Facebook: DIS-like

Since its inception, the RSP has had a love hate relationship with Facebook. Likes: reconnecting with complete blast from the pasts, being notified when to wish my roladex Happy Birthday, and tons of storage for photosharing capabilities. Thanks Facebook. Dislikes: Unwelcomed tagging/wall comments, the broken heart icon (TMI), and Farmville. No Thanks Facebook.

After an enraging article (err mostly pictures) that spread throughout much of the NYC finance community on Tuesday, the RSP has added another tally to the dislike Facebook list: confusing privacy settings. In sum, the author of the article (who wrote it for a major NYC publication mind you) appears to have sourced the bulk of the article's content directly from the Facebook profiles of those featured......sans their consent.

Let's chalk the above story up as a lesson for us all - know how to use Facebook's confusing privacy settings as a means to reduce the chances of this scenario happening to you. Find a review of suggested Facebook privacy settings below compliments of allfacebook.com.

 #1: Use Your Friend Lists: Use Friend Lists to sort your "Friends" by different groups/privacy settings. You can do this by Selecting FRIENDS from the left sidebar on your homepage and then clicking the +CREATE LIST grey box that subsequently pops up.

 #2: Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results: Go to the search privacy settings page and change Search Visibility to "Only Friends."

#3: Remove Yourself From Google: Go to the search privacy settings page and uncheck the Create a Public Search listing box.

#4: Sensor who can see Tagged Photos of You: Go to profile privacy page and modify Photos Tagged of You so they can only been seen by whomever you select.

#5: Protect Your Photo Albums: Manually configure the visibility of each of your photo albums here: Photos Privacy page

#6: Avoid Embarassing Wall Posts: Go to your profile page and select Settings and then select Adjust Wall Posting Visibility to reflect that Only Friends can post to your wall and only those who are in your network or friends can see your wall.

Good luck. The RSP. 

Speaking Skill-z with Alicia Morga

When I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of having a meeting with fellow blogger and advocate for women in the workplace, Alicia Morga. Former venture capitalist, attorney, PE investment professional, IBanker, entrepreneur and CEO, Alicia Morga has found success time and time again in male-dominated professions. Now full-time blogger and author of www.AliciaMorga.com, Alicia is full of pearls of wisdom for tackling the business world and navigating life. 

Example given. Alicia just recently posted an article on perfecting the art of public speaking to a small group. The RSP has selected 8 of Alicia's "How to Speak: Speech Skills" as suggestions to incorporate into your office toolkit: 

#1 Good Foundation = Good Speaking: The foundation for good speaking is literally a good foundation: body language – strong posture (the spine and shoulders should form a T), fluid gestures and relaxed movement; voice – strong volume, articulation, solid pace and expression; and eye contact – making it, holding it and engaging the audience.

#2 Avoid Uhs and Ums: Interestingly, 90% of nervousness symptoms are not visible. What is visible are the attempts to try and hide our nerves. How do people try and hide their nervousness? Through things like extraneous uhs and ums, excessive movement, emphatic gestures or stiff hands, holding their chins too far up or too far down, self-commenting or failing to pause, to name a few.

#3 Authentic over aggressive: Today, that “it” is authentic. Like the shoulder pads of the 80s, aggressive, command and control-style speaking is out. Now the accepted speaking style is more about authenticity. It’s about being you but with a clear communication foundation. In the immortal words of the great Raquel Welch, “Style, is being yourself on purpose.”

#4 Speaking Quickly can be considered less confident: Take time to pause at the end of each sentence. 

#5 Use Eye-Contact to connect with your audience and manage nerves: Focusing your eyes on your audience helps to focus your thoughts on outward vs. inward factors. 

#6 Use Downward Inflection at the end of each sentence: Use a wide range of vocal expression, but at the end of each sentence attempt to be more Barry White than Valley girl. 

#7 Move your head separately from your shoulders when you speak: Such a gesture conveys regality and leadership. 

# 8 Articulate: Take the time to pronounce each syllable. 

Check out Alicia working on her pacing skills with her speech coach Cara Hale Alter below:  *Note: She has a sock on her head to keep the head level when speaking.

Alicia Speech Skills from Alicia Morga on Vimeo.

