Online Executive and Admin Assistant Training

Contact Categories…set ‘em up and use ‘em!

March 22, 2009 at 06:56 PM | (0) Comments

Almost all contact programs allow you to select different categories, that you can define, for each contact profile. Most people don’t use this feature or even know that it exists but as an assistant, if you set different categories for your boss’ contacts, it will save you time and make you look like a star when planning an event or sending out those holiday cards.

You see, when your boss says to copy a letter to all of your clients, you can select the client category in his contacts to fliter out all of the clients. Then, let’s say that one client is on the fence lately so in that situation, you can ask your boss if the letter should go to that client as well. You’re on the ball and they know it.

We suggest that you have categories for family, friends, clients, vendors, employees, network, potential clients and any others that are specific to your boss. And note that you can assign multiple categories for each contact.

Also, having the contacts broken up this way allows you to “mail merge” them into mailing labels for easy holiday card mailings or company newletters… but we’ll cover “mail merge” in a future post. For now, set up categories in your boss’ contacts and use ‘em… trust us, it helps.

All Posts, Tricks of the Trade,

Nailing the interview

March 19, 2009 at 06:57 PM | (0) Comments

A majority of our effort here is to help you succeed at your assistant position however before we can do that, you need to land the job you want, right?

That brings us to Steve Errey’s “The Confidence Guy” blog and his post about making a confident first impression in an interview.

He runs down some of the “oldies but goodies” tips but a few of them really stood out to me like “don’t jump in the first chair you see” and “try to sit a bit diagonally across” from your interviewer so you’re not acting as a wall. Or like his tip about “pacing yourself” which talks about how getting to know someone takes a specific pacing and that you should let the interviewer set that pace and not blurt our your life history when they ask if you found the building OK.

Just some all around good tips to keep in mind when walking into that interview. Check out Steve’s full post HERE.

All Posts, Interpersonal Skills,

“Are you having a bad day or…”

March 14, 2009 at 06:58 PM | (7) Comments

“…is it something I did (or said)?”

The above question can be used in any number of situations when you get the sense that the other person on the other end of the phone or email or standing in front of you, isn’t happy with you or your question or request.

As an assistant, you’re going to be asking people to do their own individual jobs all day long to get what you need done for your boss. Whether that person is the travel agent, IT help guy (or gal), person in accounting dealing with expense reports or anyone else who you might come in contact with if you sense them not being happy with you, you should ask the above question.

By asking the question you get one of two things:

You give them an out to say, “Yeah, I’m having a bad day, sorry for my attitude.”… OR…
You’ll find our real quick if it is something that you in fact did that made them give you their attitude.

You see, you can’t fix a problem or issue with someone else if you don’t know one exists so finding out the answer to that above question is your first step to creating a solid working relationship. We know that confrontation can be hard but if you ask the right question and give the person you’re dealing with an out, you will both be better off for it… and you’ll be surprised at how quickly that attitude you noticed earlier will disappear.

All Posts, Stress Management,

Save up your “See ya!” money ASAP

March 10, 2009 at 06:58 PM | (0) Comments

The advice in this post goes for pretty much everyone but as you’ll see below, assistants have to worry about fraud and ethical lapses within their company and be aware of the potential that they unknowingly could be an accomplice to such actions.

This article is about Bernie Madoff’s assistant, Annette Bongiorno down in FL. A reporter tracked her down and is asking questions about all of her assets and if she personally put through any trades on behalf of Bernie. There are legitimate questions about her involvement and knowledge of Bernie’s scheme BUT if she smelled something “fishy” in the beginning AND had some “See ya!” money saved up, she could have quit and avoided a really bad situation. Now she’s being tracked down by investigative reporters and has probably met a few times with the FBI.

Moral of the story? Save up some “See ya!” money ASAP when you enter the working world so if you ever smell anything “fishy” OR if you need to get away from a maniacal boss, you can.

UPDATE - Below is the video of this report and you can see that Annette wants nothing to do with it: