Laughing All the Way to Work: A Survival Blog for Today's Administrative Assistant

More Ctrl key shortcuts

2012-01-31T17:33:00.000-05:00

I use the Ctrl keys so frequently that I almost forgot a few good ones. To open a new blank document in Word, press Ctrl n. To open a document, press Ctrl o. Ctrl F4 will close the document, Alt F4 will close the document and the program. If you haven't saved the document, it will prompt you to Save, Don't Save or Cancel. Or you can press Ctrl s before you close it.

Many of these Ctrl key functions will work in other Microsoft programs, but not always. The regular formatting ones such as Ctrl b, Ctrl i, Ctrl s and Ctrl u etc. do work, but some of the others do not work in Outlook, Excel or PowerPoint.

The one we are probably most familiar with is of course Ctrl Alt Delete. I think we all know what that one is for.

Ctrl keys are a real timesaver

2012-01-29T20:54:00.005-05:00

Someone at work was trying to paste something by right clicking and using the paste option. There were three options to choose from with a symbol for a paint brush, an arrow and the letter 'A'. She tried one and it wasn't the paste she wanted so she said in frustration, "I never know which one to choose." Each of the paste options do have a purpose, but for what we were trying to do I told her to just press Ctrl v and that would do it. I have been using Ctrl keys for years and they are so simple and easy to use.

For those not familiar with the Ctrl key, it is located in the lower left-hand corner of the keyboard. To use it you need to press the Ctrl key and while holding it down press the letter for whatever you wish to do. For example, these are very user friendly because the letter relates to what you want to do:

Ctrl s for Save
Ctrl p for Print
Ctrl f for Find
Ctrl c for Copy
Ctrl i for Italicize
Ctrl b for Bold
Ctrl u for Underline
Ctrl a to highlight all of the document

For the others that are not so intuitive, as you use them they become familiar such as Ctrl v for paste and Ctrl x for cut.

Ctrl Shift End will highlight to the end of the document and Ctrl Shift Home will highlight to the beginning of the document. Shift End will highlight from where you have your cursor to the end of the sentence and Shift Home will highlight to the beginning of the sentence.

If you highlight a word or title and press Shift F3 you can toggle between upper case, lower case and initial caps by continuing to hold down Shift and press F3.

If you want to change the spacing for a para or the whole document, highlight what you want (or press Ctrl a to highlight the whole document) and press Ctrl 1 for single space, Ctrl 2 for double space and Ctrl 5 for space and a half.

When you get to the end of a sentence and two words are breaking that you would prefer stay together such as Mrs. Smith. Instead of putting a space after Mrs., press Ctrl Shift Space and you will keep Mrs. Smith together on the same line.

Ctrl End will bring you to the bottom of the document and Ctrl Home will bring you to the top.

There are many, many more, but these are the ones I use the most and are very user friendly and timesavers. Take the time to get used to them and I guarantee you will not look back.

Injuries at the desk

2012-01-22T13:54:00.004-05:00

As many of you know, I have been in administrative work for over thirty years. As much as I've enjoyed it, a lot of injuries come with our line of work. Recently, I was being assessed by a personal trainer at my gym and was complaining about my weak arms and she immediately asked what profession I was in. As soon as I told her what I did for a living she gave a knowing nod. She then listed a number of things that office workers suffered from because of our long hours sitting at the computer. I had experienced most of them. I am hoping she will be able to help me get some strength back, but in the meantime someone sent me this article that I thought was important to share to avoid some of these problems.

18 Important Ergonomics Tips for Online Students &Workers. http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/01/18/18-important-ergonomics-tips-for-online-students-workers/

If you are a younger worker, please take note of the tips as it will certainly help you further down the road. If you've been at it for awhile, there is still hope so it doesn't get worse. I definitely agree with all of the tips, but particularly #9. I always try to have everything at my fingertips and avoid too much reaching. This makes sense not only ergonomically, but if you have everything at hand you will be able to find things more easily, which causes less stress. And yes I know sometimes we just don't have the time to look after ourselves, but it's worth it to take 30 or 40 minutes to set yourself up to succeed. It will pay off in the long run.

Balancing Professionalism and Friendship in the Office: Guest Blog by Elaine Hirsch

2012-01-19T21:28:00.003-05:00

I thought this was an interesting post about office friendships. I tend to keep my personal and office life separate, but I do have many friends today that I first met while working together.

I worked with one of my friends over 30 years ago. We both went our separate ways: I moved out west with my young daughter and started working for an oil company and she got married, started a family and continued to work at the law enforcement agency we had both worked for. A few years later we reconnected and now we are the best of friends. I worked with another woman at a law firm for eight years and then we both moved on and changed offices, but maintained a relationship by continuing to go to the gym together and we are still friends today. And the same for another person I worked with. We aren't in the same office anymore, but we now meet monthly to go to our local chapter's IAAP dinner meeting and then spend the drive home catching up on what each of us is up to.

When I was younger I became good friends with someone I worked with and then I became their boss. Because of our friendship she took advantage of that and it didn't turn out to be a good situation.

After you have had a chance to read article, let me know what you think.

*********

The average American spends more time working than they do at any other type of activity. Since you will spend so much time around your coworkers, it can be invaluable to learn how to form friendships in the workplace while maintaining a professional environment. Workplace friendships can help make the work day go faster and be more enjoyable, but a balance must be achieved so that productivity does not decrease. Unlike an academic setting such as completing a masters degree, where students can work with each other and hang out outside the classroom. Workplace friendships offer many advantages to employees and with the appropriate boundaries, they can help foster a positive workplace environment.

Strong Friendships
Workplace friendships can often lead into lasting friendships that endure even if employees eventually go in different career directions. Talking about work at the water cooler will provide some benefits to employees, but having common happenings to discuss outside of work allows employees to relieve stress that may accumulate during the workday. Having a friend who is looking out for you during a tense time in the workplace can also help employees feel supported.

Camaraderie
Having friendships at the workplace can help increase the feeling of camaraderie in a workplace. If employees are working toward a common goal with people they genuinely like, they will in turn have a shared sense of camaraderie and will be more productive. The Mackay Daily Mercury explains this dynamic by demonstrating that workplace friendships make the workplace more pleasant and foster social support and psychological resources.

Networking
Building professional and social relationships with people in the same field can lead to future networking possibilities. A coworker may easily become a boss and a reference for a future employer. Workers in the same industry may know other professionals in the industry that may lead to opportunities for their fellow coworkers.

Balancing Work and Friendship
Although there are clear benefits to retaining friendships in the workplace, a recent survey released by Berkeley's Office of Educational Development suggests that a perfect balance between professional and personal lives cannot be achieved since every aspect of life affects a person. However, some proactive steps can be taken to achieve a better balance.

Separating Roles
It is paramount that employees learn to separate their professional and personal lives at the workplace. Don't expect personal favors or a promotion due to your relationship with a coworker or boss. If a coworker has to criticize work, don't take it personally.

Act Professionally
Maintain a professional demeanor, even during social events at the workplace, like the annual Christmas party. Don't be the employee who gets too drunk at the holiday party because coworkers can develop a negative impression of you based on inappropriate actions. Be careful disclosing personal information to coworkers that could have negative effects on your workplace reputation.

Workplace friendships help make tedious work easier to endure. Friendships can foster positivity, camaraderie and production. However, boundaries must be set to ensure that professional and private lives stay somewhat separated.

WiseGeek answers What is an administrative assistant?

2012-01-15T18:30:00.000-05:00

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-administrative-assistant.htm

Does it really matter if I get along with my boss?

2012-01-05T07:01:00.000-05:00

We spend most of our time at work so it stands to reason that the relationships we have at work are very important and worth spending time making them better. As an admin we work very closely with our bosses, but also with other admins. I'm sure everyone has experienced a day when they feel that their boss just doesn't understand them or another assistant is being nasty, but can our reaction make a difference?

The only person we really have any say over is ourselves. We can choose to be bitter and angry towards our co-workers or we can choose to get along. But they deserve it you might say and you could very well be right, but getting back at them doesn't make our work life any better and in fact makes it worse because then we are angry too.

For my New Years resolution I have decided to look at the positive and concentrate on that, rather than the negative. As parents we are told to encourage our children and try to find something they are doing right and praise them for it. The same thing can apply at work. I think our behaviour can influence those around us. Have you ever noticed when someone is in a bad mood they seem to pass that bad feeling around to everyone they meet? I think good feelings can be passed along too.

There is an advertisement on TV and a doctor reports on the benefits of being happy. Being happy he tells us can prolong our life. Whether it actually prolongs our life, I am not sure, but it sure makes it a heck of a lot more pleasant to be in.

So try it at work today! Pass on a little positive energy to your co-workers. I think in the long run everyone will benefit, including you.

Some bosses just don't know how to work with an admin

2011-12-30T16:01:00.001-05:00

Have you ever worked for someone and they under-utilized you or just didn't seem to know how to work with an assistant? I once worked for a young boss and you could tell he wasn't quite sure what he could give me or what I was capable of doing. I had enough experience that I just started doing some of the things and when he saw I was ready, willing and able to do it, he gladly passed it on to me. For other things I spoke to him about it and asked if it was something I could do. He was very appreciative of the effort.

Another young woman I worked for seemed to be intimidated by me at first because I was the age of her mother, but over time we started to have a great working relationship. I would often tell her to quit apologizing every time she gave me work to do as she was my boss and I was there to assist her.

IAAP has an article on their website about how to work more effectively with an administrative assistant that I suggest would be a good start for a conversation with your boss.

Workplace Harassment and Bullying

2011-12-26T11:32:00.066-05:00

I am not a lawyer and this is not considered legal advice in any way, but we recently had a lawyer come to speak to us about workplace harassment and bullying and it really cleared up a few things for me. As a supervisor I was especially interested because I don't want to cross the line, but because I am a supervisor I do have times where I need to speak to staff about various matters. But even if you aren't a supervisor there are things we can say that might be offensive and hurtful to others.

I was happy to learn that workplace harassment and bullying is based on how a reasonable person would have reacted given the entirety of the circumstances. Therefore if you are an overly sensitive person and found something to be harassing or bullying, it might not be considered so. For instance if I walk down the hall and fail to greet my co-workers, that might be rude, but not fall under workplace harassment and bullying. Also, having to speak to an employee to correct their behaviour or to try to encourage them in their performance (such as performance management, discipline, directives and enforcement of rules and policies), even though the employee may not like them is considered a normal function of a supervisor and not harassment or bullying.

I was suprised to learn that any person can commit harassment whether they are an employee, co-worker, contractor, supervisor or part of management and that the workplace includes meetings off site, social events and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. I am always surprised when I see co-workers writing on Facebook pages about a boss they don't particularly like or that they are so bored at work. Don't they think their employer or other employees who they might be friends with can see this?

Here are some examples he gave us of what may constitute harassment: physical acts or gestures, taunting or bullying, verbal abuse or racial comments/references, derogatory comments or jokes, sexual material (even material sent by email) or inappropriate behaviour used to control or influence. Less obvious examples were things like belittling or intimidating behaviour, creating a hostile work enviroment, disrespectful or discourteous behaviour or overly aggressive or assertive behaviour.

I would suggest if your office hasn't addressed this subject yet, having someone come in to explain this very important aspect of working together would be a good thing so everyone is aware of what is acceptable and not acceptable behaviour in the office.

Here some links with more information:
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety: Bullying in the Workplace
Ontario Government website on preventing workplace harassment and bullying
Canadian Human Rights Commission information on anti-harassment policies for the workplace
Legal aspects for United States

The water cooler is leaking...

2011-12-10T10:31:00.003-05:00

Office talk, or water cooler conversations, can be just that: what did you do on the weekend, what activities are your children participating in, what great new restaurant have you tried, etc. etc., but what about when the conversation turns to gossip? Gossip can be vicious and in some cases even lead to disciplinary action or getting fired if you are the one doing it. Depending on the severity of it, it can be seen as a form of workplace bullying and harassment and  is a very serious matter.  To be the victim of gossip can affect how your co-workers interact with you and if you know the gossip is going on about you, it can affect how you interact with others. It is embarrassing, humiliating and just darn wrong!

Have you ever been the brunt of office gossip? Have you ever participated in it?

The problem with gossip from the perspective of the person who is being talked about is you probably have a good sense that it is going on, but you don't know the specifics so you react and try to counter what you think people are saying. Because you don't have all the details, your reactions might further fuel the gossip and on and on it goes. For instance, if I think that someone is bad mouthing me, I know they are only telling one side of the story so I might want to give my side of the story and in essence have now continued the gossip. It has the effect of each party trying to win the other person over to their side.

I have had personal experience where I have been the brunt of the gossip. It is hurtful because you don't have a chance to defend yourself and what the person says is left to stand as is and only has their spin on it. Unless the people who hear the gossip take the time to get to know you and find out for themselves what you are like, their thoughts about you will be tarnished by what they have heard.

I find that most times it is a lack of communication on every side. The person gossiping should really be speaking to the person they are targetting and work out any issues directly with them. The person being gossiped about has a harder time because they don't really know what is being said and/or who is saying it, but they usually have a good idea. I recommend to that person to be better than the gossip and don't perpetuate it.

What if it is affecting your job and your supervisor is reacting to the gossip and their perception about your performance is suffering because of it?

Supervisors have a greater responsibility and should not participate in gossip at any level. They should speak to their employees if they have issues and work it out with them. If someone gossips to them, they should challenge the person to do something about the issue they are complaining about and offer to facilitate between the parties if that would be helpful. Nine times out of ten the gossiper will not want that because they are only... well...gossiping. By challenging them you let them know you will not be part of the gossip. If the gossip is more than just gossip and there is some truth behind it, then by challenging them you may get to the bottom of it and find there is something that needs to be addressed and then you can be seen to be part of the solution. It is always better if people talk things out and work together. The longer the gossip is left to go unchallenged the worse the situation will be for everyone and the harder to get down to the truth.

We spend so much time at work that it is worth the effort to cultivate our work relationships in a positive way. There is no room at the office for negative talk about anyone. If there is a performance issue with someone, then that needs to be addressed with the person and not with others.

How gossip is handled in your office starts and can end with you. What are you going to do the next time someone comes to you with some juicy bit of information about someone?  I know I am going to try harder to be professional about it, even if and when I feel I am the victim. My reaction will usually clear up any doubts about me as a person and employee.

Working with your boss

2011-12-03T13:08:00.006-05:00

I work with a boss who is very self sufficient (in other words he could live without me, but chooses not to) and a friend of mine works with someone who wouldn't know what to do without her help. Which would you prefer?

My job is unique in that I do my own work apart from my boss. He does his thing and I do mine. My work is generated by what he does, but I pretty well carry on with my duties on my own. I do provide other support to him, but he doesn't really need it, but likes it. The problem is when we are both working on the same thing and I think I am the one doing it, but in the meantime he has done it, i.e. we both contact the same person and he says he is available and I say he is not. Of course when I check his calendar he really isn't. Too many cooks in the kitchen is not a good thing.

My friend's boss needs assistance in every little thing. I prefer having a job that gives me a little more independence and being able to work on my own on projects, but it all depends what you signed up for. That is why when I go on an interview, I interview them as well. I want to make sure this is a good fit for me. It is all personal preference and strengths. It is just not my thing to provide that level of support, but there is nothing wrong with a boss needing it or with you providing it.

I also like that my boss is not a micro manager. I feel confident I know what my job is and I just go about doing it and respecting the deadlines to get it done. He would not like it if I missed a deadline as then it would affect him, but he trusts that I know what I'm doing. Although I do like this kind of working relationship, it makes it harder when you first start a job with a boss like mine because they just expect you to step in and start doing it. I was not used to that at first so was waiting for him to tell me what needed to be done, but quickly discovered that it was going to be up to me so took on the challenge and found I enjoyed it even more than being told what to do.

I worked with another admin who didn't seem to know how to proceed without having her boss tell her step by step what needed to be done next. It all depends on your maturity, your confidence in your skills and what your previous work experience was. I expect that an inexperienced admin will need more guidance and I enjoy working with them as they learn, but my goal is always that they will work towards knowing their job and taking it on as their own. We will always need some sort of guidance in our job since we are the support staff, but some jobs we can take on ourselves. For instance, if you are in charge of ordering supplies, I would think that over time you should be able to take that job on and set up a schedule of when to order, have an orderly supply cabinet so people can find things and work with the vendor to get familiar with how to order (whether online, by phone or on paper) and finding deals and best prices, etc.

If you work with a micro manager then you have another challenge, but for your own personal growth I would suggest that you try to take on as many jobs as you can. Show your boss that you can do it by being one step ahead of them. When you know the order is due, approach them and ask if you can go ahead and make the order. They will start to relax and rely on you that you know what you are doing. Be smart about it though and make sure you really know what you need to do before taking it on. I have worked with people who tried to show initiative, but they weren't quite ready to take it on by themselves and that didn't work out very well.

So what can you do?

Be willing to learn and work hard at knowing your job, especially at the beginning. There is a lot to learn when you first start a job. Put in the extra time to learn it. It will be noticed and will pay off in the end.
Write down instructions so you will know how to do it the next time and won't have to ask the same questions over and over.
Show your boss that you know what needs to be done next without them telling you. If you have been on the job for awhile and your boss is still not giving you things to do on your own, take a chance and do something you are confident you know how to do and see what happens. You may be surprised that they were just waiting for you to do it on your own. Or they may be suprised to see you can do it without them and will be happy they can give you the job instead of them doing it.

I recall working for a lawyer who would dictate letters for me to transcribe. Over time I knew exactly what needed to be in those letters, but day in and day out he would dictate them to me. One day when I received a certain correspondence, I took the chance of drafting the letter and preparing it for his signature. He was pleasantly surprised and from then on let me do it. It gave me greater job satisfaction and relieved him of this task.

Working with someone is the same as every other relationship. We are getting to know each other and as you get to know the other person you start to learn their preferences, what makes them cranky and what makes them happy. They are also learning the same things about you. It is easy to have misunderstandings and assume things if you don't take the time to get to know your boss.

Should I stay or should I go?

2011-11-21T08:31:00.003-05:00

You know it's time to move on from your present job when you see these things happening:

Lack of interest
The challenge has gone out of the job and things are becoming routine and mundane.

Lack of trust
You notice that you are not getting the same respect as before and things you do are being questioned more often.

Lack of fun
When the fun is gone then it becomes work and that is no fun at all.

Over the years you start to see what things about your job spark the most interest. For instance I really like organizing things and have a little jump to my step whenever I start the planning process for an event. I also enjoy training and passing on information. I am in the process of developing testing for admin interviews and I really enjoyed doing that. I also like creating job manuals. To me it is fun to put the pieces together and come up with a manual that will be helpful to any new person starting the job (I think that goes along with my enjoyment of training). I enjoy taking minutes and all that goes with it (I guess that is why I love giving the minute-taking webinars). But there are also aspects of my job that I don't like as much and that will be normal for any job. If you have a 60/40 split you are doing well. I would say in my current job it is probably an 80/20 so that is pretty good.

It is always good to do an evaluation of your job and you may come away from the exercise deciding to put your resume out and look for something else or you may come away encouraged in your present job.

I have worked with a few people who applied for jobs and then when they were offered it, passed on the opportunity. I think they didn't do their homework about whether they really wanted to move on or not. If you honestly evaluate your current position and find it wanting, then you can go ahead and start looking with a clear objective of securing another job, but if you start applying before you do that you may just end up going through the exercise and not accomplishing anything (although there is something to be said about going on interviews just for the practice and keeping up to date on current interview techniques etc.).

Other things you need to evaluate as well is the salary, career advancement, company benefits, etc., but an evaluation on the enjoyment part of your job is a good basis for either staying or going.

What to expect when you start a new job

2011-11-12T14:53:00.001-05:00

Reading, Reading and more Reading
Expect to do a lot of reading the first week you are on the job. You will be given information about the organization, what benefits they have and forms that you need to fill out. Read and learn as much as possible. This may require you to do the reading on your own time or during break or your lunch hour.

Meeting new people
You will also be introduced to a lot of new people and told what they do. You will most likely be given the staff phone list and an organization chart. If not, ask for it. You should keep these readily available to remind yourself who does what as you will need to refer to that often.

