Be the employee your boss brags about 🏆

Hi there! Exciting news: Later this month, I’m speaking at the Powerhouse Women Expanders Retreat! 🤩 

The growth that I always experience at Powerhouse Women Events is nothing short of amazing. It’s even sparked me to book more speaking engagements (this is the first of many on my calendar!). 

The Expanders Retreat is for women entrepreneurs ready to grow in every area of their lives, from network to influence to capacity for success. If you’re ready to lean into deeper self-trust and level up, I’d love to see you there. 💚

Apply here to join! 

Be the Employee Your Boss Brags About 🏆

Monday. 9 AM. As you walk into your office, you see your boss squinting at a spreadsheet of employee data. They’re trying to figure out which department and salary belong to each employee ID. 😵‍💫

You have two options: 

1. Say “Morning!” and walk past them. 

2. Say “I can help!” and solve their problem before their coffee gets cold. ☕

Let’s go with option two. 👀

To help, we’re going to create a simple XLOOKUP function that’ll search the employee database and pull what your boss is looking for in seconds. Here’s how: 

Voila! Drag the formula down and it handles the rest, pulling names, department, salary, and a clear “Not Found” whenever an ID doesn’t exist. 

The only thing left to do? Act natural when your boss starts bragging about you to the entire office. 😌

How to Use AI at Work (Without People Knowing It’s AI) 

The other day, I was laughing with a friend about how weird it is that we're (almost) all expected to use AI at work, but we can't be "too obvious" about it. 🙃 

Then again, this isn’t the first time a new technology has had a rocky welcome. When Alexander Bell tried to sell his telephone patent to Western Union in 1867, they called it an “impractical device” and a “toy.”

Now we can’t imagine life without it—and I have a feeling AI is next! But until then? Here are three ways to tweak AI so it doesn’t scream “robot” (and your professional secret stays safe 🤫). 

1. Fix your opening sentence. 

AI loves a vague, grandiose opening sentence—it states the obvious while sprinkling in important-sounding words to make you look good. But all this does is bloat your message! 

The solution is simple. Delete the opener and get to the point:

✖️ “As organizations continue to evolve, the tools we use to communicate play a critical role in our collective success.” 

✔️ “We switched from Slack to Teams. Here’s why:” 

2. Cut the fluff. 

AI likes to pad filler phrases like “This highlights the importance of” and “It is worth noting that” to make your text flow. Not only is it a dead giveaway for AI, but it also slows your reader down. Try this instead: 

✖️ “This demonstrates that our Q3 results were impacted by supply chain delays.” 

✔️ “Supply chain delays hurt our Q3 numbers.” 

3. Put your personality back in. 

AI defaults to a neutral, "safe," and formal tone, stripping your writing of personality and opinion. Don't let it! Go back in, add your voice, and prove there's a human behind the keyboard. 

✖️ “This approach may have potential benefits to the team.” 

✔️ “I genuinely think this would be a night and day difference!”  

I saved the most important tip for last! Find it right here.

• Impress your boss by doing a 10-minute Excel task in 30 seconds. 

• The Outlook setup that makes important emails impossible to miss. 

• 243 people learned how to convert text to columns. Are you next? ⚡

• Don’t tell me you’ve been manually typing dates into Excel. 🫢

• You’ve been merging cells. The Excel pros have been doing this instead. 👀

Thanks for being here! Before we part ways, I’d love to know: Which AI training topic excites you the most?

Stay Exceling,

Kat