Introduction to Administrative Professional Jobs | Part 1

1. Introduction: Hi there. Welcome to administrative professionals. Wanna one? My name is Rosa Maria, and I am so excited to be teaching this course The field of administrative professionals is large and it includes administrative assistance, program assistance, executive assistance coordinators, Secretary's office managers and so many more at jobs and, um, professions under it because the field itself Issa really large in this course we're gonna learn about or will actually focus on three main job opportunities or types of jobs. And that's administrative assistance program assistance and executive assistants. Michael, for this course is that you understand whether or no, this is a feel you should consider if, uh, understand the differences between an administrative assistant, a program assistant and executive assistant, and then broadly understand the kind of skills needed to enter into this broad field and had a thriving it. And if you are not interested in jobs but are interested in hiring support staff like assistance, this could give you some good insight about the fuel in the kind of work that gets done. If you are somebody who has been working as an administrative professional and would like to market your skills, this could also provide some good framing for you to talk about the field and what your skills are. So broadly speaking, this course is for high school graduates, college graduates that includes community college graduates. Uh, recent grads who maybe are not ready to commit to, uh, career path and need something transitional, these air really good types of jobs where you could do a year or two or three in a field that you'd like to explore. You have an interest area, but maybe you didn't study. You are unsure of, um, so that's he's a really good opportunity jobs. And then for those of you who are returning to the workplace, if you've been out, um, caring for Children or family or you just took some time off and you want to read into the workplace, this is Ah, these are it good entry point jobs. So I am really excited for the course. If you are interested, please in role, and I will see you in the course 2. About the Instructor: Like I said, my name is will somebody yet and I've created this course because I have worked in administrative positions over the past seven years. I did it through college, and once I graduated college, and when I graduated from Berkeley, I, um, unexpectedly found myself in these positions, and there was a lot of misconceptions that I had about this field. A lot of what I thought was administrative work. I really only understood it as like secretarial work. But the fields has evolved and the need has evolved significantly. And so there's a lot of opportunity if I created this course, mainly because, um, it's a very dynamic field. And when I was doing some research about the course, there aren't many. Resource is around what it means to be an assistant of any time. It talks a lot about the skill sets, but there aren't many firsthand experiences about this dynamic feel and thes jobs condemn definitely be very dynamic, very fulfilling and have so much opportunity, um, both to advance your career but also gives you a lot of opportunity took grow skills that you may need in other kind of management jobs or other types of jobs that you would like to transition to 3. About the Project: let's talk a little bit about the project. The project is fairly simple. If you are someone who has hired an assistant before an administrative assistant and program assistant or an executive assistant police leave us either one paragraph, a 3 to 5 sentence paragraph or ah, few bullet points telling us what made them great. What's Gil? What value they brought to the team or the business? Um, that would be helpful for everybody in this community to know. Um, from off somebody who has hired kind of the value that assistant spring to work. Um, so just asking a small paragraph for a few bullet points about them if you are have not hired and have not worked with assistance. And you're wondering if these career paths are for you. Uh, leave us a one paragraph reflection about what was said here. You know what you learned Didn't if you had a misperception in this course help to you, you know, um, understand it better. Or you had some thoughts. Maybe that you weren't considering an administrative positions before any. Any reflections that you have. Um I'm looking forward to read. I'm really also interested in understanding how these administrative positions get perceived in the world. I know that my perceptions were terribly wrong when I graduated from Berkeley. Now is like looking for job opportunities and career opportunities. Um, so that's basically it. I might also have a survey at, like a fine question survey at the end of the course that you can offer some suggestions for future content and things like that. But I'm really just trying to get your thoughts and insights, so please share in the comments section below. 4. Why Consider the Administrative Professionals Field?: you may be wondering, why use? Reconsider this field first and foremost this field this massive you confined administrative positions in any sector and any field in any industry, profession, anything. It is so broad. Um, and he does not matter how niche your interests are, right? If you're interested in water conservation there hundreds and thousands of positions for you. If you are interested in gaming or in a very specific tech viewpoint, there are There are positions for that. The field is so broad that it allows you to think broadly. You know, health, technology, medical technology, social justice, very population level questions like Maybe you want to work with, ah, business. Who's interested in supporting Asian American community? Theatricum American community, that Latino community, the LGBT community. It is so broad. And because it's so broad, there are plenty of jobs in in any kind of interest area that you have. So it doesn't matter how big your interests are or how narrow they are. There are administrative positions in any sector. Of course, you have to look for them, but there are out there, and so because off the just the amount of jobs out there in these administrative positions , it allows you to align your passions, right. Your passion or passions. Your viewpoint. You know how you perceive and understand the world and kind of what you want to do with your life. It allows you to find those businesses and companies and organizations that are all about you. Um, when I graduated from UC Berkeley, I knew that I wanted to go into the nonprofit sector. So I did not look for jobs in the for profit sector, and I didn't look for them in the public sector. And the nonprofit sector is probably what I will do for a long time. Um, because the jobs that align with my values system are in the nonprofit sector. So you can you can go a Sfar wide or narrow as you want and find a lot of opportunity. So I really do think about your passions, your interests and, um know that there are opportunities out there for you. And so because, um, you couldn't do that a lot of thes opportunity. A lot of these jobs, Like I said, they're kind of like entry level or mid level, depending on where you're going. Apply there's a lot of room for upper mobility. If you start at the bottom as an administrative assistant, you could move up into management roles into, or you could be redirected out into, like the project rules, right? Um, if you also like depending on the field or the sector, these jobs could be pretty well paid for sure in the business sector, depending on where which sector you're in, Um, executive