By Mike Mitchell
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit with a technical manager for a growing interconnect company in Atlanta. As I entered his office, I noticed he had three Cisco certifications framed and neatly mounted on the wall. On the other wall across from his desk was a white board. In the silver tray at the bottom of the board there were several different color markers that actually worked (yes, I checked) and an "official" eraser. A framed Dilbert cartoon hung on the adjacent wall next to a straw Panama hat which represented the company's current sales initiative. On top of his credenza sat a row of about 14 Cisco certification course books. On his desk, just to the right of his computer monitor, was a stack of neatly organized papers.
Later on that day, as I replayed the events of our meeting, my thoughts turned to what he had communicated to me about himself without saying a single word. During our conversation, he had confirmed my positive first impression of him. He was organized but not fanatical, neat but not obsessively so, supportive of his company but not to the point of clutter, and had a sense of humor but was serious when appropriate.
Have you ever taken an objective look at your office or work area? What do you see? What first and lasting impression does it give your coworkers, staff, and visitors?
One exercise I have done is to walk into my office, sit in one of the chairs where a visitor would sit and look around the room. The first time I did this, I was appalled by the view. There was dust on my computer monitor (which I could not see from my desk chair). The three stacks of papers behind my desk were distracting, and there were two disorganized piles of papers on my desk comprising current vendor proposals, contracts to be reviewed, an equipment inventory list, and three industry magazines from last month. I also noted a time when an employee had come into my office to discuss a personal problem, and I had another employee's evaluation plan on my desk which I had been working on and had not yet filed.
We all know that being neat is not necessarily the same as being organized, but there is a definite advantage to having a neat office and desk. It gives the impression of being in control of your environment and yourself.
Harriet Schechter, author of Conquering Chaos at Work, gives the following six points to determine if you are an organized person at work:
• You live by the motto, "A place for everything and everything in its place."
• You use a time management system to plan your daily schedule and to do list.
• You straighten up your desk at the end of the day.
• You are on time for appointments and meetings.
• You don't let piles of paper grow on, or in, your desk.
• You rarely spend time looking for misplaced things (unless someone else has misplaced them).
First impressions are lasting impressions. Let's make sure we give visitors to our office a positive impression of us, so that even without words, they may perceive us as organized individuals who are firmly in control of our environment and ourselves.
- Mike
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