New hire information
When you first start a job, you will be given lots of information that you need to know about your new job. You should have a time of training with someone who can give you an overview of what you need to do and be available for any questions. Depending on the responsibilities required there may be an overlap with the person who was previously in the job. This is nice, but not always practical as they most likely gave their two weeks' notice ending on the Friday and you start on the Monday. If you do have the opportunity to meet with the person already in the job, take advantage of it and make sure you take notes and ask as many questions as you can. Sometimes the person is still in the organization and has just moved on to another position. Keep in mind this person will need to get up to speed on their own responsibilities, but should also be available to give you some guidance. Again, take notes and make the best use of the time you have with them.

Job Manual
When I start a new job I always start a job manual and write down as I go along what my new responsibilities are and any pertinent information I need. You want to avoid asking the same questions over and over. Best to write the answers down for future reference.

If you take a job and they already have a job manual for the position that is a bonus. This manual should be read cover to cover and marked up with any questions you have. Consider this your job bible.

Questions
I always appreciate questions from new hires as it gives me a good idea of their understanding of what they need to do and where they might need more direction. I like to see them writing things down and when a similar situation comes up they look to their notes for the answers. The goal is to get as self sufficient as soon as possible because this is now your job, but it is always expected there will be questions. If you don't have a copy of the job description, ask for it and go through it with any questions you might have about the position.

I also recommend that some questions should not be asked of your boss, but perhaps another admin assistant would be a better person to ask. You don't want to give your boss the impression you don't know what you are doing. There is a certain expectation that if you take an admin job you have the basics such as typing, meeting organization and a knowledge about certain software programs.

Probation
The probation period is a good time for both parties to get to know each other, to learn about the job responsibilities and to determine if they are a good fit for the organization. Sometimes this is a stressful period for a new employee as they want to do well, but keep in mind the employer is expecting a time of learning so use this time to learn as much as you can about the job. You should be prepared to work extra hard to get up to speed in the first month.

I always recommend to people who take temporary assignments to consider themselves on probation as well as you never know if it might turn into a full-time job.

Prepare for it
When I first started my new job I didn't have a lot of the background I knew I was going to need, but I felt I was up for the challenge. I had two weeks to get myself as much up to speed as possible before starting the job. I took a course I knew I would need and met with a few of my friends who had experience in some areas I felt I was lacking. When I started my first day on the job I was as much prepared as I could be before actually arriving at the office. There was going to be a lot of new things that I would need to learn, but at least I had done my homework.

Guest Blog by Elaine Hirsch: Best Beverages to Start Your Day

2011-11-11T22:56:00.002-05:00

There's much to say for the person who drinks 10 cups of coffee a day: "They are probably thinking they might get fired so they work overtime like a crazy person." But in all seriousness, whether you're toiling in a master's degree program, working the 9:00 to 5:00, or just trying to keep track of the kids, the start-of-day drink determines the mood.

There are many benefits to starting your day off with a cup of coffee. As is well known, it'll spring you into action. Try adding two spoonfuls of sugar and see how it feels to become the bionic bunny. You'll get lots of work done before noon, and then your boss will find you passed out on top of the big business files. Make sure to drink another cup after lunch to avoid the usual caffeine crash.

If you're looking for a day where you will be liked by every person in your office and your good mood will become infectious (even to the grumpy custodian), maybe you should try going for a smoothie. Banana, strawberry, and apple juice make an easy recipe that'll give you lots of good nutrients like potassium, plus a ton of sugar. It may even make you start pondering the very essence of health. Just be careful if you put any blackberries or blueberries in it. People may start thinking you don't own a toothbrush or that you haven't flossed since 1983.

For those of you with high blood pressure, you might want to start drinking herbal tea. This drink is a great alternative breakfast beverage. Certain teas such as thyme, peppermint, and ginger are especially good to make you feel more relaxed and centered. However, try to avoid chamomile tea until nighttime. It's a natural sleep remedy and will make you miss that important deadline for naptime or nod off during that important budget meeting.

For the morning exercise enthusiasts, did you know chocolate milk is a great beverage to boost your protein intake? Plus if you drink it right after you work out it will boost the muscle protein synthesis in your body. Whoever thought chocolate milk could make you toned and healthy?

These aren't all the drink options to start your day. Maybe you should try mixing them together to make your own. Chocolate milk and coffee are a known hit, and fruity teas are quite popular too. However, this writer won't be held responsible if your ginger tea coffee fruit smoothie doesn't go over so well.

Surviving busyness...

2011-10-15T20:18:00.003-04:00

I have been super busy at work. On top of managing the work lives of two very busy executives, I've also been planning a large dinner, board meeting and another event along with my other regular jobs. Here is how I've been surviving:

Keep Organized
If it wasn't for the fact that I am organized, I don't know what I would have done. At least I have my systems and know where everything is and that is half the battle. You need to be able to grab what you need quickly. You wouldn't believe how much time is wasted just looking for things.

Ask for help
Thankfully we have a great admin team who are always willing to help out in a crunch and I have been taking advantage of that. There is always a small job here or there that if given away will relieve your workload and will definitely relieve your mind. You know how it is when you know you have to do something, but just don't have the time to do it -- it weighs on your mind. So for that reason alone it is worth giving those little jobs away, just to get them off your plate. Return the favour though, a good team helps each other out.

Forget about being a perfectionist!
Definitely do a good job, don't skimp on proofreading and double checking, but determine what is a need to have and what is a nice to have. If you are a perfectionist, your not so perfect is probably well above standard.

Keep your sense of humour in tact
Nothing relieves stress better than a good laugh and having a sense of humour - even when you are crazy busy. My boss is very funny and keeps me laughing most of the time.

Take time off
I am looking forward to a week off at the end of the month with my daughter and small grandsons. Just the thought of some light at the end of the tunnel is a good motivator. Everyone needs to make the time to go away and rejuvenate and take care of ourselves. The work will always be there when we get back. Make sure you pass along anything that needs to be handled in your absence, put your out-of-office assistant on, change your voicemail message and go and enjoy life. It's necessary!

I feel better already.

How to handle mistakes?

2011-10-09T19:25:00.002-04:00

I'm not even going to ask if you have ever made a mistake, because I already know the answer. Everyone makes mistakes, but how you handle it makes all the difference.

Acknowledge it
Whether it is a big mistake or a small one, you probably should admit it to your boss. I say "probably" because sometimes, depending on the mistake, you can "fix" it and nobody really needs to know about it and it wouldn't be good to tell your boss about every little thing you did wrong. For instance if you are organizing a meeting and send the meeting request to the wrong person, you can easily fix it by apologizing to whoever you invited by mistake, cancel that invitation and then invite the correct person. Other times you really do need to tell your boss because it might have repercussions and it is best to admit it up front. You can determine whether you need to tell your boss or not, but you absolutely should admit it to yourself.

Learn from it
Once you have admitted the error you need to learn from it and do whatever you can not to do it again. I think sending emails to the wrong person is an easy mistake to make because it is so easy and quick to press Send, but not so easy to take it back (and the Recall function really does not work on emails to external people and is only hit and miss on internal emails). Depending on how often you make the mistake and how serious the consequences could be, will determine what kind of measures you need to take.

One way you can avoid sending an email to the wrong person is to turn off the automatic email memory function, then you will have to enter each person's email address each time and that will make it more difficult to make that mistake. You can also ask a colleague for suggestions on how they avoid particular errors, for instance removing the word "pubic" from your dictionary will ensure if you type it instead of "public", SpellCheck will pick it up.

Apologize
An apology will usually solve the problem as most people understand that mistakes are made and recognize that an apology takes a lot of courage and professionalism and they usually respect that, but if you are an HR assistant and sent the job offer to the wrong candidate, then more damage control will need to be taken, your boss will need to be told and the consequences could be more serious.

Recently I sent about 80 invitations to a dinner by email and then had to send 25 more to another group of people requesting a meeting. After putting the message for the invite in 80 times, by the time I got to the next set of emails, well, I put the same message in the email regarding the dinner so it did not match the letter I attached. My damage control was to re-send the message with REVISED in the subject line and then follow up by calling the 25 offices and speaking to the EA to explain the situation. It was easily rectified as they all had access to their bosses email acount and they all most definitely understood. You can be sure if they make a similar mistake and call me, I will do the same for them and have in the past. In this case, after I had done my damage control I mentioned my error to my boss, but along with the remedy so he saw that I recognized what I had done and took the appropriate action to fix it.

I remember once an assistant from a law firm sent a fax to my boss by mistake and it had the legal advice they were giving their client, which my boss wasn't supposed to see, so she immediately called and asked me to trash it and that she would send the correct fax. I waited to get the correct fax and when I saw it was a simple error of putting the wrong fax number in, I had no problem ripping up the other fax she had sent. Many times I dealt with this same person and we were always helpful to each other and she would bend over backwards if my boss needed to meet with hers to accommodate the request. How we handled it turned it into a positive working relationship.

Move on
If you have handled it to the best of your ability, righted the wrong and told the people you needed to tell, then you need to move on. I have seen people who kept kicking themselves over a mistake, but failed to learn from it and all that did was affect their self esteem and confidence in doing the job. If you dwell on every mistake too much, keep telling your boss how dumb you were for doing it (and therefore reminding them about the mistake), that will not help the situation and will likely make your boss have less confidence that you won't make the mistake again. I believe if we tell ourselves something for too long, we inevitably start to believe it about ourselves. The quicker we deal with it and move on, the better for everyone.

Remembering 9/11

2011-09-11T17:22:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe it was 10 years ago today that this tragedy happened. It was certainly an event that changed a lot of things in our world and I'm sure each of us can remember exactly where we were on that fateful day.

I heard one of the wives speak whose husband was a pilot on the second plane that crashed into the World Trade Centre. What an inspiration she was as she and her family dealt with the loss. Sometimes our little complaints or problems are miniscule compared to what others are going through. It is good to do a check now and again to see if what we are concerned about is really that bad.

Since the World Trade Centres were office towers there were many office workers such as managers, lawyers, bankers, administrative and executive assistants and many, many others.

To all those who were affected directly and lost loved ones I send you my deepest sympathy.

Proofreading

2011-09-11T16:39:00.001-04:00

I've mentioned this before, but it is true -- proofreading is a lost art. I think people are over confident with spell check and forget that it can only do so much.

Lists:
I was working with someone and we were comparing a list to make sure we had all the right people with their names spelled right, correct title and address. The first thing I did was count the number of people on the list I was working from and then I counted them on the list I was getting the information from, it was out by three so that was a quick way to know that there was an error. I then had someone read it over with me so we could easily identify the missing people and add them to our list.

Another time we were doing a large RSVP list. The first thing I did was a spell check. That identified about 10 errors. Next I eyeballed it and compared the names to the email addresses. If it was spelled one way in the name section and spelled another way in the email address, that was another flag that there was a possible error and we needed to investigate it further.

I had received all the RSVPs by email so the next step was to make sure I had not forgotten anyone who had emailed me their attendance.

The last step is always to do a read through the document looking for spelling errors and to make sure addresses and names are correct. This might mean going back and checking a name and address by Googling the person's name or title. You don't want to send an invitation to the premier of a province and then realize they've had an election in that province and the person was replaced with someone else.

Documents:
Reading through the document is a necessary step after you have done a spell check. Sometimes you need to read through it looking for one thing and then read through it again looking for another. For example, I was reading through letters that we were sending to a variety of people. It referred to a province in two places and in each case the province had to match the location of the person we were writing. The first time I read it over to make sure it was accurate for spelling and grammar. The next time I read it through I was looking to make sure the province was correctly identified in each letter. I then read through it again to make sure the numbers referred to in each letter were accurate for their particular province. It takes a bit of time, but is well worth it and avoids embarassment to your company.

Depending on what type of document you are proofing, you may also need to read it over and make sure it is formatted consistently throughout. Using Styles in Word is a great way to ensure that you always use the same style throughout and if there is an error it is easily changed from Heading 2 to Heading 1 or whichever is the case.

Emails:
Emails are sent so quickly that they are often the source of much embarassment if we press Send and send an email to the whole organization about a personal matter or to the person you are referring to in the text of the email. This would be particularly embarassing if you work in Human Resources for obvious reasons, but also in other areas of your company. Try not putting an address in the To section until you are finished composing the email and then when you are sure it is ready to be sent, you can put the address in and send it.

Using spell check and then reading it over for accuracy should be done in email as well. Email is used so much today that it is becoming the official correspondence and should be treated as such by ensuring accuracy and filing it appropriately as you would a letter.

Take the time to proofread. It will show you pay attention to detail and will be worth the extra effort when people see that you don't make many mistakes or that mistakes are caught by you.

In my job I read correspondence and other documents before they even go into my boss and he likes it that way. When he knows I've gone through it, he can then relax and read it for content and know the rest is looked after. Two eyes are definitely better than one and if you work with your boss as a team then the products coming out of your office will look good and that will reflect well on both of you.

Your secret is safe with me...

2011-09-04T10:24:00.009-04:00

Whether you are an Executive Assistant or an Administrative Assistant, email management of your boss's account has become a big part of our jobs. But with that job comes responsibility and accountability.   Depending on what your boss's title is, we are often privy to some very confidential information. Our boss either has allowed us access because he or she is just overwhelmed with email and has no choice, but also because they trust that we will keep it to ourselves and not spread the information in the office. My boss has asked that I not read anything that has CONFIDENTIAL in the Subject Line and believe me I am grateful. I have my own emails to read and process so when I go into his account, I am thankful for the emails I can skip over.

These are the questions I ask myself as I am going through my boss's account:

Is this email for my information only?
Sometimes my boss cc's me on an email or I read it in his account and as I read it over, I determine if it is for my action or information. Many of the emails are just for information to keep me better informed on how to assist him and what he is up to. Even though there is no action, these emails are worth reading. It may help me when I am taking minutes to know some of the background or it might help if someone calls and I recall an email about that between them. I am then better able to assist the caller.

Is this email about a meeting that I need to organize?
If any of the emails have to do with meetings that he either wants scheduled or is planning, then I send that email to myself and bring it up when I meet with him to ask him how I can assist in the planning of the meeting. Many times it is evident that I need to do something such as book the boardroom, start planning travel, or bring forward the email for when the meeting takes place, etc. If I go ahead and take action, I send a quick email to him to let him know I did that or I let him know the next time I am speaking with him. I find speaking with your boss is better than sending email as sometimes the last thing they need is another email to deal with, but if I do send an email I keep it short and sweet and usually only write it in the Subject Line that I booked the boardroom for him, etc.

If I see he is emailing back and forth with someone and now they are in the stage of choosing the date, I ask him if he wants me to take over scheduling the meeting. Depending on who it is, he is usually very grateful as many people email him and then instead of getting their assistants to schedule the meeting, start trying to arrange it themselves, which he really does not have time to handle. The other person is usually happy as well as they also give over the planning of the meeting to their assistant and then we can take over the arrangements.

Does this email contain information that your boss may need at a later date?
Many times the initial email to my boss requesting the meeting has lots of information that he will need brought forward on the day of the meeting. This email usually contains the purpose of the meeting, information about what they want to speak about and what they are hoping to get accomplished. I print this email and when I prepare my boss's daily meeting package I put it in the folder as part of his preparation for that meeting as a reminder to him.

Is this email for my action?
Many times as I am reading through the emails I see an action for myself, or a possible action, so I bring that to my meeting with my boss to offer my assistance or get further clarification on next steps. Sometimes he will be emailing with someone and they decide they are going to meet at a restaurant so I ask him if he wants me to make the reservation or I go ahead and make the reservation and just let him know I did it. Other times he will be emailing with someone and they mention something that needs to be done such as making copies of a document to send to the team, so I ask him if he wants me to do that for him or, if it is evident, I just go ahead and prepare it and have it on his desk ready for him. Knowing when you should go ahead and take action will come as your working relationship with your boss develops and you start to know their style and preferences.

We are in their account for a reason, so ask yourself these questions to help you know what to look for. If you are unsure or uncomfortable taking this initiative, you should discuss it with your boss to ask their expectations on why you have access to their accounts and what they want you to look for.  You can also make suggestions on what you can do for them. Some bosses are not sure what they want or need from their assistants. A boss and their assistant should have a close working relationship and a big part of that is communication. Never be afraid to ask when you need clarification or need more information. It is in the best interests of both of you.

And now for some humour...

Your secret is safe with me...
A woman I work with came by my desk the other day and was relating a telephone conversation she had with someone that my boss deals with. She mentioned the person had given her some confidential information that she wanted to pass along so I could let my boss know. When she started to relay it to me she stopped, hesitated, looked completely embarassed and then had to admit she couldn't remember what it was. We laughed!  I said giving information of a sensitive nature to anyone over 50 was a sure fire way of ensuring that it wouldn't get passed along inappropriately, because we probably wouldn't remember it.

Which is another reason I always say WRITE IT DOWN!

Minute taking webinar

2011-07-26T20:43:00.001-04:00

Join me for an effective minute-taking webinar on Thursday, July 28 at 1 p.m. EST If you are interested, you can register here.

Silence is golden

2011-07-16T09:20:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

I have been offline for a bit and wanted to touch base so you know I haven't left the planet :) I am planning on adopting a teenager and am going through the stages for that. As you can imagine, it is not without its hiccups, but hopefully I will be welcoming someone into my home by early August. As a mother to a 31-year old daughter, and having gone through the teen years with her, I know there will be bumps along the way, but I am looking forward to the challenge. Teenagers are probably the last age group people look to adopt, but everyone needs a forever family and I wanted to provide some stability to a young lady before she goes out into the world. As a single mom I thought that was something I could handle.

Have a great summer everyone and I will keep you posted on the final outcome of this adventure and how it is all working out in the office with finding a replacement for me while I go on adoption leave and training my new assistant when she arrives in September. The fun just never stops...

Patricia

Keeping it all together

2011-06-13T08:42:00.002-04:00

As admins we have different projects going on all the time, meetings scheduled with our bosses and other things that need reminders set or items brought forward. I have found to be efficient and professional you really do need to keep all these things together.

For instance when I meet with my boss I have things I need to ask him so I put it in a folder and bring it with me, then we go through it item by item. I write on each item whatever direction he gives me and then when I am back at my desk I complete the tasks, whether it is forwarding correspondence to someone to draft a reply, filing or replying on his behalf to an email. I call it the CEO folder.

Another way you can accomplish this is to have a meeting book just for meetings with your boss where you can write questions you need to ask or insert items you need direction on. This can be as simple as a lined note book, but restricted only for meetings with your boss. I find it useful to date the page each time you meet. This is helpful when you need to refer back to remind yourself of the direction or to remind your boss of an action he or she asked you to do.

For each of the meetings I provide support to I have an agenda folder and any items that people forward me to add to the next agenda or questions they might have, I put in that folder. When I meet with my boss or one of the Directors about that particular meeting, I always have my folder to refer to. This is also useful when you meet with the Chair to create the agenda so you can be reminded of anything that needs to be put on it.

Then there are all those reminders that you put either in your Outlook calendar, your tasks or in your Inbox and this is where I find you really do need to keep it all together. I don't want to be looking in every which way or I might miss something and will appear disorganized when trying to track it down. I use Outlook only for items for me to remember.

I don't have my computer with me when I meet with my boss, but another assistant I know does bring her laptop with her and types in anything she needs to follow up or take action on. I am still more comfortable with writing it down, but you have to do what works best for you.

I hope these few thoughts are helpful to you or will at least get you thinking about how best to keep it all together. I would be interested in hearing how others organize themselves and would welcome comments or suggestions as we all can learn from each other and I find that is our greatest strength when we can share ideas.

Summer days are here again -- Finally!!

2011-06-05T22:55:00.003-04:00

I haven't been blogging in awhile because there have been lots of things going on in my personal life and at work. My second grandson was born in early May and what a cutie he is. There is a board meeting coming up next week and I've been organizing that. I was going to need a tractor to cut my grass if I didn't do it soon, so I had to mow the lawn. And on top of all that I was sick with a nasty flu for a week. Life sure can get busy...but wait! Summer vacation time is right around the corner. I am anticipating the time off as I'm sure many of you are.

How does your office organize summer vacation time or do they? Our office starts a vacation calendar around mid-May and all staff enter their vacation requests for the summer. It is a simple tool, but a good one to ensure there is someone on site at all times. There was an article in Office Arrow called Oh no the entire office is on summer vacation. It sounds funny, but it could happen if you don't plan ahead.