assistance can make anywhere from like 40 to 70 $80,000 a year. Um, technology is also well paid. The nonprofit sector is not as well paid as the business sector, but, um, it could be depending on where you live. Your geography has a big has to do with the pay and also the size of the organization, so those are all things to consider. But know that there's a lot of opportunity you can online your passion, your interest right. You can definitely have experience a good amount of upward mobility before you needed transition out, and these jobs also opened doors to really competitive careers or kind of careers where you need skill sets that you don't have. So if I had wanted to like I said, graduated. I graduated with psychology and sociology degree, but if I wanted to go into the tech sector into doing Web development, I don't really have that skill set. But I could enter through an administrative position, understand the field, understand kind of the skills, undeveloped relationships and enter into that field, transitioning through the administrative track. Um, if you are, if you just need a place holder kind of job, he's a really good opportunity. Um, if you are interested, say you graduated with your bachelor's and you're wondering like, Hey, should I go to grad school? Because I want to be a doctor or I want to be a lawyer? Should I invest the money and my time to do that? Well, you can transition into some kind of administrative, professional or assistant and become like a medical assistant or a legal assistant and see if that fuel is of interest. And like I said, the medical field so broad and so narrow, so you can definitely look for and kind of the interest your interest area. Same thing for, like legal the law sector. You can go Assn. Arrow as you want, so there's a lot of opportunity. So to some rice, it's large. You couldn't align your interests, your passions, right in these positions. There's a room for upper mobility, and they're good entry points into competitive careers. And also, they're really good, um, jobs when you need to do a transition between a job, so there's a lot of opportunities there. Um, but we'll go deeply into the jobs, the skills that are needed in this field. See you in the next video. 5. Role Ambiguity : So in this video we're gonna talk about the three types of assistance at this course is focus on administrative assistance of program assistance and executive assistance. Like I mentioned, I had to narrow it because this field is so broad. But a lot of the jobs that, um So the jobs I'm talking about also end up applying to kind of secretaries or coordinators or office managers and, um, a lot of other types of assistance. The thing is that I want you to understand, as we start going deeply in tow, kind of the work is that even though I'm trying Teoh be clear in trying to distinguish what the roles are for these positions. I know that in the real world, once we get into the workplace, these rules are very different. Um, they blend a lot of the times they'll land in administrative assistance, job with the program. Um, and that's because businesses try to design jobs that fit their needs or their capacity. Um, so, generally speaking, the differences between these jobs that I'm talking about are very specific. But know that you may be in this in these positions, and then you may be wondering or thinking like, Oh, I do that. But I'm not a program assistant. Um, no, that it just depends. It depends on the business, the company with the organization that you're working for, Um, and the kind of need that they have. And so they design thes these job positions to fill those needs. Um, but there are some very specific differences in how people do the work. So how an administrative administrative person would do the work versus of program assistant and in executive assistance because they kind of stand in different places in the organization. I want you to think about these positions in terms of a triangle. If you think about of trying, go home. I want you to think about administrative positions being at the bottom part of the triangle program assistance in the middle part of the triangle and then at the top of the triangle Executive assistance. And it's not because one is better than the other. It's when I put them in this kind of triangle is just to show how the duties, um, narrowed down, and then how people end up doing the work based on where they sit, Right? So UM that will become a little bit more clear outs. We get into the comparisons and understanding the differences, so let's begin. 6. The Administrative Assistant Role: Hello, everyone. So we're going to start by understanding the role of administrative assistance. Administrative assistants tend to be the most comment entry level administrative job. Um, the title does differ depending on the sector that you work in, but overall, it's a very generalize role. So in the previous video, I talked about how work or any think about thes three positions. Um, in terms of a pyramid. Administrative assistance fall at the bottom of the pyramid because they support on organization if they work in a really big business or organization or institution that maybe supporting a department instead of the whole business. So it kind of depends on the how large the place that they work in is and then, um, how divided the rules need to get to support the whole staff. So sometimes it just maybe departments. But the whole idea is that they provide a general life support. They will often build the role of being a front desk administrative assistant there at the front desk, greeting people, directing calls, responding to anybody who's got any type of communications with the business. They often are overseeing processes or if they're not establishing their managing um, organizing processes. They're managing databases. They're doing data entry. They are ensuring that the people that work in the business get the tools. The resource is the information they need to get their work done. But in addition to doing all of this, admit administrative tasks. If they didn't, if they're not establishing systems, they're managing system. So they may be managing a a filing system for the organization. So it may be the person that people go to to understand where you know. The latest say H R documents are where the latest time sheets invoices, you know how to place an order for office supplies. Maybe it's had a request permission to use the corporate card like they're the holders of all of this information. The kind of knowledge expertise that administrative assistance develop is more in systems and process based because they have to know where things are, how to get things done. Who holds what type of information, who decides what they have kind of like a systems and information perspective or viewpoint . And so that's the kind of knowledge that they have. And it's the kind of knowledge that you need on a day to day basis. If somebody has a question about booking travel, somebody has a question about having an event in the office, and they don't know exactly what the customers are in. The organization's there, the holders of this type of generalized information, and so a lot of the knowledge that they carry is that process is how we do things here. And so they're usually the people who are probably the best resource for any new person in an organization, because it's it's them who you would go to get the information that you need. So now we're going to move on to the next video. We're gonna talk about program assistance and how their roles are a little bit different. 