Revolutionize the Way You Work Using Outlook 2007 9780473337346, 0473337347

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Revolutionise

the way you work using

Outlook 2007 by Jim Huse

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Revolutionise the way you work using Outlook® 2007 Published by Huse Hill Associates Limited. 26 Wilding Avenue, Northcote Point, Auckland, New Zealand www.husehill.co.nz Copyright © Jim Huse 2015 validated by ISBN Legal Deposit at the New Zealand National Library Wellington. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording and scanning. Organisational Effectiveness is a registered limited liability New Zealand company. Certificate of Incorporation. Microsoft, Outlook, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. ‘Revolutionise the way you work.’ is an independent publication. It is not affiliated with, nor has it been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. Acknowledgements: Microsoft (New Zealand) Limited. Laurence Clack, Cover Illustration. ISBN 978-0-473-33734-6 www.husehill.co.nz

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About the author

Jim Huse, the managing director of Huse Hill Associates works with individuals and small to large organisations to achieve business success by better connecting people’s efforts to the organisation’s key outcomes through a pioneering convergence of psychology, technology and business objectives. We assisted many companies such as Toyota, Microsoft, Vodafone, DHL, Roche, Sanitarium, Wilson Hellaby and Harvey Norman to significantly improve their financial results. Our training programmes integrate personal skills and self-knowledge with business systems, processes and technology to achieve success. Prior to founding Huse Hill Associates, Jim Huse had extensive real world experience as a sales executive, in team leadership and national management. 4

Welcome to Chaos Back to back meetings, interrupting phone calls, hundreds of emails, bleeping text messages, unforeseen little projects, crazy deadlines and unachievable objectives, welcome to Chaos. The urgency drives out the importance and you are judged on your ability to react rather than your effectiveness. The global financial crisis has intensified business pressure, and how you have worked in the past will not give you the asherity in this new business reality. Even the most successful person finds that their boss, board, customers or colleagues want more from them. While we do not like change, it takes more energy to maintain something that is not working than to change it. You already have the tools and capability to revolutionise the way you work and realise your full potential. This book will: • Enable you to work smarter through better selfmanagement • Show you how to improve personal effectiveness • Help you to utilize the full business capability of Microsoft Outlook • Enhance job satisfaction • Achieve better work life balance

So what are you waiting for? Let us pay the cashier and start reading the book to realise your full potential. Jim Huse 5

Contents

Welcome to Chaos Set yourself up for success Consequential Management Part 1: What everyone needs to know Good Morning - Better way to start your day Tell Outlook to automatically open your Calendar Take control of your day Create your Appointments Take control of your inbox Understanding 4Ds Folders for emails you have read or dealt with Manage CC mail effectively Managing junk mail Making your emails look as professional as you are Your To-do list is what you need to achieve Creating a Task to work smarter Contacts are the lifeblood of the organization Creating a new Contact Managing client/supplier interactions Part 2: Using Outlook to improve your personal effectiveness Personal Effectiveness Emails for your Natural Working Style Only work on what is important Blow someone’s mind at your next appraisal 6

5 8 9 17 18 20 27 32 74 77 88 102 115 123 158 161 184 188 212

221 222 247 254 264

Part 3: Using Outlook in ways that you never imagined Time Sheet Remuneration Create your Best Impression Improve Staff Retention Asset & Resource Management Project Management Customer Relationship Management

288 292 295 300 303 308 324

Part 4: Outlook set-ups, shortcuts and additions using public folders Extending Outlook - Microsoft Exchage Server Quick Steps Shortcuts

336 337 344 347

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Set yourself up for success

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hether you work within in a multinational, a large corporation or a small to medium enterprise, I am confident you will gain value from this book, and create a renewed Outlook on your productivity. This book will give you insights on how to set up your work day to best suit your own natural working style, body clock and guidance to get clarity about how your effort contributes to the organizations' goals. This will enhance your job satisfaction tenfold. Sometimes, we are so busy ‘doing’ we do not know where our time has gone. This book will show you how to understand how your time is spent, so that you can adjust expectations of what you are capable of achieving. This starts with setting up your technology tools so that you experience more frequent and greater success. Plus, at your next performance appraisal, the lion’s share of the preparation is done as part of your daily routine activities. By taking a bit of extra time to analyse your results against your actions, you can walk in to your next appraisal meeting - with confidence in knowing that there will be no surprises about your work quality and results. When you put your hand up for or are landed with an unexpected project, you will be going in with your eyes wide open – aware of your strengths, what strengths you will require

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from others and how your day to day work will be affected. By applying the suggestions in this book, you will feel much more in control of your work environment, happier and less stressed. This book will enable you to achieve more within a working day. Plus, identify the gaps between the reality of your role, and your job description and importantly get clarity around how you will be measured. Once this is done, you will be able to categorise, and assign how you spend your time more effectively. This will set you up for better success. Consequential Management

Using an exercise book to jot down important at a meeting or in a phone call is important because “I hear - I forget, I see - I may remember, I write down - I understand and do”. Having written them down, you are then able to transcribe the most important points into Outlook to make it happen. Any interaction with people that have consequences, needs to be transcribed into Outlook in the form of an email, Task or Calendar appointment. When recording items in Outlook, the content format layout I recommend is: Present… (list who was present); Discussion… (record who said what); Action Points… list each action point and who has been assigned to complete it.

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Tell the Computer to Start Outlook When you Log On

We are encouraged to switch off our computers when not in use to save electricity. Come the morning, you have 2 options - when you switch on your computer. 1) you can watch the machine go through its paces until it allows you to start Outlook. Or 2) you can set your computer to start Outlook automatically. Then you can go and have a cup of coffee while it starts up by itself. Every time from then on, you can enjoy your early morning pick me up. If you have RSS2 feeds, these will also be updated automatically as Outlook loads. Microsoft Vista 1. Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office.

2 RSS feeds, or Really Simple Syndication, will automatically keep you up to date with current information. This will be dealt with in a chapter later in the book.

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2. Right click on Outlook icon, and click Copy.

3. Scroll down to Start Up.

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4. Right click on Start Up and click Explore.

5. Right click into right hand pane, Paste.

6. The Shortcut is now pasted in the Start Up view. It pays to restart your computer to check that Outlook starts automatically.

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Microsoft Windows XP 1. Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Outlook. 2. Right click on Outlook, and click Copy. (Pin to Start Up only attaches it to the Start Menu.) 3. Move arrow to Start Up.

4. Right click on Start Up and click Explore.

5. Right click into right hand pane, Paste.

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6. The Outlook Icon will appear in the right hand pane.

Restart your computer to check that Outlook starts automatically.

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Conventions used in this Book Microsoft Outlook uses American spelling conventions. Therefore we have endeavoured to use this convention throughout the book. File > New > Document: A short way of saying “Go to the File menu” scroll down to New and select Document from the options available. [Crtl + 1]: “go to” Mail. [Crtl + 2]: “go to” Calendar. [Crtl + 3]: “go to” Contacts. [Crtl + 4]: “go to” Tasks. [Shift + Delete]: Permanently deletes any unopened email as well as those which may contain a virus threat. [F7]:   To “Spell Check” Microsoft documents or Journals. Drag…to: Means use your left mouse button to select an item, drag it to where it needs to go, and then release th mouse to drop it into its new position. Click: Most actions involve clicking the left hand mouse button, which often means going to the Ribbon to make a selection. Right click: Produces a Pop-Up ‘contextual’ menu, with options relating to what you’re doing. This can be much quicker and more convenient. Drag...to (Right click): When you drag and drop with the right mouse, the contextual menu gives you relevant options such as ‘copy’ or ‘move’.

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Create Shortcuts for Everyday Actions To speed up your work, we have listed the most useful shortcut keys in an Appendix at the back of the book. Throughout the book, we give you the shortcut keys in brackets after the instructions. To see how these work, turn to the Appendix to the section on Using Access keys on the Ribbon. (Note: The screenshots in this book have been taken from Outlook 2007 running on Windows Vista. The screenshots for those of you using Windows XP may appear slightly different. If they are significantly different, we will include the methods and the screenshots.) Microsoft reserves the right to change the functionality of Outlook through their updating process.

How to Speed Read this Book Microsoft Outlook has a lot of functionality some of which you will never use. We have identified each functionality with a green heading and a business application is written underneath. Reading the business application description will help you to decide whether to use the functionality or not.

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Part 1 What everyone in your organization needs to know about Outlook

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Good Morning

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hen you arrive at your desk to start your working day, the first thing you need to do is check what is on your appointments, and what you need to achieve before the end of your day. Think of your calendar as a map of your day. A single view of all your appointments, separated by uninterrupted intervals during which you can get down to work and achieve things like emptying your in-box, completing tasks on your to-do list, or setting up future appointments and returning phone calls. If you use a proprietary day planner that fits into your briefcase it is a manual system with all the limitations. If you use a modern smart phone, it has a in-built electronic diary which replicates Outlook. The ability of these devices to synchronise with your computer is a useful way of extending your Outlook. Your Outlook Calendar gives you: • One click of the mouse switch between views of any day, your specific work week (which need not be limited to a 5 day week starting at 8 am Monday and ending at 5 pm Friday), a 7 day week or an entire month. • All your appointments, both professional and private, can be visible or blocked out, as well as advising whether you are at your desk or out of the office. 18

• You can prioritise your workload by using the Outlook categories functionality and, have fun choosing the different color codes. • You can decide which appointments to share with others, who have the authority to view your calendar over the network – or whether they simply see shaded boxes that indicate periods when you are available. Since the most useful tool to see at the beginning of the day is your Outlook Calendar, why waste time every day wading through start-up screens, then starting Outlook, then changing its default view to Calendar view and then to the view that is most useful for you? Let us just tell the computer to go straight to your Calendar any time you fire it up or log on to your office server. At the same time, we will look at the ways you can customize the Calendar to make it even more useful for you.

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Tell Outlook to open your Calendar Automatically

The first thing you need to do when you sit down at your desk, is to plan your day. Telling Outlook to automatically load your calendar enables you to see what is set in concrete and, what other time slots you have available. (To check your Mail from this view, press [Ctrl + 1].)

In Mail view: 1. Select Tools > Options.

2. Click Other > Advanced. 

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3. Click Browse under ‘General settings’

4. Select Calendar.

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Customize your Calendar to Match your Working Style

Appointment Reminder Time When you enter an appointment, Outlook presents a box with a 15 minutes reminder time filled out. If you want to alter this Default Reminder, either remove the tick at Default Reminder, or change the default to a more useful time – from 0 minutes to 2 weeks. 1. Select Tools > Options > Preferences

2. Click Calendar Options.

This is where you alter your calendar to reflect your real world schedule. 22

Calendar Work Week You will want to make changes here if: • Your working week does not begin on Monday or end on a Friday. • Your working day does not start at 8 am or end at 5 pm.

1. Go to Tools > Options > Preferences. 2. Select the hours, days and times of your required year. Calendar Options

At present, you only need to deal with: ‘Show week numbers…’: the Date Navigator lets you quickly go to any day, week or month of your Calendar.

If you check this button, each week is numbered from the first week of your year. Background color: Choose a color that is easy on your eyes. 23

Add Holiday Button to your Calendar

If you have friends, relatives, or business contacts overseas, or if you’re planning to travel, it might be handy to see holidays observed by several countries on your Calendar. This will help you to know when not to call at land eg. land in Dubai expecting business at the start of Ramadan or phoning a businesses appropriate in New York on Columbus Day. Advanced options

At present, you only need to deal with: Enable an alternate calendar: This changes your Calendar into a format used by non-English speaking countries: Buddhist, Gregorian, Hijiri, Lunar, Rokuyou, Saka Era, Zodiac if needed.

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Add the Task Bar to Calendar View

In Outlook 2007, the Task has been replaced by the To-Do Bar. In Outlook 2010, the To-Do bar has the word Tasks on it but options for this is done via the To-Do bar button on the Ribbon. This is automatically displayed. If it is not displayed, click on the arrows at the right hand side of the bar.

Or press the keys. [Alt + F2] The Task Pane now appears and it now also appears on all views. To hide the To-Do Bar, press [Alt + F2] again.

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One day view with To-Do Bar

5 day week view with To-Do Bar

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Take control of your day

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o make your calendar useful, you obviously need to fill it with your appointments. This is an important step as it gives you a road map of your day(s) and allows others, who have access to your calendar to see what time slots you have available when arranging meetings requiring your attendance. To free your mind to work on the things you need to achieve, it is important to include all of your personal appointments so that you have a reducing of things to remember. Adding appointments is pretty simple, as a good number of them – your regular or recurring ones – only need to be entered once. Maybe you have a Production meeting at 9 am every Monday, a Board meeting on the second Wednesday of every month, or an evening Parent/Teacher meeting every three months. Other appointments you will naturally want to include are your annual vacation and conferences. Your calendar will display all of these on the appropriate day/ week/month views until you change or cancel them. You will want the calendar to show the start time of each appointment, the expected end time, and probably their location. You will want your computer to remind you of 28

imminent appointments in sufficient time for you to make any arrangements to extricate yourself from whatever you are doing, and get to the location. • You may need only a few minutes reminder for a meeting in your office but, if the meeting is across town, you will want the reminder to include travel time. • If the event is an all day seminar, you will want to be reminded a day or so in advance. • You probably want regular reminders for several weeks before your annual leave. On the other hand, if you want the computer to give you several shopping days notice before a birthday or anniversary, make this a “task”. As you will add new appointments regularly, you will soon find yourself performing the following steps on autopilot.

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Customize your Calendar View Setting

At the end of a working year or at your next performance appraisal, you want to have achieved the best outcome possible. How you use your time, has the biggest impact on your results. For all things that are important, you need to allocate some time to work on them. You may be surrounded by many distractions, and, to prevent them from taking hold, you need to commit yourself to what is important. (What you are employed to achieve.) We recommend a Work Week view of your Calendar so you are aware of what you are to achieve today and what is left of your week.

Set out below is a work week view.

When in the main Calendar view, you can choose to have Day, Week, Month view and options of Work Week (5 Days) or Full Week (7 Days). Having identified the day on which you want to schedule the Appointment you will need to go to the One Day view to identify your work load which includes your To-Do’s. 30

One day view To get around this, switch to Day view and, holding down the Ctrl key, click over the next few dates in the date picker. Or alternatively, hold down the Shift key and click on the last date that you want displayed.

You do not have to have consecutive days. You can choose the days while holding down the Ctrl key (not the Shift key). Multi-day view To view multi-days on your Calendar, hold down the Alt key and type in the number of days that you wish to view. (E.g. [Alt + 9] will show the next 9 days, [Alt + 0] will display 10 days.)

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Create your Appointments

1. Click on the Day button at the top of your Calendar in Calendar view, to change to a One Day View.

2. Double click on the Appointment time. The Appointment dialogue box appears with the correct date and start time already filled out.

3. Fill out (or select) these fields: Subject: Give the appointment the name you want to appear on your calendar. Location: Where you need to be. This also appears on your Calendar. For internal meetings, ‘my office’ or ‘boardroom’ are fine but for external appointments, use physical addresses so you will not have to look them up as you rush out the door.

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Label: Click on the preferred button to label your Appointment. In Outlook 2007 you have the choices of High Importance and Low Importance. Start: If you access the appointment window through menus (versus the Date Navigator) you will need to change the date and time. Over-type the date and time fields or click beside the date to produce a Date Navigator - click left/right arrow to change the month, and select any day. Click beside the start time for a drop down list of times in 30 minute intervals, scroll to the one you want and select it.

Productivity Tip: In a new appointment window, if you wanted to schedule the Meeting for next Friday, instead of picking the date through the Calendar picker, you can just type ‘next Friday’ in the date field. The date will be displayed with the correct Calendar date. Other options for this could be: ‘tomorrow’, ‘next week’, ‘next month’, ‘in 2 days’, ‘in three weeks’, or even certain holidays (2 days before Christmas). It can work backwards. If you have a due date you can work from the due date to set times for completion of Tasks. You can say 10 weeks before and the correct date will appear. Because of different Time Zones and regional variations, not all holidays work, so play around with them. 33

End time: change this the same way as was completed for Start Time. When an All day event Appointment starts ends on the day it starts, the drop down list shows end times calculated in durations of zero minutes to 23·5 hours. All day event: Select this to put the Appointment at the beginning of your day. This does not prevent entering other Appointments, such as a lunch meeting, on the same day. This is particularly useful for your annual holiday and for conferences out of town.

Reminder: For a different reminder time or to deselect the default reminder time, click the drop down list found on the Ribbon. Allow time for travelling to an out-of-office Appointment to remind you of an upcoming phone call, or to clear your office – select the required time ranging from 0 minutes to 2 weeks.

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To use different sounds for different types of Appointments, click on the Sound option at the bottom of the drop down list, or the Sound icon beside the Reminder label. (Note: If you dislike reminders or see them as an interruption, set the default to no reminders.)

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Turning an Email into an Appointment

An Email may need further consideration / information or work on it or you may need to meet with the correspondent. Worse still, you may get to the end of the day and realise you never got a chance to work on it. To allocate time for working on the Email or scheduling a meeting with the correspondent, follow the instructions below. In Inbox view: 1. Click on the Email. Drag and Drop the email onto the Calendar bar at the bottom of the Navigation Pane.

2. An Appointment Form will open with the subject detail completed and the message already entered into the free text field.

3. Complete any details needed. 4. Click Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV]

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Change the Appointment without Opening It

You may have been advised that an existing Appointment needs to be changed. You do not need to open the Appointment Form to alter the time. In Calendar view:

Change Start/End times: Drag the Appointment to a new time, or drag the resize arrows.

Move Appointment(s) to a new date: If the new time is on a day or month not shown, drag the Appointment to the correct date on the Date Navigator on the To-Do Bar. (Note: If you need to move an Appointment or event quite a way, use Edit, Cut, and Paste it in the required time slot.) 37

Cancel an Appointment

Click the Appointment and then right click and select Delete. [Ctrl + D] or [Delete] If it is a recurring Appointment, you will get the dialogue box option to delete all of the appointments or just that particular occurrence. Private Button

Click the Private button on the Ribbon to prevent other people on the network from seeing details of your Appointment. If you have given permission for full access to another person to view your calendars (e.g. A Personal Assistant), they will still be able to see the Appointment details and all your Calendar details. Therefore, you must be careful to whom you give permission to share your Calendar.

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Disable the Reminders Option and Categories

1. Go to Tools > Options > Preferences. 2. In the Calendar section.

3. Deselect the Default reminder option. 4. Click OK.

Show time as: Click for a drop down choice to show how the duration of your appointment will be shown to others viewing your Calendar.

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Text field: Type whatever agenda or reminder notes you need, and perhaps a list of any files associated with the event. They will not show on your Calendar but double-clicking the appointment brings up the dialogue box. You can also use it to type postmeeting notes. Contacts: Unlike Outlook 2003, this button does not appear by default in 2007. However, it is useful to associate people and their Contact details with the appointment. To add the Contacts button on your forms: 1. Go to Tools > Options > Contact Options.

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2. Select Show Contact Linking on all Forms. The Contacts button will now appear by default on all your Outlook Forms except for a New Message Form.

Click for a pop-up box that lets you associate people and their Contact Details with the appointment, for an easy way to reach them.

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Categories: Click the Categorize button to classify your appointments by type. We suggest using the “Balanced Score Card” approach where you replace the standard Microsoft categories. Recurring Appointment

Recurring Appointment: Click Recurrence on the menu bar. In the dialogue box, the appointment time/duration is already filled out so just click the options and enter a start date. A specific end date is useful for, say, a 10 week study course, but you will usually use “No end date” and simply delete the appointment when it is no longer useful. Click OK > Save and Close. 42

Time Zone for an Overseas Appointment

There are times when you need to ring a client/supplier or have a conference call with a person in a different time zone. Take the guess work out of scheduling by displaying the other time zone beside yours. You can choose the Time Zone by: 1. Click the Time Zones button. This will add a new selection box beside the Start and End Time boxes.

2. Click on the arrow beside the box and this will give you a drop down list of Zones. 3. Select the Time Zone required.

If you choose a different Time Zone, the Appointment will appear on your Calendar converted to Local Time. 4. Place a Reminder call on your appointment so that you will not overlook the call.

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Additional Time Zone on Calendar

You can also have two Time Zones to the left of your Calendar. This will enable you to determine if the other party is likely to be available for contacting. To Add another Time Zone to your Calendar: 1. Right click the time grid on the left of your Calendar. 2. Choose Change Time Zone.

3. Select Show an additional time zone.

4. Give it a Label. 5. Choose the Time Zone required.

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6. Click OK.

Now you will have both Time Zones beside each other for reference. If you do not want the other Time Zone, reverse the process by deselecting Show an additional time zone. The orange line showing on the Time Zone bars is the present time.

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Meeting Agendas

When Attendees are invited to a Meeting, it can be helpful for them to know the agenda before the meeting. This enables attendees time to get prepared and and able to participate more effectively plus add relevant items to the agenda. When there is background reading material, you can include it in the invitation so that people attending the Meeting are prepared for what is going to be discussed. People often complain about the duration of a meeting. One of the reasons is the time wasted as attendees do the reading at the meet to gain a comprehension on the subject. Productive Meetings are achieved through discussion and decision making. Meetings become unproductive when the group has to wait while an individual does their research. You may have a Company or standard agenda form and these can be converted to Email Templates. There are Templates listed in the next section (“Making your emails as professional as you are”.) Microsoft has two templates for Meeting Agendas and a Template for confirming a Meeting. As well there are a lot more in MS Office Word which can be pasted into Outlook and then made into Email Templates. Microsoft has an Informal Meeting template available on their site. 46

Invite other People to a Meeting

When you send an invitation that includes Meeting notes and/ or an agenda in the text field, recipients can respond with suggested amendments to the date and text.

In the Appointment window click the Invite Attendees button. (Alt + H + I)

In the Meeting window that appears, click the To button [Alt + .] or click the Address Book button. [Alt + H + AB]

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A pop up window gives you a choice of names and resources. If your company has a “Global” address book, you can access it by clicking the down arrow beside the Address Book box.

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Viewing other Peoples’ Calendars on a Shared Server

Working in a team often allows you to have access to a colleague’s Calendar. If this is the case, you can choose a mutually satisfactory time without having to go backwards and forwards to settle the time. If you need to see what a colleague is doing: 1. Click File > Open > Other User’s Folder.

2. Enter the colleague’s name and choose Calendar from the drop down menu

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3. If you have permission, it will appear next to yours. The number of Calendars you have open will depend on your preference and the space you have to display them.

4. On the Navigation Pane, there will be a list of Calendars that you have access to. To see the individual Calendars, click on the Radio button beside the required Calendar. To deselect the Calendar, click on the Radio button again.

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Invite others to a Meeting when you share Calendars on a Server (using ‘Scheduling’)

Instead of wasting time playing Email ping pong or telephone tag with the people you want to attend the Meeting, if you have a server and access to their calendars, you can select a time that is suitable to all the attendees by using Scheduling. Scheduling button: Lets you choose a time when all the meeting attendees are available. 1. Open a New meeting form.

2. Fill in Location of the Meeting. 3. Fill in the Subject of the Meeting. Use the text field for notes about the intended Meeting.

4. Click on the Scheduling button.

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5. Type the names of those you wish to attend, or choose them from your address book. The Calendar will show invitee availability information from thier Calendars.

6. Right click the icon beside the Name.

7. Choose whether they are Required Attendee/ Optional Attendee and if it is a resource room or equipment that is needed for the meeting.

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The tick to the left of the icon determines that an email will be sent to the people concerned. If there is no tick, then they will not get an email.

8. When you have your Attendees Calendars on display, click the Options button.

9. By clicking the AutoPick button and selecting one of the four options the Calendar will select the next time slot that all the people will be available for the meeting. 10. If you know that the time slot is not suitable for some reason, click the AutoPick Next button. It will skip to the next time slot available. 11. When you have settled on a time, click Send. [Alt + S] You can also set up a Meeting Workspace if you use Windows SharePoint Services shared meeting workspace. On this website you can place all the documents, links and notes so that all attendees of the meeting can access them.

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Responding to a Meeting Request from Someone Else

When you receive an email requesting a meeting, you are able to see from your calendar whether you are able to attend. 1. Click the Accept, Tentative, Decline or Propose New Time. [Alt + H + C, J, N or T] If you know what the meeting is about and have been forewarned, in Mail view right click on the email and then choose the option required from the contextual menu.

