Managing Your Business

Selecting a cellular telephone service

Like radios, cellular telephones require towers to provide the best reception. Predicting how well a cellular telephone will work in the areas you frequently travel can be difficult. Consider the following tips for selecting a cellular telephone service and avoiding annoying dead spots and dropped calls:

• Study a coverage map. Check a carrier's Web site or brochure for a map that details a service's coverage area. Look for your hometown or towns to which you frequently travel.
• Check customer satisfaction. Cellular telephone customer satisfaction surveys are available on Westlake Village, Calif.-based J.D. Power and Associates' Web site, www.jdpa.com, and www.epinions.com. In addition, ask friends and colleagues about their cellular telephone services.
• Test a service. Some cellular telephone services' contracts offer a 72-hour buyer's remorse clause that allows you to cancel the service if you are not satisfied. During those 72 hours, test your telephone's reception in your house and office and while driving.

Source: Adapted from Time's Web site, as cited in First Draft, October 2002 issue.

A laugh a day …

Although life often seems challenging, people still find many reasons to laugh. That is great news because laughing each day is healthy for your body and mind.

Laughter is a physiological response with two parts—gestures and sound—that occur concurrently. A laughter sensor in the brain triggers neural circuits that cause more laughter.

Laughter has many physical and mental health benefits. It reduces blood pressure, increases blood flow and pumps more oxygen into the bloodstream. Laughter also reduces stress hormone levels and exercises the diaphragm and abdominal, facial, respiratory, leg and back muscles. Laughing 100 times is equivalent to a 10-minute workout! In addition, laughter defuses harmful biochemical damage caused by anger, fear and sadness.

So take some time to laugh today. Laughter apparently can keep the doctor away!

Source: Adapted from Absolutetrivia.com, as cited in First Draft, August 2002 issue.

Avoid pointless conversations

Work conversations often can become repetitive and pointless. To get employees to summarize their opinions, state requests or share vital information, try saying the following:

• "What is your conclusion?" This question is nicer than saying, "Get to the point!"
  
  
• "How can I help?" This question will motivate a person to tell you why he is sharing information with you.
  
  
• "What does this have to do with … ?" Asking this will return a conversation to the original topic when it drifts off course.
  
  
• "Let's discuss this later." This phrase will help avoid unnecessary conversations. For example, rather than predicting how an employee will react to an additional assignment, wait to see how he actually reacts when he receives the assignment before discussing it.

Source: Adapted from Communication Briefings, August 2002 issue.