The assistants in our office operate on a buddy system and we try to coordinate our holidays to make sure there is the necessary admin support in each of our areas. I find if you start talking about vacation ahead of time, it gives people time to make adjustments if necessary. I recall a few years ago, someone in my office submitted their vacation request and attached their flight itinerary to the form. It was too late then to make changes, the flights had already been booked, but that was not fair to the others in the office. If you plan in advance then it is easier to accommodate each other's schedules.

Have a great summer everyone.

F/U

2011-05-11T21:52:00.000-04:00

I finally figured out my assistant meant follow up ...

What do you think about Admin Professional Week?

2011-04-19T18:10:00.006-04:00

As many of you know, this weekend is the Easter weekend, but it also starts Admin Professionals Week, with the actual day being on April 27th. You will see from the article on the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) website, they are suggesting the theme should be celebrate all office professionals and I agree with that. I never did like being singled out as we have gone so far away from being just a secretary to being an important part of the team, whether it is directly supporting management or whatever area you are in. The admin profession has changed so much over the years that we not only support the manager, sometimes we are the manager.

The organization I work for recognizes our small team of admins for the work that we do and rely on us to contribute by providing excellent support services, but it didn't happen overnight. It takes a lot of hard work to shake off the old stereotype into a new professional one. Here are some things you can do to bring that about:

Bring your level of service up a level (or two if necessary);
Act the way you want to be treated. If you want to be recognized as a professional, act like one;
Acquaint yourself with the goals of the organization and determine how your position aligns with those and work towards accomplishing them from your job. It takes a lot of little things to accomplish the big goals, so nothing should be discounted, including answering the phones and greeting clients or new customers at the reception desk;
Show management that you are paying attention by contributing intelligently at staff meetings with answers and suggestions that show you have the best interests of the organization in mind;
Take your performance appraisal time seriously and complete it with thought and not just something you have to do every year;
Present yourself as a professional working towards completing your tasks in a timely fashion;
If you don't have an Admin Team, think about starting one and organize yourselves in a professional manner by setting an agenda, recording the minutes and meeting with a goal to increasing the efficiency of the organization. It will be noticed!

8 Ways Cell Phones Can Harm Your Health

2011-04-17T18:48:00.002-04:00

Here is a link to an article that you might be interested in regarding the use of cell phones as it relates to your health. Since we all use this technology I thought it would be a timely reminder that moderation is probably the best rule of thumb:

http://radiologytechnicianschools.net/8-ways-cell-phones-can-harm-your-health/

Minute taking webinar April 26

2011-04-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,

Once again I am giving an effective minute-taking webinar. If you are able to join me, please do on April 26. For more details, please click on the link.

See you on the Web...

Patricia

Reply to Comment

2011-04-02T12:48:00.001-04:00

Someone by the name of Cass posted a comment to my last post (please read it for context) and I thought I would reply as a new post so everyone would have the benefit of joining the dialogue as I think it is a common problem among assistants. The more organized you are, the less work it seems to others so the less recognition you get. Or sometimes assumptions are made that all the group helped, when it really was only one or two. Anyway, here is what my practice used to be at my previous job where I organized a lot of events. It was a large law firm and had a lot of Departments that I realize most organizations would not have, but I think you will get what I am saying.

One of the first things I did when I had a date for an upcoming event was notify those who would be affected: The Mailroom Staff (to give them a heads up that there would be printing and binding required and extra supplies would need to be ordered such as name tags, binders, paper, etc.), the Finance Department (to give them the codes to charge things to and dates I would need cheques), the Marketing Department (so they could start designing the invitations and preparing for the RSVPs), the IT Department (so they would be on call when I needed them when something just wasn't working right) and my neighbouring co-workers so they would know what was on my plate and could help as needed. I found that letting them know ahead of time really helped as I went through the stages of organizing so they were aware of it from the beginning and last-minute requests could be anticipated.

Since I was the lead for the event, immediately after it was over I would send a thank-you email to everyone who had helped and would cc my boss, the HR Director and the bosses of the people who helped. This usually sparked a few emails back and forth congratulating each other on a job well done and left a great team feeling among the group. You can be sure the next time an event was organized everyone would be more likely to be back on board again to help where needed.

I find if we leave the thank yous to our bosses, they don't always know what and who were involved to get the job done. They just know it got done and everything worked out. Sometimes we need to take the initiative ourselves and then we can be sure the right people are recognized and nobody is missed.

I personally prefer my boss not do the congratulations because he undoubtedly will do just as Cass mentioned in her post, forget some people and thank others who had nothing to do with it, but if the boss is going to do it (and there is something to be said when the head of an organization recognizes the efforts of a particular group), make sure they get input from you so all the appropriate people are thanked.

If anyone has any other suggestions or ways they have handled this common problem, I'd love to hear your comments and I think the Admin community would benefit from hearing your experiences and ideas and just to know they are not the only ones this happens to.

Becoming better organized

2011-03-29T18:27:00.001-04:00

I just finished a busy few months leading up to our Board of Directors meeting and it went very smoothly. I love it when things fall into place, but that doesn't happen without a lot of planning.

To get ready the first thing I do is populate my to-do list with the tasks I need to do leading up to the event. I go through my checklist of what I will need to bring to the venue, anything I need to remember to include in the meeting package and just about anything that doesn't fit goes on my catchall list. I prepare meeting templates for all the meetings I will need to take minutes at and fill it in as much as possible beforehand from the agenda. Having meeting templates is such a timesaver, even though it does take a few minutes to create each time, but well worth the effort. For those who have never tried it, the meeting template is just your agenda, turned into a minute template. You know what items you will be dealing with, so you can pre-populate the minute template and then it is just a matter of filling in any discussion, action items and/or motions.

Once I have done all that, I can then feel confident and prepared -- because I am! It's not magic, although I find the better you organize the more people think it was easy and seem to think it just all happened, which is the furthest thing from the truth. It should get easier though -- or should I say, when it is better organized, you will be more prepared and therefore more confident that you have not missed anything. My definition of a successful event is when it goes smoothly without a hitch. Or if there is a glitch, it is fixed quickly and professionally.

My boss is very appreciative no matter how easy things seem to go, which is very nice, but not always the case. I have been told by various friends of mine that they are not always acknowledged or get noticed for the efforts they take to make things they organize a success. It is not that they want the recognition, but a pat on the back certainly goes a long way to making you want to make the next event even better.

If you are a boss and something your assistant organized goes very smoothly, please recognize that it didn't just "happen", but that your assistant just made it look that way by being prepared.

Also, if you are not the only one working on a project or event, don't forget to acknowledge the team effort, as it takes many pieces to make the whole thing work. You may have done the bulk of it, but without the little things getting done, your job would have been harder so don't forget to say thanks.

Now onto the next meeting...

Where has the time gone?

2011-03-05T16:18:00.003-05:00

My daughter and her Dad used to play a game and when either of them would say, "Where has the time gone?" they would make a joke of it and come up with some crazy ideas about where it might have gone. It was pretty funny at the time and everytime I hear someone say that, I think about it.

Time is a strange thing. Last week I was on the treadmill at the gym and had two minutes left to run, but it felt like forever and each time I looked down it seemed like time had stood still. As well when I was waiting for some anticipated vacation time, the time went so slow, but when I actually went on the vacation it just flew by. What's with that? Or when my little grandson was crying in the middle of the night it seemed like a long time, although it might only have been less than 10 minutes. On Friday, I was madly trying to get out the door to meet up with my carpool and it just didn't seem like I had enough time left in the day to get everything done and out the door on time. So how do you manage time when it can seem to go either too fast or too slow?

I find that many times when time is crawling it is because I am in a hurry for something to happen and when it flies is when I am doing too many things and need to get it done in a short period of time or have left it for the last minute.

Sometimes we look at others and wonder how they do it as they seem to have it all together and never seem to be frazzled. It is good to remember that time plods along the same for everyone each day, no matter how it feels at the moment. It is usually how much we try to cram into that time that makes the difference, as well as whether we have a plan on how and when we are going to accomplish what we need to do. For instance, on my Friday rush out the door, I hadn't prioritized my day as well as I should have and then was left with some last-minute items that had to be done before I left for the day. This is when time management helps and can be the difference between pulling your hair out, making all sorts of small unnecessary errors or competently managing your day.

A to-do list is helpful to parcel out what you need to get done in small time slots. You can also use the Tasks feature in Outlook in the same way to help you manage. When you have interruptions, which undoubtedly will happen, once you have handled whatever it is, you need to revert right back to your to-do list and continue working on the task. Try not to get distracted or you will end up scrambling to catch up. For larger projects such as transcribing minutes or planning an event or other such things, it is a good idea to block time in your calendar so you can set aside a time to concentrate. Close your door if you have one or put a note on your cubicle space with "Please do not disturb" on it.

During this time of planning you can set up checklists of things you will need to remember to do on the day of the event, or to include in the meeting package, or whatever it is you have to do. This way when you are in the time crunch, you will have done this pre-planning during a calm time and won't miss anything.

What about those times when you have boring jobs that you just wish you could leave, but know they have to be done and then time drags, or you drag your feet and avoid doing them. When you finally get around to doing the task at the last possible minute you hardly have time to do it. Again, I would suggest you put these tasks on your to-do list and schedule time to do them. With something like filing or expense claims, it normally doesn't have to be done right away, so block a time and break it up so you are not doing filing and the claims back to back. Try to do something more interesting in between. Usually these types of jobs have to get done, but are not normally rush jobs and can be done over time. If you plan properly by the time it is due you will have everything well in hand.

There are also times when time clashes and you have one thing that is going very slowly (your computer) and you only have a few minutes to get the job done. When you are planning your to-do list give yourself enough time to get the job done and add some buffer time. For instance, if the meeting materials need to be packaged by Friday afternoon and get out the door, don't wait until that morning to do it or you run the risk that the computer will freeze up, the photocopier will jam or there will be a major snow storm and the courier won't be able to deliver your package on time. Plan to have it done a few days ahead of schedule, then if something happens you know you have a day or so of wiggle room and won't panic. The same goes if you are waiting for something from someone. Don't tell them you need it on the day you actually need it. Ask for it a few days in advance and then if they are late it won't impact on your planning too much and gives you a bit of time to bug them for it.

Time requires good management or it can get away on you. So stay calm and plan your day. It will go much better. Sigh!

Who's the Leader?

2011-02-21T11:11:00.001-05:00

When dealing with meetings a good question to ask yourself is what is your role in it? Are you the leader or are you just providing your boss's availability?

If you are organizing the meeting, then you are responsible to send the initial email out requesting the participants to attend. You will need to give them as much information as possible so they can make an informed decision about attending. If you know their assistant's email address, I always copy them on this initial request. If you don't have their email address, many bosses will copy their assistants when they reply to the initial request and you should keep a note of that and include them in any follow up emails.

The people invited need to know the purpose of the meeting, you should provide three or four dates and times for the meeting, they need to know who is calling the meeting and why their attendance is needed. Once a date is agreed upon, you will need to book the meeting room, confirm the details with the participants, make sure they have the materials they will need and if the meeting is cancelled, you need to make sure you undo all of the above and cancel the room, notify the participants, re-schedule if necessary, etc. You are the leader in this type of meeting.

If your boss is to be a participant in a meeting then your role is less involved, but you need to follow up nonetheless. If you receive an email for a meeting request, but it doesn't have any information about the purpose of the meeting or information about whether it will be a teleconference or provide the location and time, then those would be good questions to go back with. Once you have all the information, you need to bring it to your boss and ask him or her if they need to attend. If they do then you need to provide the meeting organizer with the times your boss is available and if it is out of town and your boss will not be in that city, you can ask if your boss is able to participate by teleconference and what are the call-in numbers? Once the meeting is organized you should make a note and diarize it a few days before the meeting to follow up to make sure the meeting is still on and that you have received all the materials needed (agenda, background materials, etc.).

Sometimes your boss will send you an email request for a meeting that they received in their Inbox and ask you to get back to the meeting organizer with his or her available times. In this case, you know right away they want to attend, all you need to do is provide their availability and get any information you are missing such as the location, time and whether it is in person or by teleconference. If the purpose is vague, I usually go back and ask that as well. If you manage your boss's Inbox then one of your roles when you find emails such as this is to ask them if they want to attend and if they would like you to get back to the meeting organizer with their availability and then take it from there.

In my organization we deal with government and many times we will get a request for a meeting with my boss and ask for his availability. I will first check with him to make sure he needs to be at the meeting and if anyone else from our organization needs to attend with him. Once I have all the information then I can get back to the person requesting the meeting to give available times, request the agenda and meeting materials and give the names of the people from our organization who will be attending. My role then becomes the leader, at least as far as internal participants are concerned. I will be the one who needs to make sure to pass along the meeting materials to them and ensure they have all the details about the meeting and if the meeting is cancelled to make sure to notify everyone. You should also ask your boss if a pre-meeting will be needed as oftentimes if they are meeting with the government they want to make sure they are prepared and have all the information they think they are going to need. You will be the one who will have to organize that meeting.

If you know your role in the meeting then it makes it easier to determine what your next steps need to be. If you are ever unsure -- ask! Never be afraid to ask questions.

Five Psychology Tips for Office Survival

2011-02-13T17:58:00.007-05:00

This is a guest post by Allison Gamble, a content writer representing psychologydegree.net. I thought it was relevant as the workplace is often filled with office politics and misunderstandings that can make your work experience quite miserable. Although, these same scenarios have made for some good fun on shows like The Office, when you are going through a tense work situation it is certainly no laughing matter.

We should also examine ourselves to make sure we are not part of the problem, but rather those who work toward a solution to make our workplace a healthy place for everyone. Sometimes this is easier said than done, but is worth taking a big step back and re-evaluating the problem and looking at how it can be resolved.

Have a read and let me know what you think:

*****

The workplace is a complex environment requiring skill and finesse to excel. Sometimes people feel like they need a pschology degree just to understand and cope with office politics when in fact all they need are a few tips from the psychology field. Psychology is the study of mind and behavior and offers us insight into why people act the way they do. Follow the tips below to improve your chances of success at work.

1. Be Self-Aware:
Whether you like it or not, the way your coworkers perceive you affects the degree to which you are able to manage office politics. Consequently, you should make your best effort to fit in with the organizational culture including dress code, office hours, communication styles and other social norms. Realistically and objectively assess your daily office routine, asking yourself how your coworkers perceive you. Your objective is to make that perception positive by making a good impression on the people around you. If you are not self-aware when it comes to the workplace you may be surprised to find out that others view you differently than you view yourself.

2. Don’t Become Emotional:
In any human relationship, it’s simple to let emotions become unmanageable. Perhaps someone made a remark that rubbed you the wrong way. Maybe their position concerning a specific issue is diametrically opposed to yours. In order to survive the minefield of office politics, it’s crucial that you do not allow yourself to become overly emotional. Approach every situation in a professional demeanor with a business-like attitude and settle old arguments and differences of opinion.

3. Be Nice to Your Superiors:
Research compiled by the Journal of Applied Psychology found after a personal offense in the workplace, victims who blamed others sought revenge more often when the offender's status was lower than their own. Translation? If you offend someone above you in the corporate hierarchy they are more likely to seek revenge.

4. Pay More Attention to Your Coworkers:
Having a perceptive understanding of what motivates your coworkers and managers, and how your behavior has an effect on them, can make it easier for you to climb the corporate ladder. Study what stimulates your coworkers to work. Make an effort to discover what your boss wants from you and your colleagues. Successful employees take notice of the coworkers who help them succeed, and find out the most effective ways to deal with difficult coworkers that make work unpleasant.

5. Look Out for Behavioral Clues:
If one of your coworkers displays signs of passive-aggression do you know how to effectively deal with them in a professional manner? Employees who feel underappreciated or angry often react negatively in ways that can make the workplace unbearable.

Passive aggression is a premeditated and covert way of communicating latent anger. In many places of work and professional settings a passive aggressive employee is able to interfere with everything from project deadlines and department morale to organizational productivity and interpersonal relationships. This is partially exacerbated by individuals spending a majority of their waking hours in an environment where corporate hierarchies hinder direct articulation of feelings. If you encounter such a person in the workplace, your best option is to be on guard for this behavior and respond with assertive communication skills. If you are lucky, these skills might rub off on your coworker, but if not, at least they will be aware of how their comments and actions make others feel.

Ultimately if you pay close attention to your surroundings and utilize these tips and tools derived from psychological observations of human beings in the workplace, you will be one step closer to achieving your professional goals. It is important to remember that everybody has different motivations and respond differently to situations. Luckily, psychology can provide much needed help with office survival.

Guidelines for correspondence

2011-01-30T21:18:00.007-05:00

Recently at an admin meeting I went over these guidelines with our team and wanted to share them with you.

When addressing correspondence you should ensure you have the correct date, name, title and full address. It is worth the check to make sure this information is correct. I have worked in many offices and it has never failed that some very strange spellings of my boss's name have appeared on a letter. Do you think they are going to take those letters seriously? I recall one letter where the year on the letter was 23000. Talk about into the future!
You should have a salutation and closing. I would suggest Dear Ms. Brown and end with Yours sincerely or Yours truly.
If you are addressing dignitaries you should consult a protocol book or website to ensure you address it properly. Here is a site the Canadian government put together, which gives proper addressing protocol for royalty, government dignitaries and other important people - Styles of Address.
If there are attachments to the letter Enclosure(s) should be noted at the bottom of the correspondence. It is acceptable to indicate what the enclosure is, but if you have put that in the letter, it is not necessary to note it again at the bottom. You should also ensure you attach the enclosure before sending the letter. Seems obvious, but keep it in the back of your mind to look for these types of things. I put a yellow sticky on the letter when I bring it to by boss for signature with instructions on what I need to do next, i.e. enclosure attachments, make sure to send to whoever you want to be copied on the letter, scan and save it electronically, or whatever it is you have to do with it.
As a general rule letters should be sent to individuals and not to multiple recipients. An exception would be if they are co-chairs or people of equal title that you are writing on the same topic or issue that you want their joint action or feedback. Otherwise, if you just want them to be aware of the correspondence you would copy them on the letter with a c.c. at the bottom. Alternatively, if you want to include someone on a letter, but do not want the recipient to know you are copying the other person(s), you would use a blind copy (b.c.c) and make sure to only to put it on the copy and not on the original.
If you are sending a letter by email, I prefer an orginal signature be on the letter and then scan it to send by email, but if you have an electronic signature you can insert it on electronic letterhead and then save it as a PDF. You should always make sure you have permission when using someone's electronic signature and never send it in a Word document where someone could easily copy and paste the e-signature.
If you are sending a common notice such as an invitation by email to multiple recipients you should insert the email addresses in the b.c.c. section of the email and put your email address in the To section. It is important to protect the privacy of the people you are sending to. I once sent a personal email to a number of my friends and one person on the email distribution list took all those email addresses and started contacting them for a pyramid sales-type business. You can see how that would not be a good thing to happen to your boss's business contacts.
As technical as we have become, I do not trust email 100% and usually follow up the emailed letter with a hard copy by regular mail. This is not always necessary, but depending on the importance of the letter and how much you want to impress it upon the receiver, delivering it by regular mail is a good way to do that.
You should save electronic letters just as you would hard copy letters --you need to keep a record of them too. I have a folder that I call Correspondence and save letters in that folder by year. That works for me, but you may need to make it more specific. The goal is to be able to retrieve it easily if you need to find it later.

I hope these few tips will help. Most are common sense, or maybe they are common sense to me because I have been doing it for so long, but since we don't know what we don't know, this might be helpful to someone so I thought I would share.

Can you ever ask too many questions?

2011-01-22T18:01:00.007-05:00

My current boss gave me some good advice when I first started working for him and it has served me well. He suggested that when I set up a meeting or organize travel for him I should ask myself, if I was the one going to the meeting, or on a business trip, what would I need in order to be prepared? So I do and when he has a meeting I make sure he has the agenda and any back-up materials, the location and directions if needed, the name and title of the person he is meeting, especially if he doesn't know them well, and the purpose of the meeting. Most of this information you can get in your initial phone call or email correspondence with the other party when you are organizing it. If they are not sure then they can ask their boss so both of them will be prepared to meet each other. If my boss is travelling abroad I check to see if a visa is required and make a note to remind him to bring his passport with him. I also register him with the Canadian Embassy in the country he is travelling. If they travel a lot you never know when they will be in a country that it will important for the embassy to know where they are to bring them home safely. If you look in the side bar of the blog under Travel, you will see links for useful sites to do this and get other information.

