Joan Burge's Administrative Blog

I just saw an advertisement the other day for a special remembrance event for September 11. My husband commented that it has been 9 years --- and I said, "No way. It can't be 9 years already. It seems so surreal now."

Hello and thank you for checking in! We will not have a Monday Motivator today, Monday, September 6, 2010 as we celebrate the holiday. We wish you and your loved ones a safe and happy day.

My husband just brought me an article he received, E-mail Overload Costs Companies Billions in Lost Productivity. It reminded me of something I've been speaking on with passion for about 18 months. It is something that is at the core of my being from many perspectives: as a business owner, a vendor to clients, a client to vendors, and someone who loves and hates e-mail. E-mail has grown into a big white elephant and we are being stampeded by it. The good news is that every one of us can reduce the number of e-mails we send.

Are you letting your talents shine? If I were to ask your manager to tell me your top 3 strengths or your innate abilities, what would they say? A manager sees your "surface" performance, but what is beneath the surface that may never be revealed because:

Hello everyone. I'm celebrating my birthday today and glad to have another year under my belt. I absolutely love birthdays. From when I was a little girl, my mother and father always made a big deal out of any holiday and all family birthdays. Birthdays were never a ho hum event and I'm glad they weren't (and still aren't).

The past few weeks have been exciting, energizing and eye opening for me. I have been traveling and working onsite with various clients. My recent trip this past week had many unexpected events -- not so much with the client and my program, but little things related to my travel, car rental, hotel shuttle driver getting lost and stopped by the police (with only me in the van -- and it was night), to almost getting on the wrong plane for the first time in 19 years to ...

I had the privilege of presenting my Become an Inner Circle Assistant workshop in San Diego last week to a wonderful group of executive assistants. While we were smaller in number than usual, we had a great day. All of the attendees were bright, enthusiastic, and eager to learn. During my full day workshop, attendees have many opportunities to work in teams on various activities and have group discussions.

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a good weekend. This is the time of year when, for those of us living in Las Vegas, we experience intense heat. Last week, temperatures were ranging from 110 - 113 degrees. When I got in my car at the end of a workday, the temp was reading 116. We go through this every summer and we survive.

This is the last Monday Motivator in a series of 3. This is a list of random lessons learned. I hope you tuck them close to you for if and when a day comes that you might need them. Or share them with others who might need these now! Read them carefully as several of these lessons are behaviors you need to develop now so you have a parachute in the future.

I hope you enjoyed a little break around the 4th of July. In case you don't remember, I started a 3 MM series on June 28 around Lessons Learned During Crises. Today's Lesson: Dealing with Disappointment Before my husband, Dave, had a health set back in June, we had many plans for a wonderful June. We were going on a fabulous cruise for a week for our 2010 vacation. Dave had booked the cruise 4 months ago and was eagerly counting down every day until our well-earned vacation. I had planned to finish a writing project, focusing on some VIP client work, swimming with my grandchildren, and finally working less hours after a busy 5 months of the year.