by Dana Perino
BAN THE EXCLAMATION POINT
Another part of finding your strong voice means cutting out emotion in e-mails and texts. Exclamation points should be used sparingly, not for things like “I need to schedule a conference call for next week!!” In professional communication at the office or when applying for a new job, resist exclamation points and any other sort of unnecessary melodrama. Your colleagues and bosses want to see steadiness, and superfluous exclamation points suggest the opposite. You don’t want your e-mails to come across as angry or overexcited. This is especially true in the subject line of e-mails—raise your threshold for “URGENT!!” so that you don’t risk giving your boss a heart attack. You want to be taken seriously if you ever really do have an emergency that needs immediate attention.
The same goes for emojis and emoticons—don’t send them to the boss. She doesn’t need to be prompted to be happy that her employee finished a project on time. Just finish the project and don’t ask for praise—that way you’re more likely to get it.
Writing better business communication, which is now almost exclusively via e-mail, can really set a person apart from their colleagues. Most people end up working for people who are a generation older than they are for most of their careers. That can change as people age, but a boss is probably closer to a young person’s parents’ age than to theirs. That means that they think and communicate differently from the friends they hang out with. So the trick is to start thinking like the boss and write better e-mails.
Let me give an example. Young people often make the mistake of introducing new topics in response to previous e-mails. This drives the boss nuts. An employee needs to stick to the subject or risk confusion and miscommunication. Rule of thumb: new topic, new e-mail chain, and new subject head. This can help people easily find previous messages if they’re needed.
Another good practice is to keep e-mails rare, spare, and specific. Your subject lines need to be simple and descriptive of your message. An effective thing is to title an e-mail “Three Things” or “Friday’s Delivery Issue: Solved” to help keep things straight. Responses from the boss are more likely to be answered quickly if they’re set up like that.
Also, use bullet points or numbers to keep the format clean for someone reading quickly, and include a request for a response and by a certain date or time, if needed. Anticipate their questions and include answers in the original e-mail. You’ll soon get compliments like “That’s a great e-mail.” A little effort here goes a long way.
NO UGG BOOTS AT THE OFFICE
You have to dress for the job you want, not just the job you have, because you never know when you might get a lucky break. When that happens, you don’t want to be wearing jeans.
A friend started her legal career like many others, but one day she got picked to argue her first case in the Southern District of New York only because she was the most senior person on the case who had a suit on hand to change into when they had an emergency application at the courthouse. Without that suit, she wouldn’t have had that chance to shine.
I won’t belabor the dress for success point, but I have to tell you the one thing I think you should not wear around the office: UGG boots.
Now I like UGG boots and I wear them to walk Jasper. They’re warm and great for colder weather. So by all means, wear UGG boots to commute back and forth to the office, but bring a pair of appropriate shoes to change into once you arrive. I see so many young women wearing their UGGs all day long, and it makes them look like they’re shuffling, not picking up their feet. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle—to the copy machine and back. To the kitchen and back. To the restroom and back. Shuffling makes it look like you’re not really interested. I think that it leaves a bad impression, and it’s something really easy to fix.
SPIT IT OUT (YOUR GUM, THAT IS)
Gum is a very dangerous thing—and not because you risk swallowing it. Gum chewing could actually hold you back at work. This might sound ridiculous, but believe me, the boss doesn’t want to see or hear anyone chewing gum. No matter how discreet you think your gum chewing may be, it isn’t worth someone being distracted by it. I’m all for fresh breath, but I suggest choosing mints over gum at the office. Never go into a client meeting chewing gum, even if you don’t have a speaking role. It’s a little thing but this is a quick fix that everyone can do immediately.
ALWAYS TAKE YOUR HUSBAND’S PHONE CALLS
This is not a relationship advice book, though your work life does affect your love life. Stressful jobs mean that sometimes our loved ones have to take a backseat. But they can’t stay there forever.
I learned a good lesson from the White House Communications Director Nicolle Wallace. We were in a meeting and she saw me hurriedly press a button on my phone to ignore an incoming call. She said, “Do you want to take it?” And I said, “No, it’s just Peter. I’ll call him back.”
She gave me some advice that turned into my New Year’s Resolution that year: “Always take your husband’s calls.” She helped me reset my priorities, and I became more understanding of people needing to manage work and home while they’re at the office.
One Christmas, I had a chance to show my staff that together we could manage our work and family obligations. I’d noticed they were a bit agitated, but they hadn’t said anything to me directly. So I finally asked them what was wrong. It turned out they were stressed because they were running out of time to buy presents for their families. They hadn’t wanted to complain because I was working just as hard as they were.
I said we could fix the problem, and we came up with a rotating scheduling where each of them could get an afternoon off to go shopping—they just had to cover for each other during those hours. They were so relieved. As a manager, you have to show them it’s okay to put their families first and help them figure out how to do so if they’re stuck. They’ll be more productive if they know the office’s priorities match theirs.