Recently I was involved in an interview for an assistant role in our office and the executive who was interviewing with me mentioned that when she is giving a presentation, she also appreciates that her assistant ask herself what would she need if she was giving the presentation. Does she need time to prepare the presentation ahead of time? If so, do you have a reminder set and blocked off time for her to do so? Does the presentation have to be put on a memory stick? Do you need to organize for a laptop, projector and screen or will there be one available when she gets there? Do you need to make copies of the presentation for the participants? What time will she be presenting and when would they like her to arrive. Most places like them to be there at least 30 minutes before they present, so make sure to block that time off in the calendar as well as travel time to get there and back. Who will the audience consist of? And of course what is the location and the directions to get there? There is more to it than just putting the date in the calendar.

If something raises a question with you then make sure you get the answer. If you have set up a meeting and wonder how your boss will get there, then that is a good question to bring up with them. Are they driving or will they need a reservation for a flight or train? Will they need a hotel room? It will not only show them that you are thinking ahead, but that you have their best interests in mind. If the meeting is around lunch time and you wonder if something should be ordered in or will they take the client out for lunch and you need to make a reservation then those are good questions to ask.

Often I have looked in my boss's Sent messages and notice he has emailed someone that he would be happy to speak at their conference, but when I look in his calendar I see he is scheduled to present at another conference in a different city on the same date. This is a good thing to bring up with him or her. They will certainly thank you and it will show you are looking after them. You might also have to follow up to make sure they have emailed the other party to advise them they are no longer available.

It is always good to think ahead for your boss. You have control of their schedules and are in the best position to make these observations and bring it to their attention.

If something prompts a question - ask! If you read an email or something in their calendar doesn't seem clear - ask! If you are wondering if they might need something for the meeting - ask!

You can never ask too many questions!

Taking Effective Meeting Minutes Webinar

2011-01-04T19:25:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone,
Once again I will be presenting on Taking Effective Meeting Minutes. The webinar is scheduled for January 25, 2011 at 1 p.m. ET. It is an informative session that will bring you from the pre-meeting checklist to taking the minutes, with ideas for formatting and suggested wording.

Please click on the link for more information or to register: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/glp/35355/index.html?campaigncode=286EPR

I look forward to meeting you live on the webinar.

Patricia
P.S. Here is a previous article I wrote on minute taking that will give you a flavour of some of the things the webinar will include: Minute Taking Made Easy

Looking Forward in 2011

2011-01-01T14:57:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

The new year is a good time to bring up the Look-Forward Agenda. One of the challenges the recording secretary will have is to make sure they don't miss items that need to be dealt with at each meeting. The Look-Forward Agenda is very helpful for this. It is basically a list of items that are regularly dealt with throughout the year and provides a timetable of when these items need to be added to the agenda. For example, our senior leadership team review financial statements each month at the first meeting after the 10th business day, and each year they need to set the annual budget in February to bring to our Board of Directors. As well as business items, I put things such as the All-Staff Appreciation Breakfast and the Christmas Party. These items are put on the agenda to make the decision on what date we will have it and who will arrange it. Small items, but still things we need to remember to look at.  Depending on what level of meeting you attend will depend on what needs to be on the Look-Forward Agenda.

The example below is for items for a Board of Directors' meeting, but you can customize it to your particular needs and the level of meeting you are responsible for. We operate on a fiscal year so I put my timetable by quarter (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4), but you can also set it by month if you use the calendar year:

Item                                                                                      Timetable

Financial Matters
• Approve quarterly financial statements
• Approve year-end audited financial statements
• Approve banking and signing resolutions (as required)

Appointment of Directors and Officers
• Appoint members to Board of Directors
• Appoint Chair of the Board
• Appoint Committee Members
• Appoint officers of the company (as required)

General
• Receive and review Chair's Report
• Receive and review CEO's Report
• Review reports on corporate performance measurements
• Review and approve amendments to by-laws or letters patent (as required)
• Approve corporate policies, code of business conduct, etc. (as required)
• Receive report of Corporate Secretary on disclosure by officers and Directors of conflicts of interest
• Meet in camera with and without the CEO at each Board of Directors meeting
• Approve appointment of auditors and their fees
• Receive and approve reports of Chairs of Committees
• Participation in Chair and CEO Review Process (as required)

Each time you set the draft agenda you should review the Look-Forward Agenda before bringing it to the Chair. It is a useful tool and the Chair and your team will be very appreciative that you have captured these items and have taken the guess work out of what needs to be on the agenda.

Does it matter if we go to the office party?

2010-12-05T10:04:00.004-05:00

I used to think it didn't matter if we went to the office party and rarely would go. I'm single and I don't like going to parties alone, especially the office party? At our local IAAP chapter dinner we heard a speaker from an etiquette protocol company Savoir-Faire and she suggested that it was very important to go to the office party because it was more about protocol and networking and how you are viewed as a team player than socializing. And by golly, I think she is right!

Going to the office party is a good way to connect with your boss and other work colleagues and because your boss has to go (it's their party after all), they do notice who is not there. She also suggested being prepared when you go to the party. Have an agenda of things you would like to speak about and people you want to talk to. And by all means try to make a good impression. It is not the time to over indulge in alcohol and dance on the table.

Another misconception I think is about bringing your spouse or partner to the office party. My idea was always how boring it would be for a spouse to go to a party where they don't know anyone, but if they go with networking on their mind then it becomes a whole different scenario. If your spouse is unemployed it becomes even more important for them to go and bring business cards. I wouldn't suggest being aggressive about it, but since it is a work party, inevitably talk about work will come up. You might be embarassed because you know someone will ask your spouse where they work, but even this can be used as an opportunity and they could say something like, "I have just finished an assignment and am looking for another opportunity." They can then give a mini resume and be sure to pass along a personal business card. Now all of a sudden the office party has become a little bit more interesting.

This year again my first instinct was to say no I am not going, but I think I will change my mind on that and go. How about you?

For more food for thought, read this article on why etiquette is important.

Planning the Perfect Holiday Party: Guest Blog

2010-11-14T08:51:00.000-05:00

The holiday season is one of the most exciting times of year in the office. The big holiday party gives coworkers a chance to see another side of their office mates, it's a great bonding experience, and you get to meet everyone's significant other.

But someone's got to plan the extravaganza, right? If the responsibility falls on you this year, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed. Here are a few tips on how to plan the perfect holiday party to ensure everything runs smoothly, the budget is met, and everyone has a great time.

Stick To Your Budget

The budget is your starting point, and you shouldn't do anything else before you have a definitive number. Once you've got your final figure, you can start to plan. Organize the party into categories, such as food, drinks, entertainment, giveaways, delivery, and venue rental. Allot an amount for each one, then start making calls to different companies to get estimates. You will have to do some revision after obtaining the quotes, but make sure the total cost is under your given budget.

If you're throwing your office party at a restaurant, bar, or other facility that provides alcohol, you can normally work out a set open-bar price. Some venues allow open bar for a set period of time, such as the first two hours, or only on well drinks. While you're negotiating the per-person fee, consider the average salary of the office employees. Ask yourself if the fee is reasonable - you don't want half of the office to skip the party because they can't afford it.

Use Trusted, Recommended Providers

The success of the party depends on all of the individual parts coming together. If the band doesn't show up, the party will be boring. If the food is bad, everyone will complain. Now is not the best time to use new or unheard of vendors. Utilize suppliers that your company has used before, or has been recommended to you by a trusted coworker or management. Call them a few days ahead of time to make sure you're on their books, and again on the day of.

Overestimate the Number of Attendees

Though you asked everyone to RSVP two weeks in advance, some of your coworkers are more indecisive than others and have given you wishy-washy answers. Others will have RSVP'd themselves, but are unsure if they'll be bringing a guest. Always overestimate. You don't want 10 more people to show up than you had prepared for, only to have guests without food. The leftovers can always be divided up at the end of the night or brought into the office for lunch.

Dealing With Mishaps

It would be great if you could arrange all of the details beforehand and be able to let your hair loose on the day of the party. It's possible everything will go smoothly, but make sure you have a backup plan. Ensure you have a few taxis waiting outside to take those home who have overindulged in the open bar. Don't sit two feuding coworkers at the same table. You know the underlying mechanisms of your office the best, so make sure to plan accordingly.

J. Stephenson is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online degrees at Guide to Online Schools.

Acting the part...

2010-11-06T16:30:00.002-04:00

We can't know everything, but our boss's certainly don't need to know that. It's a bit of an act isn't it? Inside you may not have a clue what the answer is, but usually there is someone who does so I always base my answer on that. I act calm when presented with the problem and ask my boss to leave it with me to come back with a solution and give a short timeframe that I will get back to him. It calms him down that someone is looking into it and gives me time to go searching for the answer. There are so many places to look and people to ask. This is where a large network of assistants is helpful, and then of course there is Google.

When I started my new job, I had never taken minutes before so I did my homework, talked to my friend who was an expert minute taker, took a course, read everything I could get my hands on and when the big day came to take minutes at a Board of Directors meeting, I acted as if I knew what I was doing and played the part of being the most confident professional person at the table. Inside I didn’t have a clue, but they didn’t know that. After all what was I going to do other than go forward and do the job at hand? I didn't have much choice except to sink or swim and I dog paddled with all my might and stayed afloat and got better at it and recently was able to give a webinar on Taking Effective Meeting Minutes.

I had made up my mind that I wanted to try professional speaking, but had never tried it before. Shortly after I made that decision, I was asked to speak to an admin group of about 50 people. When I arrived I acted as if I had been a professional speaker for years. It was my first time, but they didn’t know that.

If my boss has some important person waiting to speak to him. Someone from the media or a high-ranking official. I act as if I am very comfortable in their presence and welcome them to our office and act very professionally. Inside I think, Didn’t I just see this person on TV? But they don’t know my thoughts.

When you go on an interview that is a great time to act the part. You should be well prepared before you go into the interview and then you can concentrate on answering the questions, asking your own questions and wowing them with your professionalism.

Acting is not the only secret, we also need to dress the part. If you want to be treated as a professional, act and dress like one. I guess Shakespeare was right when he said the whole world is a stage. I will bring it down just a few levels and say the office is also a stage. How are your acting skills?

Break a leg...

Envelope please...

2010-10-29T22:49:00.002-04:00

One of my assistant's responsibilities is logging correspondence, preparing address labels for envelopes and completing the mail out. The one complaint she has is that since she doesn't have a printer at her desk, if she only has a few labels to print (not enough for a full page of labels), then she has to get up and go to the photocopier to print each envelope. It is inconvenient to say the least. You can imagine how happy she was when I received the DYMO Label Writer 450 Twin Turbo label maker and brought it to her desk and said she could have it, but the one string attached was that she had to do a product review so I could share it with my readers on my blog (that was the requirement I had in order to keep it at no charge). She eagerly took it and here is what she had to say about it:

*******
What she thinks:
The DYMO Label Writer 450 Twin Turbo is user friendly, very easy to use, straightforward and there is no assembly required. The program installation took only five minutes. Since this label maker actually hooks up to the computer, once installed I recommend placing the program on your desktop for easy access.

When you open the program, the “Home Screen" comes up and you have three tabs to choose from

Labels - this is where you choose your label type
Label Design - you have options on how you want your label to look
Address - this gives you the capability to store your contacts

The Home Screen provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to print the labels and once you press print, it takes only two seconds for it to print. Another bonus is you don't have to deal with ink cartridges or toner as it is a direct thermal printer.

Bottom line:
I highly recommend the LabelWriter because it is easy to use, small enough to be placed on your desk, doesn't take much room and saves me the extra steps of walking to the printer.

*******
So now my assistant has a very nice label maker conveniently located at her desk, it's hooked up to her computer so she can just cut and paste the addresses or take them right out of contacts and I don't have to feel guilty when I send those emails that say "Envelope please..." because now I know she is not having to get up and go to the printer each time. I would say that is a win-win for both of us.

Patricia

Turning Soft Skills Into Tangible and Recognizable Skills That You Can and Should Bring to the Office

2010-10-27T22:33:00.007-04:00

Recently I was at a professional dinner and mentioned I had spoken about soft skills on a webinar I participated in. I was met with blank stares. I said, "You don't know what I'm talking about do you?" They were relieved I had asked, because they had never heard of soft skills and up until a year ago, neither had I. We don't know about them, so we don't realize how valuable and important they are to our employer. The secret is awareness. I am pleased that the organizers have made the audio of the webinar available and I wanted to share it with you.

Click webinar and press Playback to start.

There are some other speakers as well presenting on our overall business persona, including tips from a fashion consultant on the importance of what we wear to the office and getting the most for your dollar when you go shopping. The webinar is offered free as it is a promotion piece they did before the main conference, which is in beautiful Australia in December that I unfortunately will not be attending.

If the above link doesn't work, please go to the event website: http://www.eapa.com.au/Event.aspx?id=381214 and you will be able to get it from there and also find out more about the conference. They are trying to track who is visiting their site so if you go through the website, they will ask you to fill in a brief description of who you are and where you are visiting from and then it will bring you to the webinar.

Enjoy!

Full moon rising...

2010-10-24T21:20:00.005-04:00

Sometimes I go to the office and it seems like everyone is cranky and I wish I had just stayed home that day? Has that ever happened to you? I am not sure what it is, but it just feels like everything is off and if something is going to happen, it will certainly happen that day. Do you ever wonder why? Well, here is one theory. The full moon...

Full Moon – October 23
Full Moon – November 21
Full Moon – December 21

But just a minute, the only full moon that recently occurred was yesterday and that was a Saturday and I had a wonderful day with my grandson. I note that November's full moon is on a Sunday.  It seems the only full moon that will fall on a work day is Tuesday, December 21 and by that time I will have forgotten all about the moon phases. So much for that theory because I've certainly had a few cranky days recently that I would have loved to blame on the moon.   I mean it can't be me can it?

Even though it might be nice to be able to blame it on something other than ourselves, it is more likely a miscommunication, someone may be stressed and is having a hard day or they didn't sleep well. I heard something interesting the other day that made sense and explains some of the dynamics that can happen when different personality types work together. Is your personality a type A, B or C?  I found it interesting reading about the different personalities because knowing how a person thinks or views things can help you understand their reactions. Sometimes I find a situation easy to handle, but someone else might find it stressful or emotional. It doesn't mean I am right and they are wrong, but understanding each other certainly will help us in our working relationships.

The different generations also come into play in an office and it is good to know how the younger (or older) generation views things so we can better understand the way our co-workers think or why they make the decisions they do.

Of course there are other things that also come into play such as sex, ethnic background, religion, how we were raised, our current mental state and many other things. Our co-workers are usually not out to get us or make our day miserable, although it may seem so at times.

Understanding each other is key to good working relationships. Work retreats can be a great way to learn about each other.  It may seem awkward at first, but if you have the right facilitator it can be a wonderful tool for managers and staff.

Yep, I think it is about time for a good staff retreat...

Is Proofreading a Lost Art?

2010-10-16T14:51:00.002-04:00

People don't seem to be as concerned with proofreading as we used to be. I think with texting it has brought a low expectation for accuracy as lots of mistakes are made in emails and texts and are accepted overall.

When I was in school the teachers drilled proofing skills into us as they taught us the goal was to create the best product we could and proofing was part of the process to do that.

Does it matter?

I think businesses are very aware of their corporate image and messy reporting reflects badly on the company so an employee who doesn't take the time may be noticed in a negative way.

If an admin assistant is preparing a document for their boss, they should ensure it is as complete and accurate as possible before even passing it by their desk. Some things we won't know, but what we do know we should ensure is correct.

Some tips for proofreading that I find work best are:

1. Spell check - This is the easiest part of proofing a document. As you are going through the Spell check pay attention to the suggestions and either Add to Dictionary, if it is an odd name or word that is coming up as a spelling error, press Change if it is an error, or Ignore or Ignore all if it is something you want the speller to skip over.

2. Eyeball the document - This is very important and will help you identify errors that Spell check wouldn't pick up just by doing a quick review of it. For instance if you are adding names and addresses and notice the name is spelled one way and the name in the email address is spelled another, it will be a flag for you that you have to go back and verify the information because something is wrong. When you read the document you will also get the sense of the sentence so will know if there is an extra 'the' or 'a' that shouldn't be there.

3. Final check the document - If you have an opportunity to check your work with someone else, that is ideal. You may not have that resource however, but if you do take advantage of it. When checking lists I like to use tick marks. If I am reviewing the list with someone I then cross the tick mark through once verified to show it is doubly checked. If I am manually reviewing a document, I underline or cross out the change and then put an X in the right margin so I can see where my change is. If you use track changes in an electronic document, this does the same thing, although at times I find small errors are not identified as clearly as I would like and can be missed.

Proofing also helps you to know your document. Going over it a few times makes you very familiar with the content. I find this especially helpful with minutes. I not only proof, but I really get to know the content so if I am asked at a meeting something about an action, I know exactly where to look or may have the answer from memory, rather than looking at them with a blank stare or fumble to find my place. I find the same with lists, by reviewing the list I will know just about everyone that is on that list so can easily answer any questions about it.

I think the goal should really be the same as my teachers taught me -- to have the most professional and accurate looking document that we can. After the document is proofed, then we can bring it to our boss. They may make more changes, but at least you know you have done everything you can to make it as accurate as possible. This will also give your boss confidence when you bring a clean document to them that they can depend on you to do the best job possible.

Proofing is as important now as it has ever been. Take the time to do it as it will not only reflect well on you, but on our profession as well.

Everyday Office Heroes Contest

2010-10-09T21:27:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

Contests are always fun and this one sounds like it could be interesting. I'm sure we all have some office stories to tell and if you can win some money too, well that makes it even more interesting. So put your thinking caps on and check it out at this website: http://www.accoheroes.com/

If you are like me, you need to read some of the other stories just to get your creative juices flowing and there are some posted on the site just for that purpose.

Patricia

Calendar Clarity

2010-10-02T21:24:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I find meeting requests are not as clear as they could be. I like to see at a glance who will be at the meeting, what the purpose is and where the meeting will be held without having to open it. For instance:

Subject: Patricia, Adele and Rita meeting to discuss Christmas Party
Location: Large Boardroom, 5th Floor

If it is a lunch meeting I enter the restaurant name, street address and whether a reservation was made.

Subject: Linda lunch meeting with Bob
Location: Red Lobster, 99 Bank Street RESERVATION IN NAME OF LINDA

When it is a regular meeting or large gathering, it will make more sense to put in the name of the meeting such as Health & Safety Committee rather than listing all the names of the attendees.

You can add the agenda to the meeting request by attaching it. To add an attachment, click on the Insert tab and choose Attach File or Attach Item. When you send it to the attendees they will have all the information they need for the meeting.

My current boss travels a lot so I put his travel schedule in the calendar as well. I categorize it in a different colour so it stands out from the rest of his meetings. For example if he is travelling to Vienna I will start a meeting request for each part of the journey and categorize it as Red.

Ottawa to Toronto OPEN FOR FLIGHT DETAILS

In the meeting request, I choose the time the flight departs and the time it lands and cut and paste the referred to portion of the electronic ticket into the body of the calendar appointment. For example:

AC Flt. 211 Oct. 12, 2010 Depart Ottawa at 11 a.m., arrive Toronto at 11:45 a.m.
Seat 2C, aisle

For the next part of the trip I do the same thing and cut and paste that part of the itinerary into the body of the calendar appointment. If he is staying overnight, on the last leg of the trip I enter the name and address of the hotel he is staying at and the confirmation number.

Toronto to Vienna OPEN FOR FLIGHT AND HOTEL DETAILS

AC Flt. 1234 Oct. 24, 2010 Depart Toronto at 6 p.m., arrive Vienna Oct. 25 at 11 a.m.
Seat 2A, Window

Hotel Name, 112 Any Street, Vienna, Austria - Confirmation #12345

You can put a lot of things in a meeting request. You can drag and drop an email, add a contact card, include links to company websites, add directions, include a photo and brief bio of the person your boss will be meeting (which is useful if they have never met), you can attach documents they need for the meeting or you can draft a quick agenda to remind your boss what they wanted to talk to the person about. Again, if there is anything in the body of the meeting request, always put OPEN FOR DETAILS or he or she will never know there is anything there for them to see.

