5 Ways to Work More Effectively With Your Administrative Assistant

Stop hiring new administrative support staff. And learn how to retain your existing administrative staff.

Are you a manager, director or other senior-level personnel who wants to work more effectively with your administrative support professional? Did you know that partnering with your administrative assistants and executive assistants can actually help you to meet your professional goals at work? Would you like to know how to improve morale among your administrative support professionals and retain them as long-term employees? After all, isn't it a lot more profitable to retain existing staff than to constantly hire, train and get along with new staff? Here are five ways to work more effectively with your current administrative support professionals starting now:

1. Assume that your administrative support professional doesn't know what's on your mind until you tell him. That's the one assumption it's okay to make in the office environment. Always remember that your administrative support professional is not a mind reader--no matter how in tune with your thoughts she or he may seem to be sometimes. It's that one time that you "assume" when things will go awry in your work relationship.

2. Discuss your personal and professional goals. In order to be your partner, your administrative support professional needs to know who you want to be when. What do you personally want in your career? And what are you striving for on behalf of the company? These answers will affect your administrative professional's duties. She wants to help you achieve your plans. Knowing these answers helps her to clarify the prioritization of tasks and situations that arise daily. She'll focus on projects relevant to your goals first when possible. And she'll know and pass along pieces of information she happens upon throughout the year that would be useful or of interest to you.

3. Discuss project expectations. When you're giving an assignment, make sure your administrative professional precisely understands the expected project outcome. This means you will need to clarify the outcome in your head first and then clearly relay that expected outcome to your administrative professional. Clearly voicing the precise (or nearly precise) expected project outcome before it happens means no surprises upon project completion and efficient use of your time and that of your administrative professional. Precise communication prevents misinterpretation by both parties which can cause bad relationships and inappropriate work results. If the results aren't what you asked for then maybe in actuality you didn't quite ask for the results you wanted.

4. Have a daily briefing with your administrative support person. Meet daily whether either of you want to do so or not. This meeting forces communication to flow daily between you both, which is a good thing. And comfort levels with each other will rise. It could be a five minute meeting while standing. Or it could be a 10 minute meeting while seated that's officially posted on the calendar to happen every day that you're in the office at 9:00 a.m. Do what works best for you both. And make sure you're uninterrupted during this time.

5. Support opportunities for your administrative professional to achieve certifications. For example, your administrative professional can become a Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) and a Certified Professional Secretary (CPS), both elite designations by administrative professional criteria. Encourage her or him to train and test for these titles as well as have your company pay the registration costs.

(c) 2005 Karen Fritscher-Porter

Karen Fritscher-Porter is the author of the eBooklet: 87 Ways You Can Work More Effectively With Your Administrative Support Professional. Order your copy at http://www.admin-ezine.com/employertips.htm. Fritscher-Porter publishes The Effective Admin newsletter (http://www.admin-ezine.com). The monthly e-zine is distributed to 800+ administrative assistants and executive assistants globally to help them excel on the job and in their careers.

---

Sending Documents Through Email? Dont Get Burned by Metadata!

During a recent seminar I gave located in the suburbs... Read More

Let the Professionals Help You Out - Outsource

As your website grows in terms of attracting more footfalls,... Read More

Lone Rangers Suffer without Tonto

A lone ranger is someone who prefers working in solitude... Read More

Finding Common Ground Through Consensus Decision-Making

It's clear to me that a workplace is a better... Read More

Avoiding The Sheep Dip

It is a sad fact that many employees are still... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Workplace Ethics: Reaching the Highest Standard

This article relates to the Ethics in the Workplace competency,... Read More

The ?Better People? Fallacy

It's easy enough to convince your own staff that better... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management - Turning Ideas into Action

The phrase "turning ideas into action" is a Russian doll.Managing... Read More

Hows Your HUB?

Marketing gurus are always coming up with new lingo but... Read More

Quick Tip - Effective Meetings Have SMART Goals

The first step in planning an agenda is to identify... Read More

Innovation Management ? how will we make the go or kill decisions?

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Effective Meetings by Phone - Part 1, How to Plan a Teleconference

Teleconferences can be a boon or a bust. On the... Read More

Innovation Management ? Diversity Can Make All The Difference

Companies are welcoming a diverse range of employees (The Sunday... Read More

Drafting an Employee Manual Sample Outline

One of the hardest things I had discovered running my... Read More

Understand What Flows Through Your Business to Find Improvement

I remember once seeing a cartoon which showed two people... Read More

Keep The Faith - Transform The Fear

FEAR! To what extent does fear rule your life? How... Read More

Are You Using the Right Form of Energy?

As we near the end of summer, here is a... Read More

The Three-Dimensional Communication System

Human communication is always three-dimensional. No spoken or written message... Read More

Learn to Assert Yourself

Pinpoint your own blocks to assertiveness: fear of disapproval, need... Read More

How to Leverage Your Strengths for Peak Performance

Ask almost any business leader how to most effectively develop... Read More

Problem-Solving Success Tip: Dont Leave Your Key Stakeholders Guessing

Communicate! Don't leave you key stakeholders guessing.We are generally not... Read More

How to Dodge Distribution Difficulties

It happened again. I ran into an old friend while... Read More

Employees Commit Corporate Fraud

Imagine the following scenario; Ten years ago you decided to... Read More

Get Out Of The Stone Age: Give Leadership Talks

160 years ago, the newly invented electric telegraph carried the... Read More

Reducing the High Cost of Absenteeism

Employers pay a high price for absenteeism, often more than... Read More