7. The Program Assistant Role: Now we're going to understand the role of program assistance and their duties and responsibilities. Ah, program assistant is moves up, moves us up to the second tier in this pyramid. And they're at this middle tier in this pyramid because there duties, responsibilities and focused get narrowed. They're not supporting an organization. Their work is in service of the people that work in that very narrow niche, right? So if it is a program, they're working for the program and ensuring that the people who work on that specific mentorship program have the tools and resources that they need, or that person who is leading the healthy food work have the tools and information they need to do their work. So their work now is in service of, um, those those few people or even one person, sometimes that you just get brought into were with somebody else. When I'm talking about programs, I'm talking about very discrete or specific expertise or knowledge or actual programs. Maybe a new organization works in obesity preventions or diabetes management or healthy food, so it's narrowed so the organization might work on a lot of things. But there's a specific team that works on a certain content. If it's in the business sector and maybe an actual project, it will be maybe a social media campaign for A for a big Corporates account. So the term programs flexible and it will change depending on where, what I'm sector that you work. They, too, have a lot of administrative duties, but everything it all of their administrative duties are in support of that area of work. One of the main distinguishing characteristics of the program assistant and the administrative assistant is really their knowledge. As in the previous video, we talked about how administrative assistance had this kind of information systems process knowledge that they build because they're supporting the whole team. While programme assistance have a different kind of knowledge and motor, most of their expertise is related to the program. They support support. So they do have a new organizational knowledge because anybody who works in an organization or business understands a certain amount of information that they need right toe work within an organization. But a program assistant will have their knowledge will get more specialized when they start working with a small number of teams, they'll be actually supporting the work. They'll know who's supposed to do what if, especially if they're in the actual coordination there. Taking notes, they're following upon delivery bubbles. They're ensuring that the staff knows what needs to get done, reminding people of deadlines. They're doing that kind of, ah, coordination for the teams. They have a very specific expertise that they're developing around that area of work. So that's the bigger difference. Unlike the administrative assistance, whose constant communication is with welcoming guests and greeting people who are coming into the organization, Most of the communications and customer service skills that they'll use is with people the partnerships that they develop in order to leave that area of work, right? So if they're doing healthy food, um and they're working externally with other people in the same field there, that's where they're connecting, communicating and developing both their communication skills in the customer service rate versus working with people who are coming into the office to ask questions. A lot of the times they program assistance and becoming like the first go to person in an organization for a body of work. So sometimes staff may not want to go ask the leader of a project, something really simple, like, Where's this report? Where's this information? So programme assistance or are are the first contact person within the actual organization as well there? Because they know so much bacon direct staff internally on how to find things or give updates on where things are. So they become kind of the first person to to connect with or to talk to. If you need something immediately and you know that the lead on a project is gonna be busy in meetings or traveling. Um, and so they hold a lot of expertise when it comes to the subject matter that that they work in and the team that they support. So now we're going to move on to the executive assistant and understanding their role. 8. The Executive Assistant Role: Hello. And so now we're gonna move on to understanding the role of the executive assistant. So the executive assistant is at the top of the pyramid and they're at the top of the pyramid because their work, it gets more narrow, more specialized in more focus executive A systems that work with, um, high level staff. So you're your CEO, your president, your vice president. Whatever high level person works in your business organization, they tend tohave executive assistance and the work that they do. That administrative aspect, the coordinating, the managing aspect off their work is all all of it in service of that one person they support. So they, too, have to ensure that the person they support has the tools of resource is the information that they need to get their work done. So all administrative tasks that they perform is in service off that person, whatever they need. So they may not be the person book in trouble, but they make they They would be making sure that they're either tracking trump, talking to the travel agent that does it, or talking to the front desk administrative assistant who processes travel or figuring out how they do it, and in some cases they do book travel. It depends on the job description on the sides of the organization and the focus. What separates the executive assistant from the admin assistant and the program assistant is two things. For one, they are working at a higher levels. Their duties and responsibilities have, ah, are bit more complex and they have a higher impact. And the reason for that is because they're supporting, uh, of course, high level people, people who have access to organizational information and who are leading organizational work. So because they're so close to the people with the expertise, the power, they're interacting with people who have a certain level of expertise in power. So if they support a CEO, they're more likely gonna work with other CEO oh's within their field or with other fields . Our they're working and we're communicating more with the presidents and vice presidents, elected officials and high level people within another partner organization. So because the people that they support are doing this high level work organization, work their impact, this organizational right, Um, and because they do this now, their expertise is very specific. It's an organization focused expertise they are learning about organizational challenges, organizational issues, strategic thinking, strategic visions for the organization there in these high level discussions and conversations around a business or organization, right that a person working in programs won't have access to, or somebody working in administrative assistant. Well, so the difference in exper teens between the administrative system, which also has kind of an organizational focus, is that the administrative assistant is working on actual processes to maintain an organization running versus They're looking organizational processes to move forward on organization, right to get ahead, to lead. And so that's the kind of organisational viewpoint and perspective that they develop because of the people they support in the kind of work that they're supporting. Right? So the president and CEO are managing probably the priority work for the business. More organization. They're doing calls with funders. They're working with elected officials. They're working with competitors having partnerships. So