2. A query window gives reply options. If you have nothing to add, click Send the response now.

The Meeting request is automatically updated on your Calendar. Also the email will be sent to the Deleted Items Folder. There may be legal or personal reasons why in the future you need to be able to prove you accepted the Meeting and may have put additional information in your acceptance. If your Deleted Items Folder is regularly cleaned out, then you will have lost the record. To prevent the loss of this record you will need to set up a Rule to capture the transaction. To set up a Rule for transferring your Appointment Request email into another folder for reminding yourself of what is required. Create a new Folder and give it a name for collecting your Meeting emails. E.g Meetings. 54

In Mail view: 1. Click Tools > Rules and Alerts.

2. Click New Rule > Next. 3. Start from a New Rule.

4. Select Check messages after sending.

5. In the section Step 1: Select condition(s) scroll down until you find uses the form name form > Next.

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6. In the Choose Forms box select Application Forms from the drop down menu.

7. Select the Accept Meeting Response. You can also select the Decline Meeting Response, Meeting Cancellation, Meeting Request or Appointment Forms. 8. Click Add > Close > Next.

9. In the next window within the Step 1: Select action(s) section, select move a copy to the specified folder.

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10. Click specified folder and select the folder required > Next.

11. Specify any exceptions if needed > Next.

12. Name the Rule, e.g. Meeting Requests > Finish. 13. Click Apply or OK.

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Keep your Meeting Requests from Ending up in your Deleted Items Folder

Rushing into the office, you know you have a meeting to go to. When you look into your Inbox for details of the meeting, it has disappeared. To stop this happening: 1. Choose Tools > Options.

2. Choose Preferences tab. Click the Email Options button.

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3. Click the Advanced Email Options button.

4. Uncheck Delete meeting request from Inbox when responding > OK.

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Set your Calendar to Auto-Accept Meetings

Sometimes many meeting requests come into your Inbox. This can take a lot of your time. To save time reading individual requests, tell Outlook to reply for you. 1. Choose Tools > Options.

2. Click Calendar Options.

3. Click Resource Scheduling.

4. Select Automatically accept meeting requests and process cancellations. 60

5. You may also want to select Automatically decline conflicting meeting requests and/or Automatically decline recurring meeting requests.

6. Set any permissions needed. (Note: Incoming meeting notifications will appear temporarily in your Mail Inbox and then Outlook will take over, auto-accept the meeting for you, send an acceptance notification back to the meeting organizer, and move the meeting notification from your Mail Inbox to your Sent Items folder. Meetings are only auto-accepted while Outlook is running.) The meeting will appear on your Calendar as it was scheduled by the meeting organizer (Busy, Tentative, Free, or Out of Office).

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Managing Automatic Meeting Responses

When you send a meeting request, the receiver has four options to accept, decline, tentative or suggest another time. You do not need the acceptance emails clogging up or getting lost in your Inbox. However, you want to know if they are not attending or if they have made a comment. To manage these email responses, you can set up a rule to file them for future action. Outlook keeps all the response information for the meeting automatically in the Tracking tab. In Mail view: 1. Click Tools > Rules and Alerts. [Alt + T + L]

2. Click New Rule. [+ N]

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3. Click Check messages when they arrive > Next.

4. Scroll down then select the uses the form name. 5. Click the uses the form name form underlined text in step 2.

6. Select Application Forms from the drop down form library list. If this is not selected, you will not see the Accepted and Tentative Meeting Response Forms.

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(Note: This is not available if your computer has not been set up during installation of MS Office 2007 to include this option.) 7. Add the two forms to the right hand pane > Close > Next.

8. Choose move it to the specified folder.

9. Choose the folder by clicking on specified folder.

10. Specify the folder in the dialogue box. You may want to have already created a new folder called Automatic Responses for these responses > Next.

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11. Under Are there any exceptions? Click except if the subject or body contains specific words. Click specific words.

12. In the dialogue box, type a space then click Add > OK. The only responses that will slip through are those with only one character in the body > Next. 13. Name the rule > Apply.

14. It would help if this was the first rule in the Rules and Alerts box. Move the rule into top position.

Now you will only have to worry about the answers that need further attention. 65

To check the responses to a meeting, double click the Appointment on your Calendar. 1. In the Appointment window, click the Tracking button. [Alt + H + RT]

2. On the new page, you will see the results of your meeting request.

In this view, you can also Add or Remove Attendees. [Alt + H + AA]

If, when perusing this list, you remember additional information to send to the Attendees, click the Messages to Attendees button. [Alt + H + AM] You will get a drop down menu to select the required action.

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1. If you need to reply to only one Attendee, select the name, click the Message to Attendees button and select Reply with Message. Above shortcut and [R] or [arrow down]. 2. If all attendees are required to receive the message, choose New Message to Attendees or Reply to All with Message. Above shortcut and [E] or [M], or [arrow down]. Turning an Email Meeting Request into a Task

You may wish to make a Task from the Email Meeting Request to remind you to collect any information/material for the Meeting or to discuss a matter with someone. To do this before attending the Meeting: In Mail view: 1. Click the email, drag and drop the email onto the Calendar bar below the Navigation Pane.

2. An Appointment Form will appear with the Subject already filled in. The email details will appear on the text field.

3. Fill in any other details needed and Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV] 67

Turning a Document into an Appointment

How many times have you started a project outline, a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet or some other file, to be interrupted or have to put it aside because you have to go to another Appointment? Turn the document into an Appointment by: Method 1: 1. In Calendar view, find the next convenient time. 2. Open a New Appointment Form. Fill in the subject and time slot.

3. Click the Insert tab > Attach File. [Alt + N + AF]The Explorer Window will open. 4. Navigate through the Explorer in the Insert File window.

5. Double click on the file required. It will appear in the free text field as an icon. 6. Click Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV] 68

Method 2: Presuming you have Outlook open and you are able to navigate to the file required in the Windows Explorer Window. 1. Click on the file and drag and drop the file onto the Calendar bar on the bottom of the Navigation Pane. An Appointment Form will open with the File as an Icon.

2. Click the Scheduling button.

3. Select the time suitable > Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV]

The Window will close and the Appointment will appear on your Calendar. When you come to work on the file: 1. Double click on the Appointment text. 2. Double click on the file icon. 3. Click Open. 69

Send your Calendar by Email

Scheduling Appointments in a corporate world is easy if you have access to your colleagues’ Calendars. However, it is not so easy when you need to schedule an Appointment with someone from another workplace/server. This can entail sending emails back and forth until you can find a mutually satisfactory time. The good news is that this too can be simplified. You can email a Calendar to the other party. The Calendar will show only Free, Busy, Tentative or Out Of Office and not the details of your appointments. To create an Email of your Calendar: Use your Calendar or create a new one if needed. In Calendar view: 1. Right click the Calendar you want to email. 2. From the contextual menu choose Send via email.

3. From the window, check that the right Calendar is selected.

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4. Choose the Date Range.

5. Set working hours if needed. (Further options are available under the Advanced option.) 6. Click OK.

The email will have the calendar as an iCalendar file as well as details in the text box. 7. Enter recipients names. 8. Click Send. [Alt + S] (Note: Only a snapshot of the Calendar will be sent. The Calendar that is sent will not update automatically.)

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Overlapping Shared Calendars

Sometimes you need to meet 1:1 with a colleague you with whom you have shared calendar access. In Outlook 2007, you have the option of placing your colleagues Calendar on top of yours to compare the Appointment times. In Calendar view: 1. Choose the Calendar you want to overlap by clicking the Radio button on the Navigation Pane.

2. Two calendars will appear side by side.

3. Click the Arrow on the top left hand corner of the second Calendar.

4. Select a time when neither of you have Appointments. 5. Open a New Appointment Form, fill in the details and send. To undo the Overlapping of the Calendars, click on the Arrow again. 72

Printing your Calendar

You want to print out your Calendar but the options available do not suit the way you work. Microsoft has a Calendar Printing Assistant for Outlook 2007 available for download. There are a number of options for days, weeks, months, or years. After you have downloaded the Add in: 1. Go to Start menu > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools > Calendar Printing Assistant.

The Program will open up.

2. Select the Template required. Here are a few examples of the Templates available.

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Take control of your inbox

D



oes a letterbox at home have:

• Random pieces of correspondence relating to every file, assignment or project you ever worked on? • Items of personal mail you ever received? • Jokes people have sent you? • Heaps of stuff you never had time to check out, and probably never will? • Every piece of junk mail that ever turned up?

If you think this is stupid, click the Mail button on Outlook and take a look at what is in your Inbox. Oops. If you’re like most people, you have allowed your Inbox to become positively stuffed with all the things you thought were ridiculous to keep in your in-tray just a few moments ago. As a result, you can end up handling each piece of email many times over. Sure, it keeps you busy, but only busy staying in the same place, not actually achieving anything, or making any progress, so the inefficiency of multiple handling also makes you ineffective. Some people never clear out their Inbox, allowing thousands of unsorted and unclassified emails to pile up year after year, 75

bogging them down in irrelevant stuff, and finding anything means scrolling through it all. Even if you’re in a position where you gain kudos by being the only person in your organization who has a record of all correspondence, you will find things much more efficiently if you develop some good housekeeping practices. When you look at your Inbox, all you want to see is mail you have not yet dealt with – nothing more than a day or so old. And the only personal mail, jokes and junk mail in there should be what has arrived since the last time you checked in. If there is more than this, your Inbox simply cannot function as an in-tray and it becomes a dumping ground.

What this means in practice, is that any time when you read an email, you need to do something with it and, by the end of the day, your Inbox should be completely empty – even of the things you intend to take care of tomorrow. So, let us begin by clearing the Inbox of all emails that have no relevance to what you’re currently doing, and reduce the mind clutter to something a rational person, such as yourself, can cope with. Do not panic. We are not going to throw out all your stuff or make it harder to find. We are simply going to create a subfolder within your Inbox called ‘Read emails’, which we can use to separate what you cannot bear to toss out from what you need to deal with today. 76

Dump it A lot of your mailbox clutter may originate from within your own organization. Some items may be redirected to your Inbox and may need to be redirected to someone else. Click the Forward [Alt + F] button, enter the address of whoever should receive it, and click Send. Remember, forwarding an email does not remove it from your Inbox, so hit the Delete button as soon as it goes. There will also be Cc (Carbon Copy) or Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) mail that is routed to you for no other purpose than keeping you in the loop, notifying you that something has happened, or confirming that someone has done something you asked them to do. You may need to see these emails, but you should seldom need to file them. Again, hit Delete and remove any you do not need.

Date-activate it There will be items that need your personal attention, but can wait until you can set aside some clear or convenient time to work on them. You may want time to work through all the implications of a proposal. Perhaps there is a project that requires consideration before you respond. Or, maybe you need to get additional input from colleagues. The best solution for these items is to turn them into Tasks that appear on your ‘To-do’ list with deadlines. 77

If you need to set a specific time aside to handle an email, make an appointment with yourself – simply drag it to a convenient time on to your Calendar, and date-activate it in the appointment window that appears.

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Delegate it You will never be promoted if things that are your responsibility slip through the cracks because you’re too busy – especially if you’re running a team, have assistants, or have colleagues who can handle things for you. In these situations, you must delegate. Here, it is a good idea to bear in mind that sending someone an email is not actually communicating with them: without some kind of verification, you can never assume that they’ve received, read, understood or acted upon your message. Consequently, delegating via an email request is a poor idea as you remain responsible for seeing something is done without having any indication that it has actually been done. Fortunately, Outlook has a very simple way of turning a request into a Task to which you can attach briefing notes, files, emails, contacts or anything else. We’ll deal with this in detail in the next chapter. For now, it is enough to know that emailing a request as a Task causes a window to pop up on the recipient’s computer screen with the option to accept or decline it – and you’re automatically notified of their choice.

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If the recipient accepts the Task, it is automatically added to their ‘To-do’ list, and Outlook can report to you on their progress, completion, or failure to meet the deadline you set. In other words, Outlook allows you to delegate work, without losing control.

Do it now No matter what meetings, appointments or other business you need to attend to today, there will be some items you must deal with personally and ASAP – items you can not dump, delegate or delay. One glance at your Calendar will tell you what time slots you have available. When you approach emails you receive in this way, not simply reading them but dealing with them, it is clear that you use Outlook Mail in exactly the same way as a traditional in-tray. And your PA (if you’re lucky enough to have one) can handle much of this on your behalf.

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Finding Related Messages

You have received an email and need to refresh your memory on the details. Outlook 2007 has a feature which enables you to do this. 1. If the message is not already open, open the message.

2. Click the Related button. Choose whether you want Related Messages or Messages from Sender.

3. The messages will appear in a Messages: Advanced – Advanced Find dialogue box.

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4. You can further filter by Tasks, Journals, Appointments, etc. The other tabs give you further options for filtering.

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Use Activity Button to View Interactions with a Contact

It is always fascinated me how we spend a lot of time filing Emails from our Inbox into an intricate filing system comprised of folders and folders within folders. Some Emails are filed under the subject contained within the Email and sometimes we file the Email under the sender’s/organization’s name. Either way we sometimes struggle to find that important Email stored within our elaborate filing system. Conversely, many of us do not file our sent Emails. I find it paradoxical that we spend all this time dutifully filing Emails received from other people while we do not take the same amount of care of the Emails that we send, which is our work not theirs. Method 1: (You have previously created a contact for this person.) 1. Double click the Contact to open it. 2. Click on the Activities button on the Ribbon. [Alt + H + AZ]

3. From the drop down menu, select the type of item to show for this contact.

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4. After a short delay, all items meeting your criteria are listed and related to select contact. 5. Double click any activity to open/read the details.

6. Right click the blank space for a contextual menu of viewing options. (E.g. Group by Box, Sort.) Method 2: (You have not created a Contact for this person or more importantly you are rushing to find a certain Email from this person and your quick look through your elaborate filing system has not produced the Email.)

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1. Drag and drop, an Email onto the Contact icon on the bottom of the Navigation Pane. A new Contact will be created for that person. 2. Click the Activities button and after a short time all of the sent and received Email, Journals, Notes, Appointments or Tasks will appear on the list below. 3. Having found the Email you were looking for and sorted that out, you have now finished with the search function and can close the Contact without saving it. Warning if you choose to save it you may duplicate or replace the master Contact which had all the other Contact information with this newly created Contact. You may be looking for an Attachment within an Email or vice versa so you need to bring all the Emails with attachments to the top of the list. If the Attachment heading is not in your Activities view, then you need to see the next section for instructions to put up the heading for sorting these Emails.

To see all the Emails with Attachments, click the Attachment icon and all the Emails with attachments will be grouped together.

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Customize your Contacts Activities View

The standard view is Subject and In Folder headings which will enable you to find an Email by Subject. However, if you are looking for a particular Email or an Email with an attachment, you will need to put up additional headings to identify the Emails that have attachments, etc. If you are looking for an Email sent at a certain date you will have to put up the Created heading. Another useful heading could be: From (the sender);

Field headings can be customized like the Task Pad, Master Task List or Email folders: 1. Open the Contact > Select the Activities button. [Alt + H + AZ] 2. Right click the Field Heading bar. Select Field Chooser. 3. Select any headings from the All Mail fields. Drag the required heading up onto the Field Heading bar.

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If you require any other headings choose the field types from the drop down menu, e.g. Journal Fields.

To customize the way your headings are displayed, right click the Field Heading bar. Choose the Format required. For example, you may want to format the date to a shorter version.

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Create Folders for Emails you have Read and/or Dealt With

Folders are a means of collating mail for quick reference. Instead of having to wade through a long list of emails (especially if you are one of those people who do not like to delete email, just in case), you can file them in a manner similar to the old filing cabinets. In fact you will learn how to use these as Filing Cabinets for your emails.  Plan how you would organize files to contain letters and documents from correspondents. This is a way that you can arrange the Folders on your Navigation Pane. These will be used to file any Email that arrives. In Mail view: 1. Click New > Folder. [Ctrl + Shift + E] (Note: Clicking the word ‘New’ produces a new email message form – clicking the down arrow brings up the dialogue box.) 2. Choose a name for your new folder. I have called mine ‘Read Mail’ to keep it simple. 3. In the list of places where the folder can be kept, make sure Inbox is highlighted. If not, just click on it.

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4. The down arrow of Folder contains produces a drop down menu of items that can be stored in the folder. For now, we only want the default Mail and Post Items. 5. Click OK.

In Mail view, you now see the folder as a sub-folder of Inbox under All Mail Items. If you like being very organized, consider creating a hierarchy of folders. You might have them for ‘Personal’, ‘Humour’ and ‘Clients’ – and your client folder may contain separate folders for each client. It is your call. Remember: Computers list folders in alphanumerical order, and the easiest way to control their order is to number them. From 1 to 9, use preceding zeros because computers list numbers as 1, 10…19, 2, 21…29, etc. So 1 to 10 should read 01, 02, 03, 04…)  89

Move your old Emails into your New Folder(s)

Instead of looking at an endless list of emails, use these tool bar buttons to sort them in ways that make it easier to select those you want to move. While not all of these will make sense at this point, as you become more familiar with sorting emails, they will.

Header Status;

Attachment;

Importance;

Sender;

Icon;

Subject;

Date Received;

Flag Status;

Size;

Categories.

A new standard heading in Outlook 2007 is Categories. (Note: I recommend sorting them by ‘Sender’ which allows selecting and moving large groups of related emails en masse to a folder, rather than one or two at a time.)

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1. To move a single email, right click the email and select Move to Folder on the contextual menu. [Ctrl + Shift + V]

2. In the Move Items box, scroll down until you find the Folder required, select and click OK.

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3. To select a range of emails, click the first one, then hold down shift and click the last one – everything between is also selected: 4. Right click the Email and select Move to Folder on the contextual menu. [Ctrl + Shift + V] 5. In the Move Items box, scroll down until you find the Folder required, select and click OK.

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Sorting the Contents of a Folder

You have come back to your desk or taken a phone call which requires you to retrieve and deal with a certain email. While you’re now endeavouring to have only a handful of emails in your Inbox at any one time, you do not have control over how many emails are sent overnight or while you’re at a meeting. To retrieve the certain email which contains an attachment, click on the Attachment icon. All emails will be sorted into those with attachments and those without. The one thing that computers are good at is sorting. Like sorting the wheat from the chaff, you now just have to look through the subject titles of the emails that have attachments to find the one you want. Attachment Icon Importance Header Status

1. Right click on any of these field headings.

2. From the drop down list, choose to Sort Ascending or Send Descending.

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Saving a Draft Email Manually

How often do you put off writing an Email because you have not got all the required information to complete it? How many times have you sent an Email and, then after it was sent, you realised there was a better way to have compiled it, especially when you had to create the Email under a pressure deadline? Why do not you start writing a bit at a time. The writing process will also help you discover the content you require and, because you have time, you can research the subject more using reflective thinking. You can save the Email as you add further material. In this way you have the matter under control and can rest comfortably knowing that nothing important is being missed out. Plus, do not you hate it when you are well into an important email that has to be sent today and you are interrupted? To manually save a draft of a message: Do one of the following: Click Save on the Quick Access Toolbar. OR Click the File button and then click Save. When you need to start an email, when you do not have all the relevant details to send: 1. Open a New Message Form. 2. Fill in the To and Subject details. 3. In the text field, complete the email, at this stage, as far as you can. 94

4. Click the Close button. 5. Click Yes on the pop up window asking you if you want to save the message.

6. As you get more information, open the message in the drafts folder. Add to the body of the message. When it is completed, Send. [Alt + S]

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Remembering to Finish Interrupted Emails

If you have an unfinished Email or, have been interrupted while writing an Email, create a Task to remind you to complete and send the Message which, when linked back to smartphone, will give you a reminder as you move around in the day. It will prevent you from going home having forgotten to complete the email. 1. Open the Drafts box on the Navigation Pane.

2. Drag and drop the Message onto the Task bar on the Navigation Pane.

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3. Enter the date and pertinent details on the Task Form that opens automatically. The interrupted Email will appear on the from as an icon in the free text field. 4. Complete the Task Form to remind you to complete and send the Message. a. Start Date: Today. b. Reminder: So you do not forget. c. Priority: High. d. Click Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV] When you are able to complete the Message: 1. Double click on the Task and the form will open. 2. Double click on the Message icon in the text field. 3. Complete the reopened Message. 4. Click Send. Managing the Drafts Folder

Outlook automatically saves the email you are working on, into the Draft Folder. You do not have to worry about losing the draft if the power goes off. You can change the defaults of the Folder to better suit your work style. 1. Go to Tools > Options. 2. On the preferences tab choose Email Options.

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3. Click Advanced Email Options.

4. Choose which folder you want to AutoSave the email from, from the drop down menu. Change AutoSave time 1. In the AutoSave items every: XX minutes box, type a value from 1 to 99 minutes. We generally remember what we have done in the last three minutes. Therefore, we suggest 3 minutes as the time frame. 2. Click OK > OK > OK. The email message will be saved in your Draft Folder until you click Send. 98

Delete the Deleted

Hitting Delete does not actually delete an email but simply moves it to the ‘Deleted Items’ folder. As this folder will eventually contain thousands of irrelevant or outdated messages, it is a good idea to occasionally clear out completely. 1. Right click on the ‘Deleted Items’ folder and select Empty "Deleted Items" Folder from the contextual menu.

2. A dialogue box asks if you actually want to delete the mail you tried to delete months ago: press Yes.

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Create a Rule that Automatically Moves Specific Emails into Specific Folders

1. Select the email(s) to be moved.

2. Click Tools > Organize. [Alt + T + Z]

3. In the Ways to Organize Inbox window that pops up, select Other folder. 4. Choose a destination folder from the drop down list, or create a new one by going to Other folder.

5. Select Folder > New.

6. Give the Folder a name. 7. Click OK > OK. 8. Click the Move button. 100

Another method is: 1. Right click the email.

2. Select Move to Folder. [M]

3. Select the desired Folder or if there is not a suitable folder, create a new one as in Steps 5 and 6 in the previous section. 4. Click OK > OK. (Note: You can also use the ‘Rules and Alerts’ window to create the rule – see Manage Cc Mail.) See also Managing Automatic Responses Page 57.

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Manage Cc Mail

If an organization is very political and everyone is out to promote and/or protect themselves, this culture tends to generate a large amount of Cc mail. While other organizations can be very supportive, and although the volume is not as large as the political culture, there is still a reasonable amount of Cc mail being sent internally. Or conversely, you are involved in a project which requires a lot of collaboration amongst the team members so, there is a high level of Cc mail within the group. Often, this is just a courtesy to keep you up to date on information about a project or client situation. These do not always need to be read straight away but would need to be kept on file. You can create a rule that will automatically send the Cc mail to a specified Folder. In Mail view: 1. Click Tools > Rules and Alerts . [Alt + T + L] 2. In the Rules and Alerts dialogue box:

a. Click New Rule. [N]

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b. Select Start from a blank rule > Check messages when they arrive > Next.

c. Select where my name is in the Cc box > Next.

d. Move it to the specified folder > Step 2: Edit the rule description (click an underlined value) > Click the underlined word specified in lower pane.

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e. Choose the folder required from the Rules and Alerts Box. If you have not got a folder called Cc Mail, then create it > Click New > Name it Cc Mail. The Specified Folder in the lower pane now reads Cc Mail. f. Click Next.

g. Select except if sent only to me > Next.

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h. Type a name for the Rule. i. Select the required option from the Step 2: Setup rule options. j. Click Finish. When Someone Else Handles your Email

If a Personal Assistant handles your email – deleting junk, responding to some and forwarding some to other recipients, these the following symbols show you which action has been taken with the items that remain in your Inbox. This email has been replied to. This email has been forwarded. 105

To see the details of replies, right click on the blue bar at the top of the Email where it says “You Replied on..."

You will get a box that says “Find related messages”.

An Advanced Find window will open showing all the messages related to this Email.

You are also given the option from a drop down menu of finding other related items to the Email. 106

Delivery/Read Delivery/Read Receipts (for Receipts Individual (for Messages)

You have sent an important Email and not received an answer and when querying with the recipients, they deny having received any such Email. It is only your word against theirs. To ensure that your Email is not ignored, you can request the recipient to acknowledge the Email and, in this way, you will be able to see if it has been delivered, and/or read. (This works only if you are on a Microsoft Exchange Server.) With the Message open: 1.

Click the Options tab.

2.

Tick the box for Request a Delivery Receipt and/ or Request a Read Receipt. [Alt + P + U] for Request a Delivery Receipt or [Alt + P + Q] for Request a Read Receipt.

