Pivot Tables: Your Secret Weapon in Microsoft Excel
So many clients I work with want to know how to create complex formulas or functions to analyze large data sets in Microsoft Excel. Reality is, you don’t need to be a math genius to do this, you just need to understand a powerful tool in Microsoft Excel called Pivot Tables. When I mention pivot tables I often see eyes glaze over! Like macros, pivot tables can seem overwhelming and complex. However, when you understand what they do and Excel’s tools to make creating them EASY, enormous amounts of time can be released to do other tasks. The bonus is, …
There is no magic solution!
Balancing work and life is an ongoing challenge. It’s not something that is miraculously achieved and permanently stays that way. It is about balance; it’s about finding what’s right for YOU. The technology we use needs to be partnered with human interaction. In many instances, we don’t take into account human involvement required to determine how to leverage technology to improve our efficiency. We tend to rely on the technology to do the job for us and then feel frustrated when we struggle to cope, but reality is we just aren’t geared to cope with the volume of data we …
Why don’t we plan more often??
Why is it that we spend more time planning a holiday than planning how we will write a letter or produce a spreadsheet that we, along with others, will rely on for information and decision-making? Many people will create an Excel spreadsheet, enter data and pass it on to someone else. The next person will enter some data in or make changes. Before you know it, mistakes have happened, formulas are incorrect and as a result data is wrong. The common reaction is finger-pointing. But the reality is that in our busy world no one has the time to go …
Things aren’t always what they seem.
I recently worked with a client whose team member was about to head off on maternity leave. Whilst many organisations might question the “benefit” of investing in an employee who will be out of the business for an extended period of time, this organisation realised that the value of ensuring she had the skills she needed to perform her job effective in the months prior to her leave. The benefits being, she would be happier, less likely to be absent because of stress, would be more engaged would provide a thorough and comprehensive handover to her replacement she would talk …
Constructive Communication
I was interviewed on breakfast television about managing email when I was asked an interesting question. It wasn’t scripted or planned and, in fact, I’d never been asked that question before. “How do you know if the tone of your email is correct?” the interviewer asked. I paused for a moment before answering “if you are asking yourself that question, it’s probably a sign that you should be having a conversation instead.” After the interview, I reflected on the question. In business today we have become so email focussed. Whether it is to “cover” us from being told off or …
Choice – The Lens of Decision Making
We often find we are in a situation where we simply don’t know what to do. We may ask colleagues for input and ideas which we may take on board or disregard. In his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, former administrative assistant and renowned Leadership Development Expert Stephen Covey suggests start with the end in mind. Considering decision making as a choice made through the lens of “the end we have in mind” can help create clarity in the process. Questioning does the decision to do, or not do, move you towards or away from the end …
Time for Thinking
There are points where organizations tend to take time to reflect on the past and the future. Traditionally these are at the end of the calendar and/or fiscal year. But reality is, regular thinking time is great for productivity. Management guru Peter Drucker once said “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection, will come even more effective action.” In a world of 24/7 ON, we often make the time to reflect and observe our experiences, decisions and interactions. We are too busy moving onto the next item on our to do list. It’s very easy to be …
Stop sending, start talking
One of the challenges facing businesses today is the sheer volume of e-mail we send and receive and dealing with it. It’s easy to send an email asking a question to get something off our to do list and into someone else’s, but it does two things. It creates more work for you AND the receiver. They have to deal with your request in some way, even if it’s just reading it, and you have to ‘pick up’ the conversation when you get the reply. It stretches the response time. Unless the other person has their email open waiting for …
Get Out of the Forest!
If you’ve ever gotten frustrated when madly looking for or trying to do something, only to find that when someone else does it, they find it or do it easily, you know what I mean!! It often isn’t until we ask someone else to look at something that we are exposed to a different point of view. One generally without the emotional attachment normally associated with a looming deadline. One of the simplest ways move out of that “stuck” place is to connect with colleagues. Recently I was working with a client who had a specific challenge with an Excel …
Letting Go of Control
I like to control my workflow, my environment and my day. However, for many people, it can be a challenge each day, week or month to sit down and consider what you need to do. Rather than think about what tasks, projects and goals will you be undertaking in the upcoming period, what resources you need and then allocating realistic timeframes to complete them, it can be easy to simply go with the flow. Then before you realise it, here comes performance review time and you haven’t met your business milestones! It can be particularly challenging if you are relying …