they're doing this really high level work. And the executive assistant has this, uh, this connection and so they're customer service, and their relationship building is all focused on managing all of these relationships for their CEO over there. President. So That's the kind of work that they get to Dio. Um, if the CEO is organised managing oftentimes when the CEO is managing organizational priorities of the administrative. But assistant is supported them, ensuring that they understand the timelines deadlines and making sure that any request that comes through it comes through for that CEO or president is weighed against whatever competing priorities that there are in. So most of the work is in service, right? In service of that CEO. So really, the biggest differences among these positions is who you support, how you do it based on where you sit in the organization and the content expertise. So now that we've learned a little bit, the differences in these positions, um, will talk a little bit about just kind of the types of actual administrative task that people do 9. Overview of Administrative Duties: let's talk a little bit about the administrative roles in the more common kind of administrative duties that most of these positions will do. And then I'll talk a little bit about the ones that are a little bit different. But it'll give you a sense of what administrative tasks are, and there are a lot more than this, and there are some that are just very specific to industry. So first and foremost, email process e tons, tons of email, all three positions will do that. And anybody working in any field will process even male. But really, assistance are not only processing email that goes to them, but the ghost to the people they support. So they're processing. And that means reading, deciding what to do with a piece of email responding and with email. There's a lot of requests for meetings scheduling meetings with internal staff, external staff partnerships, funders of board members. With so many types of people, a big portion off of these assistance do tings is scheduling meetings. Administrative it assistance won't need to do it that much, because usually they'll be program assistance. Also working in an organization and supporting a team and then they'll be the executive assistance important the high level staff there. So administrative assistance may do it when it relates to organizational issues there. Coordinating of meetings maybe more limited and smaller in comparisons with a program assistant and for sure, an executive assistant. So meetings is a huge portion of, uh, the work that needs to get done. That and then communications all types of communications, internal communications, external communications and it's on email. Alm phone through video. Any means you will have you will be communicating. And so program for sure and executive assistance are writing different types of mammals. Mammals around process maybe updates communications for external use. Administrative assistance would do it, but only focused on organizational issues. Right? They need to update somebody they need to provide the staff an update on the latest crosses for booking, travel or whatever. So their communications is all center around process. Um, travel troubles, probably another very time consuming task that assistance will help administrative assistance. If they support a small business or team organization, they'll probably support people doing that and actually book travel. But if business is big enough tohave program assistance and executive assistance they'll probably be doing that for one their teams for the sea and the CEO. And so travel includes everything from booking hotels, booking flights, uh, reserving cars, making sure that the logistics of traveling are taking care off very time consuming. Sometimes executive assistance may work with travel agents because high level people like CEO Oh's often travels so much. And so, having a neg, Zeke yah tive assistant Do that much travel in addition to all the duties that they have to perform. Sometimes it's just too much to dio. So all these positions will do a certain level of travel in accounting all organizations and businesses for profit, non profit public sector. Everybody on staff is expected to do a certain level of counting, right? So if they're traveling, they expect to be reimbursed for the expenses that they incur. They have to submit paperwork, and as a executive assistant, A would ensure that their CEO gets all that taking care of it, maybe processing a spreadsheet on of their credit card. It may be collecting all the receipts. A program assistant would ensure that their staffers, um are understand the process for, uh, seeking reimbursement and making sure that they get their reimbursement process and sharing about the information, the actual process and the administrative assistant maybe supporting actual people. If the organization is small and enough or the they may just be directing people to the forms or whatever needs to happen, um, to process all of that reimbursements and invoicing and accounting details that need to get done. Event planning and coordination is often something that all three assistance will do At some point. Administra bit assistance will do event planning when it's probably and kind of like a partnerships when you're bringing in external people. Um, and for the staff, when there has to be, like a staff training or something like that, that is organization. Why they'll do that. M planning program Assistance will do have been planning when it relates to the program. Maybe they're gonna have a conference that they're gonna have a convenient or they're gonna have just the meeting with local leaders. They're going to do that. Planning on executive assistant would do it when their CEO is hosting people in the organization. So everybody will do a certain level of a bent planning in coordination. Um, you know the basic tasks, awarding office supplies of helping with printing, copying, faxing, um, scanning all of that. Everybody will do to some extent. And everybody will know how to do that. Um, in an organization, even people who are not adamant stuff. But the admin staff are kind of expected to understand these processes and to support everybody who needs that kind of support. And for sure, the administrative assistant would be the go to person for him getting those processing, getting technology toe work, um, and getting support when you just need a little bit of additional support that administrative tasks of managing technology, everybody will do. Administrative assistance will probably be the best resource and supports for that data entry. Um, administrative assistants and program assistance will do data entry both, Of course, you know, in service off whoever they support executive assistance will do data entry when it comes to managing whatever information or, uh, systems their CEO is overseeing. So if there's they oversee some big database, they'll be contributing to that. An administrative assistant made do data entry, um, like around accounting issues. They need to process invoices or data entry related to H R, so that kind of I'm data entry. The program system will do data in triple as it relates to the team that they support in the project that they support. Other, more specialized work that they made to the program. Assistance and Executive Assistance might do include creating presentations, developing talking points and, uh, writing speeches. For that, there's a level research and prep work that needs to go into. So if a program assistant executive assistant are creating designing an actual presentations with images and actual content, oftentimes they'll have to meet with, um, the people that their staffers going to go and meet right? So if their CEO is asked to go give a presentation on a subject matter, Theo Executive Assistance would be in communications with the people that made the request . Ask about the audience what kind of information they need, what the topic of the presentation should be about. And then they'll a start developing some kind of presentation or talking points. Or they'll actually develop out of speech and work with their CEO old and to make sure that the speech makes sense and that it resonates with whoever they need to. Um inspire, mobilize and, um, you know, educate. And so those are just a few of the many administrative tasks that assistance will do. There is a lot more. So if you have any comments and questions, please leave. Leave them in the comments section below. Now we're going to move on to learning about the skills needed te thrive in this field. 