Speaking Skills is just one of many topics that Alicia has mastered first hand. Be sure to check back to www.AliciaMorga.com for more nuggets of good advice. 

the elevator pitch

Everyone needs an elevator pitch. So named because it should last no longer than the duration of the average elevator ride, the elevator pitch is being able to speak to the highlights of your business contribution or describe what you want in 30 seconds or less. Chance works in mysterious ways.  You never know when that key influencer or boss will have a few moments to hear what you have to say. Be it for landing your next job or for drawing attention to your value in your current work situation, you always need to armed with a fresh elevator pitch and ready to sell yourself when opportunity knocks.

The RSP has compiled the following tips to perfecting a killer elevator pitch: 

• Short Concise, Focused: Keep your pitch to 30 seconds or less. People (especially important ones) have very short attention spans.

• Know your Audience: How is what you are pitching going to impact the person you are speaking to? Frame your pitch around what your key influencer values and the business dialect that he or she understands. 

• Well delivered: Practice your elevator pitch. Have someone listen to you deliver it and help you cut out unnecessary content. Ask your listener to restate your key messages to ensure that it is crystal clear. 

• Memorable: Add some sizzle to your pitch. These are the highlights about you or your business. Make them interesting and worth remembering. 

• Numbers are Good: If possible, equate your value or success highlights to numbers in your elevator pitch. Numbers speak for themselves.  

• Ask for the order: Don't forget to close your pitch by asking for what you want and providing a means to follow-up. Hand the influencer your business card (if not already an office colleague) and ask for a meeting or opportunity to follow-up on what you just pitched. Your elevator pitch should be so sharp and convincing that it leaves the influencer wanting to hear more. Enter your next meeting.  

Good luck working the elevator circuit ladies! 

Please take that Spoon off your Nose

A Dallas, Texas native, of course I went to charm school and cotillion. However, after four years in college drinking wine out of Franzia bags and food out of Chinese Take Out boxes, I know that those refined table manners and dining etiquette skills can get rusty. Fast.

Enter the corporate world—the ultimate arena for table manners and dining etiquette judging. Alas, all is not lost as the RSP is here for a crash course review! We want people focusing on you and your genius business ideas, not your etiquette faux pas. Happy dining.

 Tableware and Flatware:

• Study the diagram above to ensure you know which pieces belong to your place setting
• When in doubt with flatware items, work your way from the outside inwards
• You can place your fork and knife on your plate while eating; however when done, place both side by side in the center of the plate

Wine Etiquette:

• Do not move your glass towards the server. Let him or her come to you
• Hold your glass by the stem
• Wine is offered for you to taste to see if it is damaged. This is not an opportunity for you to send it back because you don’t like how it tastes

Napkins:

• Put your napkin in your lap once you are seated
• If you leave the table mid meal, place your napkin on your chair
• When the meal is over, place your napkin next to the plate (not in the plate)
• Do not wipe your face or nose with your napkin during the meal

Passing Dishes:

• Pass dishes from the left to the right
• Never reach across the table.
• Always pass the salt and pepper as a pair

Cues from the Host:

• Wait for the host to take a seat before you sit down
• Wait until the host lifts his or her fork or knife before digging in to your food
• When the host places his or her napkin on the table, wrap things up. This is a signal that the dinner should end soon and you should follow in placing your napkin on the table

No-Nos:

• Elbows on the table
• Answering a cell phone call at the table
• Chewing with your mouth open
• Announcing that you are going to the restroom or need to go take a cell phone call

Tweeting Your Way To The Top

Tweeting Your Way To The Top

By Lindsey R. Guest Blogger, Senior Brand Strategist and Sister of RSP Founder

Legend has it that social media is the quickest way to kill a career.  Remember those cautionary tales from only a few years ago of the woman blogging a Devil Wears Prada-style roman a clef about her job, only to be given the pink slip?  Or stories about the promising young woman with a great resume who wasn’t given an interview because she had racy pictures up on Facebook which she didn’t protect with privacy settings?  Bravo’s Kell On Earth series recently featured People’s Revolution employees checking out a potential hire on Twitter only to find her pompous and dismiss her on the spot.

Of course, if you are mindful of your privacy settings, social media can have its career perks. Headhunters often contact me with great jobs, thanks to my public profile on LinkedIn. I even learned about the opening for my current job, which I love, because a grad school peer posted a status update on Facebook that she had just accepted an offer elsewhere. But perhaps, the social media vehicle with the greatest potential to boost my career – and yours- is Twitter.