I find the all-day meeting requests a little bit useless for meetings. Undoubtedly if the meeting is put as an all-day meeting and someone is looking in your calendar to see if you are busy, they will probably not notice the all-day meeting that is at the top of the calendar. If a meeting is from 9 to 5 for instance, I block that whole time in their calendar. Then it is obvious they are out for the day. If you have a meeting that is recurring for two or three days and you want to show they are gone the whole day, you can still use the recurring option. To do this, block your time, then choose Recurrence and under Recurrence Pattern, choose Daily, click on Every 1 day and then choose the end date. It will now block the calendar from 9 to 5 (or whatever time you chose) for the 3 days.

I like to use the all-day meeting option for reminders and I categorize them in different colours so they stand out. For instance I will put a reminder to call a client and put the name and phone number in the Subject line. The only problem with using the all-day meeting option for reminders is that now if someone looks at the scheduling option in Outlook, it will seem as if the calendar is busy. I don't find many people use that option so it is not an issue, but if your office does, you will need to find some other way to remind your boss such as using Tasks.

I also like to turn on the stat holiday alerts in Outlook so you will see all the stat holidays in a calendar year. To add holidays, go under Tools, Options, choose Calendar Options and in the middle you will see Add Holidays. Choose the country you want and click OK. Stat holidays will now be added as all-day items.

I love getting free things, don't you?

2010-09-27T23:36:00.009-04:00

I especially like it when the item is useful. I was asked to try out the Dymo 260P Label Maker and by doing so I got to keep it. I immediately brought it to the office to put it to good use.

There are so many uses for it and I especially like the fact that it is a hand-held device and very easy to use. Even I didn’t have any problems making a label and that was before I read the instructions.

The Dymo machine has certainly come a long way. I remember back in the old days using the punch type Dymo. It was in demand even back then. I recall one of the secretaries in our department created a sign-up sheet to use it, but also to ensure we got it back. We all needed something we wanted to label.

Now it is even easier to use with professional looking labels for use on your files, organizing the supply cabinet or in a publication room to put labels so you can easily find what you are looking for. Another thing I found useful is to put a label on the wires that come out of my computer that I can never remember which one is for what. It makes it easier when you need to unplug one of them to know what you are unplugging.

I also like the fact that you don’t have to waste a whole sheet of labels when you just want one and because they are water resistant, the ink won’t smudge.

I would definitely recommend the Dymo 260P Label Maker for any office and the fact that I get to keep this one -- bonus!

What's all the fuss about reading contracts?

2010-09-17T20:58:00.005-04:00

I arrange quite a few events and have realized the importance of reading and reviewing the contracts carefully and highlighting key dates. I also worked in a law firm in the corporate law section so am always mindful of the fine print. Here are some things I would recommend you go over in a contract with a venue:

Is the date right?
I had an event for November 7th and the contract was signed, sealed and delivered, but then I noticed the hotel had put the wrong date on the contract. They had booked the space for November 8th. In all my correspondence with them I had requested the 7th, but somebody entered it wrong. I called them and thankfully they had space available on the date I needed and we were able to amend the contract, but imagine if I hadn't noticed and we showed up on the 7th?

Hold the space please?
When I receive a contract I highlight the date the hotel needs the contract back signed and put a reminder to make sure I send it back in time. If you don't, the hotel can release the space and if it is a busy time in that city for events, the space could be taken up very quickly and you will be left without a room to hold your event.

What are the dates you can cancel by?
Contracts will have dates you can cancel by. When you receive the contract, highlight that date and put it in your Tasks with a reminder for a week before. At that time you can assess if the event is still going ahead or if you need to cancel. If you miss the cancellation date you will be into some big dollars for cancelling. Hotels usually have a scale they go by such as 40% if you cancel by a certain date, 60% if you cancel by another date and then 100% on the final date. Pay attention or it could cost your company money.

One time we had to cancel at the last minute, but we were a few days past the cancellation date. It was going to cost our company $5,000 plus in cancellation fees. I knew we were going to go back to that city the next year so negotiated with the hotel that if I booked the next event at their venue would they waive the cancellation fee. Fortunately, they were able to waive it and we only lost our $500 deposit. It is always worth asking.

Negotiation
As you saw above, negotiation is possible. You may not get exactly what you want, but it's worth trying. For instance, if you need rooms for your guests, a boardroom and break-out rooms, breakfast and lunch ordered and perhaps ballroom space for a reception/dinner, if they are charging $200 a night for the rooms and charging you for the boardroom and ball room, why not ask if you can have the rooms for $150 and because you are ordering a meal and the food and beverage costs will be high, ask for the boardroom and ballroom space for free or at a reduced price. They want your business and will normally come back with something much better than they initially offered.

It is also good to get rates from other hotels. At my last event I mentioned that the hotel across the street was willing to give me such and such a rate and that really helped in my negotiations.

What are the contract requirements and have you met them?
Take care in what you tell the hotel you need. If you are not sure of the number of people who will be booking, then give them a rough estimate. You can always increase it later, but you might have difficulty if you want to decrease it. Again, check the dates on the contract when you can decrease the number of rooms by. There will be a date you need to give the final rooming list. Highlight that date as well and put it in your Tasks with a reminder to get back to them with final numbers.

Food, food and more food
If your event requires food the venue will send you a banqet event form and you will need to estimate the amount of food you need. It has been my experience that if you are having 20 guests you can probably get away with ordering quantities for 15 and still have left overs. My last Board meeting I ordered lunch for 10, but I had 15 Board members in attendance. Normally some of them leave early so I thought I was pretty safe. As lunchtime came I noticed that nobody was leaving and I started to think I was going to have to give up my lunch so everyone could eat. Finally lunch arrived and we had enough food to feed all of us plus I could have packed a few sandwiches for my flight home. What a relief -- that was the best lunch I ever had.

I also had a reception to organize and I am never sure how many appetizers to order for everyone and normally go by what the hotel staff tell me I need, but I noticed there is always so much food left over that I tried something different this time. I was working with the hotel event person and asked him how many appetizers I should order per person. He suggested four so I went with three for everyone and for some appetizers only two and it was more than enough.

This is something you really need to experiment with and you will gain more confidence to order less and know there will be enough food.

Sit down dinners
Of course if it is a sit down dinner you have to order for the number of guests you have. That is another thing you will have to note on the contract and give them the number of guests. They will have a scale for that as well and after a certain time you will only be able to decrease your numbers by a certain percentage. I tend to estimate I will have less guests and then if I have more I just add them when I have final numbers.

When the invoice arrives...
Once the invoice arrives you should check to make sure everything is accurate. At my last event I went over the bill and was able to get it reduced by $1,000, so it is well worth doing it. When I reviewed the invoice I noticed there was a guest on our bill who wasn't in our party so that amount got taken off. Then they charged us for 25 for lunch on one of the days, but I had only ordered for 20. There were charges for audio visual equipment that we never ordered. I didn't go over the bill with a fine tooth comb either, these things were easily picked out and were evident, so give the invoice a read over. It could save your company some money.

Important relationship building
In all these cases I had much better results because I had established a relationship with the venue contact. There is value in getting to know people, even if it is just over email or the phone. Once they start to have a relationship with you they are much more open to trying to help you. I usually contact the hotel directly, although I sometimes go through a travel agent to find out intial names of hotels in the city that are close to my event, but after the booking I always take over the discussions. I keep a list of the contacts I make at various venues. You just never know when you will be in their city again and just might need to book a room for yourself. If they can't help you, they may be able to recommend another hotel nearby.

Pass it on...

2010-08-13T13:58:00.228-04:00

I wrote an article called We Don't Know What We Don't Know. The reason I wrote it was because I know that every assistant knows something that their colleagues don't, but if they did it would be helpful in their jobs. So why don't we share and better yet, how can we share? I think the first reason is what I put in my original article. We don't know what we don't know. I might be doing something that works really great, but just assume others know about it so don't say anything to anyone.

I mentioned this to our team of admins at one of our meetings so when one of my co-workers found out how to do something they thought to share it with the team. I had no idea this could be done, but I was thrilled when I got her email, but it just proved to me once again that we are all holding on to things we take for granted that others know about.

The tip she sent me was how to edit an email that you have received. This is useful if you want to file the email and change the Subject line to something that better describes what the email is about or to put notes in the email. For instance I recently received an email and wanted to remember to speak to my boss about it so I flagged it, set a reminder and changed the Subject line to "Add to one on one with boss." It was a good way to remember why I had flagged the email in the first place and what I wanted to do with it. What I had previously been doing is forwarding the email back to myself so I could change the subject line or remove some text that I didn't need. The tip my co-worker sent is much better, but if she hadn't shared, I would still be doing it the old way.

How to edit an email message (Microsoft Office 2007):
Open the email message from your Inbox and click on Other Actions and you will see the option Edit Message. Click on that and you will notice you can now go in the email and change the Subject line or add or substract text in the body of the email. I put any changes I make in CAPS (or different coloured font) so I can easily see what changes or points I made. Close out of the email and you will be asked to Save the changes. Click OK and voila! the email now has your changes added to it.

Something I use regularly is Tasks in Outlook. I thought everybody used it, but I started talking about it with some assistant friends of mine and I was met with some blank looks. I think Tasks is one of Outlook's best-kept secrets, but it shouldn't be and is a great way to follow up on items. If I send an email to a co-worker requesting information, I immediately drag it from my Sent items to my Tasks, set a reminder to follow up and write in the Subject line "Did I get this information". (Note: The original email will remain in your Sent items and a copy will open up in your Tasks notes page). I also drag items from my Inbox if someone sends me an email to advise they will be sending an agenda or some other item by a certain date. I drag it to my Tasks and set a reminder so I can follow up whether the item was received.

Using Tasks
When in Tasks, click on New and you can enter a task and set a reminder, or you can drag and drop an email into Tasks and the text of the email will automatically open in the body of the Task.

If you want the actual email to be in your Tasks follow the instructions above and once your Task is opened, click on Insert and choose Attach Item, you will then be brought to a Look In screen and you can go to whichever folder it is in and click on the item you want and it will be inserted in the Task as a usable email. You can also attach a file from Word, Excel or PowerPoint or a business card from your Contacts if it is someone you need to remember to call and want that information available.

You can also set a Task by right clicking on an email and choose Move to Folder. You can then move it into your Tasks. A word of caution, if you use this method it actually takes the item right out of your Sent items (or whichever folder you got it from). I don't like to take items out of my Sent items because I rely on looking in my Sent to verify that I actually sent the email.

When the Task is due it will pop up in a Reminders box so you can see which items you set for that day. The Reminders box is the same box where your calendar items pop up when they are due, so should be familiar to everyone.

So how can we know what we don't know?
A good way to find out something new is to look on different website forums. I have learnt a lot just by checking out what others are asking. Other ways you can learn new things is to:

Subscribe to feeds from various admin or business sites.
Encourage sharing tips and tricks among the admins in your office.
Share any special training you have received with others in the office or online.

I share what I know by blogging, but whatever forum you use, communication is key. If we don't talk about it, we will never know.

Let your fingers do the walking: Quick keyboard shortcut keys

2010-08-10T19:55:00.016-04:00

I am on vacation and on my home computer I do not have a mouse so rely on keyboard shortcut keys, which reminded me again how helpful they are and how they are a big timesaver rather than reaching for the mouse all the time. Better for you ergonomically as well.

I must admit that it helps that I learnt to use a computer on the old DOS system and shortcut keys were the only option, but even those who normally use a mouse can transition over quite easily. Once you see the benefits and get into the habit, I am sure you will not look back.

Most of them are fairly easy to remember because the letter relates to what you want the program to do. For instance pressing the Ctrl key plus the s saves your work. I have gotten in the habit of doing this frequently during the day and hardly even think about it until the system shuts down for some reason and then I breathe a sigh of relief when I open the document (by pressing Ctrl + o by the way) and find that I have not lost any of my work. Here are some more that are really easy to remember:

Ctrl + b - Turns on bold
Ctrl + i - Turns on italics
Ctrl + f - Opens the Find dialogue box
Ctrl + g - Opens the Go-to dialogue box, type the page number, press Enter and you will go directly to it
Ctrl + u - Turns on the underline feature

Are you starting to see how easy it is? Here are some more:

Ctrl + p - Opens the Print dialogue box
Ctrl + n - Opens a new blank page
Ctrl + F4 - Closes a document
Alt + F4 - Closes the program
Windows Key + L - A quick way to lock your computer
Ctrl + c - To copy text
Ctrl + x - To cut text
Ctrl + v - To paste text
Ctrl + Shift + < - Decrease the font size (My old math teacher told us a way to remember this is the < symbol looks like an L - as in 'Less than')
Ctrl + Shift + > - Increase the font size

If you hover over the options in the tool bar, if it has a shortcut key you will see it, so experiment and see if some of them appeal to you and will be easy for you to remember.

If you have multiple programs open you can press Alt + tab and you can either arrow over to where you want to go or just keep pressing Alt + tab until you get to where you want to be.

Ctrl + Home moves the cursor to the beginning of the open file or document and Ctrl + End moves the cursor to the end of the open file or document, but if you are in the middle of a document and want to select everything from there down, press Ctrl + Shift + End or if you want to select everything from there up, press Ctrl + Shift + Home. Ctrl + a - Selects the whole document.

You can change the spacing by selecting the paragraph or page and press Ctrl + 1 for single space, Ctrl + 2 for double space and Ctrl + 5 for space and a half.

To change the case, select the text and press Shift + F3. Keep pressing it and it will toggle through upper, lower or initial caps.

To select text, press Shift and the arrow key left, right or up or down depending on how much text you want to select.

Ctrl + Z - Undoes the last thing you did
Ctrl + Y - Undoes the last undo (or redoes)
Windows key + m - Minimizes everything and brings you to the desktop (Windows key + d does the same thing)
Windows key + Shift + m - Brings everything back up (If you used the Windows key + d to minimize, press it again and it brings everything back up)

Type the ones you think you will use on a piece of paper and have it available so you can refer to it until you get used to it. They say when you do something for 30 days it becomes a habit, so try some of these and make it a new habit that will save you a lot of time. Of course these are only a portion of the shortcut keys that are out there, but unless they are easy you won't remember them.

These work in Word, PowerPoint, and (Excel and Outlook with some exceptions). I even used them when I posted this blog so most of them are pretty universal in many programs.

Oh where or where is my password?

2010-08-01T12:34:00.008-04:00

I logged onto my computer last week and put in my network password, then to open my Outlook account I had to put another password in for that. I had to open a different software program and needed yet another password for that. I then went to check my voicemail and had to enter a password there too. There are just too many passwords to remember, and that doesn't include my boss's passwords that I also need to know because I have to check his emails as well as my own.

Along with our multiple work passwords, we have a password for our home computer, and if we sign up for Facebook, Twitter or any other website, we have another password to remember. We have a password for the automated bank machine and if you bank online you have another one for that.  Even if you phone the bank they need your secret passcode or they won't speak to you about your account. Sometimes I say to them, "Just give me a hint, how many digits are there in the password, then I will know which one I used?" But they refuse to help me out. I mean if it was really me I should know what my password is, but wait a minute, I am me and I still don't know.

Of course the simple solution would be to have the same password for every aspect of your life, but nope that doesn’t work. One program requires a mix of alpha and numeric and only six digits, while another one requires upper and lower case, but only uses four digits.  And then there are the sites that assign you a password that I would never remember in a million years, but thankfully they normally give you a chance to change it once your email address has been verified. And do we really have to change our work passwords every 60 days, and why can’t I use the same password I used a year ago? I kinda liked that one, but nope I can’t reuse the old password.

I realize the change in passwords is for security reasons, but I find it is just too hard to remember all of them so most of us just keep adding a number to our existing password, or like some people I know they put their password on a yellow sticky and stick it on their computer, which defeats the whole purpose of the secure password. Thank goodness I get three tries to pick the right one before the system locks me out. The first time it doesn't work, I assume I entered it wrong so try again. When that doesn't work I remember, oh yeah I changed my password yesterday, but what did I change it to?  I usually get it right on the third try, but I have been locked out on a few occasions.

On some sites there is an option to "Remember my password," which is helpful until your system crashes and you lose everything and then how are you ever going to remember what the password was in the first place since you haven't had to enter it in a year? I thought I was being smart and saved all my passwords in a sub-folder in Outlook, but alas that too was gone in the crash. Of course even if the system hadn't crashed, I would have needed to know my server and Outlook password so I could get into my sub-folder with all my passwords?

And let's not stop with passwords, what about log-in names? Some sites use your email address as the log in, while others require you to create your own. I can never remember if I used my email address, my first and last name or was assigned a log-in name.

I know we are probably stuck with the current system of trying to remember log-in names and passwords, but thankfully at work if you do forget your password the administrator can re-set it, and then you have the option of changing it again. Although the new password can't be anything you have used in the last six months. Ugh! Back to the drawing board.

Guest Blog by Alexis Bonari: 10 Easy Ways to Check and Maximize Time Management

2010-07-16T21:05:00.003-04:00

Photo from Flickr: Public Domain

It’s not always about giving the boss her money’s worth – sometimes, it just feels great to know that work time is being managed well. Good time management skills can help reduce confusion, stress, and even workload levels, so there are many benefits to making sure that time is well spent.

1. Check: How much time is spent on e-mail?

Manage: Try scheduling e-mail checks every two hours to minimize time spent with the e-mail account open. Managing messages in bulk, but still in a consistent fashion, can help save time. If you don’t have e-mail folders, create some and sort messages as they are received.

2. Check: Do you have a system for prioritizing your workload?

Manage: Use paper sticky notes or the computer desktop version to prioritize tasks. Put the least important one on the bottom and the most urgent on top. As you complete tasks, peel off the sticky notes to reveal the next priority.

3. Check: Are you prioritizing tasks correctly?

Manage: Consider these points as you organize your workload. Make sure that tasks directly associated with clients come first, consider the financial impact of a project and its completion date on the company, don’t let deadlines control the priority list (expense reports can wait when there are more important tasks), and consider cause and effect (do A to enable B, which accomplishes C).

4. Check: Do you know your peak work hours?

Manage: Monitor your energy levels throughout the day and pinpoint the times when you accomplish the most. Schedule challenging or time-consuming tasks for those hours.

5. Check: Do you set deadlines?

Manage: Once tasks are prioritized, it helps to pencil in a date and time goal. This can keep you on schedule and make sure that important tasks are accomplished quickly.

6. Check: Do you plan for tomorrow?

Manage: At the end of the day, take five minutes to create a preliminary list of priorities for the next day. It gives you something to look at when you arrive the next morning and lets you know how to get busy right away.

7. Check: Do you try to accomplish too many tasks at once?

Manage: Use delegation to enlist the help of other employees when you get overwhelmed. Doing too many things can actually waste time.

8. Check: Are phone calls planned?

Manage: Create a list of calls to be made and make them all at once. For each one, write down what you hope to accomplish with the phone call to help you stay focused. Be sure to include call-back windows if you leave a message so you won’t be interrupted while working on an important task.

9. Check: How much paper is cluttering your desk?

Manage: Try to go paperless as much as possible. It reduces confusion by improving organization and leaves your work space clean. Work with supervisors to find ways to transfer paper records to electronic versions.

10. Check: Is your software high-functioning and up-to-date?

Manage: Work with supervisors to improve accounting and scheduling software by keeping it current. You can help by researching programs and asking other administrative assistants for recommendations.

Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org researching areas of online college degrees. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Admin in the Spotlight: Interview with Lynn Holgate, 2010 Stevie® Award winner

2010-07-12T12:31:00.006-04:00

Lynn Holgate, an Executive Assistant at High Performance Technologies, Inc. (HPTI) in Reston, Virginia, has been awarded the 2010 Stevie® Award for Support Staffer of the Year.

The Stevie® Awards is a prestigious award honouring the achievements and positive contributions of organizations and business people worldwide. The fact that they have a category for Support Staffer of the Year is recognition of the important role support staff play in any organization.

