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Among technologists, the value of the administrative assistant often is unnoticed and unappreciated.
Consider top performing technologists. They are creative, innovative, out-of-the-box thinkers. ADD is a rite of passage. “Twiddle” and “Fiddle” are line-items on their time cards. Giddiness and euphoria are reactions experienced after hours of labor result in an Android application blinking the Christmas tree lights in syncopation with their ringtones – or any other similarly useless application. Such are the descriptors of the technologists.
Consider typical administrative tasks you might require from technologists, like filling out an expense statement, following up with a customer, writing a report, or attending a meeting. You should as well ask them to refill the moon craters.
Every organization has a myriad of administrative tasks. Someone must do the job. An administrative assistant who supports a manager may also have duties for an entire group. Trying to balance all the needs and keep everyone happy at the same time is an impossible undertaking. The duties of the administrative assistant are important and time-consuming, but seldom appreciated because technologists have no idea how long some of these tasks take. Nor, do they want to learn.
If you desire to become the persuasive wizard, start by expanding the opportunities for your administrative assistant. Both you and she (or he) will be the better for it. Administrative assistants want their bosses to look good. In their minds, if you look good, they look good, and vice versa. Here are some things to consider.
1. Define the Job. Bring out the talents of your assistant. “Answering the phone and making coffee” are not job descriptions for an assistant. Ensure the job is challenging. In the job description, omit vague terms like “help,” or “assist.” Use meaningful verbs. Ensure that you can quantitatively measure fulfillment of those tasks.
2. Give Honest Reviews. No one improves if you routinely give “superior” for every criteria on the review sheet. When I was general manager of a medical company, we had a dozen or more administrative assistants, ranging from the office of the vice presidents down to the managers. Like all employees, some of the administrative assistants were good at their jobs, some were not. At the end of the year, I tabulated the reviews of all the administrative assistants in my company. Every one of their bosses had ranked them as “performs far above expectations.” Well, either the expectations were too low or some bosses were lying. I required all the managers to change their administrative job descriptions to match the specific tasks and to quantify their evaluations accordingly.
3. Compensate Appropriately. Make the pay commensurate with the tasks and the responsibilities, not solely with the level of reporting. Pay for performance.
4. Avoid Replication. Left to themselves, administrative assistants will take on the personality of their bosses. Work to ensure that your administrative assistant’s personality complements, not copies, yours. If you are blunt and factual, hire an assistant skilled in tact. If you are wishy-washy, seek an assistant who sticks to the plan. If you can never be on time, employ an assistant who commands punctuality.
5. Require Integrity and Loyalty. Ensure that your assistant is trustworthy and discrete. Nothing hurts a manager or an organization worse than an employee who continually stirs the pot. Administrative assistants can alert you to what is happening among the employees, yet assistants should be thermometers and not generators.
6. Keep It Business. Ensure that your relationship with all employees is professional and business, not personal. Ironman and Pepper Pots are Hollywood fabrication.
7. Show Your Appreciation. Show your appreciation for a job well done. You should not make the administrative assistant’s job special; you should make every employee’s job special.
Follow these guidelines. Hire the right assistant, nurture that assistant, and you will find that your advancement in the company will skyrocket. When the spaceship takes off, ensure that your assistant is onboard with you.