Online Executive and Admin Assistant Training

February 22, 2010 at 04:36 PM | (7) Comments

Ursula Burns Xerox CEO The New York Times has a great article about Ursula Burns, the new CEO for Xerox. She has held many different positions throughout her 30 years working for the company but what is particularly interesting to us here at ProAssisting is how Ursula was mentored in the executive assistant position by her two different bosses.

During downtime, they would talk with Ursula about her communication style and how she could round off some of her edges so she performed her job better. Here is a key section of the article:

He offered her a job as his executive assistant. It was January 1990, she was 31, and the offer felt like a dead-end. “Why would I ever want to do that?” she answered, assuming that the title meant secretary. The job was much more, of course. She would travel with Mr. Hicks, sit in on important meetings, help get things done.

She accepted, and, Mr. Hicks remembers, they talked a lot about leadership. Mr. Hicks, a vice president overseeing marketing and customer operations, explained the need to manage people in different ways, not to intimidate them, and to make them feel comfortable by listening carefully.

And then this too:

Later, the phone rang. Mr. Allaire [Xerox’s President] wanted to see her in his office. She figured that it was not good news. But Mr. Allaire wanted to poach her from Mr. Hicks, so she could be his executive assistant.

They, too, would talk about leadership during down time. He didn’t want to discourage her candor, but, like Mr. Hicks, he offered tips about how to be more effective—“like giving people credit for ideas that they didn’t have, but you sold to them, to give them ownership,” Mr. Allaire recalls advising her.

These working relationships are a perfect example of how much more the position of executive assistant can be and what that can lead to in the future. Finding the right boss who took the time—when there was time—to mentor her was key to Ms. Burns’ future success. You too can make the transition from executive or administrative assistant onto the career path of your choosing and when you think you can’t, just remember Ursula Burns and how she did it.

Photo credit: Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

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All Posts, Tales from the Trenches,

Entertainment Biz 101

February 17, 2010 at 03:14 PM | (0) Comments

entertainment business As a way to “spread the word” about ProAssisting toward a target market that would benefit greatly from our training, I recently conducted a call with students and alumni from the University of Wisconsin where I gave a presentation to them about the business of entertainment.

Titled “Entertainment Biz 101”, the presentation is based on what I’ve learned while working in the entertainment and advertising industries here in New York City over the last 14 years. The truth of the matter is though that a lot of the tactics and strategies that I talk about on the call are the same ones that you should apply in any industry you’re interested in making your mark in.

We plan to hold more of these calls with other universities in the future and after a few more tweaks to this presentation, we’ll be presenting this information in ebook format as well as the recorded calls.

If you’re interested in hearing the call and how you can either use the information to break into the entertainment business or conquer your own chosen industry, I’ve linked to it below. Let us know in the comments what you think of it and if you have any questions, ask away and I’ll do my best to help answer them for you. Enjoy:

Here’s the link:
Click here to listen to or download the .mp3 interview

To listen now, just click the link.
To download the .mp3 to save and listen to later on your computer, iPod or other mp3 player:
For Mac users, hold “Ctrl” and click the link then select “save linked file to…” to save it to your desktop.
For PC users, “right click” the link and “save link as…”.

Flickr Creative Commons image by Echo_29

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All Posts, Technology,

Could technology make Assistants obsolete?

February 05, 2010 at 01:05 PM | (0) Comments

Just downloaded a new app for my iPhone that the maker calls, “The Personal Assistant in your Phone.” I read that line twice and thought to myself, “Could technology make my job obsolete?” After thinking about it for a bit though, I realize that all of these technological advances (apps, cell phones, computers, google, etc.) aren’t going to supplant the assistant position, it’s just going to make our jobs easier to perform by being able to multi-task more effectively. My boss would never use the below app on their phone… that’s what they have ME for. BUT I am glad that I can now use this app to accomplish any such task demonstrated in the video below in a quick and seamless way while out of the office or home and on the go. Have an iPhone?... check it out, it’s free.

Siri - The Personal Assistant in your Phone from Tom Gruber on Vimeo.

Siri is a virtual personal assistant on your phone. You ask Siri in your own voice, and it helps you get things done when you’re on the go. This video shows a demo of Siri helping plan a romantic evening, get tickets to a great movie, discover cool things to do on the weekend, and getting back home.

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All Posts, Off Topic,

Off Topic (kinda): An assistant in the making

February 01, 2010 at 12:42 PM | (0) Comments

The below video is from The Bonnie Hunt show and is a segment about a little girl helping her father out in a touch situation… she’s so calm, cool and collected, I know she’d make a great assistant! Very touching and a must watch: