Preparing your boss for meetings away from the office or at home

I had a good tip from my boss that I have used to help me prepare him for meetings whether they are away  or at home. He advised that I ask myself the following question when I receive a request for a meeting with him:

What would I need if I was going to the meeting?

From that initial question, I have developed questions I ask myself before I schedule meetings for my boss that I thought I would pass on in case it would be useful to some of my readers:

1. What is the purpose of the meeting?

2. Does your boss need to be at the meeting? Can someone go in his or her place if they are not available?

3. What dates and times does he or she have available (keeping in mind time zones for away meetings)?

4. If the meeting is accepted -- What does your boss need for the meeting and who will be in attendance?

• Secure the date and time in his or her calendar, taking into consideration travel time if outside the office.
  
• State the purpose of the meeting in the calendar appointment as well as who will be at the meeting (i.e. Meeting with Mr. Brown and Ms. Smith to discuss strategies for upcoming marketing conference).
  
• Follow up with the meeting organizer to request agenda and/or meeting materials, pre-reading, etc.
  
• Where is the meeting being held?
  
• If it is an internal meeting, has a meeting space been booked? Do you need to book it or were you provided with location. Enter it in calendar.
  
• If it is an external meeting, but local, enter location of meeting in calendar, provide your boss with address and directions, contact phone number, taxi chit.
  
• If outside the city, make travel arrangements: are flights required, train or will he or she be driving.  If flying, which is the best airport to fly into, is a hotel room required, is a map required for directions once they get there.  Provide a contact number.
  
• Ensure that prior to the meeting you have received everything your boss will need, which may require follow up with meeting organizer.
  
• Prepare a meeting package for your boss and bring forward prior to the meeting to give them adequate time to review (hardcopy or electronic depending on your boss’s preference).

If your boss calls the meeting...
If your boss has called the meeting then you need to find out when the meeting needs to be held by, who needs to be there, purpose of the meeting and what materials they will need. Once you have those details you can start the scheduling process to find a convenient time for everyone.

When the meeting date is secured, provide participants with location and time, purpose of meeting and ensure space is booked.

Depending on how formal the meeting is, you may need to draft an agenda for your boss’s review and forward to meeting participants in advance of the meeting.

Too much information...

Some people like to talk. When they write an e-mail they do the same thing and instead of getting to the point they explain and explain and explain. Ugh! I feel I have to dig to find what is required of me. Too many times I have received one of these long e-mails only to miss the real purpose of the e-mail. One time my action item was hidden in a P.S. AFTER THE SIGNATURE LINE!

We can't control the e-mails we receive and sometimes they do require some digging on our part, but below are some ways I try to use when communicating by e-mail to make it easier for the recipient:

1. Consider your audience
   E-mail is not meant for long conversation. It is a quick way to communicate and has changed the way we do business because of it's speed in getting a message across, but we are busy so don't abuse your co-workers' or business associates' time with lengthy e-mails. Also consider whether you really need to send the e-mail to the CEO or the President. Sending it to their assistant might be more appropriate. Just because you can, doesn't always mean you should.
2. Salutation
   It is easy to misunderstand the tone and intent of an e-mail message, so best to open with a friendly hello or hi. Without a salutation it can come across as a directive. I have received e-mails from people in Europe and they tend to be more formal and address me as "DearPatricia." I like it, but in North America I think that would be considered overly formal, so consider who you are sending to and where they are from.
3. What is this about?
   A quick explanation will get you off to a good start. Something as simple as "Further to our conversation this morning," will let the reader know you are continuing the conversation and will allow them to recall your conversation and continue without much explanation.
4. What do you want?
   Next, state the purpose of your e-mail. What are you e-mailing them about? Do you have a question or do you want to pass information along to the person. For example, "Further to our conversation this morning, attached is a template letter that should meet your needs."
5. Does it require any further information or explanation?
   I love to write, as you have probably noticed in some of my blog articles, so I try to keep that in mind and keep my e-mails short, but sometimes you need a little more information. I may want to give a brief explanation after I have stated the purpose of my e-mail.
6. Point being...
   If you have a few ideas or requests in your e-mail, it is best to set it out in point form so the person does not have to dig for it. For example, "Please send me the following information:
   - A photocopy of Ms. Robb's driver's license;
   - A completed application form; and
   - a cheque or money order in the amount of $10 made out to the Ministry of Heath."
7. The End
   Depending on the purpose of the e-mail, I might end with, "I look forward to your reply" or a simple "Thank you." If I know the person, I usually type my name before the signature line, just to make it more personal.

