Leadership To Internship

During internship, one must possess the willingness to learn and adapt to a different situation.  Feedback given by the team or supervisors are meant to improve your skills and help you to see other perspectives. Feedback should not be seen as a ‘personal attack’ to your ability, or an offense to you.

In the past, the following attributes prevented certain interns ( especially those who have limited working experience and from foreign cultures) from learning or maximizing their time to gain more knowledge:

• My country is more developed than yours, I know what is best for your organization.

• This is how we do this task in my country/my university, I am unwilling to amend my task with your feedback.

• Your perspective and mine are different, I insist on doing this task my way. I won’t amend my task even though it is going to be used by your organization. Take it or leave it.

• Why should I follow your organization’s policy and procedures? I do what I want and how I want to do it.

• I have a higher degree/more experience in this field than you, why should I listen to you?

• I am not a follower, I do it my way, I don’t listen to feedback.

• Why should I explain to you about my actions? I am me  -- I demand freedom of speech, so my office and homestay behaviors are none of your business.

• Your other intern didn’t know how to do this task. I have done it very well for your organization. If you don’t like it, (foul words)!

• I won’t transfer the tasks ( such as videos on own channels, document on own google doc space) I have done during internship to your organization. It is my intellectual property, why should I follow office policy to transfer the ownership to your organization?

 

Interns who are relegated the responsibility to be team leader must read the article below to gain more perspective about leadership. Learn to manage diverse groups of people from different background, interests and with different levels of cooperation.

How To Focus On Work

Internship is an excellent training ground for students (who are used to be a carefree student lifestyle) to transition to an office life. One of the biggest challenges for interns is to discipline themselves to concentrate on task completion after years of having to answer to mainly own self for college/ university assignment. As a student, one decides when to study, how many hours to study daily and how many hours to play. But when working in office, even if the office has flexi-time, there is a set amount of time that must be allocated by an office worker per day or per week to complete office tasks with quality.Often, undisciplined interns are overwhelmed with things to do and getting anything done on time.

Ways that help you focus and get things done:

1. Pick an organizer

Your phone, tablet, or PC will all have an organizer. Pick one you like best and use it exclusively. This means all your stuff is in one place, so you won't miss messages or tasks that have to be done.

2. Quit procrastinating

There are tasks assigned to you in the office, but you think you can do it next week, or later or after you finish your personal social media activities, you don’t seem to find the time to complete them…

Well, put some ‘self-discipline’ in yourself. Every day before you start work, list at least 1 major task and two mini tasks you should complete. Or give yourself a deadline to finish a task by a certain date.   

3. Quit multi-tasking

Look back honestly over yesterday and ask yourself, "How often was I on personal Facebook or Instagram or WhatsApp, or watching You-tube videos for entertainment when I should have been working on tasks assigned to me?" “Why did I need to answer every friend and acquaintance’s social media messages instantly when the notices came?”

Bet you wasted a few hours of work time on personal matters.

Thoughts are scattered when you over multi-task, between your computer and smart phone’s various platforms. If you are assigned to handle a task that needs concentration but you spend most of the time on personal social media, your brain energy for office task will be unfocused, so the quality of your work will be affected.

So how to stop friends from complaining that you are not on social media during office hours? Inform them that you are concentrating on your career growth through an internship, you will reply them at night or during non-work hours. They will understand if they are your real friends who are also into their own career growth. 

4. Set limits

One of the problems of being connected all the time is that you're tempted to work when you should be having fun. If you're concentrating on your work for x hours a day, deserve some fun. Resist the temptation to "just this one". If you don't let your brain have some time off and recharge, it won't work right.

How to help yourself:

To avoid temptations to do personal things, check your list of things to do at the start of each day - and then switch off your phone, or put your phone away and check only once an hour. Turn off your FB or Whatsapp notifications and everything else that might distract you. The world will not fall apart because you've disconnected. 

Fine-Tune Your Phone Skills

-A Customer judges your organization by the way you answer his call-

  By Sim Li Ying
 

11 tips on how to put your best voice forward and shine every time you answer the phone that work:

1

Remember you are the voice of your organization. The way you answer sets the tone for the caller’s impression (Learn more about: The importance of first impressions in business) of the whole organization.If the caller is a potential customer for ecobaskets, he is deciding if he wants to do business with eHomemakers, and so your interaction with him forms part of his decision. “Is this organization professional enough to give me high quality ecobaskets?” This is what he thinks when he assesses you on the phone.

2

Be efficient. You should answer the call promptly, generally before the third ring. If there is a need to write down any messages, prepare a notes and write down the important things. After the call, make sure there is follow-up. If a colleague is not in the office, gives the message to the person when he/she is back.

3

Be focus when you are answering a phone call. The Do’s and Don’ts when answering the phone will teach you to be a better receptionist.

 Stop what you are doing and be prepared. Maintain your professionalism even if the caller is upset and argumentative. Listen to angry callers, and repeat a summary of their concerns to show that you truly heard what they said, then empathize with their concerns and let them know you will do your best to assist them. Your caller can hear your tone to determine if you are listening to him/her or ignoring his/her calls by doing something else.  

4

Ensure your voice is upbeat and friendly. Try to maintain a cheerful tone of voice even if you aren’t particularly positive. Be aware of the speed of your speech, the listener wouldn’t understand if you speak too fast. Speak slowly and clearly to make sure the listener could catch every word. Read more about: Proper telephone etiquette

5

Mind your words. Use a more polite language to answer your caller. For example, instead of replying “yeah”, you should use “yes, I understand your problem” to show your professionalism. This also helps to build up eHomemakers’ image. If you utter a lot of ‘yeah’, ‘eh’, ‘you know’, ‘ok-lah’, improve yourself by reading The speech problem of using fillers and how to solve the problem

6

Be responsive in a pleasant way but briefly. Try to answer all the questions and problems by mentioning the main points and not adding any other unrelated stuff ( especially things you don’t know or don’t understand).  It is improper to prolong the conversation and tie up the phone.

7

Use hold and mute appropriately. If you need to make a comment to a passing colleague, cover the phone properly so the caller doesn’t hear you. If you need to check something which takes more than a few seconds, ask the caller if you may place him on hold. He will not want to hear you typing while he is waiting. How to professionally put a caller on hold gives you guidance to do proper office calls.

8

Listen carefully and don’t make the caller repeat his story. When a caller tells you the reason for calling, you should determine who the best resource is and tell the customer that the person’s name and extension. When you get the right person on the phone, recap the issues to the recipient so the caller will not have to repeat himself.

9

Stay on the line when transferring a call. This is to make sure the customer gets connected and not being dumped into the voicemail. If the call is answered by voicemail, ask the customer if he wants to leave a message or wants to search for any assistance. Ways to transfer a call professionally provides more guidance on this call etiquette.

10

Repeat the caller’s name while taking a message. If necessary, ask him to spell it and gets his contact number. Include any important information, such as his account number, available times for a call back or details of the message. Don’t promise the caller to call back today as you don’t know what the person’s schedule is but do call back as soon as possible.

11End the call professionally. Assure that you review the actions that you have taken and will take. Ask if there is anything else you can assist the callers with. If no, end the call by thanking them for their time. For example: “Thank you for calling eHomemakers. Have a nice day.” Tips to end a phone call professionally

Handling Phone Calls

Dealing with eHomemakers’ Customers/Members on the Phone

If you haven’t worked before, at eHomemakers, you will learn to deal with all kinds of people on the phone as part of your internship. Some people call to enquire about eHomemakers’ activities while others call to WANT things like cash from eHomemakers thinking that we are Santa Claus.

Dealing with customers over the phone, unlike talking to them face-to-face, presents its own set of challenges, especially in the first few seconds. As you are unable to identify the customer’s emotional state prior to the call, you won’t know how the person will react till you call. A customer who has a negative or unhappy experience with someone else will likely “let off steam” on the next person that she engages with. However, you will not know if you are the “next person” until you answer the call.

Also, you are unsure of the “time-threshold” that the customer has. Imagine how frustrated you are if you call a particular office number many times because you either got disconnected or were transferred to an incorrect person. Chances are, when you finally get through, you will want to get the issue resolved in the shortest possible time.

When you are on the phone, it is almost impossible to identify the non-verbal cues of the customer. The primary giveaway is the speed of speech, tone of voice and volume. Even for experienced marketing professionals, it is a challenge to identify the customer’s emotional state by simply listening to the voice.

Therefore, the key is to transform an angry, frustrated, disappointed or concerned customer or supporter into a “customer advocate” within a short time.

Here is how:

Keep cool
Cover all bases
Go the extra mile
Follow up

The first 10 seconds in dealing with people will make an impact on the outcome of the call. Keeping cool means that both you (who represent eHomemakers) and the customer will need to remain calm and explore solutions together. A people-focused organization equips its team with the relevant technical and service quality skills so that they can fulfill their tasks well. Please learn what eHomemakers’ projects are all about before you pick up the phone.

Identifying the type of people that you are dealing with as well as salient issues that she faces, will enable you to deal with her more effectively. For example, when an NGO staff expresses disappointment at the speed of ECHO’s message sending, she has just two concerns: The time it takes her to use ECHO, the hassles she has to go through because she forgets how to use ECHO.  

However, in the process of revealing these issues, she may also disclose the difficulties she faces in her NGO, for instance, broadband which hangs all the time, her inability to understand ECHO icons, and IT knowledge of her boss.

A people-focused organization will not only address the key issues, but also measure, track and follow up on all other factors that affect the customer or members’ perception of the non-profit.

The customer wants a solution in the shortest possible time with minimal possible inconvenience. Clichéd as it may sound, the trick is found out what else you can do for the customer that will have him saying, “Wow! This is extraordinary service!”

This is especially important for interns working on the marketing of eco-baskets and IT interns dealing with NGO customers for ECHO. 

Often, the follow-up action taken by most organizations amounts to nothing more than a courtesy call. Besides the standard ritual of calling customers, organizations need to monitor their purchasing patterns and touch base with them on a regular basis to determine if enough is being done for customers to say, “All things being equal, I will purchase your product again.”

A customer-focused organization establishes customer intimacy as a long-term strategy and does what it takes to attract and keep customers.

Excellent service professionals know the outcome of any transaction is heavily dependent on what happens before, during and after the transaction. Therefore, at the conclusion of your next interaction with a customer, ask yourself, “Have I made him happy?”  ­-

For More Information:

10 top tips on answering telephone calls professionally.

How to answer the phone properly at the office .

How to answer a phone calls video.

How to Get off a Phone Call Politely

Depending on the person on the other end of the line, getting off the phone politely can take a firm hand, the truth or perhaps a creative mind.

1. Keep your cool. It’s best to be polite.

2. Tell the truth when you can. For example, “Pepper, I have to get back to work,” or “Dad, dear, I gotta to work, I will talk to you later.”

3. Be firm, especially at work if you’re needed elsewhere. “Thanks for calling, but I have a speech to give right now and I must go."

4. Be more insistent than that telemarketer, the complainer, the fundraiser or the muckraker when they call. Get creative if you don’t like the idea of lies like telling people you love to talk to them but you have to go to toilet………..

5. Interrupt the chatter, if necessary, and let the caller know his or her time is up. A phone abuser is wasting your time.

6. Provide the caller with a better time to call, if you’re so inclined. Or provide another option for communication, such as an e-mail address, a P.O. box or a better person to contact.

7. Give a telemarketer a warning: “I am hanging up in 30 seconds and I don’t mean to be rude,” Hang up if the person on the other end of the line absolutely will not give up and wants to sell you things.

8. Consider limiting the number of people who are able to ring you while you are working.

9. It is not impolite to hang up on people who are abusing your time.

For More Information:

Get off a phone call politely.

5 tricks for politely ending phone calls.

How to get off a phone call politely (video)

Email Etiquette for Interns and Volunteers

Corpcom Services Sdn Bhd 2008

Author: Usha Krishnan

1. Use eHomemakers email account (if you are assigned one)

As a team member of eHomemakers, do not send business messages from a free email provider like Hotmail or Yahoo.

2. Address the recipient properly 

You MUST assume that people want to be addressed formally. In our society, people value their titles (Datukships, Royalty protocols, Dr, etc) so make sure you put in the time to find out the correct form of address.

Example:You could spell Shahrizat’s name with a Dato’ or Datuk so Google the (former) Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to check the name of the Ministry, the Minister’s title and the spelling of her name! It will take you an extra 2 minutes of your time but it will save eHomemakers a whole lot of embarrassment!

3. Use proper introductions

Always write an introductory paragraph saying what your email is about. 

Also, when you are following up on another team member’s communication with a 3^rd party and you are corresponding with them for the first time, make sure you introduce yourself properly with a few words about what you will be following up on.

Example: Philo met Datuk Y from TripleX Sdn Bhd during a seminar she attended. Datuk Y mentioned that he would be interested to sponsor soft drinks at the next Salaam Wanita activity, which incidentally Noreen is organizing. Philo asks Noreen to follow up. Now, Noreen should make sure she links herself to Philo and her meeting with Datuk Y before she actually asks Datuk Y to sponsor the drinks.

4. Use DISCRETION when forwarding emails

ALWAYS stop and think before you click on the Forward button – don’t learn this lesson the hard way! In fact, it’s best to just NOT forward internal discussions to outside parties. Take the extra time and write the story from start when you want to follow up on an action that the team discussed among themselves first.

Example: Leena to Usha: Hi! I’m interested in offering my translation services to eH. Would u have some work for me?

Usha to c2: What shall we do about Leena’s offer?

C2 to Usha: Don’t take it up. We’ve had bad experiences with her. She’s so kalang kabut, we can’t trust her. Tell her we will contact her if we need her services.

Action: Usha can’t be bothered looking for Leena’s original email so she clicks on the Forward button, copies and pastes Leena’s email address on top and sends the discussion off to Leena! And Leena replies, *&^%$$##@@!

If you do forward an email, be sure to remove long strings of email addresses that often precede actual message content. People get discouraged when they have to scroll through a page of addresses and time-stamps before they reach the actual content.

5. Compile all information in 1 email/ document

When you want to give a set of instructions to a 3^rd party, don’t shoot off a 
series of emails on the same subject. This is especially tempting when you receive the instructions from someone else in trickles and you just want to make sure the 3^rd party receives the instructions. So it may not always be within your control to give a complete set of instructions at 1 go but try, as far as possible, to compile as much information as possible in 1 Word document, and then send it to the 3^rd party.

Similarly, if you need to follow up on a 10-email discussion that took place between c2 & Usha over 5 days while you were on leave, you will need to cut and paste all the relevant information in a Word document, understand what has been occurring, which tasks you are responsible for and need to act on and what information in those emails are necessary for your task completion. If you try to read the 10 emails and immediately act on each/ some of them without thinking of the overall picture, there is a high likelihood that you will make mistakes, or that you become utterly confused and thus unable to act.

Email is a fast and effective means of transmitting office information. As a user, you must know how to organize the information transmitted to you and how to do follow-up.  Putting important information into a Word document and organizing information you cull from email into tables or charts for yourself and others to see things clearly are just some of the ways to organize yourself.

Another way is to categorize your emails under different email folders with clear subject headings. Sub-categories like ‘Pending’, ‘Urgent’, ‘To read’, ‘To do today’ or ‘To do for team X’ will help you organize yourself so that you know where to retrieve information and take timely actions. Eg, If you are organizing the SOHO conference, you can organize information under the categories mentioned, besides having other folders like ‘Registration’, ‘Speakers’, ‘Agenda’, ‘Sponsors’, ‘Publicity’, etc. And under each of these sub-folders, you can have categories like ‘Pending’, ‘Urgent’, etc.

6. Use sub-headings, numbering or bullet points 

When your email contains many different issues, show that you are organized in your thoughts by structuring your email properly. It will give the reader the confidence that you know where you are heading and what your goals are.

7. Get verbal promises/ guarantees in written form

When a 3^rd party offers us something on the phone/ during a face-to-face meeting, make sure you follow up with an email immediately confirming what was said so that it is down on record. This will ensure that there are no disputes like, “But you said you would…”

8. Modify standard letters 

When you are using a standard letter, make sure you change the contents slightly, if need be. It is embarrassing when someone else’s name is still on the email or the subject matter has changed slightly. Always double-check, especially when you are not the writer of the original letter.

9. Be wise with attachments 

It is extremely annoying to receive large attachments that take ages to download. If the article or picture is available online (in a website, a Flickr account, etc), send the link instead so that the recipient can access it directly. Do not send more than 1 picture or large attachment in 1 email. Be considerate and split the attachments up into 2 or more emails.

Also, check whether you have actually sent the attachment. Many of us forget to send the attachment with the email. This is a common mistake but you can always redeem yourself by immediately following up with an email of apology containing the attachment - before the recipient gets back to you with a “Where is the attachment?” response.

10. Take off Track Changes

If your document contains Track Changes, please do the necessary to get rid of them, before sending it off to outsiders. It is awfully embarrassing when important documents (for funding, partnerships, projects, etc) that have received feedback from various people through Track Changes, are sent off with the Track Changes still visible in the finalized version.

11. Run your Spelling and Grammar check 

It is a fact that not all of us are good at grammar and spelling even though we speak the language well. Spell and Grammar Check is such a wonderful tool but is often under-utilised! It’s there at our finger-tips but we don’t make the effort to run it!

12.  Always be professional 

Don’t let your guard down. It’s better to be looked upon as a competent home-based worker than a sloppy housewife. Take pride in the way you present yourself well, pay attention to details and don’t give others the chance to pick on you just because you work from home!

Style and tone can impact an email’s message. For example, you may think that using all CAPS are attractive, but many find them to be annoying, if not amateurish. Keep the tone businesslike.

Additionally, avoid situations where you have to “SHOUT” and “Make yourself heard”! Using a red font to get your message through is rude and unprofessional. As a team player, try not to sound accusatory with words like “You did this!” and “You don’t understand!” There is always a nicer way of communicating. Make an effort to be pleasant and resolve matters amicably.

If the matter is serious or the explanation gets complicated, do not rely on email to solve the situation; use the phone or organize a face-to-face meeting to resolve the matter. Do not engage the team in an email quarrel.

13. Acknowledge email 

It often happens that you may not be able to immediately reply to an email. In such cases, it is important to let the sender know that you have received the email and you will eventually pursue the matter. Even a one-liner like “Will attend to this asap”, “Am waiting for Y’s phone call regarding this matter” or “Am still working on the document” will reassure the sender that you have not forgotten the matter.    

14. Reply with the original message attached 

Do not send a new message with a one-word answer such as “yes” or “no” as this will make no sense to the recipient. Bear in mind that sometimes you may be able to follow up only after a couple of days and your recipient would be totally clueless as to the context of your message.

15. Virus/ Adware protection is essential 

If team members, business associates or others in your address book inform you that you have sent them an attachment with virus, do not get defensive. Instead, thank the person for informing you that your PC is infected and that you will take immediate action.

Many viruses spread without anybody intentionally sending out a virus-infected email. Take proactive action by installing the latest anti-virus programme, scanning your hard drive and finally isolating the virus. Then download and install a virus patch which is freely available on many anti-virus sites. Once you have cleaned your PC, inform the party who warned you about the virus. You’ve got to rebuild their faith in your computer abilities.

eHomemakers team members have anti-virus software and clean their computers daily with Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware.

16. Pay attention to the “Subject” in your email 

This is often an overlooked feature. In actual fact, it is of vital importance. Do not leave the subject line blank.

Firstly, it quickly tells the recipient what your email is about. So it will be wise to say as much as possible using minimum number of words. Eg. eHomemakers banner ad rates.

Also, during the course of an email discussion, the subject might change from one to another. Eg. An internal email may start off with a discussion on a particular SW member with the subject heading “Noraini Ahmad”. After a few emails, the subject might have changed from Noraini to Eco-Baskets to shortage of magazines to finally, an appeal to donors in the monthly e-newsletter. At such a stage, it will be appropriate to change the Subject to “Monthly enews appeal”.

Finally, a clear subject heading is very useful when you do a search using the “Find” feature in your Outlook Express. Eg. When you type the word “appeal” as the key word in your Subject area, the Search will quickly pick up that long-lost email that you knew you had received a few weeks ago regarding the appeal for magazines.   

No spamming: Do not spam your colleagues with unnecessary emails such as jokes, poetry, urban legends and chain letters.  

17. Name your documents appropriately

If you are working on a Word/Excel document that has been edited more than once, make sure you rename the document accordingly.

Example: You have prepared an Excel sheet containing the names of Salaam Wanita members attending a workshop. You call it “SW Extradiction workshop”. You send it to C2 who adds on 5 more names. Then Philo adds on 7 more names. When you send it back to the team, make sure that you have changed the name of the original document to “SW Extradiction workshop edited 14/2 (date of last admendment)”. If there are more versions that day, make sure you call the document “SW Extradiction workshop edited 14/2 version 2”, etc.

This is very important so that the team does not receive emails saying, “Please ignore the SW list I sent you this morning. The second one I sent later today is the right one.” If you refer to the exact name of the edited document, there will be less room for making errors.

18. Sign off with a digital signature and the relevant url for eHomemakers web assets 

Make sure your signature includes your designation, organization website and contact details. 
E.g. 

Usha Krishnan, 
Web Editor,
www.ehomemakers.net, 
Tel. XXXXXX.