3.

Click the Direct Replies To button if the replies are not to be returned to the originating email address. [Alt + P + I]

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4. A window with further options will appear. Fill in these if required.

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Set up Auto-Reply (for When you are not Available)

When you’re on a Microsoft Exchange Server, you can set Outlook to send an automatic reply to any emails from anyone else. This is helpful for letting people know you’re out of the office for a few hours, or that you’re sailing around the world and will be gone for a while.

1. Click Tools > Out of Office Assistant > Choose the relevant In or Out of the Office button. 2. Type your Out of the Office explanation in the AutoReply box > OK. This works fine for a simple message. However, Microsoft has two Out of Office Reply templates. One formal and the other informal. Once they are saved onto your computer, you may use these to reply. Or you can create your own Template. 1. As Step 1 above. 2. Click the Add Rule button.

3. Choose from the options of From…, Sent To…., Sent Directly to me…., Copied (Cc) to me…. 109

If you want the rule to only apply to a small set of contacts, you can add contacts or a contact list by clicking on the From button and selecting them there. If you want the rule to apply to any incoming email, then select a combination of both Sent directly to me and Copied (Cc) to me. You can choose different actions to take for this rule. For instance, if the message is coming from your boss or an important client, you might want to have the message forwarded to another account, such as your mobile. Or you might want to have it reply with a different template. In this example I just chose to have them sent to my Inbox folder. When you are done click on OK > You can then add another rule if you want to, just remember that the first matching rule in the list will be executed, but the rest of the matching rules will be executed if you do not check the “Do not process subsequent rules” option. (Notice the options to move the rules up and down in the last screen.)

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How to Emulate the Out of Office Assistant in Microsoft Outlook

You are not connected to an Exchange server? You can not use the Out of Office Assistant? Do not worry. There is a way around this, by setting a rule. Open a new Outlook Message or an Out of Office Template. 1. Complete the information needed on the message. 2. Click the Save As button. [Alt + F + A]

3. In the dialogue box, select the Outlook Template option. 4. Type a name for your Template > Click Save. 5. Click Tools > Rules and Alerts. [Alt + T + L]

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6. Click New Rule. [N]

7. In the Start from a blank rule area. 8. Click Check messages when they arrive > Next.

9. Select sent only to me.

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10. Select reply using a specific template.

11. Under Step 2: Edit the rule description, click the underlined phrase reply using a specific template. 12. In the Select a Reply Template box click on the down arrow beside the Look In box.

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13. Select User Templates in File System.

14. From the Files on display, choose the Template that you saved in Step 4 > Open. 15. The link to the file will appear in the lower pane of the box > Next. 16. Complete the Wizard instructions > Finish > OK. This will work while your computer is on. It will send out an automated reply once only to contacts. However, when the computer is stopped and restarted, Outlook will not remember who has been sent the reply and will resend it if you have a new message from a contact. (Note: Outlook 2007 must be running and configured to check periodically for new messages.)

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Managing Junk Email

Junk email is the scourge of computers. Even if your company has a procedure in place to manage junk, you still need to be able to eliminate the ones that slip through. DO NOT OPEN any email unless you know where it has originated from. They often contain Viruses. 1. When you receive a junk email, right click on it and choose Junk from the contextual menu.

2. Choose Add Sender to Blocked Senders List to block any more arriving from the same source. Or: [Alt + H + J + B] Select email and use this shortcut. These 4 keys will complete all the steps above. While email screening is usually good at removing only unwanted emails, the rules that control how Junk Mail is treated sometimes means that important emails may not go to your Inbox but are directed to your Junk Mail Folder. It pays to check this folder on a regular basis, especially if an email you are waiting for does not seem to have arrived. 115

Manage Virus-contaminated Emails

Many hours of productive work time have been lost through careless handling of Virus-Contaminated Emails. Whole corporate systems have crashed or had down time caused by them. The person who activated the virus is very unpopular with their colleagues. If you follow simple rules, this need not happen and you will be able to continue with your work. Prevent contaminated emails entering your computer automatically:

View > AutoPreview. Unclick this option to prevent your computer from opening messages automatically. If a suspect Email arrives or if you do not know who the sender is and think that it could be malicious, it is wise to delete the Email without opening it. Remove Email without it touching your hard drive: 1. Click the Email. 2. Hold Shift and press Delete. [Shift + D]

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To prevent repeat appearances of Emails from a source you do not want:

1. Right click the message without opening it. 2. Select Junk Email. 3. Add Sender to Blocked Senders List > OK.

If you have already opened it, click the Block Sender button.

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Backing up Important Emails

Many corporations allow a restricted volume of emails to sit on their servers. This may be suitable for most run of the mill emails, but what happens when you need to refer to an email that arrived a month or even a year ago and it has fallen off the list. Microsoft has an add-in program which will allow you to automatically back up your emails onto your own computer for further reference. Outlook 2007/2003/2002 Addin: Personal Folders Backup creates backup copies of your Outlook .pst files for Outlook 2007, 2003 and 2002, keeping the files safely backed up. You can choose which of your .pst folders you want backed up and the frequency you want to do this. 1. Download the program from the Microsoft downloads page. 2. Once you have installed this download you may need to restart your computer. 3. Start Outlook. The back up command will appear on the Add-Ins tab. For it to work properly you need to make registry changes so I do not always recommend it. Much easier to export the .pst file to a stick or external drive, then open it as an additional Personal Folder. (Opens below the Archive Folder.) To open backed up .pst Data File: If you have not a Personal Outlook Folder open, open one.

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1. On the File menu, choose Backup. [Alt + F + B]

2. To change the backup options, such as which .pst files to back up, click Options.

3. Choose the time period you want to be reminded to backup. Select the folders you need to back up. See following steps for places that you can back up your files to. 4. Browse to select the destination folder > OK.

5. Save a back up. 6. You will get a message box telling you that when you exit Outlook, your files will be automatically backed up.

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(Note: Personal Folders Backup only backs up .pst files. If you have a Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox, your server mailbox folders are likely backed up regularly by your server administrator.) If you are unable to download this program because of your organization’s IT management practice, there is another way to back up your files. Your Personal store (.pst) file can be opened, closed, moved or copied just as other files can. There are two types of Personal store files – Personal Folders (Personal Folders.pst) or Archive Folders (Archive.pst). 1. To find messages stored in a .pst file, open Personal Folders or Archive Folders on the Navigation Pane, by clicking the plus sign. 2. If the file wanted is not under either of these folders, you will have to open the .pst file.

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3. Go to File > Data File Management. [Alt + F + D]

4. Select data file and click Open Folder. [Alt + O] 5. Then close Outlook.

The Explorer Window will stay open with the files showing. (If you do not use this method you will get annoying messages saying that you cannot open the file.)

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6. Right click the file > Copy.

7. Navigate to the destination folder. You can copy to a CD > Paste. If you copy to a CD, you would later need to copy the file back to the computer as Outlook will not read a CD.

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Making your emails look as professional as you are

T

he most common, and tempting, way of replying to an email is to simply click on Reply. A form pops up containing the received message, and it is already addressed to the sender. All you have to do is type a response and click on Send. Easy peazy.

Using Reply is ideal for conducting back-and-forth discussions, between two or more people, where it is an advantage to keep all threads of the conversation together. Think of it as a more convenient electronic version of the old-fashioned paper trail. For a standard response however, constantly receiving your own emails back for no apparent reason, can be irritating. This is the default – however, you have several other choices.

Go to File > Options > Mail [Alt + F + T] to see the options. You can turn off the automatic inclusion of the original message or change how they appear. It is simple to change it back again on the rare occasions when you need it. Better still, use Home > New Email [Ctrl + N] and reply with a 124

new email. Several points are worth emphasising. Always fill out the Subject line You have no guarantee that the recipient is not overwhelmed by an Inbox containing thousands of unsorted emails. Since the highlighted typeface which visually draws your attention to a new email vanishes once it is been opened, but not necessarily read, your message can easily disappear into a long list where it becomes easy to overlook or near impossible to find. Unless you give your email a clear and pertinent subject line that jumps out from the rest, you only add to the difficulty. Cc and Bcc When you send a FYI copy of an email to someone other than the main recipient, think for a moment before using Cc (Carbon Copy). This option includes all the names and email addresses of everyone you send it to. Clearly, if you do not want all recipients to know who you’re keeping in the loop (perhaps because of client sensitivities), this is not a good idea. Nor is it a good idea if, for example, industry politics requires keeping liaison with someone who Productivity Tip: Add the Options button to your Quick Start toolbar. Then click on this to bring the Outlook Options window up. Use this method for all of your commands that you uase regularly. Then you just click the button (or press Alt and the number) instead of navigating the Ribbons.

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works for a competitor, and who should not be handed a direct pipeline to your clients. In these cases, simply select the Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) [Alt + P + B] option to hide the list of those receiving a copy.   Move Emails out of your Inbox immediately as you deal with them. This helps you avoid having to deal with them more than once. Any emails you write, plus the replies to emails you have sent automatically appear in your Sent Items folder, which you can organize any way you like (the same way you organize received mail, using sub-folders: alphabetically, numerically, by client or by category). When you reply to an email, however, the version you received (i.e. before you added your reply) remains in your Inbox and you have multiple versions. Move it – before you get diverted into doing something else and forget.

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Recall and/or Replace Emails

We have all sent an unfinished Email by mistake, sent one to the wrong person, or impulsively sent one we instantly regretted. Or, you found that you failed to add an attachment. When you and the recipient both use a Microsoft Exchange Server Email account (and if this feature is not blocked by Outlook Tracking Options) you can get the Email back, or exchange it for another message – right up to the moment the recipient opens it. With the message to be recalled or replaced open (Sent items folder): 1. On the Message tab, in the Move group, click Other Actions. [Alt + H + A]

2. Select Recall This Message. [Alt + H + X + T]

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3. Click the Radio button for Delete unread copies of this message or Delete unread copies of this message and replace with a new message.

4. Check the box to confirm the recall has succeeded. 5. Or after 'Step 1' you can select Edit Message. [Alt + H + X + E]

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Adding Signatures to your Emails Do not you get tired of doing the same thing every time you finish/end an email? You can get Outlook 2007 to do some of this work for you. One of these things is the signing of your email with all the necessary details. You can do it by Auto text, or you can tell Outlook to put these details in automatically. Once you have set it up, leave the program to do the work. 1. Go to Tools > Options.

2. On the Mail Format tab, select the Signature button.

3. Click the New button.

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4. Enter your name in the pop up box > Click OK.

5. Select the font for your Signature.

6. Enter any details required in the Edit Signature text box. 7. Click on the Insert Business Card button.

8. Select the business card.

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9. Click OK > The Business card will now appear under any of your Signatures on email messages. 10. If you also want the company logo, click on the picture button and navigate until you find the logo picture > Insert. 11. Decide whether you want the Signature automatically added to only New Messages, Replies/Forwards, or both options. To do this, click the down arrow beside the boxes. Select the Signature name, or leave as is if you want it blank. 12. Click OK > OK.

Any subsequent emails will have the signature attached. Using a scanned image of your signature is not wise as people can copy it to use fraudulently. (Note: You can have multiple signatures with standard messages to save you typing or using Autotext. Right click in signature to change.)

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Creating a Business Card

Now that you have created a professional signature for your emails let us take time to create a professional business card contact. I will walk you through creating a card from scratch and then show you examples of pre-formatted templates available to download from Microsoft. 1. Open a New Contact Form. [Ctrl + Shift + C] 2. Enter your own details.

3. Click the Add Contact Picture icon. Navigate until you find the file and click OK. 4. Click Home page > Select Business Card button. [Alt + H + B ]

5. In the Edit Business Card box, you can change the Background Color, change the Text Alignment, change the Image, and many other changes to suit your taste. 132

Change Image

Label Button Fields Box

6. To change the font colors, click on the Fields in the box and then change the element by selecting it and then choosing the color.

7. E.g. if you want to change the Label (Work, Mobile, etc.), click on the box containing it and then click the Font Color icon and change. 8. You can add an image. Click on the Change image button and insert a photograph of yourself. Add or remove any fields that are needed.

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Add or remove fields: 1. To add fields click on one of the Blank Line Fields.

2. Click Add. A popup menu will appear giving you further options. 3. If you click on Organization you will get the options of Company, Department or Job Title. 4. Select the option required. 5. Type in the text in the Edit Box. 6. When you have finished creating the card, click OK.

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Electronic Business Card Templates

Microsoft has over 50 different E-Business Card templates. When downloaded, you can change the details for your own. 1. Open your Web Browser. (E.g. Internet Explorer) 2. Go to Microsoft Corporation/Office Templates/type in Outlook in the Template box/Click Search (http:// office.microsoft.com/en-au/templates/results. aspx?qu=outlook&av=TPL000).

3. Scroll down until you find the card that appeals to you. 4. Click on the Title of the Card. 5. Click the Download button.

6. Enter a File Name and Save. 135

7. Click Allow on the pop up box telling you that a website wants to open web content using this program.

8. A Contact Form will open with the Electronic Business Card. 9. Complete by changing the details to your own. 10. Enter a photo if desired. When you send your Electronic Business card to a contact, it will stand out among other cards. Here are some of the examples available.

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Delaying Sending Emails

Have you ever pressed the Send button and realised that you did not want to send the message, you have not completed it or that you have forgotten to insert the Attachment. It is possible to build in a delay of up to 120 minutes for every message sent. In Mail view: 1. Click Tools > Rules and Alerts. [Alt + T + L] 2. Click New Rule. [N]

3. Check messages after sending.

If you have not checked any boxes, you will get a window asking if you want this rule to apply to every message you want sent. 4. Click Next > Next. 5. Click Yes.

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6. Check defer delivery by a number of minutes. 7. In the lower pane, click the word number.

7. In the lower pane, click the word number.

8. Select the number of minutes. 9. Click OK > Finish > Apply > OK.

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Use HTML Formatting for Email

When you can spend a lot of time creating an Email for maximum impact, you do not want the layout to be altered when sending it. So, to prevent this happening, you need to ensure it is formatted as HTML. 1. If it does not say HTML on the Options tab. [Alt + P] 2. Press the HTML button. [Alt + H]

3. On the Message tab, choose type face, size and color from drop down lists. Sans Serif:

Verdana, Arial

Serif:

Times, Times New Roman

Monospaced:

Courier New

4. For a greater range of MS Office style options, explore the Format Text tab. [Alt + O]

• • • •

Type alignment. Bold, underline, italics. Spacing, borders, shading. Indents, numbers, and bulleted lists.

5. On the Options tab you will find a wide choice of preformatted backgrounds and themes, though these are not recommended for professional business communications. 139

Use Email Stationery

We do not dress and look like everyone else. We have our own style of appearance. The same applies to your Emails. You can personalise Outlook to a style that is unique to you. With the volume of emails coming through your Inbox daily, it is easy for a recipient to overlook an email that is nondescript. With Outlook 2007 you have a choice of themes and HTML format that allows you to create your own stationery, there is no excuse for bland emails. The only warning is that you do not use elements in your email that detract from your message. The message must be placed before the recipient in a way that grabs his/her attention. If it is lost in too many visual elements, it will be lost in the detail. Click Tools > Options > Mail Format tab. [Alt + T + O] Message Format:

Select Compose this message format: HTML. Stationery & Fonts:

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Select Font... 1. Click the Font button.

2. Choose a type (face, size, style, color) installed on most computers from the dialogue box.

3. Click the Theme button to choose a Theme for your email.

4. Scroll down to select Theme required.

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Themes: You may also select built in Themes from the Ribbon. 1. Click the Options tab. [Alt + P]

2. Choose one of the 5 options on the left of the Ribbon – Themes [Alt + TH], Colors [Alt + TC], Fonts [Alt + TF], Effects [Alt + TE], or Page Color [Alt + PC]. 3. Choose one of the Themes. (More are Available from Microsoft Online.)

4. Choose Colors.

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5. Choose Effects.

Background Color: Choose a Plain Color Background. Patterns and pictures can make emails difficult to read. 1. Click on the Page Color button. [Alt + PC]

2. Choose a color from the Standard Colors or click More Colors for extra options. [Alt + M]

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Creating and Saving Templates

For the following steps, make sure that your Email is sent in HTML Form. 1. Open a New Message Form.

2. Enter copy or Paste the standard text into the free text field. 3. If the Message contains the same words in the Subject line, then use them. (If the message is sent to the same people, you may fill in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields with the addresses as well.) 4. Click Save As.

5. Save as type: Select Outlook Template. The form will be saved as an .oft file.

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6. Give the Template a file name and take note of the folder in which the Template has been saved. 7. Close the new message and say NO for the changes. (Remove from the Draft or Outbox if you have Outlook configured to AutoSave.) Accessing and Using Templates

When you have created and saved Templates, you will want to access them quickly. You can use the method of saving your templates in a folder on your Navigation Pane, or you can set up a template Toolbar for quick access to the Template. Perhaps the quickest way to access the Templates you use frequently, is to have a readily available Folder on your Navigation Pane. Firstly you will need to create a Templates folder in your Navigation Bar. This will keep all your Templates together. You can also save them to a Template folder in Explorer Window. Then open or download a Template. For easy access to Templates via Template Toolbar: 1. Right click on the Outlook toolbar.

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2. Click Customize.

3. Click Toolbars > New. 4. Name the Tool Bar e.g. ‘My Template Toolbar’ > OK and Close.

5. Dock the Toolbar which appears floating on the screen. Add command button to a toolbar: 6. Right click the New Toolbar > Choose Customize.

7. In the Commands tab choose File > Mail Message.

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8. Drag and drop the Mail Message command button onto the new toolbar.

9. With the New Mail Message command button still selected on the new toolbar click Modify Selection. 10. Change the name of the command button to represent to the Template name, e.g. Meeting Agenda Template. 11. Select Text Only. 12. Click Assign Hyperlink > Open.

13. Navigate to the folder in which the Template has been stored > Select the file. 14. Click Close. The next time you want to open the template, click the button assigned to the template. You may get a Microsoft Office Outlook Security Notice window. As you know that you have created the Template, click Yes > Open. The Template will now be ready for you to complete and send. 147

Creating a menu on a toolbar: You can also group Templates and make a drop down menu with the Templates needed. 1. Create a Toolbar.

2. Customize > Commands tab > Scroll down the Commands window to find > New Menu. 3. Drag and Drop the New Menu button onto a Toolbar. 4. Repeat Steps 1 to 6 of Creating and Saving Templates. 5. Select Begin a Group. 6. Add command button

Accessing templates via Outlook forms: A further way to access Templates is available, particularly if your company has Templates created for companywide use to take cohesive company wide approach.

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1. Click Tools > Forms > Choose Form. [Alt + T + F + O]

2. Choose a selection from the drop down menu. Adapting Templates from other programmes: These steps can be used for Flyers, etc, as well as Memos. Most Word and Excel Templates can be copied to Outlook to make an Outlook Template. (Note: Turn off the automatic signature on the New email message form when you adapt the Templates as sometimes the Business Card and Signature will appear on the pasted form. You can add the signature and Business Card from the Insert tab.)

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Altering an Existing Template

Download a Template:

1. First locate and save existing template. In this example, we have chosen the Business Email Newsletter template found on the Microsoft site.

2. Download: A message form with the template will open. 3. Type in the title of the Template in the Subject box at the top of the form. 4. Save as per Saving a Template.

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5. Click on the Templates on your Navigation Bar. 6. With the Templates folder open, open the Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder in which the Template you have just created is filed.

7. Reduce the Explorer view until you can see Outlook behind it. 8. Select the Template and drag the Template to the Template window view in Outlook.

9. The Template will now appear in your Outlook Templates folder. 10. When needed, this Template can be opened and the details filled in > Send. Example Templates: Microsoft have made available many Templates for Publisher, including Email Templates. These are found online at www. microsoft.com/smallbusiness/office2007templates/. You have a choice of 6 styles in 9 color ways 151

Save a Pre-formatted Template

You may find that Outlook specific Templates do not give you the exact Template you want. Or you may want to unleash your creative instincts. Most Publisher, Word or Excel files can be transferred into Outlook Templates. 1. Choose the style desired from the Publisher email Templates. (Other Word and Excel Templates do not always copy correctly. To use these, send as an email from within the application. Remember to use the Microsoft Add In to save the file as a .pdf to reduce the size of the file and not incur the recipient’s wrath.) I will use a Publisher Newsletter for example.

2. Select All. [Ctrl + A] 3. Click Copy. [Ctrl + C] 4. Open a New Email Message Form.

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5. Click Paste. [Ctrl + V] 6. Alter standard text and format as desired. (Note: If you place the publication type of your Template first in the subject line, you can group them e.g. Letterhead.) 7. Save as per Creating and Saving templates, steps 2 - 5 Now assign the task of sending a Newsletter to all the members of your team updating them with the progress of the Project and encouraging them. Creating Invoices

While you may or may not have a financial system in your organization, there are times when you need to raise an invoice to either seek payment or as a pro forma so that someone can make a budget application. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Open a New Message Form. Enter any logo or letterhead graphic desired. Insert tab > Table > Excel > Spreadsheet. [Alt + N + T + X] Format the Excel spreadsheet as required. Save as a Template and drag and drop onto the Templates Folder. 153

Creating your own Templates

Creating your own Template will satisfy your creative instincts as well as tailoring the Template to suit your needs.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Open a New Message Form. Insert the header if required, or add one. Add logo and/or pictures. Choose your Font and Theme. Put in your contact details, including your Business Card and Signature.

6. Select Insert > Date and Time. [Alt + N + D] Choose the Format you require. 7. Click Update automatically when using in the future. 8. Repeat steps 3 to 7 of Creating and Saving a Template You can also take a basic Template and improve its appearance. 154

Postcards

If you are responsible for hiring/interviewing new staff, a standard Email Postcard or letter would be an efficient and tactful way of notifying hopeful applicants that: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Their résumé has been received. They are unqualified for the position. The position is closed. They have applied too late.

Clients will receive many Emails primarily for marketing purposes. The secret is to make your Email stand out from other emails with similar content. Create an Email Postcard or convert a Template (many are found on Microsoft's Template site) to an Email format. You can: 1. Get feedback. 2. Invite prospective and active clients to a new product unveiling. 3. Get Professional Services. Other Postcards: 1. Referral Postcard. 2. Special Offer Postcard. 3. Promotional Postcards.

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Newsletters

A newsletter should contain information and news about your organization’s products or services. Do not use it for advertising your organization as the content’s relevance and helpfulness will achieve that. This will ensure that your newsletters will be circulated to as many people as possible. Try and put in content that suggests that you care for their business and want to help them with new information or products. Focus on the customer not yourself. Use words like “you” instead of “I” or ‘We”. A suggested approach is to identify the audience needs, offer a solution and get them to do something about it (call to action). There are many newsletter templates available from Microsoft’s download centre. However, you can create your own using your business letterhead or logo. If you have not already created a Banner or Logo, do so now. 1. Insert tab > Picture. [Alt + N + P] Navigate the Explorer Window until you find the picture required. 2. Enlarge or reduce the Banner or Logo to the size required. Remember to format the letter to a standard screen. If you have a widescreen computer, the newsletter may display past your screen and cause the recipient to have to scroll to read the content. This can be annoying and a waste of time. 3. If you want more than one column, insert a table. [Alt + N + T] 4. Insert any other graphics needed. 5. Add any other content required. 156

6.

Save as a Template if you wish to use this or similar format for future newsletters.

(Note: Remember the more colorful and easily read a Newsletter is the more a recipient will be drawn to reading it. Make use of white space for ease of reading. In other words, do not have the newsletter so crammed with data that it runs together as this makes it hard for the eyes to take in the information.)

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Your to-do list is what you need to achieve

I

n general, people are said to be either list makers or they are not. If you’re not a habitual list maker, consider that our conscious mind deals with now, while our subconscious brains work in the background to keep everything running and solve problems without encroaching on the capacity of our conscious brain to deal with the present. When we are navigating a rush hour traffic jam, we do not consciously remember things like phone numbers, what we need to achieve today, or our dental appointment. These are stored in our subconscious, ready to pop into consciousness when we need to deal with them. It does not always work smoothly, of course. We all forget things at times, or remember them too late, especially when we are under pressure. With thousands of details to remember about meetings, agendas and deadlines, it is easy and almost inevitable that we slip-up occasionally unless we have some type of organized reminder system. Think of it as being similar to keeping multiple documents open on your computer so you can refer to them occasionally while you work. These sit in the background, invisible behind the active document, but they all hog computer memory that cannot be used for anything else, and there is always a limit. No matter how clever we are, or how good our memory is, filling up our subconscious with little alarm clocks for everything we need to do means that we occupy brain capacity with the type of routine memory chores that computers handle better than we do. 159

Worse, using our memory this way, hogs the very resources that our subconscious uses to solve problems in the background. How often, for example, have you come up with a solution to a difficult or complex problem when it was first explained to you? Not very often. How much more often has a solution popped into your consciousness while blobbing out on your recliner, singing in the shower, and thinking about something else entirely? Or while you’re up a ladder, painting; while playing golf; or the next day? These are examples of how you can exploit the way your subconscious never stops tossing things around as it files data away for later recall, endlessly sifting through everything you know as it looks for connections that make the filing process simpler and/or makes sense of your current preoccupations. At some stage in the tireless trial-fitting of one piece of data against another, bingo, two pieces you would never consciously connect are turned upside down or backwards and suddenly fit together in an entirely new way. When the light bulb flashes on, we may sit bolt upright in bed at night; our conscious brains may need to flesh out the details, and work through all the implications and ramifications, but the solution itself magically pops into our conscious brains fully formed, without us having any conscious idea of how it actually got there.

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Create a Task

In Task view: Method 1:

1.

Click the New Button or double click in blue bar below menu bars with the words Click here to add a new Task.

Method 2: Although we do not have control over the subconscious thoughts that pop into our heads, we do know if we do not write them down then and there, they will drift off and be lost forever. However, it can be even more annoying to leave what you are doing and, have to navigate to your Task Pad to capture it, and then to get back to where you are working. All of that is changed by using the following shortcut keys. When you have finished setting up the Task to capture the thought, Save and Close will return you back to where you are working. In any view, press [Ctrl + Shift + K], this is especially handy if you are writing an email, setting up an Appointment, entering Journal notes or any other activity in Outlook. You can move to a Task Form without leaving the view that you are in.

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In this dialogue box, fill out the following (some columns may have symbols to access options): Subject: Name the objective.

Due Date/Start Date: Click these fields to bring up a Date Navigator. Click the left/right arrows to change the month; click any day to select it.

Status: Click the down arrow and choose from the drop down list.

Priority: Choose Low, Normal or High from the drop down list. % Complete: Use up/down arrows for 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, or select the number and overtype any value you wish. 162

Reminder: To turn on the computer reminder, click the box so a tick appears. Click the date arrow for a Date Navigator. Click the time arrow for a scroll list of warning times.

To change the reminder sound, click the speaker symbol then Browse, and navigate to a folder where you have an alternative. Owner: Generally, this is the name of whoever sets up the task. It is most useful when you delegate tasks to someone else. Contacts: In Outlook 2003, you had an option of linking Contacts you may need to consult or email, to a Task as it progresses. In Outlook 2007 this is not the default option. However, you may add this to your form and make it the default. 1. Click Tools > Options > Contact Options. [Alt + T + O + O]

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2. Click the box beside Show Contact Linking on all Forms. 3. Click OK > OK. The Contact box will now appear on the bottom of the Task, Appointment, Contact, and Task Request Forms. 4. Select names from your address book of people who you may need to contact as you proceed with the task.

Categories: Clicking the Categorize button [Alt + H + G] will bring up a drop down menu of Categories. These can be edited to reflect your KRA’s. Private: You may not wish others to have access to a Task which is personal or commercially sensitive. [Alt + H + V] (Home > Private) will mark the Task as Private. 1. Type any notes about the task in the text field. 2. Click Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV]

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Create a Task with Documents Attached

It is possible to create a Task to remind you that you need to read or complete a document by a due date. To do this, find the document in the Windows Explorer Window:

1. With both Outlook and the Explorer Window open, drag the document onto the Task icon on the Navigation Pane in Outlook.

2. A New Task Form opens with the subject line filled in and an icon in the text field for the document attached. 3. Complete the details for when you want the Task to be due. 4. Click Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV] 5. Deal with the Task as normal. 165

Create a Recurring Task

The more we use our brain for thinking and less for remembering, the more capacity our brain has available for working with the now. Conversely, the more you use your brain for remembering, the less capacity you have. So let us get Outlook to remind you of the things that recur across the week, month or year. Here is a personal one, how many times have you forgotten that birthday or anniversary? Outlook will save you the embarrassment of not turning up with the appropriate present or card for that important person in your life. A typical business situation is the fortnightly report or financial statement, which you keep forgetting about, and then have the last minute panic, which does nothing for your health or your professional look. 1. Create the Task. 2. Click the Recurrence button.

3. Select a Recurrence pattern (Weekly, Monthly, etc.) and Recurrence details. 4. Click OK. 5. Click Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV] 166

Create a Regenerating Task

You do not want an automated reminder system which ends up creating its own clutter on your Task List. As an example, if you have created a weekly recurring task, that was not completed last week (due to illness or holiday), you do not want all the uncompleted Tasks stacking up. This becomes electronic nagging to which you ultimately stop responding. To overcome this create a Regenerating Task. This Task is not dependant on an event date. Instead, the next Task occurs only when you mark the previous task as completed. This keeps your To-Do Bar uncluttered as only the next or overdue Task is displayed. Regenerated Tasks are good for goal reviews or building habits. If you have Recurring Tasks and miss one, you will not see all the Recurring Tasks on your To-Do Bar. You will only see the Overdue Task. As a personal example, you create a Task to occur each Tuesday and Friday to remind you to water a friend’s plants while she is away. This works fine for the first 3 times and then you do not make it one Tuesday. It now shows as an overdue task and the next open Task. If it had been created as a Task that generates every 3 days, then as one watering is completed, the next Task would be queued for three days out.

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To Create a Regenerated Task: 1. Click New [Ctrl + Shift + K] to start a New Task. 2. Fill in the Subject. 3. Click the Recurrence button. [Alt + H + E]

4. Set the radio button for your Recurrence pattern. (This will be the duration between Tasks – Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly.) 5. Click the Regenerate new task radio button. 6. Enter a number in the text box. 7. Set your start date for the Task. 8. Select a radio button for the recurrence – No End date, End after, or an End date > OK. 9. Complete filling in the form with any additional details needed. 10. Click Save and Close. [Alt + H + AV]

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Create a Task Request

If you are working on a project or meeting agenda and, realise that you need someone else to do something or gather further information, you can create a Task Request without leaving the view that you are in. As a manager you are measured by the work output of your team. The better you are at delegating to your people the more they’ll produce and the higher the output. The art of delegation is about letting go but keeping control. Microsoft Outlook Tasks is a very good way of delegating (letting go) but having control through a record of time, date, place of when you delegate and know in real time when the Task has been accepted and complete. 1. Right click a vacant line in To-Do List. 2. Open New Task Request. [Ctrl + Shift + U]. This will bring up a Task Form that already has the email format for sending a Task to someone.

3. Fill in the details as for a normal Task. 4. Click Send. [Alt + S]

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Delegate a Task

You may be in the process of creating a Task when you realise that another person would be more qualified or have more time to complete the Task. You can assign the task without closing the Task Form. 1. Create a New Task. [Ctrl + Shift + U or K] 2. Click the Assign Task button.

3. Click the To button > Insert the recipient’s name. 4. Complete the details.

You also have a new button. Cancel Assignment. This must be used before the Task is sent. If you have set up the process of delaying an email for a selected amount of time, you will be able to delete the Assignment from the Outbox. Once the Assignment has left the Outbox, it is unable to be cancelled.

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Respond to a Task Request

1. Open the email containing the request. 2. Select Accept or Decline, and your preferred reply. [Alt + H + AC or N]

3. If you Accept, open the Task (Task Pad/Master Task List) and modify details (Priority, Categories, Comments) to your needs.

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Record a Task as Completed

In TaskPad or Master Task List view: 1. Click the Complete column. (Square icon)

Marking several Tasks as completed. 2. Click the first Task you want to mark. 3. Hold down the Ctrl key and click each of the other Tasks you want to mark. 4. Right click one of the Tasks you selected.

5. Click the Mark Complete button on the Ribbon. [Alt + H + C1]

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Send a Status Report

1. Open the Task.

2. On the Manage Task Group, click the Send Status Report button. [Alt + H + O1] 3. Enter recipient names. If the Task is assigned to you, then the names of the people to be updated are added automatically. 4. In the body of the message, type any information needed to be included in the Status Report. 5. Click Send. [Alt + S] Delete a Task

In Task Pad or Master Task List view: Right click the Task and click the Remove from List on the Ribbon [Alt + H + RL]. Or select task and press [Shift + Delete] > Click Yes.

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Create an Appointment, Contact or Email from a Task

In Task view: Method 1: 1. Click the Task and drag to the Calendar icon folder. Continue to hold the left button down.

2. Drag the Task to the planned date on the Date Navigator on the To-Do Bar. An Appointment Form, will open. When you take your finger off the mouse, task details are copied to the text field. 3. To create a Contact or an Email: Click the Task and drag the cursor symbol to the Contact or Email icon folder. When you take your finger off the mouse, Task details are copied to the text field. Method 2: If you have been sent a Task and want to create an Appointment or a Contact from the email containing the task: In Mail view: 1. Right click the email. 174

2. Move. If the folder required is on the fly out menu, select. If not choose Other Folder.

3. Contacts or Calendar. (Whichever is required.)

A new form is opened with many of the details entered from the Task. An icon will appear showing the Task now attached or whether it has been accepted. Double clicking on the icon will open the attached Task Form.

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Have Tasks Appear on the Days You Want to Work on Them

The default View is for the Task List to be displayed below the Calendar. In the Day and Week view, the Task List will be displayed. In the Month view, it will not be displayed. You can minimise the Task List from the bottom of the Calendar by clicking on the double down arrows on the Field Header bar below the Calendar. However, as the Task List doubles up on your To-Do Bar, it is simply easier to remove it from the view. This will give you more room on the screen for your Calendar. 1. Go to View > Daily Task List > Off. [Alt + V + K + O] Outlook allows you to make your Tasks and Calendar resemble a Paper Diary.

In Calendar view: 1. To change the Calendar View to include the To-Do Bar: View > To-Do Bar > Normal. The To-Do Bar will appear on the right.

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2. To change the number of months displayed on the To-Do Bar: View > To-Do Bar > Options > Show Date Navigator > Number of month rows. Change to required number. The Task headings will be displayed as they appear on your Task List view.



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Active Tasks for Selected Days

When we are overwhelmed, we do not operate at our best. To prevent this happening, you need to create the mental environment of “The strength to achieve the things I can and accept the things I can not.” We achieve this by only having the things we need to work on - being aware of Tasks appearing on the day or week that they need to be attended to, while still maintaining a record of all of the other tasks needed to be done in the future. We achieve this by just having what we need to attend to now appearing on the To-Do List. 1. Right click on the Header bar of the Task List on the ToDo Bar > Select Due Date.

The Tasks will now be shown by the date they are due. However, they are not organized according to the ones that need to be done first. You are able to do this by customizing the Due Date criteria. 2. Right click again on the header bar and choose Custom from the contextual menu.

3. Click Filter.

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4. Click Field > Date/Time fields > Due Date.

5. Click the Advanced tab. 6. Change the Condition to on or before.

7. Change the value by typing in Today > Add to List.

8. Click OK. The Tasks will now appear in order of due date allowing you to work through the list in order of importance. 179

Customize your Master Task List View

In Outlook 2007, the Task List has become the To-Do List. Any Tasks placed on this list will appear on your To-Do Bar. 1. When you open your To-Do List, you need some useful headings and columns. In my experience, the most useful are: • Due Date • KRA • Status • Created • To-Do • Date Completed • % Complete

Set yours up this way to begin with, and change it when you discover something that suits you better. 2. Click the Due Date heading and drag it to the left of the Task Subject heading.

3. Right click on the Task Subject heading and choose Format Columns from the contextual menu.

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4. In the pop-up box, change the heading from Task Subject to To-Do.

5. To add the remainder of the headings, right click on the blue bar again and choose Field Chooser from the contextual menu.

6. In the contextual menu that appears, select All Task Fields.

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7. Click on the headings that appear on the list, and drag them to the To-Do Bar.

8. For other headings (like KRA), use the Field Chooser menu, select Categories, and change text the way you changed the Task Subject heading. 9. To remove an unwanted heading, click on it until it turns black, then drag it off the row (up or down). When a black ‘X’ appears, release the mouse and it vanishes.

When you finish adding Headings, you may need to resize the columns. Place your cursor on the vertical dividing line between columns. When the double-sided arrow appears, drag the line to your preferred position.

Before (above) and after (below):

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Picking a Color for Completed or Overdue Tasks

You may not like Outlook’s choice of colors for overdue or completed tasks, you can customize these as well. 1. Click Tools > Options. [Alt + T + O]

2. Click Task Options on the Preference tab.

3. Select the colors from the drop down menus. For default reminders on tasks, select or deselect the check box Set reminders on tasks with due dates.

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Contacts are the lifeblood of any effective individual or organization

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o matter what your qualifications, title or role in an organization, the simple fact is that everyone is in sales. This is true even if you have no direct contact with clients at all: the way you answer a phone, prepare an invoice, progress paperwork, fix a part – everything you do either adds to, or detracts from, the value of the goods and/or services that your organization supplies. What is more, it is not the products and services your organization sells that keeps it in business. These days, it is very rare for anyone to come up with a competitive edge that cannot be replicated in a very short time, so the reality is that your clients and customers can source almost exactly the same product or service, at pretty much the same price, from any of your competitors. In other words, the only true and lasting advantage of any organization in a commercial or service environment is the organization itself. Are you and the people you work with better or more enjoyable to deal with than the other crowd? People with ‘sales’ in their titles may convince prospective customers to give you a try (the first sale) but the way in which the organization as a whole delivers is what makes a second sale either a no brainer or a forlorn hope. The most effective way to be, and be seen as, a full contributor to the process of adding value to the customer, is to know the people you deal with better than anyone else who they happen 185

to deal with. In Direct Response advertising, there is a saying “whoever has the best database wins,” and it is perfectly true: when you deal with someone who remembers your first name, or remembers that you have two children at primary school, you cannot help feeling better toward them, as though they care about you and your needs. With Outlook, you can record every scrap of information you learn about someone, and have it on hand when you talk to or email them, without ever cluttering your mind by having to remember it all. You undoubtedly have some means of keeping track of all the people you deal with, like a rollodex file or special pages in the back of a diary – business associates, staff and personal acquaintances. However, no manual system is truly adequate as there are always people who do not quite fit into prepared spaces. There is usually a lot of twink when they change address, title or phone number. What is more, there is seldom enough space to put notations beside their names, so you end up with odd bits of paper or a brain cluttered with details. This can be particularly true with clients and suppliers: which are creditworthy; which are impressed when you remember the name(s) of their children, subordinates or events in their lives. And if you have multiple dealings with people in the same company, you end up with multiple names and contacts. The information you can collect using Outlook Contacts is much more flexible, and your dealings with Contacts are always at your fingertips because you c an keep Journals and have associated files for fast access. When you click on Address Book, you get an alphabetical list of names and contact details. However, you can store a lot more useful information than this. 186

Collaboration

It is useful to be able to communicate instantly with a team member or a person who is working with you or on a project. If the team member or person is on the same Exchange Server and you have permission to share their calendar, this is not a problem. However, if the person is not on your Exchange Server, you can work around this by using an Instant Message Service. Message servers include Windows Live Messenger and the Office Communicator. You can also use Windows Live Hotmail and other companies such as Yahoo, etc. If you and the other person have the same Instant Message Service set up, you will be able to connect in real time. When you receive an email, you will be able to tell straight away if they are available. A visual representation of your contact's availability will appear beside their name when the message appears in your Reading Pane. If they are online and available, you can open the Instant Message program and type in your message. The reply could be instantaneous saving valuable time. You will also be able to hold a complete conversation without having to go to a phone. This could be particularly important if you need to see details visually.

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Create a New Contact

An obvious reason why you would open a new Contact record is to have all the contact details of a person in one place for quick reference. Also, the Contact record has a lot of functionality that is helpful to manage a relationship with the person. Conversely, this functionality can be applied to a person and/or another identity. In other words, the Contact record can equally deal with a person or an entity That entity can come in many forms such as a project, a business opportunity, or a problem that requires a certain outcome. Before any of this can happen, you need to create a new Contact with all the relevant information. In Contact view:

Click New > Contact OR

Click File > New > Contact. [Ctrl + N] You do not have to be in the Contact view to create a New Contact. This is useful if you are working in another Outlook view and you are interrupted by a phone call or another person giving you the details of a New Contact.

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In any view: 1. [Ctrl + Shift + C] An empty Contact Form opens with the ‘Contact’ tab preselected. It is a good idea to fill out as many details as you can. More information about the people you deal with always helps you to deal with them better.

Click the buttons, as shown above, to bring up the dialogue boxes for detailed recording of names and phone numbers. Enter country and area codes so Outlook can synchronise with smart phones, and so you can call home when you’re overseas.

Click on the down arrows for drop down options like this. 189

Click on the down arrows for drop down options like this.

Click here to add a photograph. Click here to select an email address from the address book. Pay particular attention to: File as: Be consistent in the way you name and file any documents, not just Contacts. Display as: Privacy may require a change of details. Categories: Select the one that best reflects the nature of the relationship. In the next section, we’ll talk about setting up more useful categories than the default ones. Text field: Enter brief details of the business relationship and likely opportunities. Include future activities or opportunities you would like to pursue with the Contact at a later date. If the Contact is a reportee, use this field for non-sensitive HR notes.

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1. Details button (Alt + H + T) has fields for recording information that is more personal than you need for making contact by phone, email, snail mail or courier.

2. Activities button [Alt + H + AZ] keeps an automatic record of all your dealings with the Outlook Contact. This includes sent or received emails. Sort using the drop down box options. 3. Certificates button form refers to digital ID’s and Encrypted mail to the Contact. You can get a certificate by receiving digital signed mail from the Contact or by importing a certificate file for the Contact. 4. All Fields button [Alt + H + AE] is essentially a sorting routine that allows you to present the information in a variety of ways.

5. Click Save and Close. [Alt + S] 191

Create a Contact from an Email

While working with a computer requires the pressing of keys to enter data, if someone has already entered that data, you save a lot of time by using their data entry. Some people have, at the bottom of their emails, their job title and contact details. By using the drag and drop functionality, you can create a new Contact and have a lot of the data, such as Email address and person’s name, automatically entered on the form with the other details appearing on the free text field. When they have all their other details at the bottom of the Email, all you have to do is cut and paste or drag and drop each item from the free text box onto the appropriate Contact field. In Mail view: 1. Click and drag the Email to the Contact icon on the bottom of the Navigation Pane.

2. The New Contact Form will open with details that are already entered in the email. It will also include the original message as an icon in the Text Field. To open this, double click the Icon.

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3. Cut and paste or drag and drop the sender’s details into the relevant fields of the Contact, such as their job title, company name, phone numbers and address, if they are available. Using this method will ensure there are no typos. 4. Now delete the icon for the Email from the Contact freetext field unless required. Save e-Business Card to Contacts

1. Open the email you have received and double click on the attachment (labelled as a vCard).

Or right click the Business Card in the text field. 2. Click on the Add to Outlook Contacts. This opens a new Contact form with the vCard details transferred into the New Contact Form.

3. Add any extra information you need. 4. Click Save and Close. [Alt +S]

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View a Map of a Contact’s Physical Address/Location

You have an appointment with a new client and, you need to travel to an area unfamiliar to you. The map that is always in your car has gone missing. You are directionally challenged so that any instructions from colleagues will be useless. Just before you rush out of the office door: 1. Click the Map It button. (Found in the Addresses section of the form.)

2.

Print map.

(Note: This is assuming you are on Broadband or a Server.)

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Make Common Changes to Multiple Contacts

Organizations tend to change their physical address and/or their phone technology, which means you have to update your records. To change details across multiple contacts: In Contacts view: 1. Click View > Arrange By > Customize View.

2. Click Group By.

3. Click Clear All to remove the existing item grouping.

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4. Group items by > select the item you want to change. In this example, select Business Phone.

5. From the Expand/collapse defaults list, select All collapsed > OK > OK.

6. Choose any contacts in the group/company and double click the contact. Change the Business Phone to the new number > Save and Close. [Alt + S]

7. Select all the unchanged contacts > drag and drop to the new contact group. The numbers in the original group will now be changed to the new number. 196

Use Contacts to Create a Word Mail Merge Document

You may already know how to use Microsoft Word to create merge documents. Here is how to create them using Outlook Contacts. With Word open: 1. Select the Mailings tab > Start Mail Merge > Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard. [Alt + M + S + W]

2. Follow the on-screen instructions of the 9-step Mail Merge Wizard to select a document type, starting document and recipients; write and preview your letter; and complete the merge.

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2

3

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Create Multiple Contacts from the Same Organization

So you have come back from a meeting with a client and you have several business cards for which you want to create contact records and you do not want to retype all the common information of company name, address, etc. Method 1: 1. Open a Contact from the organization. Use this as a template. 2. Click the down arrow beside Save and New. [Alt + H + AW] 3. Click New Contact from Same Company.

4. Click Save and Close. [Alt + S] Method 2: (Note: This is the best method for creating an additional Contacts from an existing client.) In Contact view: 1. Click on a Contact from the same company for which you want the New Contact.

2. Select Actions > New Contact from Same Company. [Alt + A + C] 3. A New Contact Form will open with all the company details already entered. Fill in the name and other details required. 4. Click Save and Close. [Alt + S] 199

Customize your Contact View

There are many ways you can view Contacts, which are defined by the way you choose to group them. Such as Business Cards, Address Cards, etc.

For simplicity or to fit more Contacts on your monitor, click the radio button on the Navigation Pane for the grouping you require. A very good tool to interact in different ways with your contacts is the Group By Functionality which can be applied to By Company, By Category, or By Location (geographical). In business, when you have a relationship with the organization and the associated people, you need to use the Current View of By Company or By Category. Category is used to sort the contacts into groups such as suppliers or a market segment with which you want to communicate differently. This arranges your Contacts in a format not dissimilar to a filing 200

cabinet where, you have a folder for each company and within the folder, there is a file for each person. The convenience of a filing cabinet is how it lays out the company names in alphabetical order so that you can quickly go to the required company and pull out the file you want to work with. Outlook can duplicate this by using the following steps. The grouping you will probably use the most is by Company. In the By Company View you need to condense the list of Contacts to show just the Company/Organization name without all of the individual contacts that sit under the Company/ Organization names. Otherwise you will have to scroll down through too long a list to get to the Contact you want to work with. 1. You can achieve this by clicking the By Company radio button on the Navigation Pane on the left of the screen.

View showing the Company/Organization Contacts in an expanded manner.

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2. Right click on the Company header. From the contextual menu, select Collapse All Groups.

When you choose Collapse All Groups, each organization or category is listed, and the number of individual Contacts for each one is not shown. To see an individual Contact, double click a Company/Organization or category, or click the ± sign to toggle expansion on/off. To temporarily change between views: Repeat step 2 and then choose Expand All Groups.

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Expand or Collapse Contacts View

When looking for a certain person or organization within a long list it can take time to navigate through. If you shrink the list to just the headings, you can move to the appropriate heading and into the required Contact quicker. The following method will change the settings so that when you next open Outlook it maintains the options you have selected. In Contact view: 1. Click View > Current View > Customize Current View. [Alt + V + V + C]

2. Click Group By.

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3. Click Clear All.

4. Choose a field to change from Group items by list and All collapsed from the Expand/collapse defaults. 5. Click OK > OK.

To temporarily change the view for one time viewing: View > Expand/Collapse Groups > Expand All Groups. [Alt + V + X + X]

(Note: Microsoft has withdrawn some of the functionality as it is now maybe greyed out/non-functioning) 204

Activate Tracking Documents

If your time has to be charged out and you have multiple projects on the go, you can use this functionality. The availability of this function depends on how your I.T. Department has set up your server. In Contact view: 1. Click Tools > Options. [Alt + T + O]

2. Click Preferences tab > Journal Options button. [ + J]

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3. Check all the activities you want automatically recorded and tracked, and the Contacts for whom you want this done.

Now when you go to the Activities button the selected options will be displayed.

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Link Existing Documents and Files to a Contact/Project

When interacting with a client, you will often have documents that pertain to your dealings. Having links to these documents in one place will enable you to open these files quickly without having to search a directory. Method 1: 1. Open up the Contact required.

