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  • feedwordpress 18:00:52 on 2019/11/12 Permalink
    Tags: , Etiquette, Telephone   

    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:

     

    1. Gather accurate information from the caller
    2. Clearly understand the nature of the call
    3. Recognize when a call is truly urgent
    4. Build a rapport and goodwill with the caller
    5. Use good judgment in determining what and how much information should be divulged to the caller
    6. Use tact and professionalism in all dealings

     

    At Office Dynamics, we believe this is one area where you should never stop improving. Your telephone skills have the power to either create and build or diminish and destroy valuable relationships. They can show you represent your leader with intelligence, professionalism, and courtesy. You must protect the personal privacy, security, and safety of others. There is a fine line between building rapport with the caller and guarding employee and company information.

     

    Every stellar assistant must learn to be an excellent gatekeeper for their executive and company. Accurate and efficient screening will benefit your managers, co-workers, and their families. Joan’s revolutionary new eBook, The Gatekeeper’s Guide: How to Effectively Screen Calls, will get you where you need to be. Click here to get your copy!

    The post Telephone Screening and Etiquette Skills for Administrative Assistants appeared first on Office Dynamics - Executive And Administrative Assistant Training.

     

  • feedwordpress 13:00:04 on 2019/08/14 Permalink
    Tags: , , , , Etiquette, , ,   

    Emotional Intelligence for Administrative Assistants 


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    I have grown to love speaking on and teaching assistants about emotional intelligence. This definitely is a skill every assistant needs to know. This is a skill you can use every single day!

    In our World Class Assistant course, we cover this topic and participants work on real work world case studies. They are scenarios that assistants can relate to. I reference Daniel Goleman for my classes and want to share this with you. Please quickly evaluate your level of emotional intelligence in each of the four dimensions.

    Daniel Goleman, author of Working with Emotional Intelligence says, “Emotional intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence.

    Daniel also says:

    False:

    • The common view is that emotions are things that happen to us.
    • Emotions don’t belong in business.

    True:

    • Emotions are an inner source of energy, influence, and information.
    • They are inherently neither good nor bad. It is what we do with emotions that make the difference.

    The 4 Dimensions:

    #1:    Self-Awareness (I know me.)

    • Recognize how your feelings affect your performance.
    • You are open to candid feedback.

    #2:    Self-Management (I manage me.)

    • Self-control.
    • Admit mistakes.

    #3:    Social Awareness (I try to know you.0

    • Pay attention to emotional cues.
    • Adapt communication style to compliment others.

    #4:    Relationship Management (I attempt to facilitate situations for a positive outcome.0

    • Step forward as needed, regardless of your position.
    • Model the change you expect from others.

    One of our top trainers, Julie Reed, has been teaching several of our World Class Assistant™ certification/designation courses. When I asked Julie, what were her favorite lessons from emotional intelligence, she shared the following:

    • I manage me. I am in charge of my attitude.
    • I choose to not react.
    • I am resilient; I practice positive self-esteem, and I chose to ignore the haters.
    • I am confident in my skills and aware of my weaknesses.
    • I stay true to my North Star.
    • I manage me – I hold myself accountable and, I mitigate risks to my reputation and build my credibility equity. This, in turn, has gotten me invited to the table, as an active participant, confidant, and leader.

    Which dimensions of emotional intelligence do you need to work on? Why not start today?

    Joan Burge

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    What it means to be a World Class Assistant™:

    • You’re a career-minded administrative professional looking to build powerful partnerships with your executive(s) and organization.
    • You’re a power player who wants to reap more rewards from your efforts – and you’re not afraid to do what it takes to get there.
    • You’re committed to the administrative profession as well as your career growth and you’re eager to demonstrate this.
    • You’re a high-performing individual who wants to succeed both in your professional and personal life.
    • You’re ready to have the kind of breakthrough experience that takes you off the sidelines and puts you right in the middle of the game.

    What are you waiting for?

    Register Today!

    The post Emotional Intelligence for Administrative Assistants appeared first on Office Dynamics - Executive And Administrative Assistant Training.

     

  • feedwordpress 19:36:00 on 2019/02/14 Permalink
    Tags: , , Etiquette, ,   

    How Should an Executive Assistant Conduct Themselves? – Ask An Admin 


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    This is a special Ask an Admin because it is time sensitive and we are helping a new executive assistant in Europe! So, administrative professionals from around the world, let’s try to help!

