While administrative and executive assistants have a very good feel for the skills they need to do their job effectively, I like to hear from executives and get their perspective, which is important. I often survey managers and high-level executives on the skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are most important for an assistant to possess. Here are some non-edited, direct quotes from them demonstrating the skills that are important to executives. See how you measure up!
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At Office Dynamics International we love what we do. Part of what we do is provide tools and services to administrative professionals to enhance the quality of their work-life that promote administrative excellence. Below you will find all the free training for administrative assistants we offer!
We offer high-level coaching, onsite workshops, an annual conference for administrative excellence, certification and designation courses (World Class Assistant™ and Star Achievement Series®), and more. However, we aren’t able to reach every administrative professional with our premium programs.
We have a ton of value to bring to the profession and we certainly don’t want to exclude the many assistants who aren’t receiving funding to attend our live events.
Learn more about us here in our We BELIEVE credo.
Our free training programs for administrative professionals began in 2009 with the 26 Weeks to Administrative Excellence pre-recorded video program. As the year’s passed we continued to add a few additional programs >view our free video programs<.
We hear from assistants on a daily basis that they love our training materials but they work for a nonprofit or their organization doesn’t believe in training their administrative professionals. We don’t want any of these assistants to miss out on continued education! [Read more…]
It’s awesome to be an administrative professional because you sometimes get to travel without the tab.
Often, assistants travel to attend their leader’s special team meetings; help with site visits in preparations for meetings; be involved in a major company event where you need to travel; attend corporate board meetings and more. During my 20 year career, I traveled to some places that were fun, interesting, exotic, and breathtaking. Needless to say, it was more enjoyable to travel without the tab. [Read more…]
I hope you had a great week last week and were able to apply the tips I had for communicating with people from different generations. In case you did not read the last two Monday Motivators, I have been writing a 3 part series on communicating for business success. The first one was, Be a better communicator at work and the second was, Bridge the Generational Communication Gap.
Today I am focusing on tactfully voicing your opinion, which is another topic I cover in our World Class Assistant Certification course.
Throughout my career as an employee—a few decades ago—I had the need to voice my opinion to my manager, colleague, vendors, peers, and others. As a business owner, leader, trainer, coach…I still have situations occur when I need to voice my opinion. We all experience this in the workplace. For some people, it is easy to voice their opinion and for others, it is hard.
The caution is just because someone has the courage to speak up, it doesn’t mean they are presenting it in a way that will be acceptable to the receiver. If we want our voice to be heard and to be taken seriously, we have to think about how we communicate and present our case.
Step #1: Consider these factors. Before you even express your opinion, there are some factors you should take into consideration, such as:
Step #2: Think about the words you will use. Resist rattling off what’s on your real mind. You want to maintain professionalism and have the receiver be open to your suggestions or views.
Step #3: Gather facts to back up your opinion. For example, if Joe in another department consistently turns in a monthly report late, you will have a lot more leverage or chance of getting Joe to change if you were to say something like… “Joe, the January report was due on the 18th of the month; I received the report on January 25. In February, the report was due February 14; I received the report February 19.” Do you see having facts is more powerful than saying, “Joe you are always late with the monthly report.”
Step #4: Make sure you aren’t personally attacking someone. Stay focused on the point or issue at hand or situation. It does us no good to verbally attack a person.
Step #5: Select the best time. Timing is important. Maybe you wish to express your thoughts in a meeting to one of the attendees but you would be better off waiting until after the meeting or even the next day. Again, if we want people to be open to what we have to offer, we need to consider if this is the right time.
Step #6: Clearly explain your point of view. Two people can be right and not be in agreement. What do I mean? I see it all the time when I coach executives and assistants. Each person has their view of a situation, expectations or performance. The executive is right and the assistant is right but they have different view or stories about what happened. Take time to explain your thoughts.
Step #7: Consider your relationship with the other person. How long have you known this person? How will they take your feedback? Are they a superior? (You can still voice your opinion but very carefully.) Do they work within your organization or outside your organization?
It is both important to express our views and maintain another person’s self-esteem. I encourage you to work on this vital business skill.
Have an awesome week!
Joan Burge
Photo Credit: Designed by Katemangostar / Freepik
This past October, I was honored to be part of the 2016 Office Dynamics International Conference, The Revolutionary Assistant. If you had asked me several years ago if it were possible to pull off a 400-person think tank, I’m not sure how I would have responded. Happily, I believe in exploration thinking, so today, I can say, “Absolutely!” And here’s why.
About a year ago, I found myself on a catch-up call with Joan Burge, something we’ve done regularly in our relationship over the past 18 years or so. We were talking about my new company, 84.51°, and how my new building was designed to support innovation in our work with Kroger. I was sharing how I had started doing think tanks in our new “creative thinking space” using Compression Planning®, which sparked a conversation on helping assistants be more revolutionary, the theme Joan was planning for her 2016 Conference for Administrative Excellence. The seed of possibility was planted. [Read more…]
In this webinar we get to dig in deep with Chrissy Scivicque about what the skill “proactive” really is. What does it look like, how do you acquire and build this skill and so much more. We hope you take the time to tune in and watch this free webinar replay.