2. On the Insert tab, click Attach File. [Alt + N + AF] 3. Navigate to the file.

4. Click Insert > The file selected will appear in the text field. 5. On the Contact tab, click Save and Close. [Alt + S]

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Method 2: 1. In the free text field on the Contact tab, right click.

2. Choose Hyperlink. 3. Navigate to the file. Double click the file required.

4. A blue Hyperlink link will appear. 5. Click Save and Close. [Alt + S]

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Link an Email Message to a Contact

You can use Outlook Contacts for more than just a person. For example, you can open Contacts for a project or a business outcome. As a consequence, you may want to link an Email directly to the project or business outcome or a contact mentioned in the Email. To link an Email: 1. Create a New email message.

2. Select Options tab > More Options. [Alt + P + OP]

3. Select Contacts. (Button at bottom left of Message Options box.)

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4. Navigate to the Contact in the Select Contacts box and click it. 5. Click OK. 6. Complete the email > Send. [Ctrl + Enter] You may also link an email that you have received to a Contact. For an Email already open: 1. Repeat steps 2 to 5. 2. Click OK and Close. 3. Then close the Email in the normal way. For an email that is in your Inbox and not opened:

Right click the unopened message and select Message Options [P then Enter] after the contextual menu opens and repeat steps 3 and 4.

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Email a Contact when you are in Contact View

Having just come off the phone or met a person and they have asked for your Contact details. The quickest way to get those details to them, is to send an Email. 1. Right click the Contact. 2. Choose Create > New Message to Contact. [T then M] A New email Form will pop up complete with the email address already on it.

3. Complete the Email message as required.

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Any time you meet with a client or supplier, you need to manage what happens

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he use of client/supplier Contact Reports or Journals are mandatory in a wide range of professional consultancies, such as law firms, accounting practices, advertising agencies and public relations. The reason is obvious enough. Most meetings with clients or suppliers, whether by phone or in person, involve decisions and consequences of some kind. Whether these decisions are to proceeded with or to revise a proposal, accept or reject a quotation, call for another estimate, or get planning underway for next year, there are always cost implications for one side or the other. Although major cost decisions normally require purchase orders or other documentation, many critical decisions are delivered or reached verbally. Consequently, it is critically important that both sides come away from the meeting with exactly the same understanding of what was discussed, who committed to which action, and to what expense. Clearly, someone needs to write down the where/who/ when/what of the meeting, along with a clear and literate understanding of what occurred, and forward it to the other parties who may accept, reject or request amendments to this version of events. Wherever possible, this person should be you, because whoever takes charge of writing their version in 213

their own words, has primary control of the relationship. Even a relative junior who writes up the ‘minutes’, has control of language and can exert influence well beyond their official position. Similarly, if you’re in a field where consultation time is charged in relatively small increments (such as a law, medical or dental practice), you will appreciate having a ready made Journal that can keep track of meeting or conversation length. With a headset on your phone, you can even type up the record as you talk to someone. The Outlook tool for this purpose is the Journal.

Consequential Management

It is not uncommon to see people using an exercise book to jot down important points from a meeting or a phone call. Having written them down, transcribe the most important into Outlook. Any interaction with people that has consequences, needs to be transcribed into Outlook. This can be done in an Email or Journal Form. The content format layout I recommend is: Present… (list who was present); Discussion… (record who said what); ActionPoints… list each action point and who has been assigned to complete it.

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Create a Journal Entry for a Contact

In Outlook 2007, you do not automatically have a button or menu item to create a New Journal Entry. However, by adding the button to your Quick Access bar, you may make Journal entries if you already have the Contact Form open. However, the quicker way is to use the contextual menu method below. In Contacts view: 1. Right click the Contact.

2. Click Create > New Journal Entry for Contact. [Click the Contact and press Alt + Shift + J] 3. Highlight the Subject (usually the Contact’s name) and replace it with a heading or title that describes the matter(s) discussed.

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4. Choose the Entry Type option that best describes the meeting or communication.

5. Enter Start Date, Time and Duration of the meeting. If the meeting or conversation takes place in your own office (or if you have a notebook computer with you) and you need accurate timings for billing purposes, click Start Timer [Alt + H + T] and these fields are filled out automatically. [Alt + H + P] To pause the Timer. 

6. In the text field, type in details of the meeting or conversation, people present or involved, decisions made, and who is responsible for subsequent actions. 7. Click [F7] (Spell Check). 8. Click Save and Close. [Alt + S]

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Send Copies of the Journal Entry to other People

A journal entry could be sent to those who attended the meeting. That way, all parties know what has been allocated to them as well as what was discussed. Method 1: While in the Journal Entry: 1. Click the Forward button. This opens a new Email Form. [Alt + H + FW]

Method 2: In Journal view: 1. Right click the Journal item. 2. Choose Forward from the contextual menu. [Ctrl + F] This opens a new Email Form.

3. Address the Email, add any comments, and signature. 4. Click Send. [Alt + S]

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File a Journal Entry sent to you by Someone Else

When you receive a Journal Entry written by someone else (in your organization, a client or supplier) you may need to keep it on file – especially if it contains a record of decisions you have made. 1. Click the email containing the Journal Entry and drag the email to the Journal icon. Wait until Journal is highlighted before releasing the mouse. 2. Complete the Journal Entry Form that opens (including the Contacts dialogue box).

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Associating Journal Entries with a Colleague's Contact

If you have dealings with the Contact of a colleague (you may make a call on their behalf, or forward a document) you will want your colleague to find the Journal entry or document under the Contact’s Activities tab. (Note: This will work only if you have access to shared or Public folders.) 1. Click Contacts at the bottom of the Journal entry.

2. Click the Contact name(s) in the Select Contacts dialogue box. 3. Click OK.

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The names appear in the Contacts box at the bottom of the Journal entry.

1. OR Click the Address Book button on the Ribbon. 2. Select the Contact required > OK. 3. Click Save and Close. [Alt + S] Create Tasks or Appointments from Journal Entries

A Journal entry may be used to generate a Task or need a follow up Appointment. 1. Click the Journal icon at the top of the email and drag it onto either the Task or Calendar icon.

2. Complete the details in the Untitled Task or Calendar Form.

3. Click Save and Close. [Alt + S] 220

Part 2

Using Outlook® to improve your Personal Effectiveness

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Personal Effectiveness

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ith part one completed, we have covered the main keystrokes to ensure your Outlook is set up to take you forward. Part Two is dedicated to insights into your Personal Effectiveness, with less emphasis on the keystrokes. I have structured the book this way because the chapters that follow, would make little or no sense to anyone who does not have a basic understanding of how Outlook has up-dated our traditional office tools, in ways that let them fit seamlessly into the traditional office routine. Becoming efficient in Outlook

The more proficient you become, the more efficiently you can handle the office routines that are essential for managing your role, but being efficient is not the same as being effective. Efficiency merely means acquiring the ability to do more of the same things, or to do them faster. That is the easiest thing to achieve. For example, I have shown you the simplest and most easily understood keystrokes, but there are others which are much faster and more productive again. If you are typing (with both hands) it distracts and breaks you from your flow to stop and move your mouse up to the menu bar. However, if you look at each drop down menu as you access it, you will note that most options you choose regularly have keyboard shortcuts on the right. 222

These are keyboard shortcuts which you can normally type with either hand with barely a pause in your concentration. The [Ctrl + Shift + A] beside ‘Appointment’ means that, instead of going to the menu and choosing ‘Open’, you can achieve exactly the same thing by holding down the Control and Shift keys while pressing A. The shortcuts I recommend you learn are: •

[Ctrl + C] for Copy

•

[Ctrl + V] for Paste

•

[Ctrl + Z] for Undo

Admittedly, some keyboard shortcuts demand that you develop some dexterity in order to press three keys at the same time, but it is well worth the effort: the most common ones – Open, Close, Exit, New, Save, Save As, Cut, Copy, Paste – are consistent across all Microsoft applications (as is [F7] for ‘Spell Check’), and you can learn those that are most useful to you, without any effort at all, and without having to learn the ones you almost never use. Whenever you see a short-cut beside a menu choice you want, simply take your finger off the mouse and use the keyboard. Within a day, you will remember a few. Within a week, your trips to the menu bar will be noticeably less frequent. Becoming effective with Outlook Over the years, entire libraries have been written on ‘Time Management’. After reading most of the big titles and many obscure ones, I have concluded that their central concerns – ‘Process’ and ‘Efficiency’ – are of the greatest benefit to 223

Improving your effectiveness is quite different. Success in your role probably results from juggling several tasks, and you will have some discretion as to how you go about them. Using your time and effort effectively, involves understanding something about how you work as an individual within an organization, and making a mental shift that lets you use Outlook to help define what you need to achieve, in order to succeed. For example, if you reach the end of a day, or week, feeling you have been spinning your wheels and going nowhere, then there is a good chance that you have been expending your efforts in an unproductive direction. Now, imagine you are a fire-fighter called out to fight a forest fire. When you arrive on the scene, you find there are actually three separate fires, just like those shown below. Clearly, you cannot fight all three at once, so you need to decide the order in which to tackle them. Think about it, and write down the order in which you would attack them:

Fire A: Forest smouldering, fire ready to break out. 224

Fire B: Fire has broken out but quick action may hold it in check.

Fire C: A fullyfledged, raging bush fire.

If you react on gut instinct, chances are you will immediately attack Fire C. However, logic says this fire is out of control, has already consumed most of its readily available fuel and, unless it spreads, will soon burn out. As the damage has already been done, your efforts cannot make any material difference. A better use of your limited resources, is to fight Fire B. It may not seem as dramatic, but at least you have chance of saving this part of the forest. However, further thought will have you directing your first efforts against Fire A, because you can quickly prevent a breakout before tackling Fire B. The key point is: if you rush around, reacting to events beyond your control, you spend your entire time fighting fires, rather than preventing them. When we face multiple problems, it is easier to be diverted by the large, urgent ones and ignore those where our efforts will make the biggest difference. By reducing the number of problems we have to deal with, we free up more of our resources to deal with the others. The urgent drives out the important and the future goes largely unexplored; and the capacity to act, rather than the capacity to think and imagine becomes the sole measure for leadership. – Hamal & Prahalach (1994).

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These urgent and frequently time-consuming distractions pull you away from the important ‘Key Results Areas’ you are employed to achieve. Let us look at it another way. You are the centre of your world. In your role, you are responsible for a number of areas over which you can exercise at least some control. Within your circle of influence, you can be proactive. On the other hand, you have no control over events that happen outside your circle. To these events, you can only be reactive. If we are clear about the difference, we can reorder our world to avoid the self-imposed stress of devoting all our time and effort, to actions that do not get us anywhere.

Outside my circle of influence I have no control and can only be: Reactive.

In my circle of influence I have control and can be: Pro-active.

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Your world is the result of your past thoughts, actions and experiences. The way to change it is to visualise how we would like things to be, and then work backwards to identify the steps that will get us there. If this seems obscure, consider building your own house. It is a mounmental task that we find hard to think of where to begin. Yet if we can picture the structure we want, we intuitively know that we can not paint it until the wall lining panels are installed; we can not put on wall lining without studs to fix it to; we can not have studs without a frame to hold them upright, and on it goes. By reverse-engineering a house – breaking it down into logical steps – we eventually reach the starting point of measuring out where to dig holes for the piles. Apply the same process to your career: visualise where you want to be; identify the steps involved in getting there; and put your focus on doing them – when you choose to spend your time doing things that do not take you where you want to go, they simply take you someplace else. So, let us go way beyond the idea of learning to be efficient with Outlook. That can only help you do the same things faster. Let us work on using Outlook in ways that let you use your energy more effectively.

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Personal Effectiveness Psychology

I

sincerely hope you enjoy whatever you do for a living. The reality is that you have made a deal, agreeing to spend a good proportion of your time and energy performing certain tasks for a reward. Your deal will only last for as long as both sides deliver and, it can only improve if both sides routinely deliver, at a higher level than envisaged, in the initial contract. Attitude to Succeed In other words, we do not work for employers but for ourselves. Take a different view, your work is for YOU, you are the business. Our only true security is our ability you deliver. So let us use Outlook in a way you never imagined, and tailor it to our own natural operating style. The idea here is that, instead of using Outlook to merely help us become more efficient (and do more of the same things each day), we should use it to help us become more effective, and operate at a higher level, that will simultaneously deliver increased personal satisfaction and fulfillment, while helping to lighten our load. To do this, we need to leave Outlook for a while and, understand a little more about ourselves and how we work. Free Your Mind of Clutter We know our brains are divided into conscious and subconscious regions, but we generally treat this knowledge as academic: interesting but of no practical value in our everyday lives. Let us think about that. The conscious brain takes care 228

of right now, actively dealing with whatever is happening at this moment. It is in constant use as we navigate traffic jams, decide what to wear, add numbers, and what we eat. But, it is pretty limited with no imagination, no intelligence, no memory. In fact, our conscious brain is helpless without the subconscious, which is where we store memories – the reference material to which our conscious mind needs continual, instant access. For example, our conscious brain cannot remember that we have a dental appointment next Thursday, because it does not need to deal with it right now. We rely on our subconscious to remember that we made an appointment on Monday. Then remind our conscious brain of it when we think about next Thursday, and then to act as an alarm clock so we make it on time. The system works well enough. Better for some people than for others, but no one has unlimited capacity and, unlike a computer, we have no built-in ‘insufficient memory’ warning. If we overload our subconscious, with too many details and little alarm clocks, we may miss the appointment, airplane, or birthday. At the same time, as remembering day-to-day details, the subconscious (by far the largest part of our mind) is also where we do our thinking. It is like a computer operating system that runs in the background where we do not notice it, juggling a zillion pieces of data – sorting, classifying and storing them for future use – and seeing which bits fit together and how. When we first hear of a difficult problem, we seldom come up with an instant solution without time to think it through. More likely, an answer will present itself while we are out taking a walk 229

and getting oxygen into our brain; or in the shower when we feel clean and relaxed; or we will sit bolt upright in bed at night; or it will pop out in the morning during a casual conversation – without us ever seeming to have given it any conscious thought. You already know this because if you ever asked your grandparents for advice, they probably helped you understand the problem and then told you to sleep on it. Exactly. The way we solve problems is to collect the data we need and stop consciously thinking about it, allowing our subconscious to do the heavy number-crunching and data-manipulation in the background. Solutions are especially likely to present themselves during rem sleep*, when our imaginations are unrestricted by budgets or even gravity. When an idea pops into our head, we then use our conscious brain to check its validity against known data and in light of our past experience. If an idea wakes you up, and you can not go back to sleep, write it down so that your subconscious knows to remember it (it is worth keeping a pad beside your bed). Our ability to come up with solutions, is the most important asset we bring to our work. There is no quicker way to sabotage the process than by loading up our sub-conscious with tasks it does not need to do, such as asking it to remember endless details we do not need to remember at all. When, systematically, we clear our memory banks of distracting details, we free up our capacity for thinking. And this is the primary reason for putting everything we need to remember into our Outlook Calendar, Tasks and Journals. The more details we get the computer to remember for us, the more mental capacity we make available for the important stuff. Thus improving our ability to deliver. *REM (Rapid Eye Movement) is the dreaming part of sleep 230

Consider that the most brilliant among us are often characterised as being absent-minded, away with the fairies, or some other euphemism for being so preoccupied, that they barely function. Yet, their achievements show what our minds can do when they are uncluttered by day-to-day routine detail and become free to focus on the constant stream of challenges, thrown at us, in our careers. By using Outlook to remember details, we can use our brains for thinking, and still get to our appointments on time. Trust Your Instincts There is nothing in your world you can trust more, than the way you instinctively go about what you do. Your natural instincts are what drives you. That is how you approach things consistently. We understand what these are for You, unless you understand the way they dictate how you work, you cannot hope to harness your full potential. Without understanding what drives us, and being able to understand clearly what drives our colleagues and clients, we are often in a position of conflict. This lack of clarity often undermines any possibility of working as an integrated team. We are saying “let us do it!” while others are dragging their feet; or we are trying to instill caution into someone who goes off half-cocked. There is no doubt that trying to work with someone whose natural working style is different to our own is, to say the least, frustrating. What may be surprising, is that working with someone who has a very natural style to our own, is likely to give us a far bigger problem. 231

When faced with some of these challenges, a helpful methodology is Dr. Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. This methodology is used, by many organisations, to encourage lateral and full spectrum thinking in a way that encourages everyone to contribute without denting egos. White Hat: Facts, figures, information needs and gaps. You can side-step arguments and proposals, and simply look at data. Blue Hat: Overview or process control. Not looking directly at the subject under discussion but at the thinking. Green Hat: Creativity, alternatives, proposals. What is interesting or provocative, and proposed changes. Yellow Hat: Logical positive. Expound on how a proposal will work or deliver a benefit, or the value of something that is already happened Red Hat: Intuition, feelings, emotions. You can express intuition and feelings unsupported by logic. Black Hat: Judgment and caution, or logical negative. Why a suggestion does not comply with facts, experience, the system, or policy. The hats provide a mechanism for group brainstorming (and internal debates), which frequently results in amazing outcomes which, you could not have realised with traditional methods. This success is largely due to the psychological model 232

that exists within the process. Greater understanding of the psychology of what drives us, helps with effectiveness. Having this insight (rather than using a process without insight) is where the true gains lie. For this, we look to the Instinctive Drive System™ developed by Paul Burgess. From ancient times (Aristotle), it has been known, that the mind has three parts which have been identified and named by scholars over the years. Personality: is the observable behavior we exhibit in various social or business settings. And is measured by behavioral tests such as Myers Briggs™§ (introversion versus extroversion; sensing versus intuition; thinking versus feeling; judging versus perceiving) and many others. Cognitive: The speed at which we think and is our IQ, or intelligence quota. It is created by our early childhood experiences. Which triggers electrical activities within the brain that enables the formation of neuron pathway connections. (Go to www.brainwave.org.nz to find out more about the importance of early childhood cognitive development). Conative: Instinctive Drives™, our natural operating system Your Conative – observable actions that result from you having the freedom to use Instinctive Drives™ and, while § Naomi L. Quenk, Essentials of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment 233

they are different from either intelligence or behavior, all three parts interact to become the whole of who you are and what others see. The way we instinctively seek pleasure and avoid pain involves juggling the four basic elements of information, physicality, process and risk. Although we are all driven to satisfy all these needs, none of us has the urge to satisfy each of them to quite the same degree or, in quite the same combination. Consequently, some of us seek greater information to minimise risk; some need to demonstrate their ideas by building models instead of describing them; some are satisfied to follow an established process rather than innovate one and, some of us just wing it. The Instinctive Drive Questionnaire™* produces results that consistently and accurately identifies our natural working style. The comprehensive Instinctive Drive Results™ produces a personal report that identifies your lifelong instinctive natural working style. This is the way you approach and solve problems, how you exercise your inherent creativity, the strengths you bring to a team, and your style of leadership. What is more, this accuracy holds true for both your working and personal life and, unlike your ever expanding body of skills, knowledge, competence and changing behavior, it does not change over time. At this point, you’re probably thinking “Whoa! Why are you telling me this mumbo jumbo head-stuff … what on earth does it have to do with Outlook?”

* Available from www.instinctivedrives.com 234

Our Instinctive Drives™ are why we enjoy some parts of what we do, and resist doing others; why we are compatible with some workmates and not with others. When we understand what our instincts actually are, how they work, and how they control us in ways that can seem quite irrational, then we can use them to our advantage. For example, setting up Outlook in the best way to meet our instinctive way of working, will make us more effective. Verify

-

Authenticate

-

Complete

-

Improvise

-

Checking information (degree of detail, precision, documentation); Hands on tangibles (dealing with nature, tools, technology, equipment). Making things whole (creating orderliness, sequencing, closure); Dealing with unknowns (finding a way forward, change, innovation);

Working in harmony with our instincts makes us effective at what we do. Working against them puts us under negative stress. Once we acquire the knowledge about ourselves our Instinctive Drives™, we can start to see how our peers, juniors, superiors and clients have different needs to our own. We find out why they need different levels of information, freedom, briefing and/or reporting. Knowing this, gives us a better balance in the relationship. So let us look at our four drives or what Instinctive Drives™ identifies that gives us the knowledge to satisfy, in our needs and, share these with others. 235

The Instinctive Drive to Verify™. This is the Instinctive DriveTM for continuously checking and constantly evaluating: • to make sure things are right • to (know how to) do things right/better • to determine the right thing to do. The Instinctive Drive to Authenticate™. This is the Instinctive DriveTM for constant and genuine congruency: • in what is discussed. • in what is done. • in what is perceived. The Instinctive Drive to Complete™. This is the Instinctive DriveTM for keeping everyone and everything in your world in harmony: • not just some people or some things but every aspect of your life. • yesterday and tomorrow as well as today. • the “what ifs” as well as “what is”… the whole lot. The Instinctive Drive to Improvise™. This is the Instinctive DriveTM for committing:- without knowing whether the time or resources are available to enable success. • to outcomes which stretch existing boundaries or methodologies. • then inventing or persuading others to achieve the outcomes. Drive:

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Drive Driveto Use 6-9

Drive to Avoid 1-4

Verify

Clarify

Accept

Authenticate

Hands on

Conceptual

Complete

Structure

Flexibility

Improvise

New Challenge

Certainty

There are two dimensions with each of these drives you either:seek to use the drive or avoid using the drive. Understanding what each direction means for you identifies your own Instinctive Drives™, all of which function together to make up your instinctive way of using your natural talents. Later, in this chapter, we will illustrate for you the different directions of the drives and, how they impact on your natural working style. A caution here is that you cannot guess with any accuracy what a person’s Instinctive Drives™ are. You may get indications but, it is only with the insight obtained from the Instinctive Drive Questionnaire™ results, that you can obtain an accurate understanding. Let us illustrate what can arise from guessing. A client had a result that showed he was strongly driven to avoid the Instinctive Drive to Complete™. In sitting in his office with him interpreting his results, he had a clear and tidy desk. This appears to be different from the way this instinct usually plays out. That is, a desk covered in paperwork. When asked how come his desk was so tidy, he replied that his boss believed that a tidy desk was a sign of an efficient person. So, he laughingly opened his desk file draw and, showed it full of paperwork just dropped in and, from his clear desk, he believed that he could be perceived as efficient. In this, he was just using a skill that he had learned to follow to achieve an outcome. Paul Burgess, the founder and CEO of Linkup International in his introductory letter that welcomes you to a brand new horizon…discovering your I.D.™, points out you have always had your I.D.™, it is just that now, with the I.D. System® profile, 237

you can define it much more specifically and, fully utilise it to enjoy a more successful and meaningful life. He says; 1. This is the real you Your most inner self. It reveals the way you need to be to achieve your absolute best in any role or relationship – which may or may not be how you are currently performing. Your childhood conditioning, various life-long experiences, education, roles and relationships have all moulded your personality and general behaviour. However, if the person you are trying to be is out of alignment with the person you need to be (as defined by your I.D.™), then your performance and fulfilment will be significantly compromised. Conversely, when your behaviour is in alignment with your I.D.™, you excel. Be proud of who you are! 2. Your I.D. is different to your behaviour & personality Your I.D.™ can be (temporarily) quite different to your behaviour or your personality. Your I.D.™ is not necessarily what other people see but rather, the real drive behind what you say and do. This is why misunderstandings occur so frequently – because people often assume that the external signs (what they see, hear and perceive) are what the other person meant to convey. However, to understand the message or action properly, you need to know the motives or drives… which are defined by the person’s I.D.™ Personality tests and "profiles" may give you feedback on current behaviour or personality, but they do not 238

identify whether a person is performing at their optimum level nor, do they identify what motivates someone. 3. Your I.D.™ does not change over time Your I.D.™ does not change over time or in different situations, while your behaviour or personality. Yes, at times your behaviour and personality might be out of alignment with your I.D.™, but this is why you experience stress, frustration, diminished confidence, fatigue, illness, etc.. If your instincts could change according to the expectations placed upon you, then the stress that occurs from “working against your grain” (as the cliché goes) would be eliminated. Effective stress management therefore requires that you have strategies to help you adjust roles and expectations, instead of trying to adjust yourself! 4. Strategies to boost your performance and fulfilment The I.D.™ System® includes hundreds of proven and practical strategies, tailored to your I.D.™, which can help you tackle any task or situation in almost every area of your life and in your stride. Some of them are included in this booklet, but there are many more available for your I.D.™ via other I.D.™ products, workshops and related materials. As you may have already gathered, your I.D.™ is not a “personality profile”. Your I.D.™ and the I.D.™ System essentially provide an instruction manual for how you need to perform to reach your full potential… and live an abundant and fulfilling life. Study your I.D.™ Understand it! Share it with others so that 239

they understand who you really are and, know how to work with you and communicate with you effectively. By doing so, you actually could make a significant difference in their life as well. 5. This is the significant ways in which you could make a positive difference Imagine how much better our planet would be if there was a greater sense of equality. Where people genuinely understood themselves and each other better – not only tolerating the differences between themselves, but harnessing the different talents, to achieve a synergy. Stress and conflict would reduce dramatically; productivity and relationships would improve substantially! 6. There are already many homes, businesses and schools “living” the I.D.™ System® And experiencing its benefits on a daily basis. Some even display the plaque, “I.D.™ Spoken Here” - as a symbol of the equality that exists, the respect for the differences between people and, the commitment (especially from the leaders) to help everybody reach their full potential. 7. You now have the vital key to doing the things you love Loving the way you do them and loving the people you do them with. Enjoy every step on your selfdevelopment journey using your natural working style.

