Showing up for that meeting on time was really a feat after being stuck in traffic and not finding the building right away. Too bad you didn’t have a comb to help neaten your hair after rolling down your car window and asking for directions.

Because making the right first impression is so important in business relationships, you need to constantly look and feel professional. Outside forces, though, can interfere with your appearance and make your clients think you’re a disorganized slacker.

To look and feel your best at every business meeting, pack a small plastic box filled with essential items that you don’t carry with you. You can pack one to keep in your office and one to keep in your car. Some suggestions of items to pack are:

• Tissues. Pick up a multi-pack of the travel-size cases; they take up less space.
• Lip Balm. Dry lips can distract you and become irritating when you do so much talking.
• Laundry Detergent Pen or Wipes. Especially for those after-lunch meetings or when you’re forced to eat that jelly doughnut on the way to your meeting.
• Box of Mints. For when you’ve just eaten lunch. They also come in handy after that cup of coffee or other hot beverage.
• Deodorant. These also come in small travel sizes, so they won’t take up too much room.
• Mirror and Comb. Take a moment to spruce up your hair.

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Most savvy Word users already know how to use Word’s Find And Replace dialog box to locate instances of specific text or formatting. But you may not know that there’s something you can do to speed up your Find or Replace command before you even access this dialog box.

To accelerate your Find:

1. Select the word you wish to find.
2. Select Edit | Find from the menu bar, or press [Ctrl]F to open the Find tab of the Find And Replace dialog box.

Notice that the word you selected in step one appears in the Find What text box automatically. This process works the same for the Replace command, except, of course, you’ll select Edit | Replace or press [Ctrl]H in step 2.

Exceptions to the rule

This trick doesn’t work in certain situations. Here are tips for using it:

• Select only one word. If you select more than one word, Word won’t pull any of them into the Find What text box.
• Don’t select attached punctuation. You may select a comma alone, but you can’t select a comma or hyphen along with the word you select.
• Don’t select a space. Even if you select only a space, it will not display in the Find What text box

Adapt for Word 2007

You can access the Find and Replace functions on the Home tab in Word 2007. Just look in the Editing group.

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Don’t be caught off guard when you’re stuck with an upset customer. Don’t let a furious caller stop you from doing the very best job you can.

The next time you’re on the receiving end of an angry customer’s rant, try these tips to calm him down and resolve the issue effectively, from Gemma Gibson’s article, “How Best To Deal With Angry Customers.

• Be straightforward. Explain your company’s policies and processes clearly.
• Be flexible. You don’t always have to follow policies strictly no matter what. Each situation is different and may require you to bend “the rules” a little to satisfy your customer. Look at the situation from the customer’s point of view, says Gibson. Also, discuss these rule-bending options with your manager regularly so you’ll be prepared and know what to do when an angry caller strikes.
• Demonstrate action. Show your customer that you are going to solve his problem by using language like, “I can,” “Definitely,” and “I’m going to take care of this,” Gibson suggests.
• Give your customer choices. If there are different ways to resolve the issue, give your customer all of the options to choose from. This allows him to feel like he has some control over his problem.
• Offer a timeline. Once you and the customer choose a course of action, describe the steps you will take to correct the problem. This will help your customer understand the time it will take to resolve the issue, as well as all of the work involved.
• Provide updates. Call your customer to let him know how you’re progressing with his problem. For example, if you had to reorder an item, give the customer a call and tell him that you’ve placed the order.

Tell him when he can expect to receive the order. He’ll feel more comfortable if you let him know how things are going instead of leaving him in the dark. Another thing to keep in mind is don’t rely on your manager to fix the problem. Even if you need to get a manager involved, remember that you still have an obligation to see the problem through until the end, says Gibson.

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Do you often feel like you need to walk on eggshells around fighting subordinates? Do arguments disrupt your employees’ workdays? Do you sometimes feel like you need to side with one employee or the other to truly resolve the conflict?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, here are four steps that will help you stay impartial while mediating a conflict between your employees:

• Determine their limits. It can be difficult to get both employees to explain the root problem, so you’ll have to talk with each one personally. Find out what pushed them over the limit. Are they annoyed that their coworker takes two hours for lunch? Does one coworker engage the other in too much “mindless chit-chat?” Remember that no question is too small to ask during this stage. What seems like a silly question could lead to a productive answer.
• Open the discussion. Fostering an open discussion between the disagreeing employees is the best way to clear the air, despite how awkward it can be. Sit in a neutral space, such as a conference room, and ask each person to state her professional goals and expectations. Keep the dialogue focused around work with words like “objective,” “target” and “expectations.”
• Find healing. After both sides have stated their workplace goals and expectations, invite one subordinate to analyze how her behavior impedes the other’s ability to realize her goals. Then, ask the other one to do the same. Once they’re aware of how their actions harm the other’s career goals, they’ll be more likely to shape up.
• Remember the human touch. Your employees need you to be objective and fair regarding their conflict. Instead of taking sides, provide a human touch and understand that sometimes the simplest resolution is the best — an explanation and an apology. Encourage your workers to make amends and move on.

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Everyone has sent out an email in haste only to regret it a few minutes later. Perhaps you were angry about something decided in a meeting, or one of your employees acted in a way you thought was unprofessional. You naturally want to react to the situation immediately. Well, acting out of anger or frustration is usually not the best answer.

If you’re using Microsoft Exchange Server, you may be able to retrieve that email as if it was never sent. So, what happens if you’ve already sent an email but you want to get it back? For instance, let’s say you sent a message to your manager insinuating his decision was poorly thought out. Not the best way to get ahead! Outlook does provide a way to retrieve or replace the message if you’re running in a Microsoft Exchange environment. For this method to succeed, the recipient of your email message (your boss) must be logged on to Outlook, but not have opened the message or moved it from his Inbox.

To retrieve or replace the message, click on the Sent Items folder in the Folder List. In your Sent Items folder, open the message you want to recall or replace. Choose Actions | Recall This Message from the Message form menu bar. Select either the Delete Unread Copies Of This Message option button or the Delete Unread Copies And Replace With A New Message option button, depending on which you’d like to do. Keep the Tell Me If Recall Succeeds Or Fails For Each Recipient check box selected, and then click OK. If you chose to replace the email, type a new message and click Send. An important caveat to keep in mind is even if you receive a message that the recall or replace was successful, the recipient still might have seen the contents of your email. If the person has the preview pane active, it’s possible that he read the contents of the message without opening it. So be careful!

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