It was Stephen Covey, author of the 8th Habit – From Effectiveness to Greatness, who penned these powerful words. “An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.”

As Administrative Professionals, you are therefore encouraged to exhibit transparency, hope, positive performance and trustworthiness. Qualities that will prepare you for the empowering partnership between Administrative Professionals and your business associates. Building trust is an essential ingredient in partnering to improve business results that balance success.

In preparation for your involvement in the new leadership paradigm you must be equipped to renew yourselves and establish stretch goals. Permit me to make some suggestions that have worked for me and can definitely work for you.

1. BE INVALUABLE TO YOUR EXECUTIVE – BE THE TOP ASSISTANT

. Understand the scope of your Executive’s work – this can bring opportunity knocking at your door

. Master techniques for partnering, prioritizing and planning – this shows that you are positioning yourself for greatness

. Make the Paradigm shift NOW – move from working for the Executive to working with the Executive

. Compliment each other on a job well done

2.BE CONSISTENT, ANTICIPATE AND EXECUTE YOUR EXECUTIVE’S AGENDA

. Communicate techniques to build better trust and credibility with them

. Learn to assess your Executive’s working styles, goals, strengths and weaknesses. This will be beneficial for better interaction

. Demonstrate your worth by taking initiative and doing ‘little’ things that have ‘big’ impact

. Know when and how to speak up if you have a differing opinion

3. BE PROFESSIONAL AND POLISHED

. Position yourself as a key professional resource for your Executive and others

. Exhibit strategies for handling conflicting demands from multiple bosses

. Respect personality differences

. Engage in mutual commitment – this is necessary for process improvement

. Have personal talks without getting too personal. This speaks to you demonstrating CARE for others

How then, can you become effective in rewarding partners? I believe it can be very simple – just believe in yourself. Let us examine these steps together. I am confident that at the end you will say Yes, I Can.

1. Initiate the conversation – have a purposeful conversation about the bigger picture of your Executive’s job. Explore ways that you can be more involved in helping her to achieve her goals.

2. Talk about your relationships as a team – Step up your game plan, increase the quality of work being produced, streamline processes, be in the NOW but anticipate the future. Discuss your game plan for the next three months of upcoming projects.

3. Seek clarification on like and dislikes – at the end of the day present the preference of the Executive. Make this work for you.

4. Book yourself on your Executive’s calendar and do not remove it (unless there is an emergency – Research has shown that too many Assistants put themselves at the bottom of the totem pole. Think for a moment, what does that say about you as Assistants? It says to me that you lack self-confidence and that you do not know and value your self-worth enough. As a business partner to your Executive, you need to be on the calendar just like everyone else on your executive/manager’s team.

5. Think like the Executive – by listening, absorbing, asking questions and reading – this is certainly empowering!

6. Recognize that you are dependent on each other to achieve positive results.

7. Go the extra mile – take the extra step and stand out – STRETCH yourself.

8. Attend staff/department meetings – this is a good investment of your time and can have a big payoff.

9. Read everything – be interested in a variety of topics. Be in the know, stay relevant.

10. Learn what is important to your Executive, which may be different from what is important to your colleagues’ Executive.

Empowerment provides opportunities for revitalizing our partnerships, energizing our Administrative Professionals and providing greater connectivity to global networking, hence, organizational success!

Already, I am seeing WIN/WIN for all, Administrative Professionals are well on their way to Partnering for Empowerment as Executives and Assistants work in partnership the wins will be great! There are extensive savings to the company, mutual respect, increased productivity, expansion of each person’s role, inspired creativity, greater job satisfaction and less stress.

Let us together join with Administrative Professionals in the region and say, Yes We Can to Partnering for Empowerment!

Happy Administrative Professional Day 2016!

P. Cyndie Demming

President, 2014-2016

“Administrative Professionals… Partnering for Empowerment”