That's all folks!

A twelve step program to survive as an Admin

My grandson has started walking. He turned 1 year old on October 8th and shortly after that he just took off. He has a unique way of walking. He takes about 12 steps, squats and rejoices in his accomplishment, then he gets up and walks another 12 steps and squats again to repeat the process. He loves his newfound freedom and spends his days going back and forth from one end of the room to the other exploring as he goes.

I know the newness of it all will be gone soon and it will just be a normal thing that he is a little walker, but for now it is cute to see him learn this new skill. When I told my boss he said it must be my grandson's version of the 12 step program. I laughed, but started to think how the 12 step program has been such a help to so many people. There are 12 step programs for many groups designed to help people, so why not for us. I recently met with another administrative assistant and as we were discussing an upcoming admin conference, we started to talk about our role and how we are the do-all and go-to position in our offices. How do we keep it all together? I wrote what I thought would be a good 12 step program for our profession:

1. Be clear on what your role and responsibilities are and if you have questions about your job, ask to get clarification.
2. Respect your boss as a person, but also because of his or her position in the orgranization.
3. Make a decision to listen to and hear what your boss has to say.
4. Regularly evaluate your strengths and weaknesses.
5. Admit your mistakes and try to learn from them.
6. Schedule meetings with your boss as needed, but at the very least annually, to identify areas that need improvement and also for encouragement in areas you are doing well.
7. Come up with a plan on how you are going to improve in the areas you identified as needing improvement.
8. Treat your co-workers with respect.
9. If you have treated anyone unfairly, take the time to apologize and try to make things right.
10. Accept that you can't do everything yourself. Don't be afraid to ask for help and guidance from others.
11. Maintain a good work/life balance.
12. Review these steps regularly and practice them in your day-to-day work life.

That is not in my job description...

We have all heard it from our colleagues at one time or another when they do not feel a certain job is their responsibility. And sometimes it isn’t, but from my experience if you read an administrative or executive assistant job description there is usually a phrase something like this, “providing administrative support.” But what does it mean exactly and does that include everything?

Providing administrative support is a big statement and can be anything from arranging a meeting, making a reservation at a restaurant for a business luncheon, bringing items forward for action, following up for your boss, making travel arrangements, data entry, taking minutes, drafting letters, preparing correspondence for distribution, typing reports, proofreading documents, organizing a filing system, photocopying and assembling documents, faxing, scanning, organizing events, managing information lists and the duties can go on and be varied from office to office and from job to job. In my experience I have found that providing administrative support is whatever is needed to support your boss and make the office function efficiently.

What might be considered more than what your job description requires is running personal errands for your boss, but even then it depends on your working relationship with your boss and the requirements of the job. Some people hire a personal assistant to do everything for them. In that case personal errands would be part of the job. Many stars hire personal assistants who do everything from arranging dinner engagements and parties to bringing the children to daycare. That is why I suggest when you go to an interview you should ask questions and find out exactly what “providing administrative support” means. Most assistants however will know that their jobs can change from day to day depending on the need and personally that is what I like about it. I am not stuck in a job description box. At times I have been pushed to do something that I didn’t think I could do and found it was something I really enjoyed, such as minute taking.

Providing administrative support can even lead you to another area of work. I know of three administrative assistants who have taken on the challenges of doing different types of work within their admin role and it has led to a new career. One assistant was very good at technology and was always finding solutions to software problems. She very easily moved into the IT field and is very good at her job and her administrative background makes her a favourite among the other assistants because she knows what we are trying to accomplish and can help us get there. Another colleague worked in an accounting firm and volunteered to take on some small accounting jobs to get her feet wet. Her office encouraged her when they saw her knack for numbers and she pursued further education and is now a junior accountant. Another woman started as an executive assistant, moved into the communications field and became the director and now owns her own business.

