Friday 26 July 2013

Book ~ "The Essentials of Business Etiquette: How to Greet, Eat, and Tweet Your Way to Success" (2013) Barbara Pachter

From Goodreads ~ The trifecta of business success! An expert in the field explains how to master three basic but commonly difficult situations requiring proper business etiquette.

"The Essentials of Business Etiquette" offers 101 crucial etiquette tips for improving behavior when greeting, eating, and managing social media with customers, partners, coworkers, supervisors, and in other business relationships. Pachter covers such topics as distributing business cards, using the right profile photos on social media, email and smartphone etiquette, Skype interviewing, and using Twitter appropriately. 

With my job, in addition to conducting seminars, I'm in a lot of client and prospective client meetings, work functions, lunches, etc.  I enjoyed this book because it was a good reminder of what to do and what not to do in business settings but also in life in general.  For example, I knew that when I'm finished a meal to put my silverware on my plate to signal to the server that I'm finished ... but I didn't know that my knife should be up and down on my plate and my fork should lay across under it (otherwise he/she might think I'm just taking a break).

There are 101 tips included in four sections:
  1. Greet
    1. Part 1 - Establishing rapport
    2. Part 2 - Maintaining a professional image
  2. Eat
  3. Tweet
  4. Career

Here are some examples of the tips:
  • What's in Your Name? A Lot!
  • Kissing Colleagues: Is It Ever Okay?
  • The Thumb Joint Connects to the ... Thumb Joint 
  • Business Cards in a Social-Media World
  • Refined Regifting Rules . . . Really
  • Body Language: What Your Posture Projects
  • Speak Up! We Can't Hear You
  • The Do-Not-Say List
  • Be Direct! You're More Likely to Get What You Want
  • What to Do If You Are Interrupted
  • Are You Really Going to Wear That?
  • How to Dress for a Promotion
  • Chipped Green Nail Polish and Other Grooming Mistakes
  • Place Settings: The Secret Language of Dining
  • Treat the Wait Staff with Respect
  • Man, That's Rude! Five Don'ts for All Phones
  • Man, That's Really Rude: Tips for Cell Phone Users Only
  • Don't Ruin Ur Career: Texting Guidelines
  • Are Facebook ... Twitter ... Any Social Media Necessary?
  • Email Etiquette 1: Avoid Saying or Doing the Wrong Thing
  • Don't Put Yourself Down: Accept Compliments
  • Moving On? The Etiquette for Leaving a Job

I liked the writing style ... the tips were short and snappy and had real-life examples and questions/answers.  This book is a fairly quick read but should be kept nearby if you never need to refer to it.

I received a copy of this book at no charge in exchange for my honest review.

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