What are you READING?

What do you read each week to sharpen your administrative skills?

What do you read each week to learn more about the industry in which you work?

What do you read each week to develop new knowledge in an area you don’t know much about?

As administrative professionals, it’s very important to constantly expose ourselves to new ideas, new methods or approaches to doing things, and industry related trends and issues if we want to excel in our profession. I hear many people say that they enjoy reading, but they just don’t have time to do it. I would counter with, “You cannot afford not to read.”

Here are some things you can do to increase your reading opportunities during the normal work day:

• Skim through ALL of the industry related publications that come in the mail each day for references to your company, your companies competitors, product information that relates to what your company does, or interesting articles on how top managers or companies are implementing new systems, procedures or motivational programs to improve company operations. This may make the mail sorting and distribution take a few more minutes, but you will increase your knowledge base significantly over the course of just a couple weeks or months if you do this regularly. Flag the most interesting articles or references to your company for your manager to show your initiative and engagement in what is going on at your company.
• Take a book or magazine with you to read over lunch. If you don’t normally get/take a lunch break – START NOW! Even if you only get 30 minutes, start with that. You need to mentally and physically refresh a couple of times during the day to maintain and sustain high levels of performance on the job. Feeding your body physically (with food) and mentally (by reading) will give you the nourishment you need to get you through the rest of the day more successfully.
• Schedule a minimum of 10-15 minutes for personal reading time for yourself each day. You can get a lot of great ideas and take in a lot of information each day even if you only read for 10-15 minutes. If you do this daily, it will become “part of your day.”
• Read while you are working out. I began reading regularly when I started working out regularly. It was a great way to make working out go more quickly while also filling my mind with some very useful and helpful information. When I’m on an exercise bike, treadmill, or eliptical machine, I almost always have my book or magazine of choice with me. I don’t always love working out, but I do love the opportunity to read more. So it’s a great way to use one habit to motivate the completion of the other.
• Have books or publications in the car with you when you’re waiting to pick up kids or family members from their activities during the week and on the weekend.

What are some good things for administrative professionals to be reading?

• As stated above, the first place I start is with industry related publications that come into my office. I quickly skim each publication from cover to cover before delivering it to my managers. If it wasn’t time sensitive, sometimes I took it to read over lunch and then delivered it after lunch.
• Books on administrative topics you’d like to learn more about or improve your skills or abilities in. Do you have trouble communicating with certain members of your team or with your manager when things are tense in the office? Read a book on improving communication techniques. [My recommendation is Crucial Conversations.] Do you enjoy event planning, but wish you felt more in control of all of the details? Find a book on the topic and dig in. [My recommendation is Planning Successful Meetings and Events by Boehme.] Go to your public library or local bookstore and just start skimming through the books to see what catches your attention…then start reading!
• Websites, Blogs, or Ezines. Do a Google search on any administrative topic imaginable and see what comes up. You can subscribe to some terrific online publications, blogs, ezines, etc. The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) is a website that has a lot of great resources at www.iaap-hq.org also.

Just because you pick up a book that is of interest doesn’t mean you have to read it cover to cover. Skim through the book to find the sections of information that are most helpful to you and read those. Some books may be more suited to being read from cover to cover. But there are plenty of others that can be read a chapter at a time and you will still benefit greatly from the information that you specifically wanted to find.

I have a list of websites and book titles listed on the sidebar of my blog to get you started. If you have other things that you do to make reading part of your regular schedule or resources that you regularly use, I’d love to hear about them. Send me a message at julie@julieperrine.com or post a response to this blog.

Reading profession specific materials will propel you to greater professional heights! Start reading something good today!

Julie Perrine CPS/CAP
Qualified MBTI Administrator