A huge honor for me – Keeping ON TRACK with Rhonda – December 2017

by | Dec 21, 2017 | Ask Rhonda

 

On the Right Track

from Rhonda

Hall of Fame
Baby!

Hall of Fame2017 is ending as one of my favorite years ever!

Just last week I was inducted into the Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame. Yes, this is a very big
deal, and I was shocked and honored to receive this accolade. That makes me only the second speaker to have their CSP (Certified Speaking Professional)
which is an earned designation (earned in 2002), Spirit of CAPS which is a peer appointed designation (awarded in 2008), and now the Hall of Fame which is also peer appointed (inducted in 2017).

If you’re on Facebook, you can see some photos as well as my speech.

My older son was married in October, and my younger son is being married on December 30th. You’ll find photos on Facebook as well (under the profile Rhonda Scharf)

What a great year! Did you have a great year? Were there any milestones that you achieved? Do you have any changes you need to make? I hope you look back with fondness and forward with excitement for a fabulous 2018 as well. If 2018 is half as good as 2017 was to me, it will be a great year and I’m looking forward to it.

Christmas_2017.jpg

On behalf of Warren, David, and I, we hope your Christmas is as warm and sweet as a cup of hot cocoa and filled with more granted wishes than you can count. 

Rhonda

read this!

 

Are Your Meetings a Waste of Time?

Let’s face it … we spend far too much time in meetings. Each day in the United States there are approximately 25 million meetings, which represents a collective 15 per cent of any organization’s time.

Meetings are meant to be productive, aren’t they? Meetings are supposed to be an efficient way to share information, a place for conversations and debate to take place, and to overcome obstacles so we can collectively move forward with the tasks at hand. Aren’t they?

Then why do executives consider more than 67 per cent of meetings to be
failures? Why are we continuing to spend more and more time in
meetings that are less than efficient? The average person in upper management spends about 50 per cent
 of their time in meetings. Why?

There are four simple factors that make meetings unproductive. Fortunately, all of these can be addressed to ensure that effective meetings are the norm instead of the exception in your organization.

1. Multitasking.

Ninety-two per cent of people admit to multitasking during meetings. Sixty-nine per cent admit to checking their email and 49 per cent admit to doing
other unrelated work during meetings.

If you are planning a meeting, invite only those people who need to be there. If all the information that is shared is relevant to everyone, there should be no reason anyone is multitasking, because they will need the information that is being shared. They won’t have time to multitask because they will be engaged with the topic at hand.

However, if you are inviting people to your meeting who don’t need all the information that is being shared, you are either inviting the wrong people or trying to do too much in one meeting.

Cut your meetings to 30 minutes, maximum. Invite only those people who need all of the information that is being shared. That might mean you invite fewer people to the table. Ask yourself, “who really needs to be here?” and keep the list short.

2. Too many telephone-based meetings.

Yes, they save on travel time and costs, certainly. However, when people are not visually connecting with one another, they are missing a significant piece of communication that is necessary during meetings: body language.

We understand so much more, visually, than we do with just the spoken word. Body language is very important for comprehension, as well as for engagement.

Switch to video-based meetings. It still saves on travel time and costs, but it increases the likelihood of engagement. People are less likely to multitask on video calls (four per cent vs. 57 per cent compared with phone calls).

Video calls improve engagement and familiarity. They are more personal and create more of a team atmosphere than traditional teleconference calls do, and at no additional cost.

3. Lack of focus and preparedness.

We need to have shorter meetings that start and end on time. They need to include participants who are prepared (send information in advance and set the expectation that everyone will be prepared). The facilitator needs to know how to facilitate the meeting (so many do not possess that skill at all), and the participants need to follow a set of ground rules.

Without structure, we create havoc. I’m willing to bet we’ve all spent too much time in meetings that were unstructured and chaotic.

4. Lack of accountability.

Too many meetings end up being a social time for many participants. Lots of chatter, a few laughs, maybe a nice snack in the middle of the day, but then nothing gets done.

Someone needs to take minutes or action items. Attendees must be held accountable for what they have committed to doing, and there needs to be follow-up. Each meeting should start with the follow-up from the previous meeting. Social pressure to complete tasks tends to be very effective. Use it to your advantage.

It is estimated that $37 billion each year is spent on unproductive meetings. Ensure that you’re doing everything you can to avoid being part of that statistic.

 Rhonda 

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just for Fun!

A Little Entertainment!

* 1 in 4 men have lost their wedding ring.

(I have certainly misplaced it before. Have you?

 

* We spend an average of eight hours every day just sitting

(Some days it is much more than that sadly!

 

25% of people meet the neighbors before they buy a house

  

* 87% of employers allow holiday decorations

 (Do you decorate for the holidays at work?) 

* The average desk has 19 pens


(EEK! Who needs that many pens?!

 

 

Let’s face it – times change. Fashion changes, music changes, and language changes. If this weren’t true, we could all be speaking the same way Shakespeare did (which makes me glad that language changes).

If language changes, so must our writing styles. Just because it was “right”
when you were a kid doesn’t mean that same writing or grammar rule is
still right. Grammar and business writing is evolving as well, and if we are
professionals, we must evolve with it.

This one-hour session is going to bring your writing skills up to 2018.

You’ll learn:

  • How to create polished business documents
  • Avoiding run on sentences, comma splices, and transitions
  • Watching the hot spots and how to avoid them
  • Grammar refresh (honestly this won’t be painful!)
  • Red flags to watch for (lie or lay, bi-weekly or semi-weekly)
  • Easy memory tricks to help you (remember I before E except after C?)

The danger of not keeping your skills up to date is your reputation. You can fix that in just one hour!

