I recently witnessed an interesting activity between a variety of assistants at all levels. The point was to learn how to initiate purposeful conversations with your executive. The first part of the activity was to pinpoint one thing you would like your executive to start, do more of or stop doing. It was entertaining to see how some assistants couldn’t stop thinking of things they would change in their executive; others were putting more deep thought into this to really find something to change about their leader. The next step was to script out their conversation to be assertive, clear and concise with their communication with their leader. [Read more…]
Creating – Your Path for Personal Excellence
(Dan Lier, America’s Coach)
This is a recap of Dan’s session at our Annual Conference For Administrative Excellence.
Dan Lier leaped onto the stage, full of energy, vitality, humor, and wisdom. “I’m going to give you four tools to help you succeed,” he told the conference participants.
1) Change Your Beliefs and Change Your Life
A belief is a feeling of certainty. Dan shared a true story about Roger Bannister, a runner who broke the 4-minute mile in 1954 when it was believed humans could not run that fast. Within one year many others ran it, too, because there was “social proof” – if he can do it, I can do it.
Dan told us we’ll never out produce or out-perform our own belief system. Your beliefs will drive your behavior. Whatever you believe right now about yourself is true for you, right now. [Read more…]
ENERGIZED & FULFILLED: Activate Your Unique Value and Invigorate Your Career
Jasmine gave an awesome, wonderful, challenging and thoughtful presentation. It was amazing that this was her first large-scale presentation! She challenged us to activate our unique value and invigorate our lives and careers.
Jasmine captivated the audience by her use of graphic slides throughout the presentation. She showed a cartoon of “Mediocre Man” and said, “Our default setting is mediocrity!” This thought really hooked me. It’s a concept that every administrative professional should know about and care about. She shared that we are capable of so much more than that. Jasmine challenged the audience to make a conscious choice to activate their added value. [Read more…]
Road Map for Team Success: Techniques That Work
Let me ask you a question: Do you try to do everything yourself? Do you hate to ask for help? Or are you afraid others won’t do as good a job as you would? Is it sometimes difficult to work with people who aren’t just like you?
That is what teamwork is about. We will have more successful events and outcomes if we are willing to “give up” some ownership and trust others to use their expertise. [Read more…]
The Attitude That Makes Every Day Worth While
D
o you know that it only takes one obstacle in an otherwise perfect day to make you feel less-than-best? Especially in these hectic times, when every employee is pressed to achieve more in less time with fewer resources, a single hiccup can make you feel like everything is in upheaval. Let’s face it: Instability or chaos of one form or another is everywhere.
We cannot control what happens. But we can control our attitudes. We can control how we choose to respond to a negative situation. It’s easy to respond negatively to a problem, of course. The key to success (and the challenge for top performers) is to see the positive in every troublesome issue and turn obstacles on their head so we benefit in some way. [Read more…]
How To Create An Administrative Community
How To Create An Administrative Community – and Then Become Its #1 Cheerleader!
Let me ask a question (raise your hand virtually if your answer is yes. Oh go on, no one’s looking!): How often in your Administrative career have you arrived at a new job, full of excitement and chomping at the bit to help your executive(s) conquer the world, and equally eager and excited to team mightily with all those extraordinary assistants already there – only to find you (and your executives) were pretty much on your own?
And how many of you hate this sinking realization as much as I always have?
[Read more…]Travel Tipping Etiquette
While I believe myself to be a savvy traveler and know pretty much what to tip and when to tip staff, lately I have been questioning some of my tipping habits – wondering, “Am I tipping too much?” or “Do I tip the maid if she brings extra towels to my room?”
I imagine there may be times your managers asks himself or herself the same questions. Maybe you even ask yourself the same questions when you travel for work or pleasure. So, I sent Jasmine on a search to find out the definitive on this subject. She did such a great job, I thought we should share it with you. You might want to make a small card for your manager to carry in their wallet or travel pouch or just forward them a soft copy.
And be sure to keep this information close for yourself as well.
Two very good sites Jasmine shared with me on tipping for you to bookmark:
Emily Post General Tipping Guidelines
The below advice was found along with more great information at TipGuide.org which also offers a handy iPhone view.
At the hotel
Before you arrive at a nicer hotel or resort, inquire as to whether gratuities are included in the price of the room. Some hotels are now charging a daily fee that covers all tipping for hotel services. If there is not a daily fee, these rates are appropriate: [Read more…]
The Best Motivation
Today I want to share with you something very special: a secret about where the best motivation really comes from. The thing is, you already know the secret. If you’re like many people, you just need a reminder from time to time. Here’s a story that might help:
A woman recently asked me, “Joan, how do you do it all?” She seemed amazed at how much energy I have, despite traveling, speaking extensively and working on any number of projects, like books, conference, etc. I knew right away she didn’t want to know how I did it. She wanted to know what motivated me to achieve so much. [Read more…]
Technology Creates Chaos for Executive Assistants
Why do I say this? There are many reasons but I’ll start with my main point. Today’s leader is fairly tech savvy and acts independently. I talk with many managers and high-level executives who tell me they are very proud that they can manage many tasks on their own without their assistant’s help. That is fine and dandy except they are spending time on things they should not be doing. It’s not that they aren’t capable… They are very capable but that is not what they are getting paid the big bucks to do! [Read more…]
Are You a Boss or a Leader?
I recently attended a leadership workshop with Michelle Crosby, Ph.D. of Crosby Consulting and enjoyed her presentation including interaction from the room ultimately finding that managers and leaders have two completely different styles – yet we need them both. Attendees were asked to shout out some qualities they see in managers. Some of their contributions were task-oriented, follow-up, delegate, reporting, manager of day-to-day and so on. For leader our group came up with vision, strategic, inspire, provide direction, guide and more along these lines. [Read more…]