SPEAK UP WHEN IT COUNTS
One of the responsibilities of an employee is to identify problems and help prevent full-blown crises. That doesn’t mean becoming Chicken Little and raising every little thing as the most important issue—if you do that, people will tune you out. But employers depend on people to sound an alert if they’re really worried about something. And good managers make sure it’s safe for the employee to do so without repercussions.
The consequences of not speaking up can be serious—whether it’s a safety or an ethical issue, or just a problem that needs to be nipped in the bud to protect the brand of the product—it’s better to speak up than to regret that you didn’t. I learned that the hard way once when I was the deputy press secretary.
Any good press office constantly scans the horizon for trouble ahead and tries to get in front of it, and part of my job was to read a couple of extra newspapers in addition to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. My boss at the time, Scott McClellan, assigned The Washington Times and USA Today to me. I would read those before he called me and the principal deputy Trent Duffy to meet with him at 7:15 a.m.
One morning I told Scott that I’d seen a story in The Washington Times about a company based in Dubai that wanted to buy a controlling stake in one of our nation’s ports. My instincts told me that in a post-9/11 world, if a company from the Middle East wanted to buy and have control over one of our ports, the public was going to worry about possible terrorist threats or connections (even if it was an unfounded concern) and that the backlash could hurt President Bush’s chances of expanding trade to keep our economy growing. Scott didn’t think that it was a story we needed to worry about and told me that it would never come up in the briefing, so I deferred to him. After all, I didn’t have as much experience as he did, and perhaps he was right.
The next day, there it was again, below the fold but on the front page. I brought it up for a second time because I sensed it was an issue that could explode. Again, Scott told me again that it wasn’t going to be a story. Every one of my in
stincts said that it would. I was thinking beyond the White House briefing room and citizen—not inside the Beltway reporter—reaction. But I dropped the subject.
On the third day, the Dubai ports story was front-page, above the fold with a screaming headline. By 8 a.m. all hell broke loose on Capitol Hill, and it took the entire month of February 2006 to get that issue resolved. It was an unforced error, and I kicked myself over it.
I vowed not to let that happen again—to find a way to get in front of a problem even if the boss didn’t want to hear the news I had. I should have asked Scott just to humor me and to bring it up in the senior staff meeting—I think he’d have done that for me, and if I’d pushed the issue, we may have saved us from the firestorm.
If you are truly worried about a problem, it’s important to raise it and not to fold if all of your alarm bells are going off. Push back respectfully, so you protect your boss and yourself.
Good Habits
SHARE THE CREDIT
If you want to be a generous employee, colleague, and friend, you have to give heaps of credit to others. What goes around comes around at the office. This means giving everyone else credit before you take any for yourself. This goes for Presidents, too.
I was in the Oval Office talking with President Bush around 4 p.m. in August 2008 when he got a call from the CIA. I got up to leave so that he could have some privacy, but he said, “You can stay.”
So I sat silently and listened to his side of the conversation. He said, “How did it go?… Okay… Good… Well done… Tell them when they’re ready, I’d love to meet them… When you get back, come see me.”
He hung up and I said, “Anything I should know about?” He told me that the American hostages being held by the terrorist group FARC in Colombia had just been rescued, along with Ingrid Betancourt and several others. No one was injured, and they were on their way home to safety.
I knew the news would break shortly, so I asked the President if I could give the reporters some of the colorful details that help tell a story like that. I wanted to be able to say I’d been there when he got the call, and what he said when he heard the news.
But the President stopped me. “I don’t want any credit. Make sure that President Uribe gets all the credit—he needs it more than I do.”
At the time, he was trying to sign a trade deal between the United States and Colombia, but opponents on the Hill, including then–Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, were blocking passage of the agreement. One of their excuses was that Uribe wasn’t doing enough to fight terrorism in his country. Since the most well-known hostages were now freed, with help from the Colombian Special Forces, that excuse could presumably be crossed off the list (unfortunately the Democrats found other reasons to block it because of unions and environmentalists objections).
I learned from President Bush that even when you could use a personal boost, it’s better to spread the credit if it helps you get closer to your goal. Not to mention, it’s just a very decent thing to do.
LOYALTY—A TWO-WAY STREET
In 2010, Mrs. Barbara Bush came to a Minute Mentoring event in Houston. When we invited her to start off the evening with brief remarks, she was surprised. “Why would they ask me? I’ve never worked a day in my life,” she said. True, in a sense—all the work she’d ever done had been in service to her country or for charity.
In her speech she said, “Earlier today I called my son, George, and I asked what it was like to work with Dana. And then I called Dana and asked her what it was like to work for my son. And what I concluded from listening to them describe each other is that loyalty goes both ways. That’s what a good partnership is all about.”
Mrs. Bush was right—because we knew President Bush was loyal to us, we became more loyal to him. Loyalty was our glue. It meant we had complete trust in each other, could be honest about problems, and ensured we kept focused on productive outcomes.
BE WILLING TO TAKE THE BLAME FOR YOUR TEAM
As a manager, it’s so important that your team knows you’re on their side. It keeps people from sniping at one another when things don’t go as planned.
