Looking to get the most out my SLA membership in these lean times, I elected to attend a ClickU webinar for professional development. I found it very worthwhile and full of good tips and reminders. ClickU courses are free to SLA members and a great source of ongoing learning and development.

I've included my rough notes of some of the key points I took away from Dennie's presentation. It's a little long for a blog post, but, in my opinion, they're really useful.

• Stimulate
  creativity:
  an environment for innovation has to be created, creativity can't be forced
• Create a map of manager, stakeholders, customer and understand their
  priorities and struggles.
• Go to lunch with new people
  from different functional areas.
• View complaints as
  recommendations for changes, new ideas.

• See the big
  picture: if you
  understand the big picture (company/industry trends), you can spot
  opportunities. It also helps with making decisions and setting priorities
  for your department. How do you relate to the company's mission?
• Translate reports into more
  fluid language, ideas.
• Talk to people one level
  above you in your reporting line or another reporting line. How do they
  see your department and how it fits into the biz strategy?

• Show
  leadership: You
  can be appointed a "manager," but you are not necessarily a
  "leader." Get people to work for a common goal.
• If you can't get leadership
  experience in the workplace, use professional association for
  practice/experience. (Alert: personal favorite here!)
• Challenge things – ask why.
• Failure is ok. Start small in
  a protected environment.

• Persuade
  others: Appeal
  to logical way of thinking as well as character and emotion (like TV
  commercials try to do).
• Study buzzwords in your
  company and tie them into your presentation/idea. Listen to what other
  people are saying and work that into your conclusion. How can you mitigate
  people's worries?
• Be a trusted person. Deliver
  what's promised. Set a service level agreement on a personal basis.
  Outline your credentials or use a reference. Demonstrate that you know
  what you're talking about.

• Managing
  time and saying "no": We want to help people and please them, but it goes
  along with saying no and setting priorities.
• Negotiate: would a short
  solution work for now? Alternate solution? Better person for the job?
• Keep a running to-do list and
  block short time to go through it and check off quick items. Then plan the
  longer projects, but don't book back-to-back so you have flexibility for
  new projects.

• Adding
  value: it's
  perceived value by the customer, not just the value you perceive it has.
• Make things easier for the
  customer, not just how you perceive it would be easier/better
• Look at quality times service
  divided by the cost and time. It's not just what you put in, but what the
  customer gets out of it.
• Service is more than
  providing a service, but also exceeding the customer's expectations.
• Ask customers how you did.
  Did we meet your expectations? What could have been better?
• Keep statistics, use
  benchmarking.
• Get narratives, ask managers
  for quotes about how valuable you are.

• Have
  effective presentation skills: practice. It gets better.
• Know your audience and what
  they are expecting. And tailor your presentation to the group –
  small=interactive, etc.
• Define the purpose of your
  presentation and the message.
• Know your national
  presentation style – formal, informal. Don't force humor if it's not your
  style.
• Practice and get feedback on
  body language, how fast you're speaking, tone of your voice.
• Check out meeting room in
  advance. Plan backup – have handouts ready or screenshots. Can you
  verbally reiterate your message if the projector isn't working?
• Don't fill slides top to
  bottom – use as few words and pictures as possible. You can give handouts afterward. It's hard to listen and read at the same time. Give them time
  to read or put it in your own words.

Let me know if you attended this webinar or watched the replay and please leave a comment to tell me what you thought.