Managing Your Crises with Ease

I'm sure many of you have, at one point or another, had to deal with a crisis. Crises are inevitable; whether a small fire that gets put out quickly or an all consuming blaze that requires days to handle, crises always seem to crop up, often at the most inconvenient times. It is important to plan ahead and know how to manage crises so that when they occur, you are prepared and can resolve the issue quickly and effectively.

Crisis management is different from time management. It requires a different mindset. The danger with crisis management is that it can become so time consuming that you never get to anything else. The crisis management immediately jumps to the top of the priority list. You don't want to be doing crisis management all the time, so if you find that you are spending all of your time managing crises, it's time to get a manager to step in and start problem solving. You don't want to manage in crisis mode.

One way to help avoid spending all your time managing crises is to realize that not everything is a crisis. Think like a manager and assess whether or not a situation is really a crisis, or just poor planning. If you have strong planning and communication, you can eliminate and prevent crises.

How to determine if it's a crisis:

Are people and property in danger?

Will not acting immediately cause harm and money loss down the road?

If you answered no to both questions, then it is not a crisis. If no one is in danger, take the time to assess the situation fairly. Remember, problem solving usually involves research, and one reason people get stuck in crisis management is because they don't sit down to do the research in the first place. The more planning you do upfront, the less likely you are to be hit with a crisis that derails you. Here are ten great steps for a successful crisis management plan.

The best use of time is spent doing problem solving, rather than reacting in the moment to a different situation. Sometimes in a situation, people may look to you for direction and ask a lot of questions. Remember, it's okay to take a step back when people are being demanding and say "I want to take a moment and think this through."

Managing crisis is an essential skill for being successful in your career. For additional information on crisis management and for more tips on building a successful career, check out our new course on Career Success Strategies and take advantage of the first three FREE previews.

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Start Your Journey by Learning Another Language

Are you travelling somewhere this holiday season? Planning on a more exotic Thanksgiving dinner, say in Italy or Spain? Well, now is a great time to start learning a foreign language! As the days get shorter and colder, curl up at home and practice your pronunciation. Give yourself an exciting goal to work towards to get through the long winter months.



Building in Old Prague

Maybe you are having Christmas in Paris. Or maybe you're planning for that summer backpacking trip through Asia. Whatever the occasion, now is the perfect time to learn the basics.

Visit our courses on Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Russian, and English to begin your discovery of a new place and culture. Our courses are broken up into easy-to-understand lessons, beginning with all the basics you'll need to get around smoothly in a foreign country.

Whether learning for the first time or brushing up on vocabulary, these courses will take you on the first step of your exciting journey.

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The Art of Negotiation: Common Mistakes and Helpful Tips

Negotiating is a useful skill to have in many situations, from purchasing a car to negotiating a pay raise. Below is a list of the common negotiation mistakes, along with some helpful tips for negotiating successfully.

Common Negotiation Mistakes:

1. Poor planning and preparation
2. Ignoring potential conflict
3. Arguing instead of trying to influence
4. Losing one's temper
5. Showing impatience
6. Using intimidating behavior
7. Misunderstanding/not understanding nonverbal messages

Tips for Negotiating:

1. Make sure that you understand the needs and goals of both parties going into the negotiations.
2. Establish dominance by being friendly, dressing for success, and, if possible, choosing the place to negotiate. Helpful hint: if the other party remains standing, you remain standing too.
3. Always have the other party first establish the floor and/or the ceiling.
4. Adding on to the above point, also always negotiate outside the bracket (the minimum and maximum).
5. Get information—remember, information is power.
6. Don't be afraid to use silence as a tactic!
7. Try to answer a question with a question. For example, a salesperson asks: "How much are you willing to pay for this item?" You respond: "How much do you need for this item?"
8. Be willing to walk away.

For more tips and techniques like these, join our excellent instructor, Professor Robert J. Ash, for the Art of Negotiation, and be sure to take advantage of the first three FREE video tutorials!

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How to Create an Access Query with an And Condition

Creating a query with an And condition allows you to search for information in your database with multiple criteria. Here's how:

1. Click on the Create ribbon at the top of the Access window.

2. Click on Query Design.

3. Choose the table or query you would like to search (see the picture below).

4. Close the Show Table once you've selected your table or query.

5. Choose what you want to place in the query grid at the bottom of the screen. You can select, drag, and drop individual categories from the table you've selected, or you can double click on the table name (in the picture below, EmployeeInfo) to highlight all the fields in the table and drag them down to the query grid. Simply drag the highlighted information to the first grid column.

