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Not your grandmother’s etiquette

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Hello and welcome to the Clise Etiquette blog, a place to discuss savvy and not so savvy decorum. Etiquette may sound like a stuffy or old-fashioned topic, but it’s really just about making yourself and others more comfortable by being respectful, kind and professional.

I am an etiquette consultant, speaker, trainer, coach and author of Spinach in Your Boss’s Teeth: Essential Etiquette for Professional Success. I share etiquette and protocol tips, stories and techniques that you can use to feel more confident, at ease and successful socially and in the workplace.

I invite you to share your thoughts and questions on the situations in life that confuse you, anger you, give you pause or make you proud. Please feel free to let me know if there are topics you’d like me to discuss or hear more about. Some of my best posts come from questions or stories readers share with me.

Thank you for stopping by. I invite you to subscribe to my blog by clicking on the green button.

The Academy Awards: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As I do every year, I watched the Academy Awards with a few friends. We meet at one friend’s house, enjoy a potluck dinner and gab about the dresses, the emcee(s), the Academy winners and losers. This year had its usual fill of beautiful and not so beautiful moments. We can learn many etiquette lessons by…

Are you Polly Poise or Freak-Out Fred?

I recently taught a social skills etiquette class to some high school students from Puget Sound Community School. One of the topics I covered was poise. I asked my students what poise meant to them. They replied “good posture”, “being confident” and “grace”. While those are part of poise there is more to it.

Public Speaking Tips

I’ve been working with a client who is preparing for an important speech. One of the things we discussed is the protocol of introducing someone. Many speakers are unaware of proper speaking protocol, so I thought I’d share some tips.

Job Search Etiquette

I asked my Facebook fans for ideas for a blog post and got some really good questions. They were focused on job search etiquette. Q. When meeting a potential employer for coffee or a meal to discuss the possibility of working together who picks up the tab? And how do you handle the awkwardness when…

Don’t Be Nosy

I stopped in the grocery store the other day, looking for a special item in addition to the ginger snap cookies my husband had requested. I didn’t find what I wanted but in addition to the ginger snaps I grabbed a bag of potato chips that were calling to me and some jelly beans for…

The Trouble with “You Guys”

I have a problem. It’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time and until recently didn’t realize how serious the problem was. I’m working on changing, but it hasn’t been easy, especially since most people have the same problem. It’s a “you guys” problem. As in, “Have you guys seen the movie Avatar?” Those…

A Special Tea

A second cousin of mine, who I have been corresponding with via email and through letters, mentioned she was coming to Seattle for her grandnephew’s baptism. I was excited to see her as it had been probably 30 years since I’d seen her last. I invited her over for afternoon tea. I have a cute…

Make Kindness Your New Year’s Resolution

I recently wrapped up my 14 week kindness “class”. This class was offered to the general public by the Puget Sound Community School, a private school in Seattle for 11 to 18 year olds. The school founder, Andy Smallman, created the class “to start ripples of kindness that will be felt in far away places,…

Is Chivalry Still Appropriate Today?

I’ve been asked to teach a kid’s etiquette class to both boys and girls. As I’ve been putting together the curriculum, I had to pause when it came to teaching appropriate behavior for boys for treating girls and women in this modern day. I wondered should men still be expected to open the door for a woman,…

Etiquette Questions and Faux Pas

When you are an etiquette consultant people love to either share with you their etiquette horror stories or ask for etiquette advice. I love that my friends and business associates want to tell me their stories and trust me for advice. I thought it would be fun to feature some of the etiquette faux pas and…
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