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KEY I.D.™ TALENTS

This is a summary of the USE talents that you bring to the table

This is a summary of the AVOID talents that you bring to the table

PROBLEM SOLVING: quantifying, comparing and evaluating the data - and then persevering to find the best resolution. A CREDIBLE APPROACH: using data, evidence and proof to explain thinking and position.

PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT: a hands-on approach to get the job done as promised. COMMUNICATING OPENLY AND DIRECTLY: raising and addressing the real issues even when sensitivities are involved.

HIGH STANDARDS AND EXCELLENCE: identifying gaps, and constantly refining and improving to make things even better.

CREATES CLARITY FROM AMBIGUITY: including translating ideas into action, and ensuring people know what to do.

MOVING FORWARD QUICKLY: even when the purpose is unclear or do not have all the information or detail.

THINKING UNCONSTRAINED BY CURRENT REALITIES: often leading to bigger/better outcomes than focus on the practical and ‘realistic’.

INCLUSIVE AND ENCOURAGING APPROACH: treating everyone equally, giving trust upfront and fostering collaboration. A ‘SENSE OF KNOWING’: initial gut reaction provides powerful insight into the best way forward.

PERCEPTIVE OF OTHERS’ FEELINGS: reading between lines to adjust words and actions, and attending to morale. SEEKING MULTIPLE OUTCOMES AND BENEFITS: from input of time, thinking and resources.

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ANTICIPATION AND RECALL: making connections past,/present/future to identify consequences of decisions and actions.

POSITIVE, ‘CAN-DO’ SPIRIT: seeing problems as opportunities, saying ‘yes’ in the moment and with urgency and enthusiasm.

KEEPING THINGS CONNECTED: to ensure separate parts - and people - connect/work as a whole.

TO INSPIRE AND PERSUADE: challenging others - and self to step beyond comfort zone and achieve ‘the impossible’.

ORGANISATION AND FOLLOWTHROUGH: driving progress and keeping things running smoothly/to plan.

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES ‘OUT OF NOTHING’: seeing the possibilities, taking the risks and making things happen.

PIONEERING: finding different and innovative ways to reach a goal/experimenting/ working it out along the way.

IDENTIFY THE RISKS: thinking through before committing, seeking certainty and eliminating or minimizing the chance of things going wrong.

TAILOR-MAKING APPROACH /SOLUTION: customizing to meet the specific needs of the task, individual or situation. GET STARTED QUICKLY: initiating quick wins, working things out on the run and seeking shortest route from start to finish.

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EVEN-KEELED COMPOSURE: keeping things calm, even in emotional situations and giving a consistent level of energy. MEETING OBLIGATIONS: persevering where many others would give up, to deliver sustainable outcomes that speak for themselves.

KEY I.D.™ NEEDS

Here

is

a

summary of the individual NEEDS that must be met by those driven by the USE of the Instinctive Drive

Here is a summary of the individual NEEDS

that

must be met by those driven by AVOID of the Instinctive Drive

TO GET IT RIGHT: by using data and evidence to evaluate and compare solutions before choosing the best one. TO KNOW WHY: by understanding the purpose and related reasoning and justification. FEEDBACK: to get reassurance and have the opportunity for clarification around standards/ priorities.

ACCEPTANCE: of feelings, thinking and approach, without having to justify or explain to others. A NON- JUDGMENTAL ENVIRONMENT: where everyone’s contribution is equally valued. CONSCISENESS: a summary and answers versus the detail, explanation and examples.

A CLEAR PICTURE: to be able to visualize the end result and/or outcome. TANGIBLE RESULTS: to be personally involved/ handson in building things with essential and useful outcomes. OPENNESS: direct, literal communication and an environment where people do what they say.

TO MAKE IT IDEAL: in alignment with beliefs, values and vision. TO BE GIVEN THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT: to have underlying intentions and motives recognized and acknowledged. LEVERAGE: to ensure that effort, time and energy has multiple and exponential outputs and benefits.

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THE PLAN: including context, structure, timelines, roles and details of contingencies.

NEW CHALLENGES: big, exciting, inspiring and urgent and to make the impossible possible.

TO HAVE THINGS RUNNING SMOOTHLY: to have everything, including the people dynamics, organized and on track.

POSITIVE ENERGY: a fun and stimulating atmosphere and the opportunity to brainstorm ideas.

TO MAKE PROGRESS: and have time to build momentum free from changes and interruptions.

FREEDOM: to experiment, keep the options open and have flexibility in achieving goals. VARIETY: to be able to change focus between different activities, roles, people and pace. QUICK WINS: to start straightaway and achieve short-term goals and milestones.

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SIMPLICITY: to focus on the bottom line to make things easier and move quickly.

TO FEEL CERTAIN: before committing or making a decision and to strive to eliminate or mitigate risks. SUBSTANCE: a credible and logical approach that speaks for itself. TO ELIMINATE PRESSURE: to be able to operate at own pace without feeling rushed.

This book has been created to help has been to be more successful. And, this is achieved by exposing you to different business insights. No one person has all of these insights, so it requires a team effort made up of different talents. For us to work collaboratively, as a team, we need to understand and appreciate our individual talents and needs. A Team of Two Below is an example of a team of two. Cindy and I work very closely on the day to day operation of the business. We have complimentary Instinctive Drive talents and needs as shown by our profiles. Starting with Instinctive Drives™ to Verify. Cindy and I have similar Information needs. When it comes to the Instinctive Drives™ to Authenticate I want to work hands on, Cindy wants to discuss and understand the philosophy behind what we are working on. When it comes to our Instinctive Drives™ to Complete, I love freedom to pioneer with lots of variety and flexibility, Cindy’s talent is to ensure we have a firm structure and that we meet our deadlines. When it comes to our Instinctive Drives™ to Improvise, I love new challenges and creativity however, Cindy eliminates risk and ensures that our customers have certainty.

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The Instinctive DrivesTM (I.D.TM ) of Jim Huse 2013 I.D.:4519

The Instinctive DrivesTM (I.D.TM ) of Cindy Jeon 2013 I.D.:6382 246

Set up Outlook to work the way you do If you are driven by to USE the Instinctive Drives™ to Complete, you will probably want to turn off the bells and whistles that are activated by default in Outlook. They only distract you and divert you from achieving what you need to get done in a day. On the other hand, if you are driven to USE the Instinctive Drives™ to Improvise, you will probably want them turned on, so you have instant notification of any incoming messages. Emails for your I.D.™ Natural Working Style

Turn the bells & whistles on/off:

1. Click Tools > Options > Preferences tab > email Options button > Advanced email Options button. [Alt + T + O + M + A] 2. Deselect Play a Sound. 3. Click OK > OK > OK. Set up your folder for emails you have read and/or dealt with, in whatever way is most comfortable for your working style. 247

Emails for your I.D.™ Natural Working Style Complete

A series of folders and/or sub-folders classified by client, task or product;

Improvise

A ‘Read email’ folder may be all you need as Outlook can sort them by date, sender, subject, etc.

Managing Cc and Bcc mail: Verify Authenticate

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So you are not seduced by your need to know (read it and let it go); So you can reduce distractions.

Calendar for your I.D.™ Natural Working Style

No matter what your combination of Instinctive Drives™, there is a perfectly valid reason for setting up the Calendar as your default opening view: Verify

To help orient your thinking away from information to outcome;

Complete

To adjust your thinking from internal time lines to external requirements;

Improvise

To get the important things done before you get distracted;

Authenticate

To shift from now to the implications of what you need to achieve today.

When entering appointments: Improvise

Use color-coding for quick recognition of what is most important.

Verify

When entering appointments, enter details into appointment free flow text area;

Complete

Write out your desired outcome for the appointment.

Recurring appointments are most useful for: Complete Improvise

Setting aside regular time in your schedule for key tasks; Letting you avoid having to remember details of repetitive tasks;

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All day events are particularly useful for: Complete

Allowing others to see the pattern in your head;

Improvise Authenticate

Allowing you to allocate enough time for each interaction and/or appointment.

If you are on a server, the ability to view the calendars of other people allows: Verify

Collaboration to see, know and understand what you are doing;

Complete

Others to book around your schedule;

Improvise

Gives you the ability to organize meetings without delay.

Print your calendar:

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Verify

To keep a copy handy when you are mobile;

Complete

To keep your plans clear to ensure nothing is forgotten;

Improvise

So you manage your day, not the other way around;

Authenticate

So you do not get lost in the current event.

Appointments for your I.D.™ Natural Working Style

No matter what your Instinctive Drives™, you need to manage the use of your time through your Calendar. Verify

You naturally prioritise and need to budget the use of your time.

Complete

You seek order and structure so you can work sequentially. By sharing your calendar, people can see when not to interrupt you.

Improvise Authenticate

With a thousand ideas in your head, using your calendar helps you stay focused and deliver. Your natural talent is working with the present. To avoid getting stuck, divide your work load into time blocks set out as appointments

Tasks for your I.D.™ Natural Working Style

No matter what Instinctive Drives™ you initiate in, there are good reasons why you should break your work down into tasks. Create and delegate Tasks with the instinctive drive(s) of the recipient(s) in mind: Verify

Providing an information-rich trail

Complete

Helps reportees who initiate in these modes to feel comfortable about taking ownership.

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Improvise Authenticate

Breaking tasks down into discrete components prevents your Improvise behavior from trying to do everything at once in random fashion, and your Authenticators from spending too much time on any one task in isolation.

Sending Task Status Reports: Sending regular reports to Fact Finders and Follow Thrus allows them to back off in the knowledge of your progress on the task.

Verify Complete

Create Recurring tasks: Improvise

To ensure you do not forget.

Contacts for your Instinctive Drives™

No matter what your Instinctive Drives™, you need to manage the use of your time and where you spend it. This can be achieved through the use of your Calendar or Contacts. You would use Contacts when you have to achieve a specific outcome for a client or a project. Verify Authenticate

Business Card view is information rich and familiar because it looks like a business card.

Complete

Phone List view by Last Name or Company as you see more. The ‘By Company’ view is more like a physical filing system.

Improvise

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Journals for your Instinctive Drives™

Meetings and interactions need to be managed and documented: who was present, what was discussed and, the actions that have to be taken. If this is not done, then the meeting was just a waste of everyone’s time. Verify

As you naturally collect data and require specifics, writing and sharing a Journal helps you turn information into actions and results.

Complete

You need to collect information so you can arrange it to create results for yourself and others.

Improvise

Writing a Journal gives you a much better understanding of what was actually discussed (as opposed to what you think was said).

Authenticate

While you prefer to be hands on, recording discussions in a Journal helps you create a quality result.

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Only work on what is important the tasks on which your performance is measured

I

have always been incredibly envious of people who can sit down and focus on the most important issues until every last detail is handled and under control. My combination of Complete (1) and Improvise (9) means I have to constantly fight against getting side-tracked by more interesting stuff. Until I understood my conative profile, I often found myself working into the night just to catch up.

There are two issues here. The first is to define what we mean by the most important issues – referred to as “Big Rocks First”. To summarise... there is a story about a lecturer illustrating a point about doing “first things first” (Covey) by showing students that if you have a fixed space (a jar) to fill with items, all various sizes, you can fit more in if you put the larger items in first through to the smaller items. This was proven by tipping out the contents and putting back in the smallest items first through to largest. They did not fit in. The relevance is, your working day has finite time available. Ensure your big rocks – your most important tasks, are done first – those which help you achieve your work goals. More about how to identify these tasks coming right up. Second most important is scheduling the time-consuming tasks. The second issue is how we can use Outlook as a tool to help keep ourselves focused and on track. If we can do both of these things, we can control and direct our Instinctive Drives, rather than allow ourselves to be controlled by natural tendencies that do not always work in our best interests. 255

Any action you take can only have one of three possible results: 1. 2. 3.

Negative - Worse than doing nothing because it takes you away from your required outcome. Neutral - A waste of time as it simply moves you sideways. Positive - It moves you toward your desired outcome.

Okay, so what are you supposed to achieve in your present position? It is not surprising that many people are unsure of the answer to this fundamental question. If you compare what your manager actually wanted someone hired to do, with the official position description prepared by the HR Department, with the Situations Vacant advertisement prepared by a recruitment agency, with what you were told you would be doing at your interview, and with what is written on your employment contract, you will be unlikely to find that any of them are in agreement on what your position really involves. Even more problematical, you will probably realise that none of them describe the reality of what you spend most of your time doing. The problem here, for both you and your employer, is that when the time comes for a performance/salary review, there is no commonlyagreed basis for measuring your performance, and therefore no way of calculating how much value you add to the organization. You will find it difficult to justify an increase in salary based on the efficiency with which you handle your client issues, if your employer thinks you have been hired to implement new promotions for your key customers and the market in general. 256

In theory, someone, somewhere should be able to tell you exactly what it is you are supposed to achieve in return for the money you take home. Unless you have this knowledge, it is nearly impossible for you to ever demonstrate that you’re meeting expectations, let alone exceeding them, which you must do in order to justify an increase in your rewards, status or recognition. Without mutual understanding between employer and employee, on how your success will be measured and how that equates to your rewards, disconnect is likely. With this in mind, it is therefore important to have a clear job description that maps to the organization’s plan and addresses not only what you are meant to do (at a high strategic level), but also how your time will be spent. Sadly, it is common for this not to be available, and it was probably no different in your last position. Looking for a new position is unlikely to change anything but your geography. If this is your situation, a viable option would be to write your own job description. You are the most qualified to write this because you have clarity of purpose. Start with key tasks, then figure out why you do the tasks (how it adds value to the organisation), and figure out what would be a way to measure success. It also pays to review the organization’s annual plan. Look for how your efforts tie up with the strategic objectives of the organization. Take a good look at Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ on page 253, as it is applied to a work place. This should help you to define where you are, and give a good clue as to why you may not be totally satisfied with your current position. 257

Can you write a job de­scription that allows you to satisfy any higher level of need than the way your position is described at the moment? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow is one of the best-known theories of motivation. Maslow says we have five levels of need that we are motivated to satisfy. When we fulfil needs at any particular level we cease being motivated by them, and develop motivation to fulfil needs at the next level. We may not totally fulfil our needs at any level but we satisfy them enough to move on. Later researchers suggests two or three levels, rather than five, and that the hierarchy may not be the same for everyone. Entrepreneurs, for example, often accept relative deprivation to skip over lower levels; others seem to work on satisfying several needs simultaneously, though their priorities may vary at any given point in time. Self-Actualisation. At the highest level, we try to develop our capabilities so we can reach our full Self potential: testing Actualisation: our creativity; seeing ideas become reality; pursuing Challenging new knowledge; developing our projects; opportunities for talents in new directions. These innovation and needs can never be completely creativity; training fulfilled because our potential (the conative level). (and need   to reach it) Esteem: continually expands Important projects; recogniwith our capabilities. tion; prestigious office location. Belonging: Good co-workers; peers; superiors; customers. Safety: Job security; benefits like life insurance; safety regulations. Survival:

Basic pay; work space; heat; water; company cafeteria.

Maslow in the work place. 258

Work on your role, not in it by making an appointment with yourself The idea of working on your role (as opposed to working in it) means taking some time out from routine work to investigate the ways in which you can maximise your value to the organization. As we may need a little clear time to work through the issues, make an hour-long appointment with yourself on your Calendar. Call this appointment ‘Working on my role’. Let us assume that, like most people, you either have no proper job description, or the one you have needs up-dating to adequately reflect both your responsibilities and the way your performance is measured. No matter how ad hoc an organization has grown, all job descriptions should be based on the organization’s business plan, in the sense that each department must take ownership of one or more parts of the plan - accounting, sales, marketing, legal, manufacturing, etc., in order for it to have any chance of success. Further, in order for each department to deliver, each part must be broken down into functions. For Accounting to deliver on profitability, invoices must be sent, receipts banked, ledgers and spread sheets updated, and reports delivered. Whatever parts of the business plan are owned by your department, you’re responsible for carrying out one or more of its essential functions. Your position may be responsible for up to three result areas. If you have more than five, you may be spread too thinly to deliver the results you want. These are known as Key Result 259

Areas or KRA s, and it is important to get them listed in the order of their importance. This should not be confused with the amount of time each responsibility requires to fulfil, or its importance to you. It is purely the order of importance to the organization. It is important to understand that each KRA needs to have at least one way for the organization to measure how you perform in each area. These are known as the Key Performance Indicators (KPI s) for your position. As many job descriptions focus on KPI s, it is easy to become distracted by them, which is like trying to play tennis with your entire focus on the scoreboard, rather than on the ball that is coming at you at 16o kph. In fact, to give yourself any chance of returning the ball, you really need to concentrate on what the other player is doing – so you can anticipate what is coming, and position yourself for the action you will need to take next. If you concentrate on performing these actions, or tasks, to the best of your ability, the score will take care of itself. The same is true at work. KPI s are simply a scoreboard for measuring how well you perform the group of tasks associated with your role. Here are the primary Key Result Areas for most businesses, along with typical Key Perform­ance Indicators for which your role will be responsible, and these will require you to perform a different (even if only slightly) set of Key Tasks to anyone else in the organization. 260

Make your Day Tie Back to your Key Result Areas (KRAs)

Examples of KRA s: Financial Management

Customer Management

Internal Business Process

Learning and Growth

Personal Development

Travel

Other Duties

Internal Goodwill

Personnel

Travel: if you seem unable to get enough done in your working week, try recording the time you spend travelling to and from appointments. One client recorded the time spent travelling between her own branch and head office. She discovered it took 15–18 hours out of her week, leaving only 27–30 hours for her 45+ hours of work. She then asked Head office, ‘Do you want me to keep coming to meetings or do you want me to do my job?’ Other Duties: if there is a clause in your employment contract that requires you to perform unspecified extra tasks – which may prevent you from doing what you’re employed to do – make sure you identify them­­so they do not go unrecognised or acknowledged at your quarterly appraisal. When you record the time and tasks involved in your ‘Other Duties’ and print out your calendar for your appraisal, you make the invisible visible. 261

It goes without saying that, if your most important Key Result Area is Staff Management and your most important Key Task is to attract staff, then your Key Performance Indicator may be around Unfilled Vacancies. If another Key Task is staff development, your Key Performance Indicator for this function may be the gap between staff members’ defined roles and, their ability to perform them, as formally documented, at their quarterly appraisals. By going through the following exercise, you will quickly understand which activities are important for your employment, which ones you can or should send to someone else, and which are simply time-wasters that do not benefit you or the organization. Luckily, Outlook is the best tool ever invented, to help us keep on top of the most important things because we can change, or add to, all of Outlook’s default ‘categories’ by deleting irrelevant categories and adding a category for each KRA that is relevant to your position, with a color code for easy recognition. You will benefit from this, no matter what your combination of Instinctive Drives:

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Verify

You have a method to easily find related info;

Complete

You can review/redefine strategy from external changes;

Improvise

Help stop being activity-driven by minimising distractions;

Authenticate

Move from focusing on tasks (doing) to outcomes (strategy).

Financial Management

Customer Management Internal Business Process Staff Management Learning and Growth

Innovation & Development

Key Key Performance Indicators: Tasks: ◆◆ Cash Flow ◆◆ Return on Investment ◆◆ Financial Results ◆◆ Return on Capital Employed ◆◆ Return on Equity ◆◆ Delivery Performance to Customer - by Date ◆◆ Delivery Performance to Customer - by Quality ◆◆ Customer Satisfaction Rate ◆◆ Customer Retention ◆◆ Number of Activities ◆◆ Opportunity Success Rate ◆◆ Staff Satisfaction ◆◆ Staff Retention ◆◆ Preferred Employer Rating ◆◆ Investment Rate ◆◆ Illness Rate ◆◆ Culture Surveys ◆◆ Staff Satisfaction ◆◆ Product/Service lifecycle ◆◆ Customer Satisfaction

Different tasks for each role such as Finance, Sales, Marketing, Production, etc..

Key Result Area:

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Blow Someone's Mind at your Next Appraisal

Start by writing down a list of all tasks or functions you perform daily/weekly in the form on page 258. Now, on the left hand side assign the associated KRA alongside each task. Then, go into Outlook and change the Master List of categories to reflect your KRAs. Once you have your responsibilities clarified, and you have set up an Outlook category for each KRA, you’re in the driver’s seat. You now have much more than a great tool to keep you focused. Imagine turning up to your next performance appraisal with all your activities documented in an Excel spreadsheet - a record of all your meetings, emails, tasks, journals, client contacts and associated documents sorted according to each KRA and KPI for your position. When you do this, your performance can only be judged on what you do to add value to your section of the business; the weight of activity uynder each KRA shows how you spend your time doing what is important; and your success against each agreed KPI is obvious.

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Set up your KRA Categories in Outlook

Microsoft has provided standard layouts and Categories, however, for Outlook to work better for you, you need to remove or change them. Blow someone's mind... When you label your activities to your Key Business Outcomes you want to connect your label color to the appropriate Microsoft Category. In any view: 1. Click on New tool button. 2. Select Appointment OR [Ctrl + Shift + A]

If you are in Calendar view: 1. Click the New tool button. [Alt + N + A] 2. Click the Categorize button. [Alt + H + G + A] 3. All Categories.

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4. Make your Categories relevant to your situation and to remove confusion, select any Category on the Master List that is not relevant to your role and/or life, either Delete or Rename them. (It may be advisable to not delete any if you think you may need to add further Categories at a later stage.) While Renaming the Categories you can align the color of your choice to each KRA.

5. You can allocate a Shortcut key at this stage as well. When you apply a Category in the future, you can use the shortcut key instead of opening the Category selection each time.

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6. Enter the name for each KRA instead of the current Category. Categories are in alphanumeric order but you can control this by numbering them – remember to use preceding zeros if you need more than 1…9 (i.e. 01, … 09, 10 … 20, etc.). 7. If you have used all the available Categories, you can add new Categories and give them different colors by selecting New and Color. Learning and Growth

8. Click OK.

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Change Headings on your Calendar TaskPad

In Calendar view: 1. Under Current View, click the radio button for Day/ Week/Month. 2. Drag the side of the To-Do Bar to the left until you can see the field headers. 3. Right click on the Categories header and select Format Columns.

4. Select Categories and change it to KRA's.

5. To reduce space needed for Due Date, select a shorter form of date from Format in the columns dialogue.

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View Tasks by Category/KRA

1. Go to Task List view. 2. Click in the Current View box and select By Category.

3. Choose View > Current View > By Category. [Alt + V + V + Arrow down the fly out menu to By Category + Enter] Or right click on the Category heading on the blue field heading bar.

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Assign KRA Categories to your Emails

Different types of employment require the person to primarily use Tasks, Calendar or Email. When the majority of your work is in the Email environment, you will need to Categorize your Emails to be able to effectively analyse your workload. An example of this would be an internal help desk role where the majority of their workload is via Phone and Email. Sort emails within each folder by KRAs/Categories. For Unsent mail: 1. Select Options tab > More Options. (Click the small arrow on bottom right hand corner.) [Alt + P + OP] 2. Click Categories. [+ G]

3. Choose your KRA. 4. Click OK and Close. 5. Click Send. [Alt + S]

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For previously sent or received Email: 1. Right click the Email and select Message Options from the contextual menu. 2. Choose your KRA. 3. Click OK and Close. Or: 1. Click on the Category button on the Menu bar. 2. Choose your KRA.

