Office Dynamics - Executive And Administrative Assistant Training

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7 Ways Executives Can Improve Communicating with Their Assistants

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I have been fortunate to gain a three-dimensional view of communication between executives and assistants:

I was an assistant for 20 years thus understanding what I needed from my executive so I could be effective. I worked with a variety of managers and executives, each with different personalities and communication styles.

Since 1990, I have been the CEO of my own company and have worked with several of my own assistants. I have noticed the impact my communication (or lack of) has on my assistant’s ability to do a great job. [Read more…]

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Telephone Screening and Etiquette Skills for Administrative Assistants

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Top-notch telephone screening and etiquette skills are paramount regardless of industry, company size, or geographic location. Their importance hasn’t diminished in our modern world of text messages, e-mails, and online chats. What exactly am I talking about? Necessary telephone skills for assistants include how to answer the phone, take accurate messages, carefully screen calls, protect corporate and personal information, seamlessly transfer callers, use a polite and proper tone of voice, and know-how to tactfully handle difficult callers.

 

Every time you answer the phone, you are accepting responsibility for the relevant interests of others. You are entrusted by them to use good judgment when responding to the caller’s requests for information. As a telephone gatekeeper, you are a keeper of information. It is a role of extremely high importance and one that absolutely cannot be taken lightly. As you grow and your role evolves over time, the telephone skills you develop will become increasingly vital. A gatekeeper has an incredibly high level of responsibility to ensure that they: [Read more…]

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Does Word Order Matter? Think “Short to Long”

grammar_tipsWhen polishing your sentences, pay attention to the nuances of word order. To my eye (and ear), placing “short” before “long” works best. This applies to both sentences and lists.

Here’s a simple example: “He was well respected and loved in the academic community.” I changed it to: “He was loved and well respected in the academic community.”

Because “loved” is 5 letters and “well respected” is 13, it makes for a smoother read if the longer phrase follows the shorter word. See if you agree.

Another example: “Good leaders don’t waste time, effort, financial resources, or opportunities.” This becomes: “Good leaders don’t waste time, effort, opportunities, or financial resources.” The shift creates a tidy parade of words from short to long. Easier to follow! [Read more…]

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Administrative Assistants Broaden Your Skillset

administrative_skill_setsAt our recent Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence, I surveyed 350 attendees about the topics they would like me to address at future conferences or training events. I wanted to know the areas the assistants were interested in growing and learning about.

 

We had each attendee write their idea or ideas on an index card; we collected the cards; and I read every single card, some of which had more than one topic listed. From the index cards, I created a chart.

 

What surprised me after looking at the list was that many of the requests had to do with the typical administrative skills or tasks such as: managing multiple managers, dealing with difficult people, managing stress, calendar management, and troubleshooting. I hardly saw requests for advanced competencies or areas of interest. [Read more…]

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2019 Joan Burge Innovation Award for Assistants

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I know assistants are always coming up with great ideas, creating new systems or templates, or taking the lead. Oftentimes assistants do not have the opportunity to showcase their talents or what they have created, nor do they always get recognized for their work. As trailblazers in the administrative training industry, Office Dynamics wanted to celebrate outstanding ideas birthed by administrative and executive assistants.

Therefore, I created the Joan Burge Innovation Award in 2019. This Award was presented to the winner at the Office Dynamics 26th Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence. It was very exciting for me to present the first award to Kristie Webber for software designed exclusively for executives and their executive assistants. It is called Emmre. Here is Kristie’s story.

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“My executive, Don Harms, tried multiple different task management tools but found that none were designed for the unique relationship between an executive and executive assistant. So he decided to create his own tool. Together, we’ve been refining the software and using it in our daily work as CEO and EA.

I’ve provided significant input that has greatly shaped the product—many of the changes we’ve implemented have been based on my feedback. It’s the most valuable tool in our working relationship and has enabled us to be significantly more effective and productive.”

You might want to participate in their Beta version at www.emmre.com.

Other ideas presented included:

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An executive’s travel binder. Sandra Fette showed us the value of assembling a very detailed travel binder that included all types of important information such as when deposits were given for hotels, a place to hold business cards that the traveler receives, a pocket holder for expenses receipts, important information about meetings and much more.