Take the New Hampshire primary loss in 2000, for example. The Bush campaign was taken by surprise when it got stomped by Senator McCain, and the team was badly rattled. In Courage and Consequence, Karl Rove says that Bush had seen plenty of “floundering campaigns” and that something he learned was that you can’t “shoot at a wounded staff.” So Governor Bush called everyone into his suite and said that he was fully responsible for the loss. He asked them to project confidence and put their game faces on. His loyalty emboldened them and that was how he “got the best out of those around him.” That’s the hallmark of a good leader.
STICK UP FOR OTHERS—EVEN WHEN THEY DON’T KNOW IT
I love the feeling I get from sticking up for other people. Once I teamed up with President Bush to defend a young woman reporter—and she didn’t know it for many months.
In 2006, I was finishing the President’s press conference pre-brief when one of my office assistants rushed in with a new seating chart. ABC News had made a last-minute substitution.
“They big-footed Jessica Yellin for Jake Tapper?” I asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Well, that was a rotten thing to do. Jessica had been covering the White House for Good Morning America for several months but hadn’t asked the President a question on camera. Since every network got to ask a question, she was supposed to get a turn that day.
The President looked at me over his glasses and said, “Who’s Jake Tapper?”
I described Jake as a well-respected reporter that ABC had recently hired, and I suspected they were trying to raise his profile by having him in the network’s chair for the live press conference. I told the President I thought it was wrong that she was being pushed aside for him and that she deserved to be in the seat.
“Well, do we have to call on him?” the President asked, raising his eyebrows.
Catching his drift, I said, “No, sir, I don’t think you do.”
And so, he did not. For the first time in his administration, he didn’t call on one of the networks.
Jake Tapper raised his hand as high as he could through the entire press conference, and the President just kept looking around him and calling on other reporters. I had nothing against Jake himself—he’s a fine reporter and a friend. But at that moment, I was proud that we’d sent a message to ABC (even if we didn’t tell them why).
Several months later, I caught up with Jessica on a press trip when a few of the women reporters were having dinner. I asked if she remembered that day, and she said Jake had been furious when he got back to the booth and had called Tony Snow to demand an explanation. We laughed because Tony and Jake had no idea that it was the President and I who were in cahoots. It made her feel good that we’d stood up for her, and I learned that standing on principle should sometimes trump tradition. (No hard feelings, right, Jake?)
WHY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Writing a thank-you note should not have to be one of these tips, but somewhere along the way young people stopped writing them. A handwritten thank-you note is a must, not an option. And no, an e-mail doesn’t cut it.
Not long ago, I helped a young woman who was about twenty-two years old get prepared for a job interview. After the interview, I asked if she’d sent the prospective employer a thank-you note. She said that she’d sent an e-mail. I said no, send an actual thank-you note, on paper, with an envelope, and a stamp.
She said, “Really? Are you sure? Wouldn’t that seem too… formal, like I’m trying too hard?”
This isn’t the first time I’d heard that kind of response from a young professional who was asking my help to find a job. I assured her that a handwritten thank-you note would not be too formal; rather, it’s an essential part of any interviewing or networking.
Imagine how many other people applied for a job or a promotion and how, especially at the entry level, you have basic
ally the same qualifications. You need something to help you stand out, so sending a note on nice stationery will ensure that you at least make a much better impression than those who don’t even bother.
Most people in positions of hiring new employees grew up writing thank-you notes, and they appreciate the effort someone takes to follow up properly. I can’t tell you how many times someone has called or written to thank me for my thank-you note. It works!
When in doubt, send a thank-you note.
REVERSE MENTORS
Social media has totally changed our lives, especially at work. Instead of snickering about a boss not knowing the difference between Instagram and Snapchat, a young employee can make themselves indispensible by serving as an unofficial reverse mentor on technology.
Helping a boss adapt to new technologies, without judgment, makes for a very valuable employee. When I was running my public relations business after the White House, one of my assistants suggested I join Twitter and Facebook. I rolled my eyes and resisted for months thinking that I had plenty to do without wasting more time online. I couldn’t see how social media could help my business, and I was a bit intimidated by the technology. I didn’t know how to use it, and I was hesitant to try. I hoped it was a passing fad.
Instead of dropping the subject, my employee set up the accounts for me and showed me a couple of basic things—like how to send a tweet, gain more followers, and post pictures of my dog (this was the best part).
Once she did that, I could experiment a little. It turned out she was right—I liked being able to interact with followers, read other posts, and find out news before anyone else. I enjoyed sharing my thoughts with folks like-minded and otherwise. I don’t think I’d ever have had the gumption to try social media without her pushing me.
Something I really liked about her was that she didn’t lord over me that she was smarter on the technology than I was—she was just eager to help “build my brand” (a phrase that bugged me but I knew what she meant). After I’d left Washington for New York City and closed down most of my business clients, I offered to be a reference for her. When I got a call from an executive who was considering hiring her, I was enthusiastic about her abilities and relayed this example of her showing initiative, skills, generosity, and a fresh perspective to someone who wasn’t as savvy as she was on a particular issue.