10. The Value of Assistants: Let's spend a little bit of time talking about the value of an executive assistant or program assistant and just the work of assistance a lot of the time. Because thes work, these jobs have assistant in them and dependent on the field. Or, um, people. These positions are judged, Um, because you're you're assisting somebody else in doing the work. And so it's important to understand kind of the value that these positions, um, provide for a business. A company of Project a team CEO and executive director and the example all uses executive assistance. And this comes from the business sector because they know how to quantify positions and determined value of a position. Um, and so in the business sector, Executive Assistance Air kind of considered gatekeepers and gatekeeper and somebody who keeps the gate they are managing who has access to the time the energy and the information that the CEO holds. They are manning the Gate CEO OH's get tons of requests from a tons of people. They're getting requests for speaking engagements, attendance to conferences, invitations to meetings, both virtual and in person. They also need to manage, deliver a bles and projects and um they need to manage people. And so the kinds of requests that come through for a CEO are a lot. A good executive assistant manages their CEOs time and helps them focus on the work that needs to get done in any given moment, right there managing their time, their energy. The resource is that they have, um, and helping them prioritise their work. And in many cases, um, when the assistant is either like super competent because I've had years of experience Or maybe they developed a really good working relationship with their CEO. Oh, they end up playing kind of like a hybrid role between being an assistant and being a program staff because they end up picking up so much programmatic, um, work, organisational work. Um, that they'll end up doing that and they'll end up influencing the organization's work. I'm significantly because they're working with the C O. And they're learning so much and contributing their knowledge and expertise. Being a gatekeeper to these high level people ensures that they don't get overwhelmed. They don't miss all of this kind of requests and informations that are constantly coming through. And this is the same for program assistance because they're doing that. But they're doing that further projects and a lot of the time the program assistance Air, taking on all processing all this information and just funneling down what needs to get to the main staff. And so they have to do all of that decision making process. So let's move on to the skill so that you get better insight about how each of the skills needed to do this job well contributes possible positively, um, to an organization. 11. Communications Skills: having good Britain and oral communication skills is really important in any kind of job, and as an assistant you will be doing a lot of communicating in several mediums. You'll be doing that on the phone in person m via email. A lot of it will be via email assistance on a daily weekly basis. Are always processing e mails, um, in their processing, different types of emails, and some of them are directed to them. Most of them are directed to the people that they support four programme assistance and executive assistance of their processing different kinds of me males that are maybe task oriented. Sometimes there, processing email, that's information seeking. So somebody has a question about something or they want an update on something, and so they'll be doing that on behalf of the person that they support. Um, sometimes there's a request that has to come through, you know, requests for a meeting. A lot of this communication is in communication. Being a good writer is important and then being specific to kind of like a business or a formal style writing is really important, especially in the business sector. I feel like it's more formal. I work in the nonprofit sector, so it gives me a little bit of flexibility, Um, when it comes to my writing. But it's not always the case, because sometimes I have to interact with people in government or with foundation people or with like, just high level people. So I have to be as formal as possible, especially if I don't know who they are or if I don't have established relationships. So it will depend own kind of the sector that you work on and then kind of the relationship that you have with the people and the organizational expectations. So it's important to have good for in communication. Um, or a communication, of course, is very, very important, because you will always be speaking to somebody. You'll be you know, of course, interacting daily with the person that you support with the teams that you support with the organization, um, the staff in general, and then any kind of partnerships that you have, you'll be on the phone. So having really good Orel communication skills is really important because you always need to be clear about what you need so that you can get your job done Being able to communicate clearly both written and oral Lee is important because you're always kind of representing the person you support. It's the organization that you work for, and so coming off, clear, concise and personable is really important to have a a good first impression. The good thing is that communication skills are probably one of the easiest kind of skill set to work on because there's so many. Resource is everybody is trying toe have good communication skills. So if writing is not your strength, maybe you can take a night class or a week in class. If not, you could, like, read books on better writing or grammar or structure. Whatever your challenge is, I use the tool called Graham early, that allows me to write on it and capture very simple things around syntax, grammar, repetitive nous and things like that. I also use people who love to do who love writing, especially what I need to send out important e mails or emails that I need them to be as clear as possible. I have friends and colleagues from colleagues, um, review my stuff, people that I trust people who are not going to judge me if I, um, wrote the wrong verb or forgot the you know, whatever grammatical error I made. So if you have colleagues that are not judgmental and who have your best interest, asking them to review your work for important documents is a good practice, and letting them know that you're open to feedback is probably one of the best ways to improve your wrecking communication skills. And that's what I have. I have a few people in my organization who I trust and who I believe have my bet and who believe in kind of me and helping me be the best employee I