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Export your Calendar or KRAs to an Excel SpreadSheet to Understand How your Time Went

You may have performance measures in the form of KPI’s and/or Revenue that will come out as a report at the end of a period – week, month, quarter. It is too late to affect the outcome as it is in the past. However, what you work on today will define what the result will be for the next period. At any one time, you have many choices of what to work on and, without a way of prioritising, you may be inclined to work on what emotionally appeals to you, as opposed to logically what will give you the best result at the next period. So by assigning a Category to your Tasks or Appointments, you are actively focusing on what will give you the best result. Conversely, if you have got a good or bad result and have taken the time to Categorize your activity (Calendar or Task), then you will be able to comprehend where the result came from. This will enable you to repeat the good and, remove the bad over the ensuing period. In Calendar view: 1. Select File > Import and Export. [Alt + F + T]

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2. Click Next after each step: (Diagram 1) Export to a file > (Diagram 2) File type: Microsoft Excel > (Diagram 3) Export to a File: Calendar at the top of the list > (Diagram 4) Name your new Excel file and Browse to a storage folder location > OK.

1

2

3

4

3. (Diagram 5) Choose Map Custom Fields.

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4. (Diagram 6) Choose Clear Map button. Drag the fields you need to export to a text field from the left column and drop them on the right column: Subject, Start Time, End Time, Categories.

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5. (Diagram 7) Click OK > Finish. 6. Set a date range for the data to export: (i.e. from your last review until this one.) 7. Click OK.

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Improve your Spreadsheet for Presentation

1. Locate and open the exported Excel spreadsheet.

2. You will need to change the format of Start/End Times to get a meaningful duration. Select the Start Time and End Time columns, and right click. From the contextual menu, choose Format Cells. Choose Time in the Category column. Select a 24 hour time format and click OK. (e.g. 13:30:55)

(Note: If you do not have the Time in a 24 hour format, the following formulas will not work.)

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3. Select the Categories column, right click and from the contextual menu, choose Insert. Label it Duration.

4. Select the Duration column, right click and choose Format Cells.

5. Select Number on the Category column and 2 on Decimal place column > OK. 6. Select the first Duration cell and enter the following formula: “=” then type an Open Bracket then click into the first cell of End Time, type “-” click into the first cell of Start Time, then close brackets, then multiply by 24. (This converts time to a 24 hour clock). E.g. The formula should read = (C2–B2)*24. Press Enter.

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7. Click back into the first cell of Duration cell.



Use the fill handle at the bottom of the rectangle of the selected cell, drag the cursor down until you have copied the formula to the bottom of the data list. (Note: Double click to autofill to bottom of data.)

8. Delete any row which has no Category/KRA entered.

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Managing Multiple Categories

If you use multiple Categories for Calendar items (such as Key Client Management and Brand Positioning), all appear in one column. To get meaningful data for sorting, separate them into multiple columns. First, add any extra columns you need.

1. To separate the data, select the Categories column go to the Data tab > Text to Columns. [Alt + A + E]

2. In The Wizard that appears: Delimited > Next. If you use the tick boxes in Outlook, data is delimited by semi-colons. The preview area shows how the data will look, and gives you options for changing its format.

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3. Deselect the Tab option. Select the Semicolon option.

4. Your Categories now appear in separate columns. Finish.

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Now sort your data to make it easier to follow. As you want to extract time spent on each Category, you will need to sort the column into alphabetical order to group the Categories (check that your categories are spelt correctly so that they sort correctly). Deselect the Categories column and just select the Categories title. 5. Click Data > Sort. [Alt + A + S]

6. Select Categories from the Sort by drop-down list. Make sure My data has headers is ticked or your header will disappear into the data when it is sorted. 7. Click OK. The Categories are now sorted in alphabetical order.

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Finally, analyse your data. 1. Click Data > Subtotal. [Alt + A + B] 2. Tell the Subtotal dialogue box to add up the time you have spent on each category – i.e. use the Sum function in the ‘Duration’ column whenever the Category changes > OK.

3. You now have a spreadsheet like this, with a subtotal time for each category inserted into its own row.

4. To reduce the data to summaries, click the number 2 button in the upper left corner of the spreadsheet.

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5. To toggle the full data for each category on and off, click the + (expand) and – (collapse) signs in the left-hand bar.

To print the information, make sure your data will fit on one page width, then Print.

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Make a Chart of All your Calendar Details

To make a chart of the data collated by the Sub totals, you need to place the Category column to the left of the Duration column. 1. Select the Categories column, right click and choose Cut.

2. Right click the Duration column, from the contextual menu choose Insert Cut Cells. The Category column will now be to the left of the Duration column (if not, the chart will not be properly formed). 3. Sort your category column data from A – Z and Subtotal the data if you have not already done so.

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4. Select the Data to include in your Chart – but not the Grand Total as it will make your chart inaccurate.

5. On the Insert tab, click the Chart that you require. [Alt + N + C or N or E or A or D or O or K], [K] will bring up the window for Chart selection familiar to users of Excel 2003. When you click the Chart type button you will be given further sub-types. Choose the one you want.

A Chart of the type selected will appear on your spreadsheet.

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6. On the Chart Tools tab, you have under Design further options for formatting your Chart (Chart Layouts, Chart Styles, etc).

7. Choose between inserting the chart on a new spreadsheet or in your current one by clicking the Move Chart button.

8. The Layout tab will give further alternatives for formatting your Chart. 9. If all the Category labels are not displayed, go back and resize the Chart. The Data will then be clearly read.

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10. If you have already made a Chart and want to change the format, select the Chart and click on the Change Chart Type button. [Alt + JC + C] Choose a different Chart type > Click OK. Remember to use the Chart Layout section to format your Chart as required.

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Part 3 Using Outlook® in ways that you never imagined

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any businesses are sold on the idea, that installing a new customized software solution, will solve their business issues. They do this only to find, after investing heavily, that the underlying problem is unresolved.* The budget is severely reduced, and the problem remains. Many of these deployments fail at user level because the user training has been insufficient or, the solution did not help fix the problem for all the users involved. The good news is that the least expensive and most practical way of deciding whether a perceived problem can actually be solved by technology, is to use Microsoft Outlook as a low-risk intermediate step, before considering expensive specialised software. By using Outlook to initiate a change in working methods, you can get work flows and habits in place. This allows you to evaluate, whether or not stand-alone software will address the problem, and whether you can move ahead with confidence. Now that you understand Outlook, and how to use it for personal effectiveness, adding value to your department or organization, it is a small jump to understanding how it can also be used to handle a whole range of business applications. There are tremendous advantages when you use Outlook * See S. Gregor, W. Fernandez, D. Holthan, M. Martin, S. Stern, M. Vitale & G. Pratt 2004, Achieving Value from ict: Key Management Strategies, Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, ict Research Study, Canberra. 289

as a convenient and highly capable alternative to specialist applications. I will show you how to use it for project management, customer relations management and human resources management – and going through these uses, may give you some ideas of how to extend its use even further. Using Outlook this way, can save you from spending many thousands of dollars on specialist applications that are simply unaffordable for smaller organizations. Outlook handles these tasks so well without seeming to miss any important functions, that you may wonder if you should ever think about making a great investment in something that will only give a marginal advantage over the familiar tool that is already on your desktop. Using Outlook for these tasks, circumvents one of the major stumbling blocks of all specialist applications – people need to be trained on how to use them. As we are all a bit lazy, we only learn the parts of any software package that we routinely need to know, and tend to ignore the rest. For example, most people who use Outlook, Word or Excel all day, every day, actually only use a small part of their capabilities – when anything out of the ordinary needs to be done, all work stops while instructions are looked up in an online guide, or more likely, other employees are asked to help. For people who do not use these packages every day, it is almost impossible to retain any knowledge of it, and difficult to develop a high level of competency. The first few extended applications of Outlook that I will show 290

you, can run on a single computer so they are very easy to implement; the second group of applications require everyone in a team or workgroup to have access to the same information, which means creating Public Folders on a Microsoft Exchange Server.

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Use Outlook® to manage time sheet based remuneration

Marcel Tromp, Photographer.

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ere is another example of the benefit, to both employees and management, when everyone in an organization works to a Standard Operating Procedure, that improves their ability to get on with what is required. Most people dislike time-sheets and, modern organizations reimburse people in such different ways, that traditional paperbased time sheets can be an outdated concept. For example, at Huse Hill Associates, we can accommodate people who work in four distinct ways: Off Site: Some spend most of their time out in the marketplace, working with clients. They neither want, nor need, to attend the office – and requiring it would simply reduce their billable hours. Part Timers: Those finishing post-graduate degrees work around university commitments. 292

Return-to-Workforce: Those with younger children who work inside school hours. Full Timers: Working a normal 40 hour week. Given all of these variations, managing statutory compliance of wages and taxes should be complex, but it is quite simple as everyone uses Outlook and Calendars. At the end of each working day, everyone inserts an appointment in their Calendar to cover their working hours. This has their name and ‘Chargeable Hours’ as the subject line (i.e. Subject: Jim Huse, chargeable hours).

Each week, everyone who wants to be paid exports their Calendar to our paymaster: Select File > Import/Export a file. In the exported Excel spreadsheet, delete all appointment references without ‘chargeable’ in the subject column. Select File  > Send to > The spread­sheets are combined into one and emailed to the person who manages our remuneration. As everyone can view everyone else’s Calendar, the paymaster seldom has to ring anyone to resolve queries/issues – a look at their Calendar is generally sufficient. 293

Activate Tracking Documents

If your time has to be charged out and you have multiple projects on the go, you can use this functionality. The availability of this function depends on how your I.T. Department has set up your server. In Contact view: 1. Click Tools > Options. [Alt + T + O]

2. Click Preferences tab > Journal Options button. [ + J]

3. Check all the activities you want automatically recorded and tracked, and the Contacts for whom you want this done. Now when you go to the Activities button the selected options will be displayed.

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Use Outlook® to create your best impression at reception

Photograph Supplied by DHL Global Forwarding.

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magine being a receptionist – the first point of  contact for anyone who calls or visits.

There you are, out front on your own, answering calls all day with a smile and friendly tone that makes people feel welcome. Someone calls and asks to speak to, say, the accountant, who refuses to give you access to his/her Calendar. No matter how you try, the smile goes out of your voice, tipping off the client that there is some frustration – especially when there is no reply from the person’s desk phone and you have to guess where they are and when they will be available. There is no excuse. Viewing Multiple Calendars When every Calendar is shared, the receptionist can make a far more positive contribution to the organization’s success, by knowing the availability and location of each person who callers need to contact. If any information is private, it can be controlled by using the viewing options.

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Make Your Visitors Feel Welcome Have you ever walked in to an office for an appointment and before you had a chance to introduce yourself, the receptionist said, “Good morning, Mrs. Green… Mr. Smith is on his way.” Unless you’re a regular visitor, this is pretty rare, which is why it creates such a powerful impression. Usually, the receptionist calls the person you are meeting and mumbles your name (which they did not quite hear, but do not want to let on), or if they are a quick thinkers they will request (and read from) your business card. Let us change that. Let us say I have an appointment with you at 10am on Monday morning. If this will be our first appointment, open a new Contact for me – enter in general contact info and attach this to the appointment. Do this by dragging my record from your Contacts and dropping it on to the open Appointment. This puts a copy of the Contact into the text field of the next appointment. (See screenshot next page). Or, if this will be a one-off meeting, ensure my name and contact details are entered within the Appointment so that if, for any reason, the receptionist needs to contact me, they have the information they require. This also allows them to view your calendar and see who you are meeting with. If you are often interrupted by people or phone calls during your meetings, ensure you add a ‘Do not disturb’ note to the appointment text when the meeting is particularly important.

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Now, when I turn up for the meeting, the Receptionist can double click the appointment on your Calendar to see when/ where the meeting will take place, and click on the Contact Form for any other information. If there is a photograph, for example, I can be greeted by name. This is especially useful where easy recognition of a visitor is important. When everyone does this, the receptionist knows exactly how many people should be turning up for appointments throughout the day, and you can be instantly informed of their arrival. If the Receptionist has two monitors, and one contains all the shared calendars, anyone can be located quickly when there is a telephone query or if someone comes to the counter. Emergency Roll-Calls If you have an emergency evacuation, such as a fire, public calendars can be particularly useful. During the emergency, you can check for meetings that involve visitors on site so that you know who needs to be accounted for. Personnel If your organization has more employees than anyone can easily remember, simply set up a folder for Employee Contacts, take digital photographs of everyone and insert them into the Contacts. Personnel can use these to refresh their memories before interviews, and after-hours security on reception can use them for identity checks. The ability to include digital photographs into a Contact is particularly useful on sensitive sites, where you want to record the presence of every visitor and, have them carry ID. It is really a simple matter for the receptionist to open a Contact in Outlook, snap a digital photograph, paste it in, and print an 297

Setting Up Multiple Calendars to Manage Assets or Resources

In Calendar view: 1. Select New > Folder.

2. In the Create New Folder dialogue box, name the new Calendar and choose Calendar Items from the Folder contains drop-down list. Create as many Calendars as you need for reception and/or assets.

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3. A list of the calendars you create are shown under My Calendars on the left. Click (to tick) and display the ones you want to see.

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Use Outlook® to improve Staff Retention

Photograph Supplied by DHL Global Forwarding.

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rganizations with some of the best records for retaining key staff, tend to be those that are actively involved in the personal and professional development of their people. People respond to recognition and the most direct recognition you can give, actively showing interest, invokes the ‘Hawthorne Effect’* which is where people begin to achieve through the stimulation of you showing genuine interest in them and what they are doing. The modern work force is increasingly transient because of factors like the Y generation, social conditioning, and society’s expectation that there is an issue if someone stays in the same role longer than three years. Pressures to move, for the sake of it, can drive people to decisions they may later regret, and leave you the challenge of employing a replacement and getting them up to speed – a process that absorbs a lot of your time over the three months * Richard Gillespie, Manufacturing Knowledge: A History of the Hawthorne Experiments, Cambridge University Press, May, 1993. 300

it generally takes for someone to reach the point of becoming an “economic unit”. Having discussed KRA's, KPI's, and how few job descriptions accurately reflect what needs to be done, you should also understand that people generally move through four levels of competency: Level 1: Do not know the job well and not an economic unit. With your patience and a well-written job description they move to: Level 2: Doing the job with less supervision but consciously thinking about many actions impedes delivering their full capability. Level 3: The sweet spot. No longer consciously thinking about the job at hand, and very effective. A good economic unit. You need to keep people at this level, using some elements of level two, such as new duties or responsibilities to keep them stimulated and extended. Level 4: No-one likes to stagnate and, after a while, an unchanging role can start to grate. Mental energy goes into other activities which may not be for the good of the organization. Managing Staff Effectively. • Open a person’s Contact and record everything you know about them, including hobbies. • Invite them to a meeting using Calendar  > Invite Attendees and ask about their life; what they hope to achieve in their existing role; what other roles or duties they’d like in future; what career or personal development they’d like to undertake.

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• Establish that you would like to be part of the process by helping them to set objectives. • Suggest you meet at appropriate times and make another appointment to keep the person on track. After the meeting, write a Journal entry using the Present/ Discussion/Action Points format. email the journal to them and begin supporting their development. • In the text box of the person’s Contact, list the opportunities they want to pursue.

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Use Outlook® to manage Assets & Resources

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Photograph Supplied by DHL Global Forwarding.

t is amazing what you discover when you electronically document the use of an asset. Before Vodafone New Zealand built a new head office to accommodate staff from five other buildings, they asked managers to record how much time they actually spent at their desk, utilising their 9 square metres of heated, cooled and electrified space. It turned out that, during the working day, 47% of the capital cost was not used at all. The need to Manage Resources Effectively Pool vehicles, data projectors, board room, meeting rooms and manufacturing machinery all have a fixed asset cost. The more they are used, the better their return on investment. If someone, who needs to use a resource, has to find someone else to reserve it, you’re paying two people to work on the decision. If the asset’s controller is in a meeting, off site, or on leave, a standin is unlikely to understand the process very well, so stress levels are raised. This is hardly the best use of people’s time or energy. When the asset is needed for a customer, the window 303

of opportunity can be brief. If you have to go away and find someone to book a demonstration room, and then play musical phones while handling other duties plus re-establihsing contact with the customer, the opportunity can easily be lost. That is a really bad outcome. You can imagine the issue if a pool vehicle is unavailable. No one is clear whether it is booked or not and, there is no transparency of the system. Misplacing some equipment, or not being able to easily book a room, can make an organization appear incompetent. This often raises doubts in a customer’s mind, and can result in business being lost. If you’re discussing a large order with a customer who requires a certain delivery date, you should be able to instantly look up the availability of needed machinery and invoke genuine urgency: ‘order now and we can deliver by your required date’. Alternatively: ‘I can book the demo room for the day your key customer/user is in town’. 304

North Shore Toyota have found that some of the biggest issues companies experience, is managing their vehicle fleets are: • Determining how many and what type of vehicles are required; • What method they should use to finance the vehicles; • How to maximise the value of the vehicles. The vehicle use may vary. From one which will complete high intercity mileage over its life, to a small run about vehicle undertaking short local trips. Each of these situations requires a different monitoring and finance solution, to maximise the return on investment and minimise cost. If you have already purchased vehicles, you need to start monitoring their use, to establish whether you have the correct vehicle requirement. Microsoft Outlook has the functionality to validate that the vehicles you have purchased matches their use to provide the maximum return. Use Outlook Calendars to Track Assets Simply give every pooled asset – from vehicles, meeting rooms, data projectors, the boardroom through to production machinery – its own Contact (for details of warrantees, service intervals) and its own Calendar on which people who have authority to use these assets can make bookings. By using Calendars like this, a few keystrokes (File >  Import/ Export to a file > Comma Separated Values (You can open this in Excel)) allows you to print spreadsheet, detailing who uses them, when, what for, and how often. This allows the business to assess the financial return from that expenditure. The more it is used, the more you maximise the return on investment – and can more readily justify additional expenditure. 305

Setting Up Multiple Calendars to Manage Assets or Resources

In Calendar view: 1. Select New > Folder.

2. In the Create New Folder dialogue box, name the new Calendar and choose Calendar Items from the Folder contains drop-down list. Create as many Calendars as you need for reception and/or assets.

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3. A list of the calendars you create are shown under My Calendars on the left. Click (to tick) and display the ones you want to see.

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Use Outlook® for Project Management Collaboration

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ost of us accept the idea of being involved with projects on top of our normal day-to-day workload. However, if we speak to software people, they’ll try to convince us that our projects will probably fail unless we invest in a specialised and expensive Project Management application. Wrong. Success is not the result of technology but of the way people on your team behave. The people we want on our team* I have explained how conative behaviours give everyone a Natural Working Style©.  At this point, we need to understand how these have an impact on the success or failure of any team. When I put a team together (whether to extend my house or come up with an innovative solution for a client), I start with the knowledge, that I do not want or need a team comprised entirely of people with whom I feel a natural affinity. The reason is that people we gravitate towards in a social sense, invariably have conative profiles that are very similar to our own – and a team comprised of virtual clones of yourself will approach, see and understand problems in the same way you do. This sort of ‘Group Think’ explains why Lemmings all jump off the same cliff without any of them seeing what lies ahead. In fact, a group of clones is so unlikely to come up with answers that are fundamentally different to your own, that you may well end up feeling that a project would be completed much 308

Marcel Tromp, Photographer.

faster and more successfully, if you skipped all the team meetings and simply told everyone what to do. Since this defeats the purpose of having a team in the first place, we need to deliberately assemble a team that is not limited or confined by our own perceptions and thinking. It goes without saying, that your team will include people with relevant industry experience, covering the core disciplines needed to assist the group as it works through finance, technology, marketing, engineering, etc. At the same time, it can be a good idea to include someone who is not in your line of work. Näivety is a surprisingly useful attribute to have in the group, as someone who asks naive questions can often provide a magic answer. There is a famous example of this: a woman office worker watching men on a building site, commented that it was dumb to drag heavy pieces of timber from a woodpile to a saw bench just to cut off a little piece; why not take the saw to the woodpile? The builder’s reaction was ‘how stupid; the saw bench weighs five times as much as the piece of timber’. However, the näive question set someone thinking, and that is how the circular saw was invented. 309

Achieving a balance of conative instincts Even though I have become pretty good at predicting people’s conative instincts, I have found that there is no substitute for using the first meeting of prospective team members for Instinctive DriveTM Profiling. If you do not have Instinctive DriveTM Profiling, or do not have the luxury of selecting your final team according to their natural working styles, you should still be aware of what makes everyone tick – what they bring to a group, how they are likely to interact, the inter-personal issues you may have to deal with – and the strengths/weaknesses of the group as a whole. Verifier: We want the group to include people who take ownership for properly researching the problem. However, we do not want data gathering to become so obsessive that it holds up progress in other areas. This means, we also need people whose instincts are to proceed with very little data. Completer: Dogged attention to detail and routine is usually critical but, in order to prevent other inputs from being stifled, it needs to be balanced by someone who resists repetitive routine. Improviser: Obviously, a high level of creative thinking is essential but, this needs to be balanced with the discipline to work through potentially great ideas, in detail from every angle, in order to locate any pitfalls. Authenticator: We want people to initiate in this mode, for their ability, to find a way through complex practical constraints. We also need people who resist, in this mode, to clearly see solutions without being blinded by practical restraints. Engineers who initiate in Implementor mode will invent a better can opener when a tear tab is required. 310

Balancing the Structure of a Work Group ‘Initiates’ in this mode (level 5–9):

‘Resists’ in this mode (level 1–4):

Verify:

Prevents being bogged Drives the group into down by challenging deep information the need for more gathering and research. information.

Complete:

Brings structure to the group.

Improvise:

Contributes a high level Ensures stability to of creative thinking. keep the group on

Thinks through physical/mechanical Authenticate: requirements and quality focus.

Brings flexibility to the structure

Visualises without being handicapped by details. Abstract thinker.

The skill of leading a balanced team A team in which everyone’s natural working style is balanced by the natural working style of someone else, may seem like asking for a war. However, managing these inherent conflicts requires nothing more than normal leadership skills to mediate between people, who may not at first, be a comfortable fit with one another. By understanding natural working styles, you have an immense advantage in the essential leadership task of creating an environment, where people of disparate skills and behaviours, can all work at their talent and abilities. In the past, you may have found yourself trying to resolve conflicts without knowing why they occurred, and perhaps trying to eliminate a team member who did not fit in, despite appearing to have the skills you wanted. Now, you can resolve conflicts by encouraging everyone to tolerate the different needs of people with different talents. The film ‘The Commitments’ is a classic example of this: the singer had a 311

great idea to form a band, but as the band never worked to identify and manage its differences, the result was chaos and disharmony. The Five Stages of Team Dynamics

Forming Initial goodwill within the group is short-lived; conflict quickly arrives. Storming This is the most powerful stage, as it either drives the team together or apart. Here, you need to set time aside to discuss and understand what each person’s natural working style will bring to the group. Norming People identify the part they play in the group dynamics. Performing Here, communications play a big part, and this is where MS Outlook and the use of Public Folders, comes in. Adjourning The project is over but team members remain in (social) contact.