Whatever you are doing as an administrative assistant, don’t be afraid to try new things and expand your knowledge. I find that generally administrative assistants are good in a lot of different areas and are in a unique position of being in a close working relationship with management that could open doors to new work experiences and better overall job satisfaction.

There are some assistants however who enjoy the organizing and the business of being an administrative or executive assistant and they are good at their job and get great satisfaction in what they do. They don't want to change their career and that is all right too. A strong administrative assistant provides a solid backbone to any office and are the go-to people and provide a needed service.

Whichever way you decide to go, the possibilities are endless on what you can do, so don't get boxed into "that's not in my job description" or you could miss out on a satisfying job experience.

What if I have too much to do?
There is always the possibility that it is not that you don't want to try something new, but your plate is too full and you just can't take on anything else. This also can be a problem and should be handled with your boss.

I find making a list of everything you do and determining how much time you spend on each task can help you, but can also show your boss what your workload is and your capacity for taking on new tasks.

Prioriting your work can also help to show your boss what is the urgency to some of the work you are doing and what is getting left behind because of it.

It's all in how you handle it and how you present it to your boss. "It is not in my job description" comes across as whiney and it looks like you don't want to do your job. If you approach your boss in a professional manner with the problems clearly set out and possible solutions, it will come across much better.

When you suspect a co-worker has a substance abuse problem...

A person I worked with had a problem with alcohol and the whole office knew about it except me. I can't smell so I didn't notice what the others did, but in a way that was a good thing. It seems as soon as we tag someone as having an alcohol problem, we don't seem to see anything else about the person, just the problem.

I sat next to her and worked with her for a few months so got to know her. I thought she had the potential to be a great assistant except for her low self esteem and she would put herself down when she made a mistake. I tried to encourage her, but she couldn't seem to see her own potential. One day she just up and quit. I was mentioning to some colleagues that it was too bad she left as she could have been good with some encouragement. They seemed surprised that I didn't know she had an alcohol problem because they told me you could smell the booze off her every day, but of course I hadn't noticed.

I know another assistant who is a recovering alcholic (I'm told you are never fully recovered) and she said I could share some of her thoughts below:

"There absolutely is a stigma still attached to being labeled an alcoholic or a recovering one.. it requires a firm culture that discusses recovery openly and strongly support it -both in action and written policy. This is usually a lot of "talk" in companies..but little real support for it... in my experience.

Most alcoholics are under the perception that no one notices and that they are very clever in hiding their drinking.. does the company have random drug testing.. ? This is one way to snag folks.. One of the biggest issues surrounding substance abuse in the workplace are the lies required to keep up the front that everything is ok. It impacts memory, ability to focus and TRUST. Co workers and employers will eventually stop trusting your word and believe your ability to complete the job and work with others... I am not sure about tell tale signs.. One for sure.. is tremors in the morning.. if their hands shake and they usually do not rally much before 11am.. but some alcoholics are VERY functional.. One item I've noticed is mood swings...

I guess from a personal perspective.. my advice when you suspect a co-worker has a problem with drug or alcohol is to alert HR...but have some specific examples available. Their supervisor should be noting if they are late often or have too many sick days. If I felt really compelled to talk to them.. my approach would be.. something along the lines of.. "You seem like you have a lot on your mind lately and seem kind of distracted.. is there anything I can help with.. ?" Or, if they put you DIRECTLY in a dangerous position because of their drinking/drugging- as in they come to pick you up for a meeting drunk- you absolutely can confront them then.....

As a recovering alcoholic myself.. I feel comfortable asking people if they are ok..because I've been in recovery a long time..and my anonymity is not as vital to me as helping others.. but that is an individual choice. Usually recovering addicts or alcoholics can sense a peer within their firm.. but really it does become the responsibility of HR and the firm to handle the issue with the employee.. and hopefully, they have supportive procedures and policies in place to help them..."