As Twitter has “grown up” its become a 24/7, real-time platform for industry heavyweights to communicate their perspectives on the issues that face their business. Social norms have made it appropriate to “follow” these people, even if an introduction has never been made. As such, the savvy career woman stays in the know by following these kinds of Twitter personas:

• Your Company: If your place of employment has a voice in the digital world, you should definitely be listening. This keeps me up to date on the latest awards, creative, leadership changes and job posts coming out of my agency.

• The People Who Run Your Company: Face it- the people shaping the future of your company are also shaping the future of your career. You need to know what they’re thinking. I follow the founder of my agency, the CEO, the Chief Creative Officer and the CEO of our holding company, amongst others.

• The Heavyweights In Your Area of Expertise: Companies tend to bring specialists from different disciplines together to create a product or service. If there are only a few people who share your area of expertise at your company, how do you grow your skill set? I have daily access to one brilliant Chief Strategic Officer and seven bright account planning minds at my agency. Twitter enhances my ability to hone my craft by also giving me access to the inner musings of such accomplished brand strategists as Colin Drummond, Gareth Kay, Edward Cotton, and David Terry, to name a few.

• Places You Might Want To Work Someday: Have you ever been to a job interview and not been asked why you want to work at that specific company? Of course not! People want to hire those who are passionate about the company, the values it stands for and the product it sells. This helps you become acquainted with those companies on a more intimate basis. Sometimes these companies tweet when jobs are available, giving you first dibs on getting you resume in.

• The Organizations and People You Are Passionate About: No one wants to hire someone who is only passionate about their work. These outside passions create a unique reference point that actually helps you become better at what you do professionally. So make sure you also use Twitter as a vehicle by which to follow what you love. Fashion writer Derek Blasberg and interior décor blog Habitually Chic are two of my favorites!

If you don’t have a Twitter account yet, now is the time to sign up! Go to www.twitter.com and start following the people and businesses that will arm you with the knowledge you need to keep your career on the fast track. Pretty soon, you’ll be tweeting from the corner office and legions of ambitious young career women will be following you!

Asking for the Order

We have seen it time and time again……

The boy at the bar who is too bashful to ask for a girl’s phone number

The intern who forgets to verbalize that she wants her temporary stint to turn into a full-time career

The deserved employee who can’t muster up the strength to ask for a promotion

The saleswoman who quickly wraps up a presentation without asking the client for the most important thing……the business

ASK FOR THE ORDER! If you don’t ask, the answer is no. Asking for the order applies to us all.  Everybody sells –we sell our personal brand everyday through our ideas, influence, etc.

The following are some RSP tips for asking for the order and closing the deal:

• Be Concise and Thoughtful: Ask for the order in a concise, well thought out manner. The simpler your message, the better. 
• Friendly, Firm, and Focused: Be both friendly and firm when delivering your message. Look the one you are influencing in the eye and deliver your message with confidence.
• Utilize Silence: After asking for the order, be quiet. Silence encourages the one you are influencing to respond and prohibits you from over selling your request.
• Watch for emotional cues from those you are influencing: If the other person appears to be in a bad mood or busy, wait to close the deal when he or she is more receptive. If now is not the right time to close the deal, plant a reason to follow-up in the near future when the timing for closing will hopefully be better.

Alas, an RSP order request: Please share the Red Stapler Project with anyone and everyone! We are trying to grow our readership and would appreciate your help.

Brand Yourself

"To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You." - Tom Peters in Fast Company, 1997    

Wouldn’t it be nice at the end of the day to be able to sit back, decompress and have oodles of praise and recognition for our hard day’s work come flooding in? Unfortunately, that is not the name of the game in today’s business environment where emotion and psychology have a large influence on economic success. Enter personal branding.                                               

Your personal brand is your reputation and a platform to which you market yourself to the public. It is crucial to have a brand that is both focused and presented stylistically in your unique point of view. Remember, it is easier to be remembered as outstanding in a few key areas than meeting expectations in several.

When crafting your personal brand, think about the following:   
• What value do you add? And, more importantly, want value do you want to be associated with?
• What are your areas of expertise? 
• What areas do you have credibility in? 
• What is unique about you and sizzles compared to your peers? 
• What personal flair and style can you use to present your brand?

