Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

5 Spreadsheet Hacks for Excel Users

Some of you might have to do spreadsheets more often than I do.   And let me tell you, when I do them, it’s a project.  In an effort to help us all, I went in search of the most helpful Excel hacks to make data entry and calculation easier.  Here are some gems I bookmarked for my own use. 

Tip #1 From Launch Excel

Entering values into multiple cells using CTRL + ENTER

Scenario 1 – quickly enter data in multiple cells

• To quickly enter data in multiple cells, first select all of the cells.  Type in the data and press CTRL + ENTER, which enters the same value in all of the selected cells.  Select all the cells you want to fill.
• Type ‘John’ then enter the same value in all selected cells using CTRL + ENTER.  For non-contiguous cells, hold down the CTRL key and click to select each cell.
• To enter values in non-contiguous cells first hold down the CTRL key and click to select each cell then type in ‘John’ and use CTRL + ENTER to enter the same value in all selected cells.

Scenario 2 – quickly correct data in multiple cells

• To quickly correct the data in multiple cells, select all of the cells containing the names you want to fix.  Let’s say you need to replace ‘Betty’ with ‘Britney’ in five cells.
• How do you quickly replace ‘Betty’ with ‘Britney’ in these five cells?  First, select all five cells containing ‘Betty’.  For non-contiguous cells, hold down the CTRL key and click to select each cell. You can then type ‘Britney’ and press CTRL + ENTER, which will enter ‘Britney’ in all of the selected cells.

Scenario 3 – quickly fill upwards

• If you would like to fill up instead of fill down, you can do this by a clever modification of the CTRL + ENTER trick.  Let’s say you want to replace ‘Britney’ with ‘Charlie.’ There’s already a ‘Charlie’ entered in the cell below.  Select the cells starting with ‘Charlie’ and ending with the topmost ‘Britney.’
• How do you fill ‘Charlie’ upwards to overwrite the five cells showing ‘Britney’?  With the cells selected, press F2 to go into Edit mode, then press CTRL + ENTER to copy the correct name into all of the selected cells.
• With the cells selected, press F2 then press CTRL + Enter and ‘Charlie’ has been filled upwards to replace ‘Britney.’  Note, the first cell with ‘Charlie’ must be the active cell.  You can see this in the screenshot as it has a white background instead of a blue background.

For more hacks, take a look at the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

6 Ways to Sabotage Your Company Culture

At a recent speaking engagement, a vice president of HR stopped over to chat with me. Over the last few years, her department had rolled out a new employee engagement initiative with phenomenal results. Her CEO was so impressed that she received a bonus and a promotion. But there was a problem. She told me: “To be honest, I feel that our new culture is going backward. We made all these great strides, but every day we seem to lose a little more ground.”

This was disturbing to hear, all the more so because it’s not that uncommon a scenario. We all recognize that having a strong organizational culture is critical to success, and invest funds, resources and time accordingly. We work tirelessly to move the needle, and we rejoice when we achieve stellar results. But too often, the good news doesn’t last. Sometimes, we are even worse off than before we started.

How can you prevent your recent cultural shift from vanishing quietly into the organization’s history books? Here are six warning signs that you’re headed in the wrong direction.

Your culture change program is just another initiative. You know what they say about initiatives. People get really excited about the shiny new toy until the novelty wears off and the unpleasant work of caring for and feeding the change begins. Make sure your leadership and team understand that your cultural shift is meant to be long term, and continually reinforce their commitment.

You talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Though you have done a terrific job communicating your change in organizational materials, speeches and training materials, your culture as experienced by actual employees is totally different from what you’re advocating on paper. For example, you can talk up work-life integration all you want, but if your managers don’t support some flex time in practice, your pretty words will eventually sound hollow.

For more where this came from, have a look at the full post at the AMEX Open Forum.

3 Business Tasks You Should Never Automate

Many businesses have a bias against automation. People will tell you that automation makes them feel too much like an impersonal conglomerate. Others are afraid that if they automate, their services might lose value.

Nevertheless, it’s critical that small businesses keep up with technology if they want to remain competitive. Automating certain portions of your operation will save time, enhance productivity, increase profits and help create a culture in which innovation is valued. By supporting automation from the top, you’ll encourage your employees to try new and more efficient methods for accomplishing their tasks.