can be for the work. And so I, um, honest and I asked for the help when I need to, Um, and I also have their back if or a communications is the hardest thing you know, that's that encompasses from like speed public speaking in a big venue to like a small bet . New If that's what you struggle with, you can start slow and delivering, um, kind of small speeches at work, putting yourself out there or in front of friends. If you have friends and you're like I have a big presentation I need to give. Can I give it to you? And can you give me some feedback that you can tell me about the content? Use The resource is the people that you have at hand as kind of the That's not the best resource that you have. That is low budget and very impact for rape. If you need more support, you could also use become a Toastmasters. If you are a toastmaster, say hi, but a toastmaster is a club on international club dedicated to training people to speak better. Public speaking is their goal. If you want to learn how to communicate better, they're there for you. So go online to toastmaster stop or and look for a club in your area. And it is the most supportive way club space that allows you to come to practice your public speaking. I went religiously for three years. I can't say every good thing that I I want about Toastmasters. Maybe I'll make course about it 12. Time Management Skills: Hi there. We're gonna be talking about another very important skill in this video time management. Everybody is trying toe manage time, right in order to get more done. But the truth is that time can't be managed. Managing time really is about prioritizing and focusing on tasks that mattered in any given moment in time. And being able to manage other people's times is the hardest thing to dio. But it's also the one of the most important things to dio as a noces, distant as an assistance, you have to be good at managing or prioritizing your time and the time of the person that you support so that you both can complete whatever deliverables you I need all in time. Because the concept of managing time is difficult to understand. I'm gonna use an example that's super simple, but that clearly illustrates how assistance save people time and how they help them manage or prioritise their time. Right, because time management is about priorities and saving time, so that you can do other, more important or significant things, managing time itself a super time intensive. When it comes to administrative tasks, it requires a lot of mental energy that executives and high level people, um and even mid level staff should not be spending or, you know, spending time on. Um, so if you are like a CEO or a high level person you want, you want them to be focusing their mental energy in our organizational priorities and outcomes and achieving whatever deliver herbal zehr supposed to be a she achieving for the organization. So when you remove the administrative thinking that they're supposed to be doing around certain staffs, you're automatically saving time. We're gonna take scheduling meetings, Okay? Scheduling a meeting per se is super simple. Somebody can be like Rosa, can you confirm a meeting with Joe for tomorrow? 10. It's super easy for me to go to my outlook calendar or Gmail calendar and sent that person a confirmation for a meeting for tomorrow at 10. Right? That's easy. Um, what gets complicated is when your receiving 2030 40 emails, right? Information seeking emails, tasks, um, reference emails. So when you're processing that much email on a day to day basis, it's a lot of work, and it requires a lot of mental process in the first step, when emails come through a nem box on def. You're an executive assistant. Your problem being directed, all the emails that come from the CEO or to the C e O. Um, if you're program assistant, you're probably receiving some of the emails that comes through on the staff themselves that used to port. So having all of these requests that this is what has to happen as an assistant, you have to read all of the emails that are coming through that our information seeking. So if somebody is asking for something from someone you need to know because there's a task and that reference email. So somebody's updating you on something, or somebody is talking to you about some project or giving you reference material information, you have to also process that decide if that's important. If, um, there's a request for, like, a meeting or a conference or ah, call or attending a speaking engagements or conference attending a conference, you have to process all of that. Once you, um, read all of this content, you have to determine, like, what do you do? Like what's the next step? You need to look at what's already on the calendar so If it's for the CEO, you have to look at their calendar or call. What meetings? What events there already in attending that that day that week, that month. And then you have to weigh all of these. So you got 20 requests. You have to decide. Okay, what do I do? Like which of these 20 requests are high priority, Low priority. You have to weigh them against whatever's on the calendar. They're still against approaching deadlines for projects because sometimes people don't put their projects on the calendar. They're just working on them on whatever other competing priorities. Right. So as an assistance, you are, um, making these decisions on behalf of the people or person that you support so on. Excellent assistant is able to look at the at the big picture, right? What is the person or people I support doing in any given day, week and month, Right. And based on that, I need to make some independent decisions like, what could we accommodate right in whatever available time there s. And then I have to kind of make some suggestions about how the CEO should prioritize the request that are coming through and bring their attention to specific details. So you gotta think about these positions. Kind of at least, you know, for processing tasks, meetings of things. That consultant, you are basically saying, Rosa, yesterday you got 20 requests for meetings based on your available time. The events on your calendar Thea upcoming program is that you have this meeting should be delayed two weeks out, right? Um, but if this meeting is high priority, take Melinda's time. If not, then we can just schedule for the past or, you know, later in the next two weeks. So you have condensed the amount of thinking the person that you support has to do. You are telling them what's on their plate, right? What? How they're already using their time and giving them some suggestions on how they could more efficiently do their time. And then they will be able to say, Well, you know, it's kind of it is kind of a high priority. So let's just take Melinda's place or schedule over Melinda and get her schedule two weeks out because that discussion is not important. But being able to narrow the amount of time the people that you support have to do in thinking is time saving valuable, and you've already helped them prioritise something super simple. A lot of times in these positions, you'll spend look, maybe 20 minutes, maybe three days, trying to schedule a meeting about something, and you won't get it done. And you're like, Why did I spend 20 minutes trying to schedule this meeting that should logistically be taking only, like 10 right. But that's because it requires decision making and to do effective decision making. You need information. So you need to gather all the information that you need to be able to make these decisions on your own and to help the people that you support. Prioritize the work. Eso That's just one example something super simple. Scheduling meetings, how