Once you have established your personal brand, own it. Live by your brand in how you respond to emails, interact with your office colleagues, dress, etc.  Like anything, personal branding requires both maintenance and updating. As such, make sure to consistently: 

1) Seek Feedback: Ask your peers, take 360 Degree feedback review, etc. to ensure that others’ perception of you is aligned with the mission of your personal brand. 
2) Reinvent yourself: Continue to update your domain knowledge and expertise by seeking professional licenses, taking courses in new areas of business or technology, learning new languages, etc. Keep your brand fresh and reinvent yourself every once in a while. For example, a first year banking analyst most likely does not want to be known as the best at making a killer pitch book for the rest of her life. Take the advice of an RSP fav Ralph Lauren: "I am not looking like Armani today and somebody else tomorrow. I look like Ralph Lauren. And my goal is to constantly move in fashion and move in style without giving up what I am."
3) Build out your network: Network like crazy. The more people that you meet and introduce to your brand, the larger influence your personal brand can have. Make sure to have a perfected elevator pitch where you can concisely describe your personal brand in 30 seconds or less. 
4) Document your successes: Arm yourself with quantitative metrics that you can use to reinforce your personal brand. For example, if you are in sales, keep track of the number of cold calls that you make each week, leads that you are pursuing, etc. 
5) Establish visibility: Get yourself out there! Join professional organizations where your brand can make an impact and be noticed. E.g. 85 Broads, 100 Women in Hedge Funds, etc. Additionally, join LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, ZoomInfo, and other networking sites to share your brand with the online community. Make sure that the message you are presenting is consistent and professional across all networks. Ensure that you use the same name format for each site to maximize Search Engine Optimization. For example, don’t have your LinkedIn account be under Jane A. Doe and your ZoomInfo account be under Jane Doe.

RSP readers: Comment below on examples of your personal brand! We can't wait to see what you savvy ladies are up to.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

All political affiliations aside, the following is look at the phenomena of proximity and influence.  In sum, out of sight, out of mind.

When Hillary Clinton arrived at the White House in 1993, she was ready to break the mold of her First Lady predecessors. Hillary—anxious to be actively involved in the Clinton administration’s formulation of health care and domestic policy—knew that she wouldn’t have much influence on her husband or her White House peers from the confines of her assigned East Wing office.  Thus, Hillary became the first First Lady to set up shop in the West Wing.  

Pre-Hillary, the First Lady’s contributions to the White House had historically been strictly social in nature.  As such, there was no reason for her office to be located near the offices of the strategic planners of the US.  Rather, her office resided in the East Wing, across both the Rose and Jacqueline Kennedy Gardens from the West Wing, home to the offices for the President of the United States and Senior members of the Executive Office. 

So what does this mean for us She-Office Ninjas? Office location matters. Sit near the key-influencers of your office and make sure you are in the flow of communication and everyday exchange that proximity synergies afford.  Should you be assigned an office or desk location far from the key office influencers, you need to make an extra effort to get up and walk around.  Take the long route to the water cooler, bathroom etc.  Make sure that people see and associate you with the work being done at the office.

Remember out of sight, out of mind.  Think back to Milton from Office Space. Despite his affinity for red staplers, Milton doesn’t have any office influence --- Read: Milton sits in the basement stamping TPS reports all day while the boss and the rest of the office sit on a different floor.

Guide to the Perfect Office Desk

Your office desk.  Not just another mass manufactured office accessory, your desk is so much more ─ a platform for work product, a sanctuary from office chaos, and a home away from home.  As such, your desk, not only needs to be multidimensional, but also, like any of piece of personal real estate, it needs to express your point of view.  The RSP suggests arming your desk with the following survival tools to complement your already stellar office brand: 

Safety pins: You never know when you are going to have an tear or a blouse that the dry cleaners shrank.  Safety pins can cure said unwelcome tears and gaposis (read: your bra is showing through the gap between the buttons of your shirt and you need to safety pin it from the inside to shut that thing closed)

Compact Mirror: Your bestie is not around to tell you that you have spinach in your teeth.