Confrontation Skills -January 10, 2018 click here

Rhonda Scharf Presenting

Control, Confidence & Composure in the most highly charged situations! Learning to confront someone can be done easily and quickly! No more panic, no more holding back from saying what you want to say. Learn professional confrontation skills that will allow you to maintain control, confidence and composure!

If you are like most people when a situation requires you to say something, you either lash out in anger, or say the wrong thing.  Do you ever walk away and say “I wish I had said ….”?

Those days are over. Confrontation Skills can be learned, practiced and
mastered.

Here’s What You’ll Learn: 

  • What to say, how to say it, when to say it, all the while being in complete control of yourself
  • Keep your confidence high! Don’t let them bully you into submission
  • Keep your emotions in check. Tips to avoid crying, screaming and blanking out
  • Prepare yourself to say what you should say (and take the professional path, not the emotional one)
  • How to give feedback in stressful situations
  • Learn to keep your cool at the same time as confronting someone!

Learn powerful strategies and techniques for dealing with those confrontations you’ve been avoiding! Reduce your stress, increase your effectiveness and repair the relationships damaged by the conflict. We’ll discuss how to handle the confrontation, things to say, how to say them, all while maintaining your
composure and defusing anger for both of you.

Rhonda Scharf presenting

Are you curious as to what else is out there for you? Wonder how you can use your admin skills at a higher pay level? Want to do more, earn more, and achieve more?

 

Project Management just might be in your future. Actually, it might be in your present, you just aren’t aware of it yet!

Learn the terms (so you can feel informed), identify the steps (so you can participate), and open your eyes to a whole new world.

In this webinar, we will discuss:

– What is, and what isn’t project management (to clarify when you really are working on projects that can help your career)
– What is required to make the leap from admin to project manager
– What do all those terms really mean
– What are the stages of project management, and my role in each stage
– How do I incorporate the language of project management into my job description or resume

Instead of being afraid to join a project team, you can now sit at the table as an equal, and know that you are an integral part of the team.

In one-hour you’ll jump from fear of the unknown to the confidence
to participate. You’ll get excited about the possibilities, and feel
confident in your own skills (all with a little information and
education!)

Neil Malek presenting

Word has the tools necessary to create either a printable or electronic fill-in form, as well as distribute it to your audience and receive the responses. In this session, we’ll cover the types of controls (form fields) you can and
should add to your document, putting password protection on the
form, distributing it to your audience, and receiving responses.

Sending out a form can be as easy as the recipient printing a copy, filling it out with pen, and returning it to you – or it can be a lot more fun! In this webinar, learn how to add snippets of code to validate the entries your audience types in. Learn how to add a submit button that will email the form back to you. There are many combinations, and we’ll give you the
information to determine what’s right for your situation. Don’t worry – there will be free takeaways for
 the code part of the exercise!

  • Enabling the Developer Tab
  • Creating a Form’s Structure and Layout
  • Understanding the Difference between Types of Controls
  • Inserting Content Controls (Form Fields)
  • Adjusting Form Field Settings
  • Validating Entries to Form Fields
  • Protecting the Form
  • Distributing the Form
  • Ways of Receiving the Results

All Webinars:

 

Time: 2:00pm ET (1hr each webinar)

Cost: Only $139.00 per dial-in line (unlimited attendance per dial-in line)

 

Price of the workshop includes:

  • Executive Overview Document (emailed prior to session)

  • Live Q&A session following presentation

  • Recording of session (available for 60 days)

  • 30 days free email one-on-one coaching

  • Toll-Free access

  • Certificates for all attendees

 

To Register: Email David@on-the-right-track.com with “Register Me for
XX” in the subject line. He will send you all access information and your
invoice at that time. 


 

Scheduling 2018
InHouse Training

I can come to
you!

I think that most of you are very aware that I make my living speaking at conventions, providing webinars, offering consulting to make companies more efficient and effective, and offering in-house training at private companies. 


If you are planning any training for 2018 and are looking to find top-notch training that is interactive, real-life based, and fun, then look no further. I provide most of the training that ON THE RIGHT TRACK offers. If I can’t offer my expertise, or it doesn’t work with my calendar, I can find you someone who can!


Give me a call. We can discuss what training you need, we can customize it to your needs, and we can ensure that you will be happy with the end result (or you won’t pay). Prices are reasonable and include all travel (don’t worry about where I am coming from!). 


Give me a call. Get some professional training for your team in 2018. Get ON THE RIGHT TRACK today!

 

 

 


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Reprinted from “Keeping ON TRACK with Rhonda” Contact Rhonda Scharf, CSP, HoF today about bringing customized, fun, and applicable training to your office or association meeting.
www.on-the-right-track.com

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On The Right Track 74 Decona Terrace Ottawa, Ontario K2J 0G1 Canada (613) 244-9444

Rhonda Scharf, CSP, HOF, Global Speaking Fellow

Certified Speaking Professional, Hall of Fame

Rhonda Scharf, renowned and award-winning speaker, author, consultant, and trainer, is the “go-to” expert for the Administrative Professional and Executive Assistant community. With over 250,000+ trained across the globe, Rhonda is THE authority for fun and uplifting education for admins, because #ADMINSROCK!

Follow ON THE RIGHT TRACK!

Rhonda Scharf, CSP, HOF, Global Speaking Fellow

Certified Speaking Professional, Hall of Fame

Rhonda Scharf, renowned and award-winning speaker, author, consultant, and trainer, is the “go-to” expert for the Administrative Professional and Executive Assistant community. With over 250,000+ trained across the globe, Rhonda is THE authority for fun and uplifting education for admins, because #ADMINSROCK!