business. I disagree, and here's why.
  Published 15Mar2010, viewed 160 times

• Email Etiquette: Get to the Point Quickly
  If you take too long to get to the point of your email message, readers will delete it without reading. Use your first sentence to capture their attention.
  Published 15Mar2010, viewed 290 times

• Managers: Reduce Interruptions and Get Things Done
  Interruptions are part of a manager's day, but they can kill your productivity. Here's one tool to use when you just have to get something done.
  Published 15Mar2010, viewed 175 times

• How Mindmapping Changed the Way I Run My Business
  As a lifelong listmaker, I found mindmapping did not come naturally to me. I first tried it at the urging of a friend several years ago, but I kept running out of space and my notes would run off the edge of the paper. It also gave me a serious case of writer's cramp, so I gave up on mind mapping for a few years. But after some experimentation, I'm now a firm mind map believer.
  Published 28Feb2010, viewed 191 times

• A Vital Presentation Skill: Handling Questions from the Audience
  Great business presentations come from the effective use of several skills, all of which can be learned. In this article, I discuss how you handle questions from the audience.
  Published 28Feb2010, viewed 330 times

• Managing Email: Two Ways to Handle Emailboxes
  Managing your email involves creating and using mailboxes, and that means more than an In and an Out box! I've used both the following systems and both worked well. Check them out and use the one that works best for you.
  Published 28Feb2010, viewed 178 times

• Internet Article Marketing: 3 Ways to Write Titles that Get Clicks
  If you want people to actually click on and read your online articles, use a title that attracts, intrigues or challenges them. That means not only using key words at least similar to the ones they typed in when searching for the topic, but incorporating them into a title that makes the reader want to know more. Here are three ways to do this.
  Published 21Feb2010, viewed 181 times

• Internet Article Marketing: 3 Ways to Make it Work for You
  Internet article marketing works extremely well for some marketers, but not so much for others. This article discusses the three most important factors that make the difference.
  Published 12Feb2010, viewed 144 times

• Self-editing: a Challenge that's Worth the Time and Effort
  This is the first in a series of three short articles on editing your own written message. This is a valuable communication skill for your career or your business.
  Published 12Feb2010, viewed 269 times

• Internet Marketing: Keeping Track of Your Online Business
  An Internet Marketing business involves so much detail and information that keeping track of it all can be a nightmare. What you need is a system.
  Published 05Feb2010, viewed 164 times

• How to Write Email: 3 Ways to make your email reader friendly
  One way to help ensure your email is read, understand and answered is to make it reader-friendly. Here are three simple ways to do that.
  Published 05Feb2010, viewed 194 times

• Internet Gurus: Which Ones Can You Trust?
  Too many people are out there on the Internet, putting themselves out as experts in Internet Marketing and ready to take your money to teach you their doubtful methods. To succeed in Internet Marketing you need to know who to listen to.
  Published 28Jan2010, viewed 159 times

• Email Etiquette: Use an Appropriate Subject Line If You Want a Reply
  The subject line can mean the difference between your email message being opened and read or consigned to the trash unopened. This article illustrates how to change poor subject lines to effective ones that do their job.
  Published 27Jan2010, viewed 772 times

• 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 314 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 298 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 301 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 304 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 536 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 320 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 304 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 404 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 405 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 354 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 312 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 529 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 280 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 308 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 269 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 262 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 510 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 284 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 287 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 324 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 300 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 289 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 348 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 379 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 597 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 534 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 429 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 406 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 464 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 408 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 367 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 387 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 482 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 503 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 407 times

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