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Are You a great assistant? Many times in my live workshops and seminars for executive and administrative assistants, I ask the participant to create a list of qualities, attributes, and attitudes of star-performing assistants. Over the years, I have collected more than 300 ideas that I want to share. As you go through it, check …
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Are you in the market for a new job? You’re not alone. Recent events have led to a rise in job seekers, which means more competition. So, how do you stand out in a saturated market in which employers are receiving resumes by the minute? In this blog, we will cover a few resume and…
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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:
Gather accurate information from the caller
Clearly understand the nature of the call
Recognize when a call is truly urgent
Build a rapport and goodwill with the caller
Use good judgment in determining what and how much information should be divulged to the caller
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!
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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
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.
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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:
How to remain professional at all times considering the long flight and tiredness/sleep it will involve.
What to wear on the flight as I like to be comfortable but still professional.
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.
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.
