executives and assistants Archives - Office Dynamics - Executive And Administrative Assistant Training

April 21, 2016 By Joan Burge 8 Comments

Email Expectations: Getting Executives and Assistants to See Eye-to-Eye

In the modern business world, email is a constant force pressing upon us. For many Executives, it’s a primary mode of communication. You send and receive it all day and night, weekends included. Email isn’t restricted to typical working hours.

While this is completely normal at the Executive level, it’s less standard in the Administrative world. Email is a common area where Executives and Assistants often have different ideas regarding expectations, and this can result in a lot of frustration on both sides.

In our recently published Guide, Executives and Assistants: Working In Partnership, we explore a variety of issues that pertain to managing email, including that of setting expectations. [Read more…]

April 13, 2016 By Joan Burge 19 Comments

Teaching Your Assistant Yields Huge Return on Investment

Are you teaching your assistant?

One of the most common challenges we hear from Administrative and Executive Assistants is this: “I’m underutilized.”

In our experience, Executives across the board fail to fully leverage the time and talents of their support staff. Many argue this is for good reason: Delegating a task or project often requires that you first teach your Assistant how to do it, and teaching takes time.

If there’s one thing every Executive has in common it’s that time is a precious and incredibly scarce resource.

However, every Executive we’ve worked with has also been a very savvy businessperson. They’re willing to invest in things, but only when it really makes sense—only when there’s a very good chance of a high return on that investment.

In our recently released Guide, Executives & Assistants: Working in Partnership, we offer many strategies for effective delegation, and one particularly important point addresses this idea of the potential return on time invested. We call it the “long-term time savings.” [Read more…]

February 4, 2016 By Joan Burge Leave a Comment

Working in Partnership With Your Assistant Takes Commitment

Office Dynamics released a new Guide in October called Executive and Assistants Working in Partnership: The Definitive Guide. This amazing Guide is the culmination of 25 years of coaching work with executives and assistants. We immediately sold several hundred copies and have continued to sell the Guide at a very good pace.

Of course, we are eager to hear how the strategies in the Guide are helping executives and assistants be more productive and build better partnerships. We have been reaching out to purchasers either by phone call or email. We have received some good responses but also to our dismay, some people have not even looked through their Guide that they ordered months ago. Or we’ll hear an assistant say, “I’ve been going through the Guide but have not shared it with my executive yet.” Why not?

If executives and assistants want to be stronger teams and increase their productivity by 25% or more, they have to be committed; they have to make time for each other and have robust conversations and they have to be willing to change old habits and try new ideas. It will not happen on its own. This excerpt from our Executives and Assistants Working in Partnership Guide might explain it a little better. [Read more…]

October 13, 2015 By Jasmine Freeman 2 Comments

Managing Your Executive’s Day [Free Webinar Replay]

Managing Your Executive’s Day (October Free Webinar) [Read more…]

August 17, 2015 By Joan Burge Leave a Comment

6 Clear Steps to Resolving Team Problems

No team exists without some problems. No relationship exists without some problems, whether small or large. It is important to the team relationship not to let problems tear down the team and reduce the team’s effectiveness. Turn obstacles into opportunities for growth. Focus on possibilities. Put all your energy into finding solutions and work around the obstacles. [Read more…]

April 15, 2011 By Guest Blogger Leave a Comment

Your Executive/Assistant Partnership Is Unique

It’s COOL to be an administrative professional because you develop a one-of-a-kind relationship with the leader you support.

They entrust you with a lot of private information sometimes both personal and professional. You guard that with your life and support them to the best of your abilities. Over time you can’t help but notice that you have created something special, unique in the office setting – a professional relationship that doesn’t match any other. How COOL is that?

I’ve consider the role of administrative professional to be one of privilege.

[Read more…]