Breath Fixer: A must for after lunch meetings

Dry Shampoo: An amazing quick fix for a mini-hair makeover after a long greasy hair day at work

Desk Cleaner: Cleanliness is godliness and a messy desk reflects on you and your work

Non-Flashy Screensaver: Nix the pets, flowers, boyfriends, etc and try to stick to a basic screensaver.  Women have it hard enough in the office and it is hard for men to take you seriously as a business professional when they are staring at your Shitzu all day.

Achievements from the office mixed with personal interests: Remember that everything on your desk shares with those around you elements of your brand. As such, include thoughtful items that label you as someone who can do it all. For example: Mix 1 or 2 (max) pictures of your family in with lucites of your business achievements.

Foot Rest: Cankles are not fun for anyone.  Invest in a foot rest and eliminate large ankles that grow as a result of a long day, seated in heals.  

Extra Pair of Shoes (Hide them): One never knows when you are going to leave for the office in your flip flops or running shoes and forget your shoes.  Not to mention that one needs backup for broken heals.

Purse Hook: Hanging your brand not only preserves the leather of your small fortune piece of leather, but also prevents unwanted bag trinkets from escaping onto the floor during the day (hello back up tampon that has fallen into the office aisle)

"I speak two languages, Body and English" - Mae West

The RSP came across this great article on Forbes.com ("Is Your Body Betraying you in Job Interviews?") about body language.  As we have hopefully mastered controlling our potty mouths in the workplace by now, the RSP wants to ensure that we are sending the right messages ( or making sure people don't know what we are REALLY thinking) through our body language.   

The following is a summary of Scott Reeve's article on what signals we are sending with our body language during job interviews: 

* Arms folded across the chest = I am shy and or uninterested 

* Standing with hands in the pockets = I am not confidant 

* Shaking one leg while legs crosses = I am nervous and sorta uncomfortable

* Touch nose while speaking = I am not being entirely honest to you 

* Rubbing the back of your head or neck during a conversation = I am bored. Next please

* Pointing your feet towards the door while in conversation = can this conversation please end and I go? 

* Slouching in your chair = I am not up to the task or  I am unprepared 

So what should we do in job interviews?

Scott suggests: 

1) Shake interviewer's hand firmly and look him or her directly in the eye when introduced.

2) Thank the interviewer for his or her time.

3) Wait for the interviewer to sit down before you sit down.

4) Sit about 2-3 feet away from the interviewer

5) When answering a question, look directly at the person who asked the question. If there are several interviewers in the room, occasionally glance at them, but end your thoughts and spend the majority of the time looking at the person who asked the question. 

6) Sit up straight. 

7) Use hand gestures to emphasize key points. When not emphasizing key points, don't fidget with your hands. 

Take a Seat, Strategically

Just like anything else in the office. Where you sit in meetings matters. You want to sit where you can best communicate your message and point of view. As such, the RSP has devised a map to where to sit at meetings: 

 

The Working / Non-Working Girl Dilemma

As far as I am concerned, there are two types of women post college graduation ─ (1) the career professional and (2) the non-working girlfriend or housewife.  Ever since my first glimpse of Melanie Griffith crossing the Satin Island Ferry to Carly Simon’s “New Jerusalem,” I knew that I belonged in the Working Girl camp; however, I ─and I would argue most Working Girls─ have moments where we wish we were sitting pretty on the other side.

We know her all too well: The flawless face of our male co-worker’s non-working wife or girlfriend. She stares at us day after day from the trophy─ err─ picture frame, exquisitely displayed on his desk.  While we are working and trying to be a she-Office ninja, she spends her days waking up well rested, bopping around town with her Birk, getting toned at yoga, and dining with ladies who lunch. Jealous? Yes.

Beyond the sense of purpose, feelings of independence, and pride of ownership that our careers provide for us, how can we rid ourselves of said envy? The Red Stapler Project suggests finding clever ways to amp up your dose of feminine activities and You-time:

• At the office: Have to set up an entertainment meeting with a female client? Why not suggest a spa day or  trip to a cute café?  Pick a girlfriend at the office to get coffee or lunch with at least once a week…..make it a point to NOT talk about work.
• After work: Hit the gym.  Instead of running on the treadmill solo, participate in a group class that can make you feel great and also be a social outlet.
• On the weekends: Make time to pamper yourself. Get a pedicure, facial, or other self-indulgent treatment to make you feel fresh.
• Retail Therapy: Buy something that you don't need but makes you feel great! Live it up for Donna Summer...you've worked hard for the money.