“You leave a calling card with every interaction. It is either a positive calling card or a negative calling card.” These wonderful words are from Laurie Lampman, Manager of Legal Administrative Talent & Services. Laurie is a newly-Certified Star Achievement Series® trainer and will be teaching our program in her organization.

Think about your last interactions the past few days—whether with your leader, a co-worker, client or vendor. I always tell administrative and executive assistants, “You are on stage every day. As soon as you walk in the door, walk into your executive’s office, walk into a meeting room or pick up the telephone, you are on stage. People are forming perceptions about you whether right or wrong.”

Laurie shared a few phrases from a slideshow with me that she created showing an example of a positive and negative calling card. They are simple and powerful.

Positive included professional, approachable, responsive, team player, friendly, positive attitude.

Negative included just the opposite, i.e., unprofessional, unapproachable, etc.

Think about it. What would your calling card say? What would it say in a particular situation? Or with a particular person? It should always be positive no matter the situation or the person.