I just read a remarkable book and had to share.

The book is Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct, by Pier Massimo Forni who is a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

Forni’s book has spawned a civility movement in the Baltimore suburbs, including seminars and reading groups on several local university campuses, classroom discussions, business symposiums, and, in one high school, a year-long series of talks aimed at understanding and stopping bullying.

The rules are simple, short and direct—easily understood and followed in daily life.

My favorites are:

#3. Think the best. I believe that, in most cases, people don’t mean to be rude or difficult or deliberately hurtful. If someone says something to me and there’s two ways to take it—one way that would be innocent and one way that I would take offense to—I try to believe that their intent was innocent. I don’t always succeed, but it is something to strive for.

#16. Apologize earnestly. There’s almost nothing that happens that can’t be made better by an earnest, heartfelt, timely apology. Try it. It doesn’t hurt a bit.

#25. Don’t shift responsibility and blame. One of the most important things I can do is be responsible for myself and my actions and reactions. The hardest lesson I’ve learned is I can’t control other people and what they say, do or think. What I can do is look at myself and see what I can do to make the situation better—including admitting when I’m wrong (never one of my favorite pastimes).

Pick up the book, read the rest of the rules, and let me know what your personal rules for civility are. Let’s start a movement right here and stamp out rudeness. Nicely.

Moveon.org is running a contest to find the best ads for Barack Obama.

My husband, Michael, developed this ad, called “The Solution”, and it was accepted into the contest.

Please go to the link and look at it. You won’t be able to vote specifically for his ad, but the ads with the largest number of “hits”, as well as those that get the most votes in a random voting, will move on to the next round.

Sign in, take a look at Michael’s ad, then go ahead and vote on the random ones you’ll see.

Of course, if Michael’s ad comes up in your random voting sequence, please feel free to rate it highly!

Thank you.

Photo by rajeshvj

As the economy worsens, the chances your company (and your job) will be negatively affected steadily increase. According to Mercer Consulting, one in three midsize to large U.S. companies is thinking about hiring freezes or downsizing. When push comes to shove, and the company is looking around to decide who to keep and who to let go, make sure you and your contributions are well-known and valuable to the bottom line.

Go to the office and stay there

This isn’t the time to take advantage of your company’s liberal work-at-home policy. Sure, you might get more done at home and not having to fight the traffic is always a plus (especially with gas prices), but right now you need to be in the office. If your boss doesn’t see you very often, it will be easier for him to conclude that it won’t make a whole lot of difference if he doesn’t see you at all. Employees who are in the office every day, working extra hours and making themselves visible, will rank higher on the indispensible meter than someone who comes in late, takes long lunches, and works at home three times a week.

Be visible in other ways

You know that month-long vacation you were planning on taking? Forget it. While you’re gone, things will keep running just fine without you and it might occur to someone that they could safely let you take a permanent vacation.

Figure out a way to make yourself stand out from the crowd. If you’re in sales, get your numbers up. If you’re in marketing, bring in some new clients. If you’re in HR, find ways to save money on benefits and other employee programs. If you’re in none of these areas, start thinking about what you can do to improve the bottom line. Does your department really need to make so many copies of their reports? Can you do a tele-conference instead of flying to the coast? Every piece helps, and your boss will appreciate your efforts when he can announce that his department cut expenses by 12% last quarter.

While you’re getting extra face time and saving the company money, don’t neglect to polish up your personal image. You know the old adage of dress for the position you want, not the position you have? Now’s the time to implement it. You don’t need to invest in Armani or Prada to make a statement, just think about spiffing up your appearance. Ditch the casual Friday look and start looking like you’re serious about your job.

Broaden your appeal

Look around and see what other departments can use your skills. If there’s an opening in another department, volunteer to take over the parts of the job that match your skill-set. It will probably mean putting in more hours and, if so, do it cheerfully and without complaining. It’s hard to justify getting rid of someone who willingly provides valuable work in more than one area.

While you’re helping out and becoming more visible, check your attitude. The threat of looming layoffs can cause low morale and widespread griping in the workforce. Make sure you’re not among that group. This is the time to declare your loyalty. Never be heard bad-mouthing the company; instead, be a strong and public supporter of management and the direction the company is heading. When it’s time to start letting people go, loyalty will almost always win out over competence. It may not be fair, but the best way to protect yourself is to be both competent and loyal.

Final Thoughts

A lot of these suggestions will require you to wholeheartedly embrace your company and your work. If you can’t do that, or at least can’t do it and still look yourself in the face, it’s time to think about moving on to a job and a company you can respect in the morning. More about that in the next installment.

As always, I value your comments and suggestions—if you have other strategies for how to make yourself more valuable at work, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

You’re NOT Fired!—Recession-Proof Your Job, part 1

You’re NOT Fired!—Recession-Proof Your Job, part 2

You’re NOT Fired!—Recession-Proof Your Job, part 3

You’re NOT Fired!—Recession-Proof Your Job, part 4

Have you discovered Facebook yet?

It took me a while. I joined MySpace a while ago, mostly to keep an eye on my nephew’s doings, and figured the other social networking sites were also for teens and young adults.

Boy, was I wrong.

Facebook is the fastest growing social networking community there is, and professionals from all walks of life are signing up in droves to forge relationships, build coalitions and network with like-minded people. 250,000 new people join every day, and the average age is 35. These are the very people you want to reach, no matter what your occupation or field of work.

It can be pretty daunting for a newbie, though—all those applications and groups and walls. Where do you start?

Luckily, some far-sighted people made it their business to learn everything about Facebook so they can offer it to those of us who were a little late getting on the train.

Mari Smith, the Facebook Coach, is a leader in this area. Her course, Facebook for Professionals, is outstanding and will tell you everything you need to know about making Facebook work for you. Learn more about her course and sign up—it’s one of the best investments you’ll ever make. I’m working through it right now and Mari offers tons of information and useful content. She over-delivers big time!

When you get over to Facebook, friend me! Here’s my profile address: http://profile.to/joanschramm/. Sign up as my friend and drop me a note about your FB experience.

Thanks to “Are We Balanced Yet?” for including me in their blog carnival. There are lots of other great blog posts there, so take a look.

What does work-life balance mean to you? People throw that term around a lot, and it can vary widely from one person to another.

For me, it means enjoying what I do so much, that it just doesn’t seem like work. It means being able to completely disengage sometimes, and curl up on the couch with a for-fun novel, and lose myself for the afternoon. It means, that neither my work nor my “personal” life are always at the forefront. Sometimes work is paramount; sometimes personal time is paramount. It all works out.

That’s balance.