    Katrien, from Belgium says:

    I will start a new challenge as a Executive Assistant and I am very much looking forward to that. In February all colleagues (also the new ones) are invited at a company event in New Orleans, Louisiana. This means a long haul flight of 11 hours with 200 colleagues in one airplane. And a whole business week full of work and leisure events. I am a bit nervous though about a few things:

    1. How to remain professional at all times considering the long flight and tiredness/sleep it will involve.
    2. What to wear on the flight as I like to be comfortable but still professional.
    3. What to wear when casual is required at some events; I don’t like wearing “jeans and sneakers” at work.

    Katrien will be taking that flight next week so let’s try to get all the information, tips, and tricks to her as soon as we can! Side note…congratulations on your promotion Katrien!

    ATTENTION: If you’ve submitted your response on our Ask an Admin blog post, please be patient to see your response and other responses. We have to manually approve them to prevent spammers and profanity. If you do not see your response right away, please give it time and revisit. We apologize for this but this is the best way we can keep YOUR blog clean! Thank you, everyone!

    About Ask an Admin:

    Ask an Admin will be a weekly post on our blog that presents a question that you or a fellow administrative professional submitted to us. We will choose one question per week and post it on our blog.

    If you have a question that you would like to submit, please send it to officedynamics.aaa@gmail.com and include the name you would like us to use.

    If you want to subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss any posts, please visit https://officedynamics.com/blog/ and subscribe in the right-hand column.

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    Monday Motivators™ is a weekly email sent from Joan Burge that gives you a little kick start to the week. These emails will include work advice, life advice, and sometimes how to find that good balance. To subscribe to Monday Motivators™ please click the button below.

    Monday Motivators

    Help other administrative professionals and share this page using the buttons below!

    The post How Should an Executive Assistant Conduct Themselves? – Ask An Admin appeared first on Office Dynamics.

     

  • feedwordpress 17:00:14 on 2017/04/03 Permalink
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    Joan’s Greatest Administrative Secrets Revealed! 


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    Joan_BurgeWelcome to April. Wow, where is the time going?

    April is one of my favorite months because, here at Office Dynamics, we get to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of those in the administrative profession! In case you are not aware, Administrative Professionals Week is April 24 – 28. But we celebrate the entire month of April. One of the major ways we do that is to host our annual blog-a-thon whereby we post a blog every work day in the month of April. Aside from my blogs, we have several guest bloggers providing amazing information!

    To kick off the celebration, I hosted a webinar yesterday for 5,000+ assistants worldwide whereby I revealed my secrets to success in the profession. I had 29 secrets! I would like to share just a few of them with you. If you would like to hear all of them, you can watch the replay of the live event.

    1. I didn’t always play by the rules. That doesn’t mean I did things that were unethical or illegal. I liked breaking the status quo (and I still love doing that today.) Look at work and situations in a different light. Keep your eyes open for processes that need to be changed or new processes that need to be implemented. Shake things up! One way to stand out is to shake things up in a good way.

    2. Inserted myself into my executive’s world. I didn’t wait for my executives to invite me into their world. When I was an assistant, I would take home the trade journals and periodicals my executive read so I could understand his world and understand the language. While I didn’t read every page, I certainly gained perspective. This is a strategy anyone in any profession can use.

    3. Set healthy boundaries. It is really important to set healthy boundaries in the workplace. If someone is doing something or saying something that is unacceptable to you, then you need to speak up in a professional and assertive manner.

    4. Thirst for knowledge. For some reason, I have always embraced a growth mindset. Since I got out of high school and went right into the workforce, I was hungry to learn in any way possible. I did not go to college by choice and it did not stop me from being successful in my work because I am a sponge.

    I have identified 3 levels of learning.

    1. Peer to peer (Basic, Foundational)—these are the great tips you learn from your peers; the people who are in the same job family as you.
    2. Senior assistants (Advanced)—this is when we learn from people who are in our profession but a level or two above us. When I was new in the profession, I looked to the senior assistants. I watched everything they did and how they acted (good and bad).
    3. Outside of my profession (Master)—this is where you really gain an advantage over others. You have to step outside your narrow world and learn from subject matter experts. There are millions of them! Some of my favorite people are Daren Hardy, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and Simon Sinek.

    With my thirst for knowledge, I was willing to invest in myself. Thousands of employees tell me they can’t attend training because their company won’t pay for it. That is short-term thinking and it makes me sad because it tells me that an individual doesn’t think enough of themselves to invest in their own education. As Brian Tracy says, “Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make.” I agree 100%. When you invest in yourself, you will take what you learn with you the rest of your life. And no one can ever take it away from you!