Take Baby Steps

If you haven’t automated any of your processes before, keep it simple in the beginning. Decide on a single task that you can automate without much effort (online employee time sheets, for example). Seek vendor or staff assistance if appropriate. Before you roll out the new system, get your employees on board by explaining the big picture rationale behind the change, and how it will benefit them.

Look closely at your preliminary results. You don’t want to automate just for the sake of automating. You should be able to see a clear return on investment—the money your business is saving because of the initiative should exceed the money you’re spending on the initiative. If you’ve just started automating the routing of service requests so your staff can now manage 10 per hour instead of five, that’s likely a positive ROI.

Once you’ve gotten the automation ball rolling, keep the momentum going. Continue to add more processes in which the need for human input is nonexistent or very minimal and exchange ideas with your peers, and you'll gradually grow more comfortable and confident. Of course, there are certain areas you should think twice about automating. These include:

Finances

You can leverage a variety of software tools to make your bookkeeping and financial management easier. But beware of setting up self-sustaining programs that oversee your accounts and pay and collect your bills—and then leaving them alone for several months at a time. All it takes is one late payment, and your carefully constructed system could collapse like dominoes. Do not put your business’ solvency in jeopardy. Keep a human eye on those finances.

For the other two things you should never automate, head over to the full post at the AMEX Open Forum.

7 Ways to Maximize Commuting Time

The average American professional spends over an hour a day commuting. For most, that time involves listening to music, reading the paper, staring out the window, or sleeping. However, whether you drive or take public transportation to the office, your goal should be to leverage your commuting time so that you can spend fewer hours working. Here are some recommendations to that effect.

1. Listen to industry podcasts or webinars. There’s no end to the professional development options available online for instant download, and many are low-cost or free. Instead of taking time out of the office to attend a course or workshop, fire up an audio recording on your smartphone, iPod, or tablet and learn about a new skill or trend while you travel.

2. Replace your entertainment or daily newspaper with a relevant trade. Reading about celebrities is fun, and it’s certainly useful to keep up with the news in your area. But how about taking along one of those industry-related publications that has been sitting on your desk for weeks? If it’s the only piece of reading material in your bag, you’ll be more likely to at least peruse it, and a hard copy won’t hurt your eyes, like squinting at the type on your phone or tablet can. However, we do think The Fast Track looks pretty nice on a mobile device.

3. Hold on-the-go conference calls. If you are in a situation where talking aloud won’t disturb fellow passengers, schedule calls during your commute so that you don’t have to do them at the office. Just be careful that you aren’t too distracted by the conversation to drive responsibly.

Like what you've read so far?  Check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Are You an Introvert Who Needs to Be More Social?

Over at the Fast Track blog, we received the following question:

My manager knows that I want to become a manager myself at some point, and is working on mentoring me in the skills I’ll need. One piece of feedback he’s given me is that I need to become more comfortable in semi-social situations (networking lunches or event dinners, and the like). I’m not a terribly social person by nature, so I tend to feel a bit shy and out-of-place in situations like that. I’ve decided the career I want is worth it, but do you have any advice for a fellow introvert who needs to learn to be more social?

Here's my answer: As an introvert myself who has been in the same situation and feels your pain, I’d recommend looking at the managerial (i.e. more social) job as a role you are playing, one in which you are a bit more self-confident, outgoing and talkative. Practice your overtures and responses with trusted family and friends, just as you might rehearse lines with them if you were in a play, and then gradually try out new approaches with your colleagues.

Don’t overload your schedule with too many events at the beginning as the goal is to expose yourself to a fearful situation over time so that it becomes less intimidating. As an introvert, it will probably help you to have time to prepare, so ask for as much notice as possible when you are expected to attend a function. Find out exactly who you are meeting, what you’ll be doing, and how long you’ll likely stay.

At the event, if you feel yourself fading, take a few short breaks to get some fresh air, or just chill out by yourself. Recognize too that these types of social interactions are naturally more energy-depleting for introverts, so allow yourself time later that day or the next time to replenish your reserves. We all have areas to develop, and good for you for identifying yours and acting on your manager’s suggestions.The best leaders are devoted to continuous self-improvement, so you are well on your way.

