Professional Skills for Administrators & Secretaries

OVERVIEW

Successful secretaries and administrators often require many of the same skills as senior staff in an organization. They are often the person in charge of the organization's correspondence, and are very often the first point of contact for visitors. Therefore, they must display a highly professional image at all times.

The role of being a professional secretary or administrator requires excellent office skills, accurate filing, preparing for meetings, dealing with people, both on the telephone and face-to-face, exceptional interpersonal abilities, and first-class business writing and communication skills. This program covers all of these and more.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Develop the skills and attributes of a first-class office professional and make a greater contribution to their workplace.
• Become more confident
• Become more proactive
• Communicate more confidently and effectively with your manager, colleagues, and other departments
• Deal with the difficulties and pressures of working in a modern office.
• Prioritise between urgent and important tasks
• Plan, organize, and manage time more effectively

TARGET PARTICIPANTS

All office personnel would find this workshop highly beneficial, including administrators, PAs, and secretaries

COURSE CONTENTS

1. Introduction/Roles, Competences and Personal Effectiveness

• The ‘competence’ model of skills, behaviors, and values
• Emotional and Chronistic Intelligence
• Personal competence review
• Time management constraints – resources, systems, other people, and self
• Handling requests and conflicting priorities

2. Teamwork, Communication and Meetings

• Teamworking and team roles
• Briefing skills – giving, receiving, and passing on
• Organizing and participating in meetings
• Notes, minutes, and follow-up

3. Managing Working Relationships /Communication Skills/Supervising Admin Staff

• Delegation – giving and receiving
• Communication and listening skills – lessons from NLP
• Developing a network of working relationships – influencing skills
• Assertiveness and conflict
• People problems and problem people
• Practical motivation
• Criticism skills

4. Managing Time/Desk Management and Office Technology/Writing Skills

• Planning and priority-setting
• Managing the paper load and developing paperless systems
• Getting the best from office technology
• Letter writing
• E-mail efficiency and etiquette
• Writing and editing reports
• Proof-reading skills