Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant Check out these startling statistics about interruptions in the workplace! According to a study conducted by University of California, Irvine, people spend an average of 11 minutes on a project before they are interrupted and it takes them on average 25 minutes to get back to the point they were at before a distraction. According to the same study, employees that work in shared workspace (like cubicles) are interrupted 29% more often than people in private offices. According to the Journal of Experimental Psychology, even after just a 2.8-second interruption, studies showed…
Oh *%@! You Messed Up! Now What?
By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant We have all been there at some point in our lives, whether in the workplace, school, at home, anywhere. You make a mistake of some kind. It happens. You’re human. It’s bound to happen. However, how to handle the mistake that you made is very different for a lot of people. What might seem like common sense for some people, isn’t always for others. Here are some tips for how to handle making a mistake. The intention is for mistakes made in the workplace, but these tips can be used really anywhere in life. STEP…
How to Write a Proper Business Letter
Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant Writing a business letter seems somewhat common knowledge or perhaps common sense to most people; however, it’s sometimes shocking to see how many administrative staff members – – even those with a college education – – are completely incapable of writing business letters. In this article, we will walk you through each step on how to properly write a business letter so that you can quickly and easily write correspondence on behalf of or for your boss without too much editing. Company Letterhead The first step to writing business letters is to…
6 Tips for Handling Difficult Clients
Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant Difficult clients are inevitable no matter what business you are in and no matter how great your customer service is. With the estate and financial planning business, clients can be very emotional. Clients may be stressed about the kinds of decisions they are required to make while getting their affairs in order, especially if they may be grieving the loss of a loved one. They are investing time, money and their personal feelings into the entire process, so it is no wonder that you will experience a wide range of emotions. Anything…
The #1 Step Towards a Happier, Healthier YOU!
Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant The office is busy. Life is busy. Things get crazy and hectic. Some days and weeks are worse than others. You have probably felt at one point or another that there was far too much to do and not enough time to do it. This can create a great deal of stress and anxiety on anyone, regardless of whether you’re an estate planning professional (such as an estate planning attorney, CPA, financial advisor, life insurance or trust officer) or you’re a part of the ever-important team of support staff. Despite this, it…
Did Law School Fail You?
Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant Graduating law school is quite an accomplishment for anyone. But, with the growing popularity of becoming a lawyer, there’s an over-saturation of graduates and simply not enough lawyering jobs to employ those coming out of law school. Burdened by thousands of dollars of school loan debt and a desire to put to use the countless hours of hard work they put into it, many lawyers have been (or will be) forced to start up their own practice, whether they wanted to or not. And this is where most people are going to…
The Top 8 Staff Training Tips for Estate Planning Law Firms – PART 2
Download the Full Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant In continuation of the December 2015 issue… Law Firm Staff Training Tip #5: Have the Staff Member Create a Detailed Procedures Manual. Another important part of the staff member training is to have the staff member that is being trained be the one to create a detailed procedures manual out of the training that he or she received. Not only will it be helpful to have them write out the procedures manual in a detailed and very thorough format that would allow him or her to pick up the manual…
The Top 8 Staff Training Tips for Estate Planning Law Firms – PART 1
Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant Having worked with so many estate planning attorneys and support staff members, time and time again, I have seen that one of the major breakdowns in firm systems comes with the lack of proper job training. Things start to slip through the cracks and while one or two details won’t make or break the success of your firm, the compound effect of multiple staff members not trained right and doing their job duties as originally intended will become one of the biggest challenges for any brilliant estate planning attorney trying to manage…
7 Tips For Being the “Boss” of Your Boss
Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant An executive assistant is probably one of the most important support staff members that any busy professional could possibly have, regardless of his or her profession. One of the things that we hear all the time from our boss, Phil Kavesh, is that his executive assistant is actually his boss. Of course, this doesn’t give us, as executive assistants, the same kind of “power” that a normal boss might have over an employee. What being the boss of your boss means is that you are supporting your boss and directing his or…
If You’re Doing Seminars (or Are Thinking About Doing Them) Your Staff Better Know About and Be Handling These Important Details!
Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant The common saying “The devil is in the details” is probably never more true than when it comes to seminar marketing. Whenever I’m discussing seminar marketing with attorneys, it becomes pretty clear to me that a lot of estate planning attorneys are overlooking a number of key details that should be completed. Successful seminar marketing is the result that comes from the compound effect of a lot of steps to be handled during the planning process, just before the seminar, during the seminar, and right after. Even missing one or two of…