Completely transforming a cumbersome administrative procedures binder that was hundreds of pages. Paula Thibodeau did a fabulous job with streamlining this information, adding visuals to go with the procedure, and screenshots. This increased the speed and efficiency of transferring knowledge and ensures a successful transition as well as getting new assistants up to speed quickly.

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Creation of an assistant outlook account. Tina Bradley decided to have assistant accounts set up for 15 administrative assistants on her team, who support 40 administrators. Assistants have full access to each other’s assistant account. Because of this, any assistant can help with meeting changes requested by their administrators.

Heather Dovholuk had been put in charge of their organization’s Innovation Fair. Heather came up with an idea on how attendees could enter a raffle electronically and also vote on booths at the fair to award-trophy prizes. Heather’s idea eliminated the use of paper tickets and manual counting. With the reporting function of the survey platform, Heather could easily determine the booth winners.

I am always impressed with the creativity of assistants. I’d like to challenge you to bring your ideas forward to your organization! And if you attend our 2020 Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence, please submit your innovative idea. You just might be the recipient of the 2020 Joan Burge Innovation Award!

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Business Travel Planning for Executive and Administrative Assistants

With more and more companies expanding the reach of their market across the country and even the globe, the role of the business travel planner has become increasingly important. Assistants who need to plan fast-paced and “not a moment to spare” meeting agendas and travel itineraries for their traveling executives know that getting it right is a difficult feat. Novice and senior assistants alike struggle with the task of travel planning for busy leaders. It’s a universal hurdle to star achievement!

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Give Your Readers a Break—Pick One!

In wanting to cover many aspects of a topic, business writers sometimes throw down so many variables that readers have no way to gauge the importance of each. They feel weighed down trying! Look at these examples:

  1. The professor included and provided a methodology for continuing the effort.
  2. The state and local leaders developed and drafted numerous statutes.
  3. We need to appreciate and understand the factors affecting the time and place.

The “Pick One” Principle

You can lighten your readers’ load by applying the “pick one” principle. You’ll find it works for all kinds of writing—emails, reports, manuscripts, and more.

The “pick one” principle asks: “Which word better describes what you want to say—the word before or after the and?” Then pick the one that adds more emphasis to your meaning.

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Creating an Administrative Professional Protocol Manual – Ask an Admin

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Christine N. Asks:

I’m finally getting around to creating my Administrative Professional Protocol Manual but I’m not sure if it should print everything out in a 3 ring binder (using dividers), using a One Note document, having it electronically in an online file or all of the above.  What do most administrative professionals prefer? 

Thank you!

Please comment below.

Ask an Admin was created by Office Dynamics to help administrative professionals with their problems through the help of their peers. We don’t always have an answer to each individuals problem but we know some of you might.

If you’d like to learn more about Ask an Admin or submit a question, you may do so here.

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6 Ways for Assistants to Gain Respect

A powerful, but underutilized, way for administrative and executive assistants to gain respect and be taken seriously is to exude executive presence. Forbes.com define executive presence as the ability to project gravitas–confidence, poise under pressure and decisiveness. Furthermore, communication—including speaking skills, assertiveness and the ability to read an audience or situation—and appearance contribute to a person’s perceived executive presence.

When you create executive presence, you are taken more seriously in the workplace and your voice is more clearly heard. Executive presence is a combination of business expertise, competence in a chosen profession and ability to build or connect with others. You do that by:

[Read more…]

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How Can I Start a Group for Administrative Assistants? – Ask an Admin

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Ask an Admin was created by Office Dynamics to help administrative professionals with their problems through the help of their peers. We don’t always have an answer to each individuals problem but we know some of you might. Please read the question and comment below.

Emily K. asks:

I live in a town close to admin groups (like Meetup or non-profit groups) but each is at least 1.5 hours away. I would like to start something similar in my town. How would I go about starting a group that will be more than just me, sitting in a coffeehouse by myself?

Does anyone have any experience putting together and administrative group? Please comment below.

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