Joan Burge's Administrative Blog

Do you long to be a better communicator? I’m sure we all would like to enhance our communication abilities. At least I hope we are all trying to do so.  I was recently asked by one of our readers if we had any resources for becoming a better conversationalist as well as resources on more effective communications.

Do executives speak differently than administrative professionals? Yes, many of them do. If you want to establish the commonness previously mentioned with your leader and other members of the management team, you will want to be a student of "executive speak."

Well, that sentence didn’t make entirely too much sense, did it? As you read it, you probably laugh at me and think I have no grasp of the English language. The ironic thing is though, as I typed that in Microsoft Word©, it didn’t have much of a problem with it either. Every bit of gibberish in the sentence at the beginning was an actual word and was completely ignored by my spell check.

I am so excited and happy for many administrative professionals whose companies have finally had an epiphany about the value of on-site professional development as a necessary component of administrative excellence.

What might be creating a barrier between you and your manager or executive? And what can you do about it? This is the year to make changes and improve your relationship with your key business partner.

When I think of VAAs, I think of 2 kinds. One is the group who work as independent contractors/own their own virtual administrative assistant business. The second group are assistants who work for a corporation or business and work virtually with the management team. Jennie says: "Some administrative assistants at our company have teams that are located in different cities/states (satellite offices). There are unique challenges that are encountered by these assistants. Additionally some assistants have more than one district manager responsibility in another city/state."

There are many ways we communicate with and to others. Some of those methods are on purpose; others happen without us realizing it but we need to be more conscious of these methods if we are to be successful and taken seriously in the workplace.

I recently had a great conversation with a 25-year experienced admin. Her name is Paula. She was wondering how to deal with a manager who seemed to be intimidated by her knowledge and go-getter attitude. She has worked with this person for about 3 years. This is important to keep in mind because as I told Paula, she needed to establish boundaries in the very beginning as the manager became aggressive in her attitude and delegating with Paula.

K Harrison writes again….

Red, green, yellow or blue - which are you? It’s just plain fun to learn about communication styles. But more important than that is you can really have an impact on others when you understand various styles.