3 Things Your Admin Assistant Wants You To Know

I just instructed a two day course for Assistants who work for entrepreneurs, namely real estate agents. Among them, there was good humor, a wealth of experience and a keen drive to learn more.

They were open about sharing the tricks of the trade they had come across with others and they were great sports when it came to participating in such games as an indoor snowball fight and a unique kind of poker!

Needless to say I can guarantee they are great sports with their bosses who may not always be so playful to work with!

Near the end of the second day I asked some questions and made some key observations. In an effort to assist sales agents myself, as a consultant, I am going to share these three insights that if you will take notice and implement, I promise you will see an improvement in your business because of the performance and engagement of your support staff.

#1 – Give Credit when credit is due.

How many of you know that there is an International Holiday called Administrative Professional’s Day? Nearly every major city has an association that honours support staff and out of my group it appeared that at least 75% of the assistants had never been recognized on this very public holiday.

It’s easy to join in with the rest of the world and acknowledge your assistant for supporting you! If you don’t think he/she is worth the recognition then fire them and get someone who is!

Don’t make up accolades, just say thank you. Nothing wrong with a bouquet of flowers and a gift certificate to a nice restaurant. You can do it! Believe me, when you ignore this occasion your assistant may not say anything about it or act like you forgot her birthday, but she may also not feel like going the extra mile when a deal is coming together after hours.

Administrative Professional’s Day is the Wednesday of the last full week in April. Feel free to mark in your own calendar; the effort will pay off.

#2 – Performance Reviews are not optional.

I was shocked and amazed that when I asked for a raise of hands on who had been given regular performance reviews and only about three or four hands went up! How can this be? Something, that in my mind, is a common practice all over North America, is not followed when the entrepreneur hires!

I can remember even at my first job, which was probably the same as yours, working at McDonald’s we had regular reviews and raises. Is it possible that entrepreneurs think they should be above common practice? Or is it that you don’t know what to do or how to do it?

That is where I can help you!

Reviews are necessary and beneficial. They should be scheduled after the first 3 months and then certainly every year on the employment anniversary. Even better, for those who really want to engage employees, every 6 months.

At the review go over the work that is being done well, what you would like to see improved, and ask for feedback for yourself. Maybe your assistant has some great ideas that would help your success!

Do I really need to mention the raise? I hope not!

#3 – Share your vision for your business success!

If they don’t know what you are thinking how can they catch your vision and help power your ship forward?

Assistants are not minions with no intelligence. I am often so impressed with the ideas that come from support staff after working in an office for even just a few months. They may have new strategies that could catapult your business forward, in fact they may be so inspired themselves that they start treating your business like their own. Share your heart, your goals and your roadblocks and you will be amazed at the bond it can bring when you have the right staff in place.

Three simple tips; test me in this and see if it doesn’t make a difference. This consulting session is on the house!

Be Extraordinary – Right Where You Are! For the Employee – Buy The Book

All these tips and more can be found in the last pages of my book, Oh yes, for you there are three pages at the end – ask your assistant to cut them out for you and leave them on your desk, they will be impressed!