Lynn was in good company as some notable winners of the 2010 Stevie® Awards included:

- Executive of the Year: Lawrence J. Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle
- Best Overall Company of the Year: Apple Inc.
- Business Turnaround of the Year: Ford Motor Company
- Best Home Page: CNN.com
- Environmental Responsibility Program of the Year: The Timberland Company
- Customer Service Team of the Year: Cigna
- Most Innovative Company of the Year: Mozilla
- Fastest Growing Company of the Year: Yodle
- Communications or PR Campaign of the Year: Hilton Hotels
- New Product or Service of the Year: Chase Card Services, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Lynn has worked at HPTI for 8 ½ years and was thrilled to be recognized at this level. She says it has added a jump in her step to come to work in the mornings knowing that her peers have recognized her in this way and that her colleagues who nominated her feel that way about her. Lynn has been in the administrative field for 28 years and to be honoured like this has confirmed that her efforts and hard work have been appreciated.

Ms. Holgate is the Executive Assistant to the President, she also reports to the Director of Human Resources and manages a staff of four. Lynn has organized strategic events such as the company's internal trade show, all-hands meetings, the annual awards banquet, internal events and leadership off-site meetings. She said that receiving the award has made her proud to do the work that she does. Her family and friends were also very excited for her.

On the night of the awards Lynn reports she was sitting at a table with nine of her colleagues from HPTI including the Senior Vice-President. When she was announced the winner, the Senior Vice-President sent a text message to the President about her win and when she sat down after making her speech she saw a message from the President congratulating her.

It was an exciting night for HPTI as Jonathan Goodnight was also awarded Technical Professional of the Year and they were finalists in ten other categories, including Best Recognition Event, Best Corporate Communicator, Best Product Developer and Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year.

Congratulations again to Lynn Holgate for a job well done!

Taking stock

2010-07-09T14:10:00.006-04:00

Whenever I finish a project I always ask myself, or get together with those who assisted me, and ask the question, "What went well and what could have gone better?"

It is always good to take stock and congratulate each other on a job well done, but also to point out areas that could be improved or brainstorm the best way to do it better. On my most recent assignment everything went very smoothly. I mentally checked off that the checklists of what to bring to the various functions were critical to have. This meeting was held out of town and those are a bit more hectic because I can't easily go to my desk to get what I need. Before I left I went over my checklists a few times to make sure I had everything and it was stress free each day as I reviewed the lists and checked off the items to bring.

I also made templates for the minutes of the various meetings and those were wonderful to have. I was in a meeting all day taking minutes and then had a side meeting scheduled at 4 that I had to take minutes at, but in this case the minutes had to be transcribed, printed and put in the meeting packages for the next day. I also had a reception and dinner to attend that night at 6. By using the template I was able to accomplish everything with enough time to change, touch up my make up and hair and then off to the next event.

One thing I noted could be improved was I found myself scrambling a bit to make sure I had information for the varioius participants that needed to be signed or given to them and decided folders with each of their names would work better. Using coloured folders works great when you are busy in a meeting, you can just grab the colour you want. For instance my signing folder is blue so for the next meeting I will be sure to make the appropriate number of blue folders with a clear label with the name of the person that it pertains to. I will put things that need signing, but also other items that I need to give to that person. It will make my life easier.

Planning ahead and being prepared is a necessary exercise for a busy admin and this meeting especially proved that to me. The meetings were stress free and I was able to depend on my checklists and templates. Now I am on holidays and preparing for a big move to a new home. You can be sure I have checklists for that as well. Did I phone to get my electricity turned on? Whew! Yes, it is ticked off on the checklist and the lights did turn on when I pressed the switch.

Have a great summer everyone and enjoy your holidays when they come. Having down time is a needed time to recharge your batteries and change the pace from work. My boss finds chopping wood relaxing. I mentioned to him that that didn't seem relaxing to me, but he said it was something he could do that he didn't have to think about, just chop, chop, chop. His job is all about thinking and strategizing so a task that is not related to work, seems like time out because it is not what he normally does week to week. My idea of relaxing is reading a book on my new deck so I will leave the chopping to those better qualified than me :)

We don't know what we don't know

2010-07-02T01:18:00.003-04:00

We really don't know what we don't know do we? One person can be great at software programs and know all sorts of tricks to get things done quickly and another might be excellent at organizing and managing their email account.

I have always been a believer in sharing ideas and have received my best education from other assistants. Our strength is what we know collectively and we should have some way to share our knowledge with each other.

Here are some ways I have found can help:

The web is a wonderful tool for sharing. I have been on some interactive sites where assistants ask questions and get answers and I learn from them as I have some of the same questions. Sometimes I even have the answers and by helping someone else it reinforces what I know. The web also has anonymity and sometimes people receive information better from people they don't know.
Lunch n learns are also a good way to learn from each other. If you are the presenter you have to study and know your subject well which helps you to be more confident in what you know and you also gain experience in making presentations which can help you in your career.
If you are part of an administrative team you can use your meetings to share knowledge with each other or give tips on something new you have discovered.
Administrative newsletters or bulletin boards where you can post tips or suggestions is a good way to learn.

This blog is one of the ways that I share my experience with people all over the world and I love when I get feedback that something I have shared has helped someone (or in some cases to be corrected on what I have written), but the main thing is to open the door and communicate knowledge to others.

A roadblock often is we don't share because we don't know what we are doing is special, we just know it works for us. Try sharing your ideas and learning from the experiences of others. Dofasco Steel has long used the phrase "Our strength is in our people" and how true that is. Try starting your own information sharing at work. You will be surprised at how much you learn when you work together and exchange knowledge with one another.

Playing nice in the sandbox

2010-06-05T00:29:00.007-04:00

When I was younger I had a bicycle with a chain that would skip a link after about ten pedals and then it would fall off. I would have to stop and get off the bike and put the chain back on time and time again. I must have rode that bike for miles, pedaling and then getting off to fix the chain. How frustrating!

Sometimes it can feel the same way in the office. Some people don't play well in a team and can be like that link in the chain that keeps skipping. It is frustrating to the rest of the team because they are trying to meet certain goals and when there is a problem it takes time away from the manager who has to deal with it, but also the whole team as they see the time ticking and production at a standstill. They know that once the issue is resolved, they will then have to scramble to make up for lost time with the person causing the slow down seemingly unaware that what they are doing is hindering everyone else.

I remember when my daughter was young and I would ask her to clean her room. She would spend more time complaining about it and whining than cleaning. She could have cleaned the whole house in the time it took her to get her room tidied up. It also kept taking my time away from what I was doing as I had to go back and try to get her focussed on the task she had to do. I'm sure in my daughter's case she was not thinking that she was taking me away from my work when I had to go and tend to her, she was just thinking that she didn't want to do the job and wanted to let me know it.

What can you do if you are part of a team that is not playing well together? I'm sure we've all had to deal with people problems at one time or another in our work life -- there is no perfect office.

Be sure you are not part of the problem. Are you doing your part and contributing to the goals of the team or are you getting bogged down with situations? Each of us is responsible for what we do, not what others do or don't do. Yes, it may not seem fair that Lois or Harry down the hall isn't pulling their weight, but you only need to be concerned with what you need to do.
Try modelling to your teammates what you think a good team player is by demonstrating it in your own work life. Good team play can be contagious. My mother used to always say, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I think that is a good rule to work by.
A little encouragement can go a long way. My boss is a great encourager. Because he is, it pushes me to want to perform better to meet his expectations. Why don't you try a little encouragement with your teammates? You might be surprised at the results.

Situations are sometimes complicated, but a good attitude and good work practices will go a long way toward making your work life more happy and productive. Now go build some sandcastles together...

Whose meeting is it anyway?

2010-05-16T09:54:00.001-04:00

Do you ever get a meeting request and an agenda has not been provided, or if it is a teleconference the call-in details have not been given or the boardroom hasn't been booked for an internal meeting? Whose responsibility is it anyway?

When booking meetings ownership of the meeting has to be established. The person sending out the request for the meeting and asking for dates would usually be considered the meeting organizer. They are responsible for canvassing the participants for dates and determining the date everyone is available and coummunicating that information to the participants by sending out a meeting request to everyone or emailing the date (depending on how you or your organization prefers to send notices of meetings). This person is also responsible for making sure the agenda is sent out on time and will need to set a reminder to the meeting Chair to make sure that is done. They should also provide call-in numbers for a teleconference and ensure someone is the moderator for the call and that the appropriate information is sent to that person (this would be the Chair or the person who called the meeting). They would also need to book a boardroom and make other arrangements as necessary.

If you are not the organizer, you still have a responsibility to provide available dates in a timely manner, set a reminder to make sure there is an agenda and if there isn't, email to ask for one. You also need to make sure your boss is aware of the call-in numbers and if they are the moderator that number is made available to them.

I love having a checklist so suggest for each meeting you start a checklist to make sure you cover all the bases. This checklist should have the following information:

Meeting name, date and name of person you are arranging the meeting for (if you work for more than one person)
Names of people that are required at the meeting
Purpose of the meeting
Time required for the meeting and location
Canvass for available dates (I usually don't give more than 3 or 4 dates)
Has an agenda been provided?
Is the boardroom booked?
If it is a teleconference have the call-in numbers been provided and moderator code provided to the appropriate person?

If you are unsure who is responsible for the meeting -- ASK! You don't want to find out on the day of the meeting that you were the person that was supposed to book the boardroom or provide the call-in codes. When I provide my boss's available dates I usually put in the email "I look forward to receiving the agenda (or call-in numbers) and location of the meeting."

Building Relationships one Assistant at a Time

2010-05-09T21:55:00.006-04:00

Assistants are in contact with other assistants on a daily basis. It is important to build relationships with those we work with, but what about assistants we don't work with?

I breathe a sigh of relief when I get someone's assistant on the phone or receive an email from them. If I hear from the assistant I know I am going to get answers and the process of setting up a meeting will go smoothly, but should I try to develop a working relationship with them? Our bosses know the value of building work relationships and I think it is valuable for us as well.

My former boss was a lawyer, so building client relations was very important to him. As his assistant I kept that in mind when dealing with his clients and their assistants. I had always made a point of getting to know the various assistants I worked with as I found it to be useful for both of us. I could help them and they could help me, but I also found it to be good networking. I heard about my current job from an assistant I dealt with regularly. She received a job posting that she thought I would be interested in so passed it along to me and I have done the same for others.

I also get good tips from other assistants. If I deal with someone and can see that they have organized something well, I will make sure to ask them about it. Or if I know they have a particular expertise, I will ask them their secret to success. I have learnt some great tips that way.

Knowing assistants and having a working relationship with them is very important and can make the difference when you need to set up a meeting or if your boss needs to have a quick phone call with their boss.

I never underestimate the value of my interactions with other assistants both on and off site. They are a valuable resource and I appreciate them.

Keeping focussed in a busy environment

2010-04-17T12:54:00.005-04:00

There are so many distractions in the office -- the telephone, your co-workers, email and your boss! How can you keep focussed when there is just so much going on?

I learnt a valuable lesson many years ago when I cleaned houses and I have taken it to the office with me. I am a single mom, but wanted to stay home to raise my daughter, but I needed a job too. What I did was take on odd jobs such as house cleaning, babysitting and homecare for seniors.

My first day housecleaning, I had a large house to clean. I set aside four hours to clean it, which seemed reasonable to me. I mean, I had been cleaning my own house for years, how hard could it be? I started in the bathroom, cleaning here and there, and then I needed a cleaning supply so went in the kitchen to get it. While there I started cleaning the kitchen sink. To finish up and make it shine, I used a glass cleaner. That got me thinking about the glass tops on the tables in the livingroom so I went in there to do that. Can you see the problem here? I was not focussing on one task and finishing it, but was going from here to there and everywhere so after a few hours it still looked like I hadn't accomplished much and I started to panic that I wouldn't get the house cleaned on time.

What I learned very quickly was that I had to finish one room at a time. I had to be prepared and have all the cleaning products I was going to need to finish the job, but if I did have to go and get something, I had to resist starting on something else and return right back to the task at hand. It's the same principle in the office. With all the tasks coming at you and all the things you have on your to-do list, it can seem overwhelming and sometimes you can feel paralyzed wondering where to start. Having a to-do list can be a life saver. Prioritize the tasks you need to do for the day/week/month and then do them one item at a time. If you have to answer the phone, deal with an email or attend to something for your boss, do so, as that is the nature of the admin job -- multi-tasking, but once you have done it, go right back to your to-do list, re-focus and continue what you were doing.

Sometimes you are just not sure what is sapping up your time and I have found a time log will help you determine where you are going astray. When I first started at a law firm I was in unfamiliar territory and was finding it hard to focus on one task so was all over the place. I knew I was crazy busy, but when my supervisor asked me what was taking up my time, I couldn't really pin point one particular thing. It just seemed like it was everything and nothing seemed to be getting done. She suggested I keep a time log for a time so I could identify what it was. I left the office thinking, "Great, one more thing for me to add to my already huge list!" But I did it by keeping a notepad by the phone and each time I started a task I would write it down. In a very short time I started to see what the problem was -- telephone calls.

In a law firm you can spend a lot of time on the phone with clients, other law firms, setting up mediations, court dates, etc. Being on the phone was a very important part of my day and it was still going to take a big part of my time, but I could better manage it by scheduling a time to make my phone calls.

As well, I received lots of voicemails and others that my boss forwarded to me and I had to transcribe them, which also took a lot of my time. Once I had identifed the problem, I could make a plan on how to deal with it. I went to my boss with my newfound knowledge and she arranged to get me some new technology to make transcribing voicemails less time consuming. Whew! Now that I knew what was taking the time, I could do something about it and make adjustments to organize my day better.

So don't let all that work get you down.

Break it down into chunks and prioritize your work on a to-do list.
Pay attention to what might be taking all your time by keeping a time log and then try to manage it, rather than letting it manage you.
Don't be afraid to ask someone else's advice on how best to make some changes -- your boss, a co-worker, someone from your professional association or a friend. Someone else just might have the answer that will help you.
Keep your desk organized with a place for everything. Not having to frantically look for things all the time will definitely help you.
And most importantly, prioritize your work and keep focussed on what needs to be done first.

When your boss arranges meetings behind your back...

2010-04-05T21:52:00.003-04:00

Does your boss ever organize a meeting behind your back? Mine does and it can cause problems with my scheduling. He will have a quick conversation with a staff member and set up a meeting, but not tell me anything about it. That makes it difficult when I am supposed to be organizing his calendar, but since I am responsible to organize his time and in spite of my frustration, I have to make it work. So what can you do when your boss is ruining your perfectly scheduled calendar?

Realize that nothing is cast in stone and things can change so be prepared to make the necessary adjustments. Your boss is not trying to sabotage you.
Assess which meetings can be adjusted without too much disruption. Internal meetings can usually be changed more easily so start there.
Depending on the importance of the impromptu meeting, it may need to be changed to another timeslot to accommodate his or her calendar. Usually when I point out the conflict to my boss, he is more than willing to make the change.
If you have to reschedule, send an email apologizing, but advise that your boss's schedule has changed. People are busy and certainly understand schedule changes.

Admin Buddies

2010-03-20T19:53:00.003-04:00

I like to have someone at work that I can buddy with. It works well when it is a co-worker who sits closest to you, but depending on how your office is set up that might not be possible. If it is a planned time off then you can meet with your buddy and give them any instructions or information they will need to handle in your absence and any contact names and numbers. I like to have a contact card with my buddy's general information in it such as log ins and passwords as appropriate.

When the time off is unplanned it is more critical to have this information available with easy access. A friend found this out when her co-worker was called away for a family emergency. She had to set up an away voicemail message and fortunately had kept a script of what her away message usually said, She worked for a doctor so it was important that the proper referral numbers were given.

If you have remote access it is easy to do these things yourself from off site, but sometimes you just can't and it is nice to know you can call your buddy and they can take care of it for you. Last week I was sick and could barely get up to call into the office, so it was nice that my buddy could take care of it.

It is also amazing how much we pick up from our co-workers during the day. You hear something while walking down the hall or are copied on an email and know something about the purpose of a meeting coming up. This inside information comes in handy when you need to pinch hit for them when they are away. Many times I am so thankful I had that quick chat or read that email that I was copied on as that was the exact information I needed when they were away.

Yes, it is always nice to have a work buddy. If you don't have that in your office, why not suggest it to the other assistants? Having a buddy can take some of the stress off and give you assurance that you have someone you can depend on. It can also improve team work and general office dynamics.

Are you prepared?

2010-03-13T16:45:00.004-05:00

I take the bus to work and I often see people getting on a busy bus and then going through their backpack or purse looking for their bus tickets and holding up the line. I always shake my head when I see that because I think they should have had that ready before they boarded. They had enough time as they saw the bus approaching, they know they will need it, but time and time again, they are searching for it.

I like to be prepared and I find life just works better for me at home, work and even on the bus, when I am organized and ready for whatever is coming up. We really are creatures of habit and I find if I just keep doing it the same way each time, it becomes easier to be prepared. For instance, I always keep my bus tickets in the front section of my purse so when I am boarding the bus I just reach in and take one out. I don't have to think about where they are because they are always in the same place. I find the same thing at work. I organize my desk so everything is within easy reach and makes sense to the way I like to work. Even when I change jobs, the first thing I do is organize my desk so at least that is familiar.

I just recently organized a Board meeting and it was nice to have everything where I needed it when I was in the meeting. I didn't have to look far for it so that makes me more relaxed and able to do what I am there to do -- take the minutes.

I also like to know my stuff and not have any surprises. Every time I use a bus ticket, I keep a mental inventory so I know when I need to buy some more and don't show up at the bus stop one morning and Oops! no tickets. The night before I go to a Board meeting, I review all my templates, agendas, binder, attendance sheets and everything I am going to need or might need. Do I have everything? This is where a checklist really comes in handy. Each meeting has some differences, but usually the basics are the same so your checklist can be pre-populated with those things so you can re-use it for each meeting. I find the best time to think about what I need is when I have a nice quiet time to do that. Of course that usually doesn't happen at work so I take about an hour of my home time, but it is well worth it the next day.

Being prepared doesn't have to be hectic, but can just be a good habit you get into. Now, I don't even think about it, I just know what is in my folder because I organize it the same way each time. Yep, makes my life much easier.

We did it Canada!

2010-02-28T19:43:00.002-05:00

Canada has a world record for gold medals in the Olympics, a record for medals for Canada, we won gold in hockey -- Woo hoo! National pride -- all time high. What a blast the last two weeks have been, but I don't think I could have taken any more late nights staying up to watch the Olympics in Eastern Standard Time.

I can just hear the conversation at the office tomorrow...

Where's the remote thingy for the PowerPoint?

2010-02-27T16:03:00.003-05:00

Some people in the office were trying to get the remote working as we had a PowerPoint presentation coming up and were calling it things like remote thingy, remote slide clicker, wireless mouse so I finally asked, "Does anyone know what the official name for that thing is?" Here we were, professional assistants talking about the thingy for the PowerPoint. So I did what I normally do when I want an answer -- I Googled it! And guess what? Nobody seems to really know what its called, but Powerpoint Remote was given as a common name. Great! Now at least I will have a name that most people will know what I mean. Technically I think it is a remote mouse with Powerpoint clicker capabilities, but PowerPoint Remote works just fine for me. Although thingy will work in a crunch...

Minute taking made easier...

2010-02-20T20:42:00.005-05:00

Minute taking definitely isn't easy, but it doesn't have to be stressful. In its simplest form minutes are a record of discussion, decisions and actions to be taken and the date by when it needs to be completed. Below are a few tips so the task is not as daunting:

Filling in the blanks
I take minutes on a laptop so it is easy to make a template ahead of time which is based on the agenda. I put the items from the agenda on the template in the same order and with a space to put the discussion and decisions/actions from the meeting. Putting it in table format is the easiest, then it is just a matter of filling in the blanks. I use four columns with the headings: Item#, Discussion, Decision/Action, By when.

Going in cold
When you don't know the subject matter and are asked to take minutes, preparation is the key. Read three or four of the previous minutes to get familiar with the language of the meeting and the subjects that are discussed. If you can meet with the regular minute taker that is ideal or schedule a meeting with the Chair.

Putting it in context
You need to summarize the discussion around each agenda item and then write the action or decision that comes out of it. For instance, if you put the action down as Finance Director to pay invoice by January 31st, you need to put what was discussed or later on you will never remember what prompted that action. To put it in context you could say that Discussion ensued regarding the invoice received for the installation of the swing set. The team members were pleased with the work and it was agreed that the Finance Director should pay the invoice from the Recreation Account. Then the action makes perfect sense.