I am certainly not an expert on the subject, but my father was an alcoholic and I now work for a not-for-profit that does research in substance abuse issues so I hear and read about it a lot, but I wanted to bring this topic up for anyone who is strugging with this problem or knows of someone who is. http://www.peacehealth.org/kbase/topic/symptom/alcpb/overview.htm

Confessions of a Micro-Manager

Who would want to work for a micro-manager? Someone who is on your back for every little thing. Did you do this? Did you do that? And always checking up on you. Working under those conditions would make anybody nervous and question whether you are the problem and maybe you just can't do the job. Here are some reasons I think managers can get possessive:

1. I'm not sure I can trust you. Your boss has to trust that you will be able to get the job done in order to reliquish some of their control.
   
2. Do you know what you are doing? A manager has to have confidence that you know how to do your job. If they don't, they will hover until they are sure.
   
3. This is the way that it is done. Some managers like to have things done their way and if you don't do it their way, they think you are doing it wrong.

I never wanted to be a manager. I had been for a short time years ago and thought it was just something I was not very good at, but years later, I became a manager again. I was nervous about it because I didn't think it was something I did well. I also worked by myself for many years and wondered if I would know how to share.

So how did I handle it the second time around? I admit it -- I micro managed and for many of the reasons I mentioned above. I just did not have confidence that this person was going to be able to assist me. You have to have the right fit in a job to make it work. I don't think it is wrong for a manager to ask themselves some of the things I noted above, but I think the answer lies in how you handle it.

Some managers don't want to deal with the situation so they let it go on and continue to micro manage, but that doesn't help anyone. You are not doing the person who is working with you a favour if you don't deal with it because perhaps they would work better with someone else or in another position. You are not doing yourself a favour because believe me, being a micro manager is hard work. You feel you have to do everything yourself and you can easily burn out. The best situation is if you work together as a team, but how can you get there?

If you are a micro-manager, ask yourself if there are areas you are trying to hold on to that could easily be given to someone else and then try giving over a few duties. It might seem hard at first and you can put some task reminders in Outlook to help you keep track of what needs to be done, but once you see the job is completed, try to give a few more things away. You will see it makes your work life much easier.

Hire smart! Make the interview count and ask the right questions. Ask yourself what things really matter to you and ask questions to bring those things up in the interview. It is good to get expectations out right away and then the person applying for the job will know what is going to be required of them and evaluate if they think they can do the job.

Here are some things an assistant can do to help their boss have more confidence in them:

1. Repeat back what your boss asked you to do so they know you understood the request and ask questions if you don't understand. You should never be afraid to ask questions. I always appreciate it when people ask me questions because it reassures me that the person is on the same page as me when we have had a chance to discuss it.
   
2. Have a pen and paper handy and write the task down. I always have more confidence something will get done when I see it being written down.
   
3. Once you have completed a task, send your boss a quick e-mail to let them know you have done it. It might seem unnecessary to you at first, but in the long run will help the situation. It saves your boss asking if you got it done and in time they will not ask because they will just know you have handled it.
   
4. Take initiative and do some tasks that you know need to get done. Show your boss that you want to contribute to their success and to the organization.

Your boss may dislike being a micro manager as much as you hate working for one. It's worth trying to work it out. Since I've been on both sides, I thought I would share.

The Advertising Game

Advertising is effective thats for sure. How many of us ask for a Kleenex rather than a tissue or call our MP3 player an iPod? We are bombarded with advertising at home and at work, but what works and what doesn't? Here is my list:

Telemarketing

It is annoying to get telemarketing calls at home, but I have even had them call me at work. I recently met a telemarketer on a bus when I was in Atlanta. When I found out what she did for a living, the first question I asked her was how does she handle the rejection. She said that out of 100 calls she probably gets one or two sales. So why do companies continue to do it? What a great way to lose customers -- annoy them, but they must be making some money at it or they wouldn't continue to do it. Telemarketing is my number one annoyance in advertising and as soon as I answer the phone and get that few seconds of dead air, that is my queue to hang up.