For advice from three other fabulous experts, check out the full post at Fast Track.

8 Bad Mistakes New Managers Make

Many new leaders are thrust into supervisory positions quickly, with no real management training to speak of.  So as you would expect, they make lots of mistakes.  Here are a few of the most common.  Hopefully, just being aware of them will help you and your colleagues do things differently!

Mistake #1:  Trying to be everyone’s best friend

While fostering strong one-on-one relationships with your team members is important to promote trust, your first priority should be developing your team as a cohesive whole.   Also, you must make it clear that you are not your direct reports’ friend but their supervisor, since blurring the lines too much will lead to confusion and decreased productivity.

Mistake #2: Assuming your title is a magic wand

Things will not magically get done because you are the manager and you said so.  Instead of simply issuing orders, you must inspire your team members to work with you and for you.  Authority does not automatically confer respect.  It must be earned.

Mistake #3:  Making promises you can’t keep

In your eagerness to remedy all of the wrongs on your team, it’s tempting to guarantee solutions that you can’t necessarily deliver.  Recognize that it’s better to keep promised actions more modest than to risk disappointing and frustrating your team members by failing to keep your word.

Mistake #4: Changing everything

Many new managers make the mistake of trying to overhaul the whole organization in their first few months.  Things are usually done a certain way for a reason, and that reason may not be incorrect.  Introduce your new ideas one at a time, soliciting buy-in and support gradually.

For more where this came from, have a look at the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Leadership Lessons from the Wizard of Oz

After the original Wizard of Oz movie but before all the remarks, there was the leadership theory.  Craig Hickman, Tom Smith, and Roger Connors came up with their The Oz Principle nearly twenty years ago.  The theory and the book of the same name demonstrate how to overcome the Blame Game in your organization and help your people take ownership for their work.  By moving above the line and being accountable for their results, like Dorothy and her friends your employees can achieve whatever their hearts desire.

What is This Line They Speak Of?

In their work, Hickman, Smith and Connors establish the concept of a line below which many people live much of the time.  They possess an attitude of victimization and get stuck on a yellow brick road of sorts by blaming everyone else for their problems.  Instead of taking action to improve things themselves, they wait for a wizard-like someone to wave a magic wand.  That wizard-like someone is often the manager, who must then take on her employees’ responsibilities as well as her own.  In an effort to stop this harmful process, the authors advocate the following four-step process to personal accountability.

• See It:  Recognize and acknowledge the full reality of a situation and respond to it effectively.

Just like the needs of the Cowardly Lion, this takes courage.

• Own It: Accept full responsibility for one’s current experiences and realities as well as those of other people.

Just like the needs of the Tin Woodsman, it takes heart to take ownership of the problem rather than passing it onto someone else.

• Solve It: Change those realities by finding and implementing solutions to problems (often solutions not previously considered) while avoiding the trap of dropping back below the line when obstacles present themselves.

Just like the needs of the Scarecrow seeking a brain, this step requires a new way of thinking and a high level of personal engagement.

• Do It:  Summon the commitment and courage to follow through with the solutions identified, especially when there is great risk in doing so.

To learn more about how to put the four steps together, check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

What Google Glass Means for Your Workday

First of all, does it mean anything?

The initial buzz around Google Glass focused on consumer usage: taking photos, recording video, playing games, getting directions, etc.

Over at PC Mag, however, Samara Lynn has made the leap.  Here’s what Lynn has to say regarding how and why Google Glass will find its way into business:

“We can’t ignore that the IT business landscape has changed. It’s no longer about IT telling a worker: “Here’s your work-assigned computer, here are the programs you are allowed to use, and have at it.” It’s now the worker asking IT: “These are technology devices I use in my daily life. How can I get my work done with them?”  The consumerization of IT is one big reason why Google Glass will find its way into enterprises.”

Here’s where you might see it sooner rather than later:

Custom business app stores.

As with smartphones, Google Glass will be all about the apps. An emerging trend is the apps store being tailored for business. Companies will custom-make business app stores for clients and present workers with new ways to get their jobs done.  Employees will get involved too.  Google Glass app development actually opens up a new area for intrapreneurship, or the process of innovation within the context of an established organization.

For more ideas, check out the full post at Intuit's Fast Track blog.