The language of minutes
Discussion and questions ensued -- The team members agreed -- It was decided -- The following points were made. Having some key phrases at your fingertips really helps when taking minutes. A simple phrase such as "Discussion ensued" can summarize 20 minutes of heated debate. Minutes are not a he said/she said kind of record. People at the meeting don't want to be singled out. The decision made is always recorded as a group decision.

In-camera
If the Chair says this part of the meeting is in-camera, take your fingers off the keyboard, or put your pen down. The meeting participants want to be assured nothing is being recorded. Sometimes the minute taker is even asked to leave the room. At our board meetings I do not attend the in-camera part of the meeting, but when I return to the meeting they tell me the decision that came out of the discussion and I record that for the minutes such as "An in-camera session was held with the following decision made..."

Time is of the essence
Pay attention to the time the meeting starts and the time it ends. If you don't get the exact time, don't panic, but you should get in the habit of checking the time. On my minute template I put [insert time] at the beginning and also after the final item, just to remind myself to check the time.

Being part of the team
I am a valuable member of the team I take minutes for. They rely on me to know the ins and outs of the meeting. They come to me to give me agenda items, ask about certain actions, check back in past minutes and other meeting related things. I feel part of the team and to be as effective as possible you really need to see yourself as more than just the minute taker. I don't know the subject matter as well as they do because that is not my expertise, but I know how to take minutes. It has been said that if proper minutes are not taken it is just as if the meeting never happened. The team has to be able to rely on the minute taker to take accurate minutes and keep good records. The minute taker is important to the success of the meeting.

Meeting adjourned
Don't wait too long after the meeting to type the minutes. I like to complete them by the following day. The discussion is still fresh on my mind and I find it easier to make sense of my notes. The longer I wait to record the minutes, the harder it is to complete. A friend of mine recommends doing them within two hours after the meeting. I find I cannot always do that, but within 12 hours works for me.

Dealing in real time...

2010-02-13T20:52:00.003-05:00

I like to work with fixed dates. If I know something is due on February 23rd, then I can work towards the date and prioritize all my work accordingly. The way I like to do that is by creating a timeline to-do list of everything I need to do to get everything done by the required date. If it is a big project I use a calendar and write down all my required to-dos on the dates I need to get them done to make my deadline. I’m a visual person so it really helps me to plan my way to my goal. There are different styles of to-do lists and you can use the one that suits your work style and the type of project you are doing, but the main thing is to have one.

By the same token, I appreciate it when someone lets me know by when they will have something for me and if they can’t have it done by that date, then I like it when they get back to me to say when I can expect it. That way I can do a proper tracking as I have a date to work with.

So that is what I like, but it isn’t always what I get. If I am told that I should have it in the next few weeks, or can expect to receive it in a couple of months, that doesn’t really help me with my follow up as it is not a definite date. I can only guess when I might get it. I would prefer they say you will have it by March 4th. That I can track.

Dates are important. Once I have a date I can put it in my Tasks and run with it. I use my Tasks extensively and when I receive an e-mail telling me they will have something to me or if I make a request of someone, I drag the e-mail in my Tasks and set a reminder when I need to follow up.

Think about it the next time you give someone a timeline. Are you vague or exact? It will be appeciated if you are firm and take responsibility for your timelines.

When your voicemail goes awry...

2010-02-07T22:26:00.004-05:00

I'm sure I'm not the only one this has happened to -- you are leaving a voicemail and make a mistake and then try to fix it, but the voicemail becomes longer and longer and depending on who you are leaving the message with, it can get more and more embarrassing.

A good tip if you flub up your voicemail is to press # and it should give you prompts to get out of it. I have never used this escape route, but was reminded about it at a webinar I participated in recently and will keep these instructions close at hand. They said it works with most phone services.

I thought I would pass this tip along in the event you find yourself wishing you could take your words back.

Taking the time to acknowledge someone and say thanks...

2010-01-31T09:48:00.006-05:00

When I was young my Aunt Joyce would send me a birthday card each year and put a bit of money in it. I so looked forward to those cards. We were a large family and being noticed as an individual and special was rare so receiving these cards just made my day -- somebody was actually thinking of ME!

It made quite an impact on me and now that I am an adult I have been sending birthday cards to my friends and family for years now, especially to the children in my life. There is just something special about receiving a card in the mail.

Recently, someone contacted me through my blog to introduce me to an on-line card service. No, it's not e-cards (I am not a fan of e-cards as one more e-mail cluttering up my Inbox is not a welcome thing), but these are actual hard copy cards that you can customize and send out with your own special message. The cards are all made with recycled paper and you can even include a gift if you like and this company will send it off for you. What a convenient way to send cards.

Recently I have been so busy at work that I just didn't have time to get to the card shop to buy my usual box of cards so I have been trying to catch up and send belated cards out. When I tried this service, it was a great alternative for me. I could still send the cards out in hardcopy, and since I could do it online it was convenient and reasonably priced. The font is also in writing script (which you can also personalize to your own handwriting) so the personal message inside looks like it was handwritten.

The name of the service is SendOutCards and they have a variety of cards for just about every occasion and if they don't have what you want, you can customize your own card. It is an American based company and I am in Canada, but the cards I sent were all received within a week.

What a neat idea for businesses too. The art of saying thank you can sometimes get lost in our busyness, but here are some examples of times it would be nice to send a card from work:

To thank presenters who speak at your workplace.
To thank an employee for showing initiative and going the extra mile.
To thank your boss for being supportive during a trying time.
To apologize and try to make things right. Sometimes a card is a good icebreaker to start communication again.
To send to clients of your company. This could include sympathy cards, thank you cards, birthday cards, congratulations on a promotion, a card to reconnect with a client you haven't heard from in awhile, or many other reasons.

I recently sent an admin assistant friend a card to acknowledge all the hard work she does every day and included a gift of brownies. She loved it! I sent another assistant a comical card about being stressed out at work. We work in a very busy office so it was a nice surprise for her to receive it and helped put the stress of the office in perspective.

I don't often promote any businesses from my blog, but I thought this one was worth talking about.

Patricia

I gave at the office

2010-01-23T22:29:00.002-05:00

Years ago when I was a child, I would canvass door to door with my sister for a charity for cancer research. Many times we would hear, `My husband gave at the office`as a reason for not donating. Whether they had or hadn`t I was never sure, but I know today that offices do fundraise for charities and workers are happy to participate.

Recently, with the Haitian earthquake disaster, a friend mentioned that one of the doctor`s at the hospital where she works was asking people to sponsor him in a swim for Haiti. He raised over $1,000. Another office raised almost $1,000 in a fundraising effort they organized. The old adage `every little bit helps`, really does. Imagine how much we could raise if everyone contributed in some small way from door to door, office to office and nation to nation.

As a new grandmother to a one year old, it breaks my heart to see the young children left without family and home. It is so sad, because you know children so young have no idea what is going on. All they want is to be taken care of and be loved by someone.

There was one particular group of orphan children that was brought to our attention by a Canadian news reporter. These children, who are under five years old, were fending for themselves on the street because the orphanage collapsed. But for the charity of an old woman who came to feed them, they had no one.

Please give as you are able for the care of the children of Haiti. Agencies such as World Vision are on the ground now helping where they can.

Calendar "ah ha"

2010-01-16T01:33:00.010-05:00

I was participating in a Harvard sponsored webinar with my boss the other day. The topic was on personal branding and they were making recommendations to executives on how to polish up their image. I guess he thought I needed the help.

One of the things they recommended to executives was to use their electronic calendar to leave themselves reminders. From a personal branding point of view they suggested that if you kept reminders then you would be seen as someone who is on top of things and nothing gets by you. -- Wait a minute! The thought is good, but...that defeats the purpose of the Scheduling feature in Outlook. If someone puts in a "birthday" or a "pick up the dry cleaning" reminder in their calendar as an all-day event, to those who are using the Scheduler, it will look like the person is busy for the day and in reality they may have the day open. When you are checking through the Scheduler, it gives no details on the meeting, just that you are not free.

I think if Microsoft asked me what I would like to see in an electronic calendar, I would suggest not to bother with the all-day event option. Who notices that string along the top anyway? Use that feature to set reminders (which everyone uses it for anyway). How many times I have booked a meeting thinking the day was free, only to notice later that an all-day event was put in unnoticed at the top.

Another one I never use. Does anyone know what all the assigned colours mean in Outlook without peeking? If you block a time in your calendar in purple, unless I check the legend or know it by memory, I have no way of knowing what that colour means. For those who do use this feature, they get a little annoyed if we don't realize their meeting with the purple colour means the meeting is out of the office. Huh?

They really should have asked assistants for their input on what would be the best features to have to accommodate our hectic and fast-paced world of meeting scheduling.

Introducing The Administrative Bloopers Blog

2010-01-10T17:48:00.003-05:00

I started a new blog called The Administrative Bloopers Blog When you have a moment come and visit me over there. It won't affect this blog, it will still be going strong, but I wanted a place for everything else and it seemed the right fit. Let me know what you think.

What ever happened to the "us" in Service?

2010-01-10T14:34:00.009-05:00

I went to a grocery store recently and when I got to the checkout I had to pack my own bags. Another time I was trying to find a full-serve gas station to fill up, but there was nothing to be found. I had to wonder what do people with physical limitations do when they need to get gas?

I remember when self-serve gas stations first started. The men loved it because they could get out and pump their own gas. The incentive was you saved .002 cents a litre. That was never enough to get me out of the car! Now, there doesn't seem to be a difference in price at all, it is just common practice that we have to do it ourselves. I travel far to try and find a full-serve station, but they are becoming extinct.

Recently, I bought a new laptop. It was expensive,but when I brought it home I had to do all the work to get it up and running. What is wrong with this picture?

The list can go on, but I think you get my drift. What about in the office, are we asking our bosses to self-serve or are we providing quality administrative services? Some of the younger bosses are certainly qualified and know how to do some things administratively, but is it an efficient use of their time and is it good job security for us?

One young boss told me that he was self-sufficient and didn't need assistance, but what I saw was someone doing more than they needed to. I of course ignored him and went about providing the best service I could. He loved it and I believe ended up doing his job better because of it. We need to be assertive and show our bosses how much better they can function if the administrative jobs are taken care of by us.

Something to think about...

Office Confidential: Just for fun to start your New Year off with a laugh

2009-12-31T09:52:00.013-05:00

These are excerpts from a presentation I gave to my local International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) Chapter dinner meeting. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did in the telling...

ALL WORK NO PLAY, ALL PLAY NO WORK
When I told my boss I had started a blog and was naming it Laughing All The Way to Work, he didn’t get it and said, "That doesn’t sound very professional Patricia." So I explained that it was similar to the phrase, laughing all the way to the bank. I told him it was a blog to give tips and to share my experience in the office in the hopes that it would help and encourage others. I felt if we were prepared and equipped to do our jobs, it could seem like we were laughing all the way to work...but I also like to have fun at work too.

MONTY PYTHON: One of my former bosses said at times working with me was like being in a Monty Python movie... My current boss says we get along like a house on fire. With references like these how can I lose?

ASSWORD: I had only been working in my new job for a few weeks. I was sitting at the front desk to relieve the receptionist when my boss walked by and asked what the password was on a site he needed to log into. The password was LRGPassword, but I told him to remember it was case sensitive and started to spell it out for him -- "Capital LRGP and then..." but stopped when I realized what the rest of it spelled. He looked at me with a knowing smile and said “Yes, Patricia, continue...”

ONE WORD CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING: It’s amazing how one word can change the whole meaning of something. I booked one of my former bosses on a flight to Toronto. I printed his e-ticket and had everything prepared for his travel. When I arrived in the office the next day I had an urgent voicemail from him saying, “PATRICIA! Who the hell is Linda and what is her name doing on my ticket?” Linda (our travel agent) was obviously having a bad day. She had put her name down as the passenger and my boss’s name as the agent. No doubt, he had a hard time explaining to the airport authorities that he was indeed the one who was supposed to be on that flight.

This boss also prided himself on being self sufficient and liked to type his own letters. I thought it was wonderful until I read one. He relied totally on Spell Check so you can imagine what typos were missed. He was a lawyer and in this particular letter he was writing to a prospective client. He wrote in one sentence that he had "expensive experience" instead of "extensive" and in another wrote "tits" instead of "its." Good thing I checked... I wonder what kind of service the client would have thought he was offering!

HIGH TECH? Years ago, when I worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), I took a training course on a Telex machine. During a break in the class, I was sitting at my assigned Telex and it started typing. This was such new technology back then and I was surprised that it was typing on its own. I looked down and read, “I AM WATCHING YOU.” Which seemed a little spooky, and then it signed off --“GOD!” I must have had a complete look of astonishment on my face. Then I heard the snickers. I was the only woman in a room full of police officers who had conspired to play a trick on me. Needless to say -- it worked!

I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO WINNIPEG! Again, when I worked at the RCMP, I went on a training course for a machine to do criminal record checks. In those days it wasn’t a computer where you could see a face on the screen, but the information was printed out on paper and if you wanted a photo, it came in the mail a week later. Definitely not like the CSI shows of today. For fun, one of the officers asked me to put my name and birthdate in to see what came up. Well, apparently, there’s a hooker in Winnipeg by the name of Patricia Robb and with the same birthdate! For the rest of the day they kept teasing me, “Are you sure you have never been to Winnipeg?”

LOOK UP, LOOK DOWN: While an EA was talking to the CEO, her skirt slipped down and landed at her feet. Now how would you handle that situation? (I bet they never asked you that question at a job interview). This girl didn’t bat an eyelash and quickly reached down and pulled up her skirt and continued talking to her boss as if nothing had happened. I can imagine what her boss said to his wife that evening, "Honey, you will never believe what happened at the office?"

AIRPORT RESTROOM: My friend was very tired. She had been commuting from Ottawa to Toronto and was on her last flight of the week. At the airport she went to the bathroom, but when she went to wash her hands afterwards, she couldn’t seem to get the sink to work until she realized the problem -- it was a URINAL! She quickly scooted out of the men’s washroom.

SUGGESTION BOX: We had a new woman working in our office and my friend and I were showing her around. My co-worker mentioned that we had an office suggestion box if she ever wanted to put ideas for improvement in it and told her it was in the kitchen. She seemed surprised as she said she had been in the kitchen a few times, but had never seen it. My friend said, “Yes, it’s in the corner by the fridge -- right over the, uh, GARBAGE CAN.” Up to that point neither of us had realized the significance of its location. This of course prompted me to write the following thought of the day on my blog, "The location of your Office Suggestion Box can give you a good idea of how important it is to your organization. If it is located near the garbage can, don't expect your suggestions to be taken too seriously."

OFFICE CONFIDENTIAL: I went to the gym after work on a Friday evening, worked out and went back to the office to get my purse. I always take my gym laundry home on Friday to wash over the weekend so on Monday morning I was madly trying to find them while scrambling to get out the door on time. Did I not bring them home? Where were they? I left for work thinking perhaps I had left them in my gym bag at work. When I walked into the office and got to my desk, there they were -- on my desk with my bra sitting right on top of the bundle. Ugh!

Since I got in at 9 and my boss was in an hour before me, I knew he had probably seen it already so decided to suck it up and just go in and ask him. In between spurts of laughter, he said he hadn't been to my desk yet, but I should go and see Anthony as he had sent him to my desk earlier to drop off a letter. I left his office to the sound of his chuckles behind me. What a start to a Monday morning...

HANGERS ON: One morning while walking from the bus to my office building, I noticed a woman in front of me with a coat hanger hooked to the back of her coat. She obviously didn't realize it was there, but I was wondering to myself how she could have sat on the bus and not noticed. I thought somebody ought to tell her, so I caught up to her and it turned out to be someone from my own office. When I told her she thought I was joking, but to humour me she reached back and with a look of surprise and dismay slowly brought out the metal coat hanger. The look on her face was priceless. Of course I had to tell everyone at the office.

****
I called someone in another office. Her voicemail said “Hi, I’m not at my desk right now, please leave a message.” She didn’t identify herself and I had no idea if I had dialed the right number because I had never spoken to her before. The woman who sat next to me told me I should have left the message, “Hi, call me back.”

****
At another office I needed IT assistance so sent an email requesting help. I received an out-of-office message from the IT guy saying that he was in Vegas partying, if he won we wouldn’t hear back from him, if not, he would be in on Monday.

BEAUTY SCHOOL DROP OUT: As many of you know, I was a hairdresser for a few years in the early 90s, but left to return to the office. Here are a few stories from that time.

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS: When I was in beauty school, I was taught different ways to remove facial hair. I thought I had the best answer when I discovered facial hair bleach. No muss, no fuss and no pain. One day after using it, I was at a children’s club at my Church. A six year old boy was looking over at me curiously and finally blurted out, “Pat, do men have black moustaches and women have white?” Geez!

ADULTS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS: When I was working in a hair salon, if another hairdresser happened to be at the reception desk when a customer came in, they would take their name and say to the hairdresser who had the appointment, "Your Bob is here," or "Your Muriel is here," or whatever name was appropriate. I was cutting someone’s hair, but noticed one of my co-workers going to the counter to greet a customer. I was expecting my next customer so I knew it could be him. After taking his name and asking him to have a seat, my co-worker called out, "Pat, your John is here." -- You could have heard a pin drop as all the customers turned to look at me. When I told my current boss the story, he said, “Good thing his name wasn’t Dick.”

You see, working can be fun. Enjoy your day!

Now that is dedication...Executive Assistant donates kidney to her boss

2009-12-28T16:26:00.002-05:00

My assistant sent me a link to a story about an Executive Assistant in British Columbia, Canada, who gave the gift of life by donating a kidney to her boss. You can find the story at the following link: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/ID=1365276571

That certainly is dedication and remarkably they were a perfect match. The EA said her family had gone through a similar situation and she didn't want her boss to have to go through what they did so decided to make the offer.

A nice Christmas gift to her boss who is a dad of five children.

Meetings Plus: Taking them offline

2009-12-19T23:18:00.005-05:00

I organize a lot of meetings in a day, week, month; heck, even into next year. My boss is very busy and in demand to go here, there and everywhere. So how do I keep them all straight? My first plan of action is to take them offline as much as possible. I have so much e-mail traffic that the more I take offline, the better I am able to keep track and oh what a relief it is to delete it out of my Inbox once I have responded to the e-mail.

When I receive an initial request for a meeting, I use a meeting form and write down the information I need: who is requesting the meeting, what is the purpose of the meeting, where it will be held and a phone number or an e-mail address and dates that are available. As I hear from the different parties I can put a check mark or an X whether they are available or not. Once a date is finalized I put it in my boss's calendar and confirm the meeting with the other participants. If the meeting is internal, I send a meeting request, but for external meetings I tend to just confirm with them the meeting details by phone or e-mail.

Sounds easy so far, and sometimes it is as simple as that, but normally it goes back and forth and back and forth again and again, but I never worry about it because once I take it offline, I am not trying to track down e-mails on who said they were available since I already have the information written down.

I also have what I call a Scheduling Bin and I put all my meeting forms in there. It is located by my phone and near my computer, so whether I get a phone call or e-mail, it is within easy reach. The good thing about keeping them all in a central spot is I always know where the paperwork is and can easily grab it when I need it. Much easier than searching in Outlook and less stressful.

When a meeting is finalized, I put the scheduling sheet in a completed file. My boss's meetings tend to get resurrected often and what I think is a final date will come back because someone had to go out of town on urgent business, or one of the key participants is ill and can't make it or they just decided to change the date, so it is handy to have this file where I can go and revive the meeting. After the meeting happens, then I can safely throw it in the recycling bin or shredder as appropriate. Another benefit to writing it down is if your boss asks you to cancel it or to quickly tell you when the meeting is, you can look at the sheet rather than trying to search for it in your calendar.

I tend to keep my scheduling sheets in chronological order and each morning I go through them to see if there is any action I need to take, i.e. follow up to ask for an agenda or see if I can start scheduling. There are some meetings that are currently on my radar for next summer and beyond, but I still have a sheet for it and move it up the pile as the date for planning gets closer.

Once the date and location is finalized, if it requires flight and hotel, then I put a travel sheet on top of the meeting sheet and start to go through that checklist to see what I need to do, from getting the passport ready, contacting the travel agent and arranging for a purchase order, etc. I don't want to miss a step so always go through the checklist on the travel sheet.