6. Fill in your criteria. By filling in criteria along the same criteria line, you are asking an And condition. In the example below, the query will pull results for a person who is both in the Sales Department and a Clerk.

It's as easy as that! You can also create queries with Or conditions to bring in information that is different from one another at the same time (for example, people who are in the Sales Department or a Clerk). For demonstrations on how to use Access, check out our courses on Access 2010 Introduction, Advanced, and New Features, and be sure to take advantage of the first 3 FREE previews of each.

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New Courses Posted: Access 2010

To go along with the rest of the new Microsoft Suite, we are pleased to announce that our new set of courses on Access 2010 is posted. In step-by-step demonstrations, Instructor Irasema Perrot guides beginning to advanced users through the features of Access 2010. Access is such a useful program: it allows you to organize your data into neat, easy-to-use databases. You can find specific information in your database by creating and running searches called queries. If you've already started using the program and want more information, here are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding Access 2010. Also, make sure to take advantage of our free previews on how to get started using Access.

Tip: If you're using Access to store people's information, such as addresses, running a query can be a great way to pull up information for people you want to send holiday cards to. It's easy to make labels from your query results—say goodbye to hours of sorting through your client/contacts/family info and handwriting or typing up labels. With Access, you've already got the information set up and ready to use whenever you may need it.

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The Social Media Beast

Social media is taking over—from opinion blogs to social networking websites, even viable news sources are now utilizing these tools to communicate information instantly to millions upon millions of people. Where else can you reach such a large audience so easily? And, with most social media and networking sites, for free!

Businesses can now tweet about their products, company events, and organizations that the company is involved in, such as conferences and charities, to send information instantly to their consumer market. Customers can connect to businesses in a new way through websites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and blog sites like Blogspot, LiveJournal, and WordPress. Through becoming an organization's "friend" on Facebook, customers can have a direct link to that company, establishing communication. Businesses can also utilize these sites to not only increase interest in their company, but also to gauge customer satisfaction with their product and gain valuable feedback.

The problem with social media is the very thing that makes it so appealing: its ability to reach so many people and draw interest. Social media can become a hungry monster, a wild beast; fueled by the public's opinions and interests, it can turn on a company just as easily as it can hoist a business up. The ability to post information that can be read instantaneously by millions of people, and subsequently influence other's opinions, makes it a potentially powerful marketing machine, or the Public Relations Department's worst nightmare. Remember, not everyone does the research to find out whether information on the Internet is true, which means that even if information is negative and false, people might still believe it. Jumping into social media is like grabbing a bull by the horns (although if you're careful and aware of the possible pitfalls, your company has the potential to profit exponentially from using these tools).

For those of you who have used social media tools to market yourselves or a business, we want to hear from you! How do you use social media to communicate with your consumer base? Do you find this to be a successful method of accurately representing and promoting your business? Have you had any negative experiences using social media as a promotional technique?

Check out our courses on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to get started utilizing social media!

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What's Your Learning Style?

In our jobs, we are constantly bombarded with all types of information in the form of reports, presentations, emails, memos, verbal exchanges, and more. In order to absorb all of this information in a quick and comprehensive way, and be more productive and efficient, you must know your learning style.

Start by identifying your primary mode of learning. Are you a visual, auditory, or tactile learner?

• Visual learners process information first by what they see. These learners like to watch demonstrations, and then usually try it out for themselves.
• Auditory learners prefer to listen first and have information explained to them in a step-by-step process.
• Tactile learners have to try it out themselves, and learn best by doing.

There are many advantages to knowing your learning style. Being aware of your learning style will allow you to comprehend information faster, and will give you more opportunities to participate as you understand material more easily. You will have better overall communication when you know how you best receive information. Most schools and businesses now use a number of different media to communicate information, including video, PowerPoint, and written and verbal presentations. Be proactive. Actively seek out information presented in the style that works best for you.

Keep in mind that it's a good idea to be aware of the learning styles of the people around you. What style is your boss? How do your team members learn? Try to present information in a way that helps more people understand your message. This can mean including different modes of communication when you make a report or presentation. At the very least, provide a written copy of your report. If possible, include a PowerPoint and verbal explanation.

Our new course on Career Success Strategies has additional helpful tips on various career-related topics, such as business ethics, conflict in the workplace, how to read reports and compare data, how to find your career strengths, additional insight into learning styles, and much more. Make sure to check out the first 3 FREE previews of this essential, in-depth course!
In addition, be sure to watch the free previews of our courses on PowerPoint and Business Writing for helpful tips on preparing presentations and reports.

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