Fax Blasts

I remember someone from my IAAP Chapter asked me to fax the notice of our Chapter dinner to a list of about 60 companies to promote it. I refused because I didn't see it as an effective way of reaching out to other assistants and/or businesses. I don't know about you, but when I get these "flyer" type faxes, they go immediately in the recycle bin. I don't like them because it is a waste of paper, it clutters up the fax tray and becomes another job I have to do to separate the legitimate faxes from the unsolicited faxes or they are addressed to someone who no longer works there or to nobody in particular. To me this shows me the company has not done their homework on updating their contacts and are not considering the environment.

E-Mail Blasts

I don't mind receiving e-mail updates from companies where I have subscribed to their website or blog. It is usually a business I am interested in and I want to know when new courses or products are offered. If I find my Inbox is getting too cluttered and I am not reading the e-mails from these companies, I simply unsubscribe.

I had an experience where I unsubscribed and then received an e-mail back from the website owner asking me why I was unsubscribing. It took me by surprise because normally I unsubscribe with no feedback from the website. I answered back that I just didn't have an interest in the e-mails at this time and received a further e-mail asking me if there was something they could do so I would subscribe again. This was starting to get annoying. After the third e-mail back and forth I finally just told the person I was not interested and to please stop e-mailing me. I understand a company would be interested in knowing why people unsubscribe so they can improve their business, but a quick voluntary survey back would have been more appropriate. On my blog if someone unsubscribes I am notified by e-mail that they have unsubscribed and they are given a few choices as to why. Nine times out of ten the reason is "Other or will not disclose," which is a perfectly legitimate reason and I think people should be respected and not bothered.

Television ads

I remember being in a grocery store and a young child said to their mother, "Mommy, I want the margarine where I get a crown on my head." I know I am dating myself with this ad, but advertising does influence our decisions on what we purchase. Although, nowadays we have the option to fast forward through the commercials so they are having to come up with more creative ads to keep our attention and you must admit, some are pretty funny.

Going, going, gone...

I still get some flyers by regular mail and I do still appreciate them when it is a menu from a fast-food restaurant, money-back coupons or notices of courses in my area, but otherwise I throw them in the recycle bin.

In anyone home?

When I e-mail a company I like to hear back right away so I know the website is still active. Normally I receive an automated message saying that someone will get back to me within one business day and that is acceptable. There are so many companies to choose from that you really need to hear back in a reasonable amount of time or you just move on to to next one. Once I have a company that I know I can rely on, I put them in my Favourites and then continue to use them.

Give me something and I will look further

In the past companies used to promise you the world, but when you would click on their ad, they didn't really tell you anything except to say, pay a certain amount of money and then you will get the answer. I want to know that I can trust the company first. If I read an article from a company with good tips and things that I can use and they have their weblink attached, I will normally check out what else they have to offer and will feel more comfortable buying their product or service because they have already proven to me that they have expertise in that area.

An offer of "free products" will interest me, especially if it is a new product because I want to try it out before buying it. I don't particularly like trial offers because then I normally have to do something after 30 days: either send it back or go on the website to decline the offer. Recently I was offered a free upgrade from my cable provider and it was easy, after 30 days if I didn't want it, it would automatically expire. If I did want it, then they sent me an e-mail reminder asking me if I wanted to sign up. It was easy and I got the benefit of trying the service before signing up.

Make it simple

I like things simple! Perhaps it is my age, but I like to go on a site, get what I want and then get off again. I think it is because there is just so much to do in a day that I don't want to spend too much time on a website. Many times I have ordered products and then have had to abandon my order because it just got too complicated and I wasn't sure how to get back to my order. If a company wanted to monitor anything, I would suggest monitoring when an order is abandoned. Is there something about the website that could be improved to make it easier to make a sale?

I'm a people person

The first place I go on a website is the Contact Us link. I want to know that there will be a person I can speak to if I can't complete the order myself or if I have questions after the purchase. When I booked tickets on my recent trip to Birmingham, it was becoming evident that I would not receive my tickets before I left on holidays. Thankfully, there was a 1-877 number and I called and arranged to have the tickets delivered to my hotel instead. It was nice to have the immediate contact.