you end up saving and helping the people that you support prioritize their time. And that can happen with requests for speaking engagements or requests for attending conferences, um, or even requests for doing projects. If somebody says, Can you take this on you could actually be a sounding board and be like, um, you know, I know that you agreed to take this song, but I do want to remind you that you've already have these five things that are due in the next three weeks, so you may want to consider passing another one off to somebody else and those kinds. That kind of thinking and guidance is how you're prioritising and you're managing the people that you support rain, that you're managing their time. A lot of the times people will get so focused and say yes to so many things and say, I can do it all. But when somebody takes a moment to say like you've already got commitments you've already over committed take some time to really process and know that you can do this and if not, like what should we do about it and having somebody to question how feasible it is for you to do something or commit to all of these things. It's so valuable. And that's what um, executive assistance and program assistance should be doing for their staff. The people that they're supporting because that's how you're managing their time and you're helping them prioritise the work that is impactful and meaningful and that will have the best results. So I hope that that was clear. It's trying to be as clear as possible when it came to Time management because it's such a big um topic and there's so much information out there about it, I hope that you learn a different way of thinking about time management. 13. Organizational Skills : So we're gonna talk about organizational skills in this video. It's another important topic to discuss because, as, ah, assistant, you need to know how toe be efficient so that you can do your work efficiently and help the person that you support do that work efficiently as well. The goal of organizing is that you're setting up a process or a system that makes this so easy to retrieve and so effortless that you don't waste any time looking for what you need , that you can get things, things, whatever those things are, um, in an easy and effortless way, right. This includes anything from physical items like office supplies to information, right, both reference information, like reports or memos or, um, whatever material conta material working on. And then thoughts like ideas and conversations and insights and reflections, and then the actual tasks, Um, that your that you need to follow. There are a few things of how organization organizing happens in the office setting, so you will often have to organize physical space so that you can access whatever content, informations and stuff things you need, Um, and that maybe your cubicle or your office or if you an administrative assistant, the front office or wherever office supplies is kept. You would also organize the tasks for everything that constitute a request you would have to organize. And then, um, you would consolidate so that you could make decisions about them. You you would organize ideas for yourself and for your supervisor, um, and then kind of share them on. And these ideas are often shared verbally their shared in meetings, in notes, in e mails in all of these different places. And if you could, um, gather all of these ideas on paper and get them out of your mind, you are essentially de cluttering your mind. And so that's the organizing of the mine. You would also organize digital clutter, and that includes any kind of documents, presentations and anything digital. You know, um and usually you'd organize it, like in a cloud based system or a server. And the whole idea really is to make things effortless, right? Retrieval should be an effortless process to reduce stress so that when somebody asks you for something, you know where things are. You know how to get it. The act of rearranging and organizing space and um uh, And the clutter mine is a super important in any position, and this one to this position is no exception. And so always aim to organize things so that with retrieving them is super effortless. And it does not take ah, lot of time and a lot of mental thinking or anything like that. I can't tell you how many times people come to me in there. Hey, can can you tell me where I could get ah, budget code or how do I get this random piece of information and the Oh, yeah, the budget code here and then I just, like, takes me, like, two seconds to copy paste and email them a budget code. Oh, my God, That was like so fast. That's the kind of impressive things you can do when you are organized and things are effortless. So being able to think about like, if somebody asked me Ah, question reference information, how fast can I get? Get it to them. That will make you impressive. Two people. So but one of the important things about organizing in this office setting is that you have to recognize that to be organized, you have toe have behaviors that allow you to maintain a level of organization. So if you're going to use a task manager or calendar to organized Taschen, you know whatever notebook you need to adopt habits that let you use those tools well, so the tool itself, it's not gonna help you be organists. You have to use them. So if you're going to use an agenda and um, a calendar and a virtual task manager, you have toe have a system in place that that you could that you use regularly, um, to move your work forward and the work of others. So it's about making your habit, like having habits that allow you to be organized and efficient. So there's a lot that could be said about organizing and about the different tools out there that there are for organizing some of my favorite ones or to do ist, at least for tools, a trail. Oh, um, I use Evernote for four capturing ideas. I used Google dogs to capture final documents and things like that. So there's a lot of tools, and I can totally make a video. If it's of interest to you, just let me know um, but overall, I always think, How could I make things is super easy to retrieve for myself and for the for the person of support. If you can create systems that are just effortless for the person to retrieve, their efficiency is going to get so much better. One thing that I do want to acknowledge that on platforms like YouTube, there's a lot of organizer's who are about beautifying spaces. Recognize that organizing is about efficiency, not beautifying when it comes to your workspace. It's wonderful if you could have a beautiful space that inspires you and, um, makes you excited about the day. But recognize that there's a difference between making a beautiful organized space and making a functional organized space so that you can get your work done. There's no point in having a beautiful workspace if you are disorganized and can't get stuff done. So if you have to prioritize something prioritized the actual aspect of organizing what needs to be organized 14. Tech Savviness: in this video, we're gonna talk about a scale that you don't necessarily have to come in to, but that you can develop on the job and that's becoming a little bit more tech savvy. If you're not, what I mean by tech savvy is just not being afraid of technology. As a noces stint of any kind, you will be the person the face of help. You will be the first responder of any technological, um, emergency. That happens because you support certain people for, you know, meetings and all these other things that you will always be the closest one. So even if you're in a big organization where there's a tech department, you will always be closer than that person in the