Author: kenritley

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: GET A BOUND NOTEBOOK AND A NICE PEN . . .

. . . and bring them with you to important meetings. It is not about looking old-fashioned, or rejecting laptops, or even about the notes themselves. It’s about the non-verbal signal you send: I’m professional, I’m serious, I’m going to capture the important information permanently.

This matters even more in meetings with senior stakeholders you do not see every day, often Gen-X or Baby Boomer decision makers who grew up in a time when a notebook in the room signaled commitment and follow-through. That impression still exists today.

In your first few months on the job these small signals add up. They help your more senior colleagues perceive your reliability, your maturity, and your professionalism.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: NAME YOUR FILES PROFESSIONALLY.

If I ask someone for a list of stakeholders and they send me “list.xls” it may contain brilliant information, but the name sends a strong non-verbal message that they may be lazy or careless with their work. It only takes seconds to name it “2026-03-Stakeholder-List.xls” or something equally clear and structured.

A good file name shows that you care about clarity, versioning, and long-term readability. In professional environments that small non-verbal action signals discipline and attention to detail. It also makes you stand out, because fewer and fewer people take the time to do this, and those who do are noticed immediately.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: WHEN EDITING POWERPOINT SLIDES IN A TEAM . . .

. . . never make changes without first making a copy of the original slide.

I learned this trick many years ago from a brilliant consultant and have been using it ever since. It is especially powerful when you make small changes, because your colleagues can quickly toggle between the versions and immediately see exactly what you edited.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: CHATS AND EMAILS . . .

. . . are two business tools for two separate purposes. Many students have never written an email, only read them, and so they don’t yet realize that email is a complicated tool that requires practice and experience to master.

CHAT is the right tool for ephemeral information sharing:

• Quick questions and fast clarifications
• Time-sensitive nudges (“Are you free?”, “Client is waiting”)
• Messages that don’t need to survive beyond today

EMAIL is the right tool for long-term storage and retrieval:

• Decisions, agreements, and commitments
• Summaries, briefs, attachments, and documentation
• Topics that must be searchable later

Using a chat when the situation requires an email creates chaos: nothing is recorded, nothing is clear. Using an email when the situation requires a chat creates delay: everything slows down. Choosing the right tool shows you are organized, respectful, and professionally predictable.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: WHEN JOINING A COMPANY PRETEND YOU ARE ON A STRANGE NEW PLANET . . .

. . . with lifeforms that think differently than you. Look carefully at the various leaders in your new company. Every generation has its own habits, comfort zones, and invisible expectations, not just around technology but also communication and, much more importantly, decision-making.

Manager Tools always says “communication is what the listener does.” Your success in the first months comes down to noticing how each group prefers information, matching their style, and communicating in ways that feel natural to them, not you. These small adjustments help senior colleagues see you as someone who understands the environment and is easy to trust.

And trust is not only what opens the first doors. It is the absolute foundation of business life. Without trust nothing moves. With trust, everything does.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: DESIGN YOUR POWERPOINT SLIDES FOR READING OFFLINE . . .

. . . not just for presenting live. To be provocative: students are taught rubbish. Big fonts, reduced text, clever transitions. And the biggest sin: videos embedded in presentations.

In the real world, chances are high that 95% of people will be reading your slides offline, not viewing them live. Any senior manager or executive will want a copy at least 24 hours before you present, sent as a PDF, which is exactly why videos are a no-go.

Hallmarks of a good presentation:

• Should be understandable and effective by reading alone
• The storyline is everything. Slides are not a list, they tell a story.
• Titles state the conclusion, not the topic
• 10pt fonts are fine. Executives prefer detail they can read over empty space.
• No gimmicky transitions, no videos

And something rarely taught: the role of backup slides. If a topic is important, it belongs in the backup after the main slides. A good backup answers questions before they are asked. I have seen top presentations with 8 main slides and 20 or more in the backup.

Remember, your real audience is not in the room. It is in the inbox.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: WHEN REPLYING TO AN EMAIL FROM AN AMERICAN YOU JUST MET . . .

. . . always use the name they used when they signed their email.

American professionals usually have two names in circulation: a formal version that appears on HR systems, diplomas, and legal documents, and the name they actually live by.

This short name is their public key: it tells you how they want you to address them, and it signals the level of warmth they’re offering. A “Hello Michael” response to “Best, Mike” rejects their invitation to engage on a less formal level. To an American that can feel jarring, taking a very abrupt step backward after they’ve taken a step forward.

If you know these unwritten rules you can navigate the cultural code effortlessly and build rapport faster with your US colleagues.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: RESPONDING TO EXECUTIVES AND SENIOR LEADERS . . .

. . . is not about impressing them but giving them what they need. Executives operate with extreme time pressure, high responsibility, and constant context-switching. They value clarity, calmness, and people who make their lives easier.

When dealing with executives, be CLEAR:

• Be Calm: executives want steadiness and emotional control, not people who amplify pressure or urgency.
• Be Lucid: executives want the core message immediately understandable, not mentally taxing to decode.
• Be Efficient: executives tune out rambling explanations and tune in to crisp, economical points.
• Be Accountable: executives expect a proposed path forward, not an ask for instructions.
• Be Reliable: executives judge you by consistent patterns of behavior, not isolated moments.

Every interaction with an executive is a chance to build trust. With trust everything moves. Without it, nothing does.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: WHEN REPLYING TO AN IMPORTANT EMAIL FROM AN IMPORTANT STAKEHOLDER . . .

. . . just type a “$” on the TO: line before you start editing.

Sometimes you make a mistake while typing and an email is sent before you are ready. This can be bothersome but it could also be embarrassing or even disastrous. By entering this character it guarantees, at least on many email clients such as MS Outlook, that the email won’t be sent until you remove it.

Most email clients will accept this, and you can save the email in the meantime. When you are finally ready to send, just remove this little send protection and go.

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: WOULD YOU WRITE A PERSONAL EMAIL TO SOMEONE IN A LANGUAGE . . .

. . . that you knew they could not understand? Of course not. The idea of communication is to be effective, and you can’t be maximally effective if they cannot process the information you give them.

Manager Tools has taken this one step further, popularizing the so-called DISC model. According to this, people tend to have behaviors in a mix of four different categories: D = Dominant, I = Influence, S = Steadiness, C = Conscientious. If you know roughly what category a person is in you can communicate with them in a way that is maximally effective. I learned this approach many years ago, and once you learn it, you apply it without thinking.

Here is a good example. A senior executive replies to your first email: “Sally, great idea. Set up a meeting, BR Susan.” How do you think Susan will feel if she reads a reply such as “Dear Susan, I received your email and I want to thank you for the meeting… Best wishes, Sally.” Susan is a high D. She will feel an innate friction at unneeded politeness and verbiage.

It turns out this goes far further than just knowing the comfort zone where people communicate most easily. It’s about how you interact with them, how you motivate them, how you delegate to them, and how you give them feedback. And these are key factors in the business world if you want to get things done.

 

ADVICE TO GRADUATING STUDENTS: WHEN SENDING OUT MEETING INVITATIONS . . .

. . . make sure they have descriptive titles. Rule: the reader should immediately know what the topic will be. “Meeting” or “Sync-Up” just won’t cut it.

Your colleagues’ calendars, and soon yours too, will be filled with so many meetings that being able to do a quick visual scan and understand the context is important, especially when some prep work is needed before a meeting.

As a college instructor I never fault students for not knowing these things. How could they? University life doesn’t “contaminate” you with dozens of overlapping appointments, client calls, steering committees, and project reviews.

Students: enjoy your freedom. Graduates: get ready for more “rituals” than you could ever imagine.