Getting the project started Any Project Management application must perform three essential roles. First, it must have the ability to index and track a wide range of activities, and present them in a variety of formats. Second, it must have the ability to present some form of critical path which is, or can be, broken down into achievable steps. Third, it must allow people, who are assigned tasks, to make progress reports so that each step can be ticked off against the inevitable series of deadlines. 312

As we have seen, Outlook is a wiz at all these functions. So, unless you have so many projects, of such complexity that you cannot function without specially-trained operators running highly specialised applications on more powerful computers than you need for word processing or spreadsheets, you will find that the high cost of specialised applications far outweighs the minimal benefits. This is especially true when you consider that Outlook is already running on every computer in your organization and everyone already knows how to use it. Even better, when everyone is on the same Exchange Server, the whole team is linked together with the ability to share messages, contacts, documents and other items. And since you can run most projects without leaving the application, all that is needed is a little mental gear-change in order to use the now-familiar tools a little differently. The fundamental idea is to consider that an Outlook Contact does not necessarily have to be a person, it can just as easily be a project. • To enable everyone on your team to share information, the Contact needs to be kept in a ‘Public’ folder on a server. • Instead of recording personal details, we record project details, including dedicated email addresses, contacts for people associated with the project and graphics. • All relevant documents can be associated with the Contact/ Project. • The text field is used to break the project down into its component parts, each of which can be assigned or delegated to a person, department or company as Tasks (including all relevant briefing materials). 313

• Task reporting makes it easy to track progress and ensure deadlines are met. • The People Pane may give you an overview of recent emails and social updates. • Exporting to Excel becomes the basis of your written reports. Notes on Managing the First Team Meeting

• You need people to buy-in to the project so run the meeting around ‘what is in it for me’, and address the needs of each person. • Get agreement/commitment of how the project will run and when the group will meet. • Consider nominating yourself as the note-taker who will write up and distribute the minutes: whoever holds the pen holds the power; there are points you may need to expand, while others may need to be acknowledged but de-emphasised. • Notes need to reflect your published agenda and be written as a Journal in the format of: Present:................................................................ Topics Discussed:............................................... Action Points: ........................... (owner’s name) ◆◆ In your own self-interest, end the meeting by giving each person a couple of minutes to discuss how they feel about the meeting/project off the record. If you do not do this with the whole group, it happens after the meeting, and then the meetingafter-the-meeting becomes the main driver of the group, which is not at all what you want. 314

◆◆ Mind-Mapping can be a powerful group tool when used in conjunction with the four Action Modes. - Invite those who are uncomfortable with an idea (generally Fact Finders) to have fun writing as many objections as they can on a white board. - Once you have the facts written in black, then hand out the red pens and invite people to record problems on the mind map. - Invite the gung-ho (generally Quick Starts) to write solutions beside the problems in green. - Invite Implementors to envisage how these might work. - Invite Fact Finders to act as auditors. ◆◆ To help a disparate group hold a civilised meeting, consider using de Bono’s six insights - Essentially the four conative behaviours plus two emotional states. Do this with a white board and four colored markers: Black pen– To record the facts Red pen– To record problems alongside facts Green pen– For solutions to problems Blue pen– Link common solutions and number them in importance.

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Create a Contact for a Project

In Contacts view: 1. Click File > New > Contact. 2. Select Categories > Master Category List. Add a ‘Projects’ category to the list. 3. Click OK. 4. Fill out the Contact dialogue box like this: Full Name: The project name. (i.e. Project Alpha) Job Title: Leave blank. Company: ‘Projects’. File As: Select the Project Name. Photo: Why not? Email: If the project has its own address. Text Field: Record the main elements of the project. Contacts: Everyone involved. Categories: Projects.

5. Click Save  and  Close.

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Set up a Meeting to Organize the Team

Open an appointment in Outlook for a suggested time – an hour is usually right for a first meeting. 1. Invite attendees: insert the names of people you want on your team. 2. Text box: write a general description of the problem/opportunity and the talents you seek. Doing this in an open forum tends to create status and mystique which can engage egos and increase your chances of attracting the right people. 3. The text box should include an agenda which allocates time to: -

Introducing yourself and the topic. Holding a general discussion about the topic and the group. Designating team roles (chairperson, timekeeper, secretary or note-taker, as well as any functions based on specific skills).

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Set up a Meeting to Consider or Review One Part of the Project

With the project’s Contact Form open: 1. In the text field, select the project element to review. [Ctrl + C] (Copy the project element.) 2. Open a New Appointment Form. [Ctrl + Shift + A]

3. In the New Appointment box, click on the subject line. [Ctrl + V] (Paste the project element into the subject line.) 4. Fill out any other Appointment details. 5. Invite Attendees button to invite others.

6. Click Save and Close.

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Turn a Part or Element of the Project into a Task

With the team established and responsibilities allocated, turn each part of the project into tasks you can assign. With the Project’s Contact Form open: 1. Highlight the project element in the text field and Copy it. [Ctrl + C]

2. Click the Assign Task.

3. In the Task Dialogue box, click the Subject line and Paste the element into it. [Ctrl + V] 4. Complete the Task details.

5. Click Save and  Close. 6. Select the Assign Task button to delegate it to someone else. 319

Set Up a Meeting, or Create a Task, for an Entire Project 

1. Use your right mouse to drag the Contact (i.e. Project Alpha) onto the Calendar or Task folder or icon.

Choose Copy Here as Appointment with Attachment from the contextual menu. 2. Complete the Appointment or Task details.

3. Invite Attendees [Alt + H + I] to invite people to a meeting or Assign Task button [Alt + H + I] to delegate the task. 4. Click Save  and  Close.

4. Click Save  and  Close.

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Create Journal Entries for the Entire Project

In Contact view: 1. Right click on the Contact for the Project. 2. Click New Journal Entry for Contact.

3. Complete the Journal entry. 4. Press [F7] (Spell Check). 5. Click Save  and  Close. [Alt + H + AV]

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Link Email to a Project that Does Not Have its Own Email Address

Outgoing mail (not yet sent): 1. Click the arrow in the bottom right hand corner of the Tracking segment of the Ribbon. [Alt + P + OP]

2. Click the Contacts button. [+ C] 3. Select the Contact set up for the project (i.e. Project Alpha). 4. Click OK  and  Close.

4. Click OK  and  Close. Mail already received or sent: 1. Right click the email – from the contextual menu, choose Message Options  >  Contacts. 2. Select the Contact (e.g. Project Alpha). 3. Click Apply  > OK  and  Close. 322

View Interactions within the Project

With the Contact open: 1. Click the Activities button. 2. Double click any activity to read the details.

Customize the Project Activities View

With the Contact open: 1. Click the Activities button. 2. Right click the ‘Subject’ line. 3. Click Field Chooser and/or Format Column to set up custom fields that you require. 4. Drag surplus fields to the recycle bin.

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Use Outlook® to manage Customer Relationships Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business philosophy, not a process, so it is important to understand what you want to achieve before you buy wildly expensive, specialist software that is designed to perform functions that most small-to-medium enterprises can handle more easily and economically in Outlook. In this sense, software is simply an ‘enabler’. The easiest way to understand the role of CRM, is to recognise that your organization’s most valuable operational asset is the knowledge that allows you to solve customer problems more satisfactorily than your competition. However, this knowledge is often so widely distributed that it is not available to the organization as a whole – probably, a number of employees each carry small parts of it in their heads. This situation makes the organization vulnerable. If one person handles day-to-day dealings with a particular customer, and becomes ill or quits, the historical knowledge needed to keep the customer satisfied is lost. (You may also have individuals who jealously guard knowledge to increase or defend their perceptions of personal power.) The idea behind formally managing relationships with customers, is to ensure that knowledge which belongs to the organization is documented, in a form that is freely available to anyone who needs it. 324

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A second benefit, is that it allows senior managers to monitor how each customer is being managed and, to step in if there is any difficulty. In other words, Client Relationship Management is really a matter of setting up a system that allows the left hand to see what the right hand is doing. Standard Operating Procedures Every successful organization needs SOP for recording their customer interactions and storing information. This allows anyone who deals with the customer to be fully briefed and deliver a consistent experience for each customer. The first consideration is that your sales people only create revenue when they are in front of customers. For any system to add value, it must increase their time with clients and reduce time in the office doing paper work, or in the factory sorting out problems with delivery or misunderstandings about requirements. Consequently, all reports on client contacts (meetings, visits, phone calls) should be documented in a very simple manner and format, in a way that is easily accessible to everyone. The place to start is by setting up a Public Folder on the Exchange Server for Client Contacts. Let us see how this works for the sales person who handles day-to-day customer contacts. 326

Increasing your time, in front of customers, includes minimising time wasted in needless activity. Putting all appointments on your Outlook Calendar (so you and your boss can track progress) should eliminate any need to show up at the office first thing each morning to pick up assignments and, prove you are on the job. Instead of wasting an hour in peak-hour traffic getting to work, and another 40 minutes fighting your way through more traffic to your first meeting, go directly from home to your first appointment. After any client meeting, you need to make notes ASAP in the standard format of Present/Discussion/Action Points. Do this before your next appointment, while every­thing (including customer-speak) is fresh in your mind. If you wait much longer, the customer’s actual words tend to merge with your own thinking. Back at your computer, you open the customer Contact and: Transcribe your meeting notes into Journal entries which you can email. e.g. a confirmation to the customer about what was discussed and agreed, and to anyone else who needs to know.

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Automating your call reports

When you leave the client’s premises, with your head full of information, the best time to capture it is now. If you use a notebook computer with mobile internet, you can handle the office work from your car. If you have a wireless card, you can take your next break at a WiFi hotspot. My favorite, however, is the smart phone. • Use a smart phone to dictate your call report in the standard Present/Discussion/Action Points format. • Email the report to your office to be transcribed into a typed Journal. • At the office open the email, and paste the .wav file into the Client Contact Meeting Journal. • When you next visit the client, refresh your memory by replaying the .wav file as you drive (or re-read the transcript). If the Action Points require you to produce quotes, delivery schedules, financial information, etc., turn all of them into Outlook tasks. If it is appropriate to delegate, send these Tasks to appropriate team members, referencing your detailed Journal entries if they need more information. You will need to check that all tasks are complete before your next meeting with the client – turn this into a task for yourself. Make an appointment in your Calendar for your next visit.

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Organizational Advantages Clearly, when your entire organization uses Outlook in this way, a manager can simply look at peoples’ Calendars and Contact Journals, to see what everyone is doing and whether they’d be more productive doing something else. Ultimately, KRA's and activity focused on sales determine the outcome but management needs to keep an eye on things so that any needed intervention can be made earlier, rather than later. Calendars document a sales person’s activity level, while Contact Journals document the quality of interaction. When you look at a sales person’s calendar, for the entire five-day working week, you see how much time is spent in front of clients generating revenue. Converting Prospects into Customers and Customers into Advocates The reality in almost every field, is that several competitors provide very similar products or services, at a very similar price. In a competitive world, the most important differentiation between you and the competition, is your reputation for being a better organization to deal with. That is, the only long-term advantage your organization can have is that, in the widest possible context of the word, you offer a better service. Your first sale, to any new customer is always the most difficult and, typically involves identifying a prospect who is nurtured over time. The reason for this is that a first sale actually requires you to sell two things because you cannot sell a product or service unless you can first sell your organization as a credible supplier. 329

Your greatest asset in converting a prospect into a customer, is knowledge. We can take it for granted that you have a far better knowledge of your own industry and its products or services than the prospect. However, it is also a good bet that your regular dealings with existing customers – the prospect’s competitors – have also given you a wealth of knowledge, that allows you to view the prospect’s industry from a different perspective than someone who works in it. When you make an initial contact, this knowledge should allow you to speak intelligently about the prospect’s business, while also assessing it: the type of problems that are sure to emerge and when, and the range of solutions your organization can provide. If, for example, the prospect is not in the market for a computer-controlled plasma cutter right now, the age of the existing plant and volume of business should let you make an educated guess as to when or if the investment will need to be made. If your assessment tells you that you will be unlikely to do business with the prospect for some time, view this as a good sign. Getting involved early, gives you a far better opportunity than being called in at the point where price and supply are the only remaining issues. If you only get in on the act at a later point, you will need to offer a significantly better deal than a competitor, who has taken the time to patiently work through the issues with the prospect.

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The Ladder of Loyalty Advocate Over several decades, this has proved to Client be the most easily understood business Customer model. All efforts are directed at movProspect ing people upwards, one rung at a time, Suspect often using incentives. Suspects: those who could become customers. Identify them by exporting your customer Contact file to Excel and building a profile of your prime target (industry, location, size, title, for example). Then direct your advertising toward non-customers who fit the profile. Those who respond become… Prospects: these show interest in what you have to offer by visiting your store or web site, calling your 0800 number or asking for a quote. Sell them one product or service and they become … Customers: those who have bought a product or service from you. If your organization meets or exceeds expectations, you can look forward to repeat sales which makes them … Clients: those who regularly buy products from you and possibly consider you their main (but not sole) supplier. If you can get all their business, they become … Advocates: those who make you their exclusive supplier typically rationalise their decision by singing your praises. Their word-of-mouth makes them the best and most cost-effective sales people you could possibly have on your team.

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Outlook helps you manage this very efficiently • Open a Contact for the prospect in a public folder on the server. • Invest time understanding the client’s or prospect’s needs, and document them in the text box. Record any/ all future opportunities you think might arise. If the customer has special requirements – such as special pricing or delivery requirements – document them in an Excel spread sheet and attach the spread sheet to the text box. • Write a Journal entry for the contact in Present/Discussion/ Action Points format while the prospect’s words are fresh in your mind. • Enter an appointment for a follow-up visit/call on your calendar and email it to the prospect (or the calendar of whoever will handle the follow-up), or turn it into a task with the follow-up date as the deadline. You now have five great advantages: 1. Before making any subsequent calls, you – or anyone else in your organization – can quickly review the Contact notes. There is simply no excuse for giving any prospect or client an impression that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. 2. As you must provide a solution to the client’s or prospect’s needs, in the form of a product or service, you can forward the Journal to marketing, production, warehousing, 332

accounts, or whoever else will help to deliver the solution. The solution may require joint actions, from different sections of your organization, which you will have to coordinate by assigning tasks. 3. Journal entries can be emailed to the client or prospect for confirmation of what was discussed and agreed at the meeting. This can be critical when decisions are taken involving expenditure. 4. When a decision is made to investigate a purchase in detail, or to proceed with one, you will need to manage the buying/delivery process. This is where companies, that do not, manage their internal communications effectively often come unstuck. Your Journal entries ensure that design, engineering, manufacturing, ordering, purchasing, logistics and finance all work from the same information. 5. Once a customer has possession of the product or service, and moves past the honeymoon phase, your continuing success in retaining and developing them as a client, revolves around how well the product/service meets their current and future needs. Unless your product/service has some future potential/capacity it will quickly fall behind the customer’s needs, leading to poor ‘post-purchase sentiments’ and, they will not deliver new customers through word of mouth.

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Create a Contact for a Prospect

In Contacts view: 1. Click File > New > Contact. 2. Select Categories > Master Category List. Add a ‘Projects’ category to the list. 3. Click OK. 4. Fill out the Contact dialogue box like this: Full Name: The project name. (i.e. Project Alpha) Job Title: Leave blank. Company: ‘Projects’. File As: Select the Project Name. Photo: Why not? Email: If the project has its own address. Text Field: Record the main elements of the project. Contacts: Everyone involved. Categories: Projects.

5. Click Save  and  Close.

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Set up a Meeting for a Prospect or Customer

Open an appointment in Outlook for a suggested time. An hour is usually the right amount of time for the first meeting. 1. Invite attendees: insert the names of people you want on your team. 2. Text box: write a general description of the problem/opportunity and the talents you seek. Doing this, in an open forum, tends to create status and mystique. This process engages egos and increase your chances of attracting the right people. 3. The text box should include an agenda which allocates time to: • Introducing yourself and the topic. • Holding a general discussion about the topic and the group. • Designating team roles (chairperson, timekeeper, secretary or note-taker, as well as any functions based on specific skills).

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Part 4 Outlook® Set-ups, Shortcuts and Additions using public folders

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Extending the use of Outlook when you are connected to a Microsoft Exchange Server

T

he following uses of Outlook mimic specialist software packages that are designed to be used by a team, work group or entire organization. This can only happen if everyone has access to the same information and this, in turn, can only happen if the data concerned resides on a server.

When you create Public folders on a Microsoft Exchange Server, you can share contacts, messages, documents, and other items, with people on your team, yet control who has access to them, and who can add, change or amend any file. (Public folders also contain folders for news groups, where you can read and post messages and, allow you to moderate discussions.) The first step is to make sure that the Server Administrator sets permissions (or creates required folders) that allow you to create Public folders.

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Set up Public Folders on a MS Exchange Server

In Outlook: 1. Click on Go > Folder > Public Folders. (The list appears on the left hand Folder Bar.)

2. Expand Public Folders. This contains two sub-folders: Favorites (folders you use often) and All Public Folders. (Internet News Groups and existing Public folders.)

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3. Right click the folder where you want to keep your new Public folder and choose New Folder from the contextual menu.

4. In the Create New Folder dialogue box: Name the new folder and use the drop down list to select the type of items you will create. (To share messages: Mail And Post Items; to share contacts: Contact Items.)

5. To change where the folder is kept, choose another parent folder from Select where to place the folder. 6. Click OK. 339

Configuring Folder Properties

1. Right click a folder and choose Properties from the contextual menu.

2. In the dialogue box: Name: If you need to change the folder name at any time, right click it in the folder list and choose Rename. Description: Optional description for the folder. (Only displayed in the Properties dialogue box.) When posting to this folder: select a form (drop-down list) to use for adding new items – the Outlook default (IMP.Post) is based on folders. To use a different form, click Forms in the drop down list and select from the Choose Form dialogue box.

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Automatically Generate Microsoft Exchange Views: Gives folder access to MS Exchange users. Folder Size: Click to view the storage space used by the folder. (Note: the General tab includes options you can change for an Outlook folder but not for a Public one. (Show Number of Unread Items and Show Total Number of Items.))

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Adding Commands to the Quick Access Toolbar

To add commonly used commands to your Quick Access Toolbar, open a new form in each Outlook section. 1. Click on the down arrow found on right end of the Quick Access Toolbar.

2. Select More Commands from the popup menu.

3. In the Choose commands from drop down menu choose All Commands.

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4. Select the command required, e.g. Print. 5. Click Add.

6. While you are in this menu, select any other useful commands. Click the Add button each time. Beware that the resulting toolbar will not display on multiple lines. Therefore, select carefully just those that are the most useful. E.g. Print, Move to Folder, Save As. 7. Click OK. You can also add any commands from the Ribbon onto the Quick Access Toolbar. 1. Right click the command required 2. Click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. The command will appear as a small icon on the Toolbar.

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Placing the Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon

The Quick Access Toolbar may be placed below the Ribbon if you find that this is the way you work better. 1. Click on the down arrow beside the Quick Access Toolbar. 2. Select Show Below the Ribbon.

Using Access Keys on the Ribbon

As mentioned before, Microsoft has grouped the commands for your common actions into groups. Each of the groups is further grouped on Ribbons that have the appearance of the old index files. In other words, each Ribbon has a tab which names the overall category of the groups. On each tab there is a variety of Commands for formatting, layout, etc, which were previously found on the drop down menus. You can quickly use a variety of shortcuts to access these Commands by pressing a few keys. The toolbars have been replaced with a Ribbon containing Commands. Every Command on the Ribbon can be accessed by using two to four keystrokes.

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So, within an opened Email, Appointment, Task, or Contact Form, 1. Press the Alt key and hold down. The Key Tips appear. Key Tips are displayed over each Command available in the current view (boxes with letters appear on the Ribbon). The Key Tips will allow you to choose commands from the Quick Access Toolbar as well as allowing you to move between tabs.

2. Still holding down the Alt key, press the key corresponding to the hint. E.g. [AM] In this way you can move from one tab to another and also access the commands. Each form has a home page – the main tab – and this page has the letter ‘H’ assigned to it. To access commands on the main page, hold down. [Alt + H]

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For an example, if you wish to add the Bcc box to a message, 1. Press and release the Alt key. 2. Press and release P. 3. Press and release B. You will have gone from the Message tab on the Message Form to the Options tab and then selected the Bcc option. You may find that adding this command to the Quick Access Toolbar is more useful to you. The Access Keys will be given as they are used in each section of the book. (Note: If you want more space, the Ribbon can be minimized temporarily by double clicking the selected tab.) To maximise, double click the tab again. (Note: For Menu Bar tab shortcuts press and release the [ALT] key but to select form or file option shortcuts hold down the [ALT] key while pressing the desired shortcut letter.)

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Keyboard Shortcuts

While setting up an Appointment, you may realise that you need more information from other people, or need to set yourself or someone else a Task. You can quickly move to a new Task Form or Email Form by using 2 or 3 keys. Below are the most useful keyboard shortcuts in Outlook. Keyboard Shortcuts to change views: [Ctrl + 1]: “go to” Mail. [Ctrl + 2]: “go to” Calendar. [Ctrl + 3]: “go to” Contacts. [Ctrl + 4]: “go to” Tasks. [Ctrl + 5]: “go to” Notes. [Ctrl + 6]: “go to” Folder List. [Ctrl + 7]: “go to” Shortcuts. [Ctrl + 8]: “go to” Journal. [Ctrl + 9]: “go to” Folder.

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More Keyboard Shortcuts: [Ctrl + N]: Brings up a new form in the view you are in (Message in Mail; Appointment in Calendar, etc.). [Ctrl + R]: To reply to a message. [Ctrl + Shift + M]: Brings up a New Message Form, no matter what view you are in. [Ctrl + Shift + C]: Brings up a New Contact Form, no matter what view you are in. [Ctrl + Shift + Q]: Brings up a New Meeting Request form, no matter what view you are in. [Ctrl + Shift + A]: Brings up a New Appointment Form, no matter what view you are in. [Ctrl + Shift + K]: Brings up a New Task Form, no matter what view you are in. [Ctrl + Shift + U]: Brings up a New Task Request Form, no matter what view you are in. [Ctrl + Shift + H]: Create a New Microsoft Document. [Ctrl + G]: Go to a Date. [Ctrl + Alt + J]: Mark message as not Junk. [Ctrl + O]: Open a message. [Ctrl + F]: Forward. [Ctrl + Alt + F]: Forward as an attachment. [Ctrl + D]: Delete. [Ctrl + Q]: Mark as Read. [Ctrl + Enter or Alt + S]: Send.

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[Alt + 0]: Show 10 days on the Calendar. [Alt + 1]: Show 1 day on the Calendar. [Alt + 2]: Show 2 days on the Calendar. [Alt + 3]: Show 3 days on the Calendar. [Alt + 4]: Show 4 days on the Calendar. [Alt + 5]: Show 5 days on the Calendar. [Alt + 6]: Show 6 days on the Calendar. [Alt + 7]: Show 7 days on the Calendar. [Alt + 8]: Show 8 days on the Calendar. [Alt + 9]: Show 9 days on the Calendar. Keyboard Shortcuts common to all Applications (Including Outlook): (Note: To use hold the Control key while pressing desired shortcuts allocated letter key.) [Ctrl + A]: To “Select All” text. [Ctrl + C]: To “Copy” the selected text for pasting. [Ctrl + X]: To “Cut” the selected text for text for pasting or deleting. [Ctrl + V]: To “Paste” the selected copied or cut text. [Ctrl + Z]: To “Undo” the previous move or entry. [F7]: To “Spell Check” all Microsoft documents, Messages or Journals. [Ctrl + Backspace]: Erases a whole word at a time, instead of a letter. [Ctrl + Alt + C]: Inserts copyright symbol. [Ctrl + Alt + R]: Inserts the registered trademark symbol. [Ctrl + Arrow up or down]: Selects an entire paragraph.

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Terms Used in this Book

To save time explaining each time what the following terms mean when used in the book, we have listed them and their meanings below. Left click (Click): Where you use the Left mouse button to select something. This is the default button to use. Drag...to: Means use your left mouse button to select an item, drag it to where it needs to go, and then release the mouse to drop it into its new position. Most actions involve clicking the left hand mouse button, which often means going to the Ribbon to make a selection. Right click: Where right click is recommended, clicking the right button produces a 'pop-up' contextual menu, with options relating to what you are doing. This is often quicker and more convenient. Right click Drag...to: When you drag and drop with the right mouse, the contextual menu gives you options such as copy or move.

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You already have the tools you need to realise your full potential. At present you may be only using a fraction of the business capability of your existing tools. Jim explains why anyone who uses Microsoft Outlook only for email is missing most of the magic. Outlook is a complete set of office tools (calendars, to-do lists, journals, contacts and mail) that allow you to concentrate on achieving the things you’re employed to do.

In this book Jim shows you how to • Be more effective in your role knowing about the familiar tools of Outlook or to run an entire business. • Have insights into improving your own personal effectiveness and use Outlook to document your results • Go home feeling good about what you have achieved at work • Have better work life balance and reduce work stress levels • Use the full business capability of your existing tools • Become a more valued team member for your organisation This book will save you thousands of dollars by showing you how to use Microsoft Outlook instead of expensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and/or Project management software. ... I can increase my productivity dramatically. No longer do I get bogged down in details that don’t relate to my specific role... - Jan Ferguson, Director - Customer and Partner Experience at Microsoft NZ ... My latest investment was before the Christmas holidays, I gave all my managers a copy of the book... 352

- Brian Broom, Managing Director, DHL Global Forwarding (NZ) Ltd.