Atlanta, Georgia: The City that Smiles

I recently arrived in Atlanta, Georgia to attend OfficeArrow's Lift Summit on Social Media. It was an amazing conference. If you have never heard of OfficeArrow I would recommend you check them out. They are a team of office professionals for office professionals. Whoever had the idea to put the templates on their site should pat themselves on the back. Once you log on click on the tab Productivity and you will see on the right Templates. Click on that and you will find a wealth of templates from a resume, cover letter, minutes, agenda and many others. I believe someone mentioned there were almost 500 to choose from.

I am now leaving Atlanta to travel to Birmingham and the impression I am left with is I have never been in a city that smiles so much. Everywhere I went people have been smiling and so helpful. From the young cadet who waited while I got my subway pass and directed me to the downtown core, to the man who recommended the High Museum and Atlanta Aquarium and gave me directions on how to get there.

I followed their advice and saw both and I must agree they were a delight to visit. I especially enjoyed the Renaissance Art exhibit at the High Museum. It was amazing to see paintings that were done in the 1600 hundreds with images of people so vibrant they looked like they could jump off the canvass. Quite remarkable.

The Aquarium that houses the whale sharks was spectacular with huge stingrays, sharks and scuba divers in the midst of it. Yes, I did say scuba divers! I was told that for a mere $250 you could have the privilege of swimming among these giants. Yikes! Better them than me, but it was very neat to watch.

Now I am off to Birmingham, Alabama home of Taylor Hicks. I am looking forward to his concert on the 25th, but until then I will be relaxing at my hotel beside the pool and taking one day to visit Nashville -- Hee Haw! I can hardly wait.

We live in an Acronym Happy World...

Does anyone even know what CNN stands for? I don't! It has become such a common initialism that it is recognized immediately and everyone knows what it is. And who bothers writing out the words e-mail, TV, ASAP or FYI when everyone will know what you mean anyway?

I recently received an e-newsletter from Jane Watson regarding Acronyms and Initialisms, which I thought was timely and wanted to share with you. Each organization we work for will have their own acronyms that we have to get familiar with fairly quickly if you want to know what they are talking about. Depending on how acronym happy your office is, it can be like learning a new language. Just when I think I am starting to understand my new office's language they throw in a new one that I have never heard of before. Back to the drawing board...

Coming from a legal background, we were always taught if you are using an acronym or initialism in writing, on the first use you should spell it out and then put the acronym in brackets, which makes a lot of sense and saves a lot of head scratching and searching the document to figure out what the person is referring to. After the first use, then you can feel free to use the acronym throughout the document.

We do get used to our acronyms however and they become words to us and sometimes forget that others may not understand. Take for instance on my first day in my new job, these were the acronyms that were being tossed about in conversations at a meeting where I was taking minutes: DOCAS, DRE, LHINS, NAGWD, OCRI and DAC to name a few and these of course are all pronounced as words. I didn't have a clue what they were talking about and at first thought I had landed on another planet. Not to mention the initialisms such as CIHR, ORCC, OHRI and even in the news WHO, H1N1 and SARS. It can get confusing.

I appreciated Ms. Watson's distinction between acronyms and initialisms. It certainly made it clearer to me. Speaking of initialisms, have you noticed that in many offices, in the e-mail salutation, they refer to people either by their first initial or first and last initial, i.e. Hi P or Hi PR. I refuse to use it because it makes e-mail even more impersonal than it already is and as a new person, sometimes it is hard to figure out who C is if they are only referred to in a sentence. Ugh!

I suppose we better get used to it as it seems to be a trend and start to learn the language of acronyms and initialisms. In our own correspondence however, try to use the person's first name in an e-mail and in a letter consider your audience and spell out your shortforms on the first use. It will make life easier on the receiving end as the end goal of speaking and writing is still to be understood by our audience.

Managing your Boss's Inbox

Nowadays our bosses are busy almost 24/7 and in order to cope they need our help managing their e-mail account. This in turn makes us very busy as well. I can hardly keep up with my own e-mails at times let alone someone else's account, but that is part of my job.

What is the purpose of us gaining access? Is it just to pry or do we have a job to do?

Having access to your boss's e-mail account is a big responsibility and keeping things confidential is very important. It is a trust we have been given and shouldn't be abused or shared with anyone. This is particularly important given the ease in which we can share information on social networking sites. Keep your boss's information confidential.

Below are some things I try to do to carry out the management of my boss's e-mail account.

Read the e-mails!

It is worth every minute that you spend to read the e-mails quickly, but thoroughly. Get familiar with the issues discussed. My boss expects me to not only read his e-mails, but to open and read the attachments as well. Many times I need to proof text and comment with my thoughts before he even looks at it. Of course my comments are limited because the subject matter is not my expertise, but he relies on my input and corrections to make the document look good.

If you are the minute-taker for meetings, you will be better prepared to take the minutes and use the correct terms in the right context because you will actually know what they are talking about.

I also find that when someone calls for my boss, I know what they are looking for and can assist them better. Although, I must say I rarely get telephone calls anymore -- everything comes in the e-mail!

If you pay attention to what is going on in their Inbox, you will not be taken by surprise when things come up. But don't stop there, I check the Sent and Deleted items too. You will not believe how many e-mails I have found in the Deleted items that I needed to take action on. Or in the Sent items and my boss wrote, "I have copied my assistant, Patricia," but he forgot to copy me.

Questions to ask yourself when reading your boss's e-mails

1. Is there an action for me to take?
2. Is this something I need to diarize or bring-forward at a later date?
3. Is this something he or she will need and does it have to be printed for a meeting?
4. Does it raise a question for you to follow up with your boss? For instance, "Are you really going to London in February? Do you recall that we have our annual AGM meeting on those dates and you are the Chair?"
5. If someone e-mails my boss and they have an e-mail discussion and the outcome is they want a meeting set up, I make the arrangements for the meeting and then print and bring forward the e-mail string on the day of the meeting so he can quickly read it over and be reminded of what they are going to meet about. I also highlight anything that needs to be brought to his attention. This can also be accomplished by cutting and pasting it into the notes section of the meeting and put OPEN FOR DETAILS in the subject line so he will know there is something he needs to look at before the meeting.
6. If my boss cc's me on an e-mail, I know he particularly wants me to pay attention. I always ask myself why did he copy me and what is it that he wants me to do and then look for the answer in the e-mail. Do I have to make a reservation, book a boardroom, call someone or bring something forward? He is copying me for some reason, but sometimes it is just to keep me in the loop, but if you read it, that will be evident.

Keep communication open

Because I read his e-mails, I find it important to have regular one-on-one meetings with him to ask any questions about any of the information I am not sure about and to get clarification on any action I need to take. He can tell I've been reading because when we are discussing a matter, we are both on the same page. That is when I know I am doing a good job in the e-mail department.

Schedule a time to troll

My boss calls it trolling when I go through his e-mail account and that is a good way to describe it. I could be in there every minute of the day if I let myself and that would not be a good use of my time. Find a time that works for you to check your boss's e-mail account.

I like to check it first thing in the morning and just before I go home at the end of the day. If I am waiting for something, I will check it mid-day, but I definitely feel out of the loop if I don't check it at all, so pick a time and make it part of your day.

Some things are private

Even though we have been given access, some e-mails are private. My boss told me when I first started working for him that e-mails with his wife and family are private and I skip right over them. Actually, I have too much to do with my own e-mails and his to want to read something that I don't have to. If your boss does want some e-mails to remain private, he or she can set their delegation settings to not let the delegate see private items, then they can send messages, set appointments and receive messages marked private and the assistant will not be able to see them.

Having worked in law firms for many years, it was always understood by staff that it was not our personal e-mail account, but rather the firm's account that we were using to do our jobs. Don't think of your e-mail account as yours, because it isn't. It is owned by the company and should be used for work. That is not to say you cannot have personal communications, but be aware someone could be watching. In my boss's case it's me, but you just never know who is checking, so keep it business as much as possible.

Happy trolling!