    5. Always took my administrative career seriously from early on and saw it as a profession. This is important for all assistants, managers and coworkers to remember the administrative profession is a true profession! These are the people who run the lives of top executives. These are the individuals who put up with all the stuff every day, put themselves second and third on the list, manage a multitude of responsibilities, make their executives look good, and are confidantes. They should be treated with courtesy and respect.

    If you are an assistant reading this, I hope you have a fabulous month! Please sign up for the Blog-a-thon by subscribing to the blog in the upper right corner and you will automatically receive the daily post in your inbox. Comment on the blogs and share them so you can be entered to win prizes all month long.

    If you are not an assistant and you’re reading this, please be sure to sincerely recognize the administrative support professionals in your organization. And remember to not ask your assistant to order her own flowers; which by the way, assistants don’t just want flowers and lunches. They want a long-lasting gift. If you are looking for ideas, go to the Office Dynamics Success Store.

    Happy April everyone!

    This blog is part of our 2017 Blog-A-Thon. Please leave a comment or share the blog for your chance to win one of our amazing giveaways! The more blogs you comment on and share, the more chances you have to win. If you’d like to learn more about our Blog-A-Thon you can do so here. Hint: Subscribe to our blog in the upper right-hand corner so you never miss a blog.

    The post Joan’s Greatest Administrative Secrets Revealed! appeared first on Office Dynamics.

     

  • feedwordpress 13:16:44 on 2017/03/21 Permalink
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    The Top 3 Skills That Make Administrative Assistants Stand Out 


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    Administrative professionals are always asking us what it takes to really stand out in the workplace. After all, it’s a competitive market out there! If you really want to make a name for yourself and get ahead, it takes more than just skimming the surface. You have to dive deep within yourself to develop that “World Class” status that executives are looking for in their assistants.

    For those who want to shine brighter and get recognized (and rewarded) for your contributions, consider these key strategies.

    Shift Your Paradigm
    First, you have to change how you see yourself in your role. A “paradigm” is simply a mindset, but it plays an important role in how you show up in the workplace.

    If you think of yourself as an assistant, that’s perfectly fine. But in order to really stand out, you need to upgrade your mental image of who you are and what you do. You must begin seeing yourself as a strategic partner—a business ally for the executive(s) you support.

    This subtle shift in thinking will filter through your actions and behaviors. It will boost your confidence and your professional presence. It will positively change the relationship you have with your leaders, and ultimately, it will help you establish a powerful new position in the executive “inner circle.”

    Refine Your Communication
    A savvy communicator knows how to get noticed and get their point across. This is one area where everyone always has more room to improve.

    In order to really stand out, you must continuously hone your ability to communicate your point of view tactfully. You need to practice delivering tough messages in a way that other people can actually hear them. And you need to adapt your natural communication style to meet others where they are.

    Learning to communicate at the executive level is absolutely essential for success and it’s extremely rare. When you have this kind of mastery, you gain a deeper level of respect.

    Hone Your Professional Trademark
    When Joan presents training, she always receives similar feedback: People think she is “poised, polished and professional.”

    These three words are what people think when they hear Joan’s name—it’s her professional trademark, you might say. Do you know why? Because that’s who she is, and she has consciously chosen this as her personal brand.

    Do you have a something you are known for? Have you made the conscious choice to embody specific characteristics and traits as your brand? Or are you letting your professional reputation be shaped unintentionally?

    How others perceive you is such an important and underutilized tool for administrative professionals. Defining your distinct professional trademark—and learning how to leverage that in the workplace—will help you shape how others see you.

    As you can see, these skills go beyond the basics. They are strategies that only a few employ, and those who do reap the rewards. There is much to learn regarding advanced skills for assistants. To truly stand out requires a sincere dedication to your career path and an investment in your personal growth.

    These are just a few of the topics we cover in the World Class Assistant™ Certification and Professional Designation program. This “high-end boot camp” is the only curriculum based designation specifically for administrative professionals on the market. It’s designed to help you stand out and develop the master-level skills you need to become World Class.

    We know that investing in a comprehensive training program like World Class Assistant is a big decision. That’s why, on March 29, 2017, Joan will be hosting a live Q&A session to address your questions and help you decide if it’s the right fit for you. We hope you’ll join us to learn more and have some fun!

    Register Today

    The post The Top 3 Skills That Make Administrative Assistants Stand Out appeared first on Office Dynamics.

     

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