Taking it offline is a neat trick a friend of a friend of a friend showed me. Never underestimate what you can learn from other assistants. There are a lot of good organizing tricks out there and whenever I find one that works, I pounce on it and it becomes something I can't work without. Keep a lookout what your colleagues are doing. Most people are happy to share when they have found something that works. Learning from each other is a necessity. By the same token if you have discovered something that works, let others know so they can benefit too. After all, the goal is to have an efficient office and it works better if we are all working together to make that happen.

See on the blog sidebar under Meetings for some electronic meeting scheduling sites such as doodle.com and other tips.

On the job tips for new Admins...

2009-12-12T20:41:00.015-05:00

I started this blog to share the knowledge I had picked up over the years either from other administrative assistants, my bosses or from trial and error. Here are my top six things I would recommend you do well:

Write it down
When your boss asks you to do something, write it down, send yourself an e-mail reminder or put it on a sticky note, but if you don't write it down it will get lost and probably not get done. You may think you have a good memory and why bother, but there will be so many little things come across your desk that it is easy to forget and writing it down is a good habit to get into. It also eases your boss's mind when they see you write it down, it gives them confidence it will be taken care of.
Bring Forward System or Using Tasks in Outlook
Have a system to follow up on items your boss has asked you to do or things you know you need to do. This can be as simple as having hanging file folders marked from January to December and then you just put items in the appropriate month that you need to bring forward for your boss. I put a sticky note on it, or write, the day I will need it, i.e. bf Dec. 15. I love this system and at the end of each day I go through my folder and pull out what I need for the next day. I also use Tasks in Outlook to follow up on electronic items. If I send someone an e-mail asking for something, I drag and drop the the e-mail into my Tasks and set a reminder for when I want to follow up. It is easy and I never lose track of things.
E-mail
Always ask yourself why you were copied on an e-mail. Is there an action that you need to do? Is it for your information or something to put in your tasks to do later? My boss will sometimes cc me to keep me in the loop of what might be coming up. I read it and either put it in my tasks to follow up on it or take the appropriate action. I have daily meetings with my boss so sometimes I print the e-mails that I have questions on and put it in a folder and then we go through each item and he lets me know what, if anything, I need to do. If he is travelling, I send it by e-mail, but it has been my experience that I will get better results with a face-to-face meeting. He can ignore e-mails, but it is hard to ignore me :)

When you are copied on an e-mail, read the whole message, don’t just skim it. There could be a message for you. i.e. My boss will send an email with a cc to me and on the last line or buried in the message he will write something like “I have copied Patricia to set up a teleconference at a mutually convenient time.” So it is important to read the whole message.

If you are sent an email with a request to do something either asap or later, did you do it or have you diarized it to do it later? Do you track your e-mails by either putting them in folders, or in your tasks? If your boss has to continually go back and ask did you do this or that, then they may as well have done it themselves in the first place.

If you have been asked to do something and don’t fully understand what is expected of you, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Sometimes e-mail is not the best way to communicate and it needs to be followed up by a phone call or face-to-face short meeting.
Letter mail
OUTGOING MAIL: If you are given a letter to finalize for your boss's signature, make sure you put the correct date on it and read it over for grammar, spelling and punctuation. Print it on letterhead with the appropriate sized envelope and ensure if there are any enclosures, they are attached. Put it in a folder for your boss’s signature in completed form, i.e. envelope clipped to letter and attachments. If you are waiting for attachments, but need to have it signed because your boss will not be in the office by the time you get the attachments, prepare it for him or her for signature and put a sticky note on the letter to remind yourself to attach enclosures or make copies for anyone you are copying on the letter, but also to let your boss know you know it needs to be done and have reminded yourself to do it.

If you are sending the letter by regular mail, courier or registered mail, make sure you have the proper postage, courier slips or forms filled out. I usually put a sticky note on it for that as well.

INCOMING MAIL: As with e-mail, you should read the letter to see if there are any action items for your boss (or yourself) and diarize them or put the appropriate dates in the calendar.

MAIL LOG: Keep a log of mail that comes in and goes out. For incoming mail, if your boss delegates it to someone else to respond to, put who it was sent to and what action is to be taken in the mail log and then follow up to make sure it has been done.
Telephone
Always work with your boss on what their preference is for taking calls and messages, but here are some things that have worked for me. Do not let a caller know where your boss is. Just say that they are unavailable and take a message. If they say it is urgent take their name, telephone number and purpose of their call and tell them you will give your boss the message as soon as possible. If your boss is away from the office on business or vacation, it is all right to say they are not in the office, but you can take a message for when they return. The information will normally be in their out-of-office assistant already, or on their voicemail so it is appropriate to give the information, unless stated otherwise by your boss.

If a person calls to speak to your boss, and you are responsible for taking their calls, ask for their name and telephone number, but I always ask them for the purpose of their call. If they do not want to give it, that is fine, but at least you can say to your boss that you asked.

If a person calls wanting a meeting with your boss, ask for their name and telephone number and the purpose of the meeting request. Let them know you will need to check with your boss and will get back to them. I always ask my boss if he wants to have a meeting with this person or would a teleconference be sufficient. Sometimes your boss will pass this on to someone else to do or not want/or be able to meet. You will then need to get back to the person. Never say your boss doesn’t want to meet with them, but rather that they are unable to meet with them and would they like to leave a message with your boss. Sometimes if you know your boss does want to meet with a particular person, you can go ahead and schedule it for them at a mutually convenient time and e-mail your boss to give them a heads up it is in their calendar.
Drafting a letter
If your boss asks you to respond to a letter on his or her behalf, draft it as if your boss was going to sign it, i.e. have it set up properly with the date (or [Insert Date]) and the address correctly filled out and then either send it by e-mail or print it for his or her review. Draft it to the best of your ability and include the letter you are replying to when you give it back to your boss, so he or she knows the context of your reply.

A good rule of thumb in writing the letter is to acknowledge the letter you are responding to, i.e. Thank you for your letter of [insert date]. Then state the purpose of the letter, i.e. We are pleased to enclose the requested forms and would ask that you fill them out and return them at your earliest convenience. Then end with a closing sentence i.e. We look forward to serving you. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Have the letter properly signed off with a closing such as Yours truly or Sincerely yours and put your boss’s name and title below that. If the letterhead has the name of the organization on it you do not have to repeat it again under the name and title, unless that is your boss’s preference.

If your letter goes to page two, do not leave the signature line on its own on the second page. Take some text over with it, but you still want the first page to be centred and look good.

Keep names together, i.e. if a name gets split at the end of the sentence i.e. Edward
Smith. If you press Control, Shift and the Space bar after Edward and type Smith. They will stay together on one line.

If the letter has multiple pages, number them, i.e. .../2 at the bottom of page 1 and -2- (centred) , or Page 2, at the top of the next page, and so on.

Eyeball the letter for appearance and proofread it for accuracy. Do not rely solely on Spell Check. If you say you have attachments, make sure they are there and indicate at the bottom of the letter that you have enclosures. Some organizations like you to list the attachments, i.e. Enclosure: 2008 Annual Report.

If you are copying someone on the letter, make sure you send them a copy. If you are blind copying someone, make sure that name is not typed on the original letter, as the intent is that you do not want the person to know you are sending a copy to someone else. [cc = courtesy copy; bcc = blind courtesy copy].

Well that is my brain dump for the weekend. I hope you find it helpful. Next week I would like to talk about meeting planning and give you some scheduling tips that have worked well for me.

Do you like what you do?

2009-12-05T16:27:00.003-05:00

CONFUSCIUS SAID, “Love what you do and you will never work a day in your life.” How true that is! Here are some ways I have found to enjoy what I do:

1. INTERVIEW WELL
Make it a conversation. You are interviewing them too so ask questions. Take notes during the interview so you don’t forget what you wanted to ask. And realize you are not suited for every job or office. If you don’t get it, it wasn’t the right job for you or the right time. I have never regretted any of my employment situations. I keep looking forward to new experiences.

2. APPRECIATE THAT YOU HAVE A JOB
It may not be the perfect job, but you are employed. I wrote an article awhile back called On the Outside Looking In. I went through a time of looking for a job and it seemed I wasn't getting anywhere. Finally I landed a job and have been working ever since, but I still recall that time of not working.

3. BE LOYAL TO YOUR BOSS
Respect your boss as a person, but also for the position they hold. It is much better, and we will be happier, if we work well together and that starts with respect and loyalty. The assistant/boss relationship certainly is one of the closest working relationships with some comparing it to that of a work wife.

4. GET TO KNOW YOUR CO-WORKERS...
and find out early on who you can go to and trust. I have a network of assistants that I call friends, although some are just phone colleagues, but we help each other. We are not an island. It works better if you have a whole pool of resources with different strengths to call upon. Makes your work life much easier...

5. KNOW WHAT YOU LIKE
Last year I took a questionnaire to see what my strengths were. When the results were in, I met with the person who administered it and one of the things it showed, other than the fact that I ranked very high in administration, was that I work best on short-term projects where I can see the end in sight. I had never thought about it before, but it was true, I like to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I’ve been able to plan and complete a project successfully. I will have all kinds of energy to work on a project if I know it is ending at one point. But if it is a job that goes on and on with nothing to show for it I get bored. This is an important thing to know. If you know what works best for you and if your job is 80/20 on what you like then you can put up with the small stuff like filing and filling out expense forms.

6. WORK/LIFE BALANCE
We do spend more time at work than at home, but we should try to keep a balance and when we go home, we should be in home mode and when we take holidays, stay away from work (remotely or physically).

The Little Engine That Could...

2009-11-21T22:19:00.012-05:00

Have you ever heard of negative and positive self talk? I just recently read an article on it and was surprised when I really paid attention to the messages I was sending myself that some of them were negative.

I know so many people who are great at what they do, but when I hear them talk about themselves they are very negative and keep telling me how they can't do it. When I look at them however, I see someone who really knows their job and I know they could do it if only they would forget about what they can’t do and concentrate on what they can do. I know that is easier said than done because low self esteem may be the roadblock. I found this link to the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale which has some questions we can ask ourselves to see where we are on the self esteem scale.

I wrote an article awhile back called Just Say Yes and in it I wrote that when I was in my 40s I decided to say Yes to things that I really wanted to do, but was letting fear stop me from trying. When someone asked me to speak or do something at work, I would say "Oh, I could never do that!" But when I turned 40 I told myself that I would regret not doing it if I didn't try and what was the worst thing that could happen anyway? So I started to say Yes and it was a real confidence booster. I started telling myself more positive messages and it empowered me to try. It also helps that I have had three really great bosses in the last decade who have encouraged me and helped me to see that I really could do it. They could see something in me, that I couldn't.

The next time a new challenge or opportunity comes up at work, pay attention to what you tell yourself -- are you being positive or negative? The little messages we send ourselves each day can have an impact on what we think about ourselves and how we perform in our jobs. If you keep telling yourself you can't do it, then of course you won't be able to, but if you say I don't know if I can, but I am going to try anyway, or I know I can do that because it was what I was trained for and then go ahead and do it, it will open all kinds of doors for you. (Or it also may be that you have negative people around you who do not help you to see the best that you can be, perhaps you need to have a heart to heart with your friends or find new ones).

Don’t let self doubt take over. Once you start doubting yourself, it is hard to bring yourself back up. Think about your strengths, not your weaknesses. I think everyone feels insecure at one time or another, but I find you can't let insecurity get the best of you. This is the time you need a lot of positive self talk. Ask your network of assistants for their opinion and feedback and then believe them!

I recently was at a friend’s place and her husband has an elaborate train set. He has the village all set up with the tracks running in and around it. As I was looking at them, I was reminded of the story about the little engine that could. What a great story of encouragement to keep trying and not give up. Let’s take a lesson from that little engine...”I think I can, I think I can.” Now that’s positive self talk...

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

2009-11-08T22:28:00.004-05:00

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 for any meeting he is asked to attend:

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...

2009-11-07T19:27:00.022-05:00

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 things I try to do when communicating by e-mail to make it easier for the recipient:

Consider your audienceE-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.
SalutationIt 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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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

2009-10-31T18:32:00.012-04:00

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:

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

That is not in my job description...

2009-10-11T14:09:00.006-04:00

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...

2009-10-06T19:49:00.015-04:00

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..."

My father was an alcoholic and I now work for a not-for-profit that does research into substance abuse issues so I hear and read a lot about it, but I am certainly not an expert. My purpose in posting this article is 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

2009-10-04T21:43:00.016-04:00

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 anyone 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:

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.
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.
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:

Repeat back what your boss asked you to do so they know you understand the request and ask questions if you don't. 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.
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.
Once you have completed a task, send your boss a quick e-mail to let them know you have done it or cc them on your email. 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.
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

2009-09-20T14:15:00.020-04:00

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

2009-09-18T18:28:00.009-04:00

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...

2009-09-07T11:50:00.013-04:00

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

2009-08-29T16:33:00.151-04:00

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.

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. If you don't keep it confidential, you won't be keeping your job very long.

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

Meet with your executive and get on the same page on what they are expecting you to accomplish when going through their e-mail account. Do they want you to monitor their Inbox and bring urgent things to their attention or do they want you to take control of it? Be very clear on what is expected of you.
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!
Flag items that are urgent or print them for their attention and action. If there are any deadlines or appointments, put them in your boss’s calendar or task list with appropriate reminders. You don't want them to be surprised to find out they have a speaking engagement and haven't had time to prepare.
You may need to reply to e-mails on your boss’s behalf to let the person know that someone is looking into it and will get back to them. Speak to your IT Department. If you have the proper access to your boss’s e-mail account you can reply on their behalf and it will appear in the From line. For example, Patricia Robb on behalf of [boss’s name].
Get any files they may need as a result of the e-mail correspondence.
Check with your boss and if agreed, unsubscribe from any unnecessary e-mails that may be cluttering their Inbox or create subfolders and drag and drop these e-mails there for your boss to check when he or she has the time to review them. Your role may be just to unclutter their Inbox so they can better manage the important items.

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

Is there an action for me to take?
Is this something I need to diarize or bring-forward at a later date?
Is this something he or she will need and does it have to be printed for a meeting?
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 AGM meeting on those dates and you are the Chair?"
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 and if not, ask.
Is this something that I can Delete to unclutter his Inbox? Some emails are obviously junk. For instance I just received an email from a lawyer who said he has an inheritance of $4 million, but he needs me to send him some money and once he receives it, he will send me the money. DELETE!

Keep communication open
Because I read his e-mails, I find it especially 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, but 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 schedule a time and make it a regular 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.

Last but not least...
Don't forget to check your boss's junk folder. I found a few important emails that way as they had gone to the junk folder, but were in fact from legitimate senders. I check it once a day.

Happy trolling!

Nice ways to say, "Hurry up!"

2009-08-23T00:14:00.009-04:00

I hate waiting! Sometimes I need to do a job, but I can’t move forward until I get an answer from someone else. For instance, waiting for a meeting participant to choose a date, waiting for someone to order something that I need to do my job, waiting for someone to call me back, waiting for someone to get back from holidays and then to top it off they don’t put their out-of-office assistant on so you have no idea why they haven't gotten back to you. A co-worker once commented that I was like a dog going after a bone when I wanted information -- she said it as a joke, but it's true!

So how do you word your follow-up e-mail so as not to come across as impatient? I use the following phrases that seem to get the message across, but in a more gentle way than screaming:

I am following up on my e-mail of…
I look forward to hearing from you regarding my e-mail of …
I have not heard back from you regarding my request for...

It is OK to follow up, but be nice...people have a lot on their plate and your request is probably not the only thing they have to do, so be understanding, but be persistent. While waiting for the answer, you can go on to other tasks and bring this item forward another day to get it off your desk, but don’t let it go off your radar. Put it in your Outlook Tasks with a reminder to follow up.

Warning! Warning! Incoming text message...

2009-08-16T01:12:00.025-04:00

There used to be a t.v. show called Lost in Space. The space crew had a robot that waved it's mechanical arms and yelled, "Warning, Warning, alien approaching" or such other thing to protect and inform the crew. Sometimes I wish I had something to warn me when I am with someone with a cell phone so I can know that we are going to be interrupted. I find it frustrating when people either text while in a conversation or are constantly taking phone calls. Doesn't it make you feel as if you are not important?

But isn't it rude to interrupt?

Apparently not, when it's by phone... A person I know does this all the time. I am sure it is not intentional. She just thinks she has to answer her cell phone every time it rings.

My boss, like most bosses these days, is very tied to his BlackBerry and if we are having a meeting and his phone rings, he just can't help but look and see who it is. At least in his case if he has to answer it he will ask if I mind if he takes the call. Other times we will be talking and I notice his eyes moving to his BlackBerry and I will see he is no longer paying attention to me, but reading emails instead. I usually snap my fingers and say "Hey, over here!" We joke about it, but it is distracting.

Here is some common-sense etiquette:

Screen your calls: Subscribe to call display. If you are a parent and want to take calls from your children, you will be able to see who is calling. And please tell your children only to call in case of an emergency, not just because little Johnny won't let Susy have the t.v. remote!
Take it later: Subscribe to voicemail, then if you are in a conversation with someone and your phone rings, you can check your messages at a more convenient time. Nothing says we have to be available 24/7.
Silence is golden: Try setting your phone to vibrate, then just get in the habit of regularly checking your messages. Yes, believe it or not the world will not fall apart if you don't take a call.
Don't be rude: If you feel you must take the call, excuse yourself, but make the call short and tell the person that you are with someone right now, but will call them back when you have a moment. At least you are letting the person you are with know they are important.
Don't text and talk: Texting can give the feeling of talking behind your back. At least with a phone call you hear one side of the conversation, but with a text you have no idea what the person is writing. For instance my friend could have been texting, "I am at a very boring lunch right now, please rescue me and say I am needed at home!"
Smile you are on candid camera: Just because you can take a picture with your phone, doesn't mean you should. Always get the person's permission and never post someone else's photo on a social networking site such as Facebook without asking the person first.
Things are not always as they appear. As I was watching a man on the bus talking on his hands-free cell phone, I couldn't help but be amused. An elderly woman was watching him out of the corner of her eye and you could tell she thought he had some mental issues. I had to admit, it did look pretty funny as he was very animated as he spoke.

In an emergency, the cell phone is a useful tool. How many times in the past ten years has help been on the way sooner because of a cell-phone call ? There is a good purpose for them and they are definitely useful in a business setting. However, I think our etiquette hasn't caught up with the technology. The next time your phone rings, ask yourself if the time and place is right to answer it.

It's all in how you feel

2009-08-08T07:33:00.016-04:00

Remember when you were younger and got a new pair of running shoes? I do! When I put those new runners on I felt I could run faster than I've ever run before.

School will be back in full swing soon. I recall the first day of school feeling so smart in my new clothes as I proudly walked to meet my friends. I was eager to open my brand new book bag and get my pencil and write the first words in my new scribbler. You can be sure my writing was neat with no spelling mistakes in those first few days.

What about when you go to the hairdresser and they work their magic and you come out of there with your hair all shiny and bouncy. I love it when I can feel my hair bouncing as I walk and for a brief moment I feel like a model.

Sometimes it is all in how you feel isn't it?

It can be that way in your professional life as well. How you present yourself and what you wear to the office can help how you feel about what you are doing. If you are in a smart suit with appropriate shoes and hair done, you feel professional and act and speak accordingly. It puts you in the right frame of mind for what you are doing and then you can get down to business.

The same applies if you have a job interview or a new challenge at work. Buying a new outfit or wearing a freshly dry-cleaned suit will go a long way to increasing your confidence level. Of course you have to be prepared and know your stuff, but knowing you look good when you walk in the door will do wonders on how you present yourself.

What about your work space? Is it neat and tidy? Is everything organized and in the proper place so when you need it you can just grab it? Sometimes the state of my office reflects how I feel and how I do my job.

I feel buried and out of control if my office is not tidy and I don't like working in those conditions. It is hectic enough without my space looking hectic as well. Why not take the time to tidy up a bit. Clear your desk as best you can. Keep things orderly. Buy a plant to add some life and colour to your office. Make it a comfortable work area to free you up to do your job well.

The next time you have a big task at work or a new opportunity that is exciting but a bit frightening too, it might be time to wipe down your desk and go out and buy that new suit and walk in and wow the socks off everyone.