tech department unless you've asked them to be in the room. Um, so what I'm asking is for you to embrace the technology that's in your organization. And so when I mean by technology are just the basic things. The printer, the scanner, the copier, the mailer, whatever FedEx or UPS system that they use the phone system, the computers, a basic computer literacy, you know, knowing how to connect a computer to a printer knowing how to print color, double sided pamphlets and all of that stuff labels. So I know what I'm saying is like learn how to use the current technology in yours organizations and to troubleshoot when issues come up and because having that knowledge and experience will make you more efficient at your job will help you resolve issues and will actually be impressive to the staff that you support. Most of the emergencies that happen in the workplace are quite minor. People don't know how toe to a three wake on. They don't know how to connect the computer to the printer or they connected to the wrong printer Or, um, you know their heads. That's not working anymore. Or they can't connect to a webinar link or they can't the amount of technique emergencies are endless, but they're usually very simple. You rarely will have a really complicated um, emergency. If you know how to troubleshoot, the better off he will be. So what I'm asking is for you to embrace the technology that's in your organization. There's no need for you to go be doing research on the newest latest tools and bringing them in no start with whatever software systems are in your organization. What a heck is already there. The more that you can learn about your printer and your copier in computers, the better. Um, so the reason I'm asking is or asking you to consider this is because there's been so many times where something so there's been some technical emergency. Either we couldn't connect or the audio was off or whatever it ISS. And then the people in the room will always turn to you because you are basically there to help every, you know, make things efficient. You're there to assist everybody, your heart, your there, too. Make things work, right? So when these kind of emergencies come up, people will look at you and they will stare at you and be like, do something about it. They won't say it, but they'll look at you and expecting you to look and the thing and to do something about it. The thing is that the expectation to know how to resolve tech issues is not really in the job description of assistant of any kind. Um, you may know you may be asked to learn, you know, to print and stuff but to actually know how to resolve a range of tech, it's not in there. It just kind of comes up. And and because you're the closest person who, um can get help, you will always be the person who they look to to solve an issue. So if you pay attention to those moments of emergencies, you honestly ask whoever helps resolve them. If it wasn't you, what they did, what was the issue? The next time something happens, you can do it yourself. And there have been several times where that has being able to resolve attacked issue has been more impressive than being on time Or, you know, then delivering something because emotions get high. Um, people get anxious as a you know, stress rate level rises and things like that in people get all and see. And managing panic is hard, right? Um, and so take not when technology fails you, the panic gets increases significantly. So the more that you can embrace these ideas of technology learning how to troubleshoot the better for you. Um, so do what I do. I you know when? But I'm gonna have some high level people you involved in a meeting or a virtual conference or whatever it is, I always ask my really tiny tech department to be there. I put it on their calendar. I get verbal confirmation that they'll be there the day before. I'm like, Are you going to be here on time at this time? And even if it's a simple as a conference call, I always, um, ask them to be for one of them to be around to troubleshoot anything. Because technically, they're supposed to be skilled in tech, um, issues. So they should be like the most efficient at resulting them. So when you when you are scheduling such a meeting with high level people, um, you don't want your face and you to be the person who there, depending known. If you don't know how to resolve issues like this, then there's all the other tools. Organizations now in days probably have like 10 or 20 tools that they're using to make their staff more efficient to manage projects. Depending on the team, they'll use, um um, some teams or more tech savvy than others, and they'll want to use the latest trendiest tool, but know that no company is going to expect you to know how to use all tools. So usually if you need a very specialized some software l B in the job description. But aside from that, all of the other tools that they used will be things that you can learn on the job. That you should be able to get training if they don't offer training is something that you can get training on entering yourself. You go on skill share and learn how to do adobe. Or you can go on YouTube and learned how to do very specialized, you know, sell formulas or whatever. So don't be afraid of using external resource is to learn how to use the technology on that your company uses in terms of technology. Really, the takeaways is embrace technology. Um, embraced the innovation aspect of this. Don't be afraid. The worst thing that that can happen is that you just didn't know how to fix it. Um, but the more than you can appreciate the power of technology, it's valuable contribution to your work. And the more that you can accept that there are issues that you won't be able to control, you'll be fine and being able to, um, respect the calm complexities of technology and human behavior. Um, you'll be fine. I'm not gonna say that. It's a requirement for you to be super tech savvy. I want you to embrace whatever technology is in your organization and then to learn what additional tools you need to learn It will make you invaluable. 15. Closing: Hi, everyone. So thank you so much for enrolling in the course. I had such a fun time trying to create this course, and I'm really excited that I got to share my thoughts and my insights with you. Like I said, the topic is really broad. So, you know, leave any comments and questions you have below any reflections, Please complete the pro project I'm looking to hear from you. What your experiences have been with assistance before their value, their contribution, if you are. If you didn't haven't worked or higher with an assistant and you learned something in this course, leave that in the project section below. I'm excited to hear from you all. And if you have an extra minted, please do complete the five question survey, um, linked below. Um, I'm looking for more guidance on what kind of content you all want. And thank you so much for staying with me. I hope that you got to learn and to get a broader understanding of the administrative field , the kind of work that gets done, that kind of opportunity that's there. And if this is not for you, But you know somebody who may benefit from the course. Definitely. Send it to them. Um, and shared widely, there aren't too many. Resource is around the field of administrative professionals, and these are excellent Feels to start your career in, um, or to use us kind of placeholders or to enter into new fields. So there's so much opportunity in administrative positions. So I hope that you got something out of it. I sure did. It was a pleasure developing the course, teaching it and, uh, learning from this process. So I'll see you in another video Siri's.