Archive for All Things Admin Newsletter
Complacency Can Lead to Administrative Career Extinction
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Whether you’re actively looking for a job or not, complacency is a career killer. No matter how indispensable we’ve made ourselves in our corporate executive support roles, THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES. Companies get bought. Companies get sold. Executives transfer. Departments get outsourced. Work cultures shift. Personal obligations and preferences change. It’s not personal, it’s business. But if “business” happens to you, are you prepared? What are you doing now to make sure you continue to develop the right skills to remain competitive in the changing environments that surround you? Do you know what additional skills you need to be developing if you plan to work in the administrative profession for another 3, 5, 10, 15 years?
As recently as the last two months, I have heard admins make comments like these:
“I don’t have to know that in my job, we have a travel department that handles it for us.”
“Nothing in that training applied to me, I don’t have to do that on my job.”
“I would never use that in my current position.”
“We can’t use Facebook or Twitter at work. They have those sites blocked.”
“We hire an outside firm to do our website design work.”
“I’m planning to retire in just ‘x’ years, so I won’t need that.”
There are a lot of professionally limiting ideologies and mindsets in those statements. Here are the thoughts that run through my head when I hear these comments:
- What if your travel department is eliminated? What if your next company doesn’t have a vendor or internal department for you to rely on? You need to know how to do what your travel department does because you may become the travel department!
- Maybe you don’t have to do it YET! Or right now. But are you planning for your next career move? What if you need that information or skill set in the future? Is your mental database fully populated so you’re ready to hit the ground running when you DO NEED that knowledge?
- Perhaps you do not get to do that kind of work because you don’t have the skills to do it yet? Have you asked if you can add new responsibilities to your position if you’re interested in expanding your skills set? What if you change jobs and need to know it there?
- In the early days, the Internet used to be blocked at work for most people, too. Remember those days? Social media accessibility at work will evolve.
- How much money and time could you save your company on website updates if you could do it on the spot instead of waiting for someone else to get it done?
- What happens if you get laid off before your retirement date? Are your skills current and relevant enough to get you another job at the same pay rate until you can retire?
I read a blog post recently by Kemetia Foley (@SuperPPN on Twitter) an administrative professional in the D.C. Metro area who shares her insights on the administrative profession at www.SuperPPN.blogspot.com. Her recent post highlighted trends I’ve also been observing: positive job growth, an increase in hiring activity, and employers actively looking for qualified administrative candidates. There are companies out there looking for competent, qualified administrative professionals or virtual assistants. I personally know this, because I get calls looking for admin candidate leads on a regular basis. But there are still a lot of seemingly qualified admins struggling to find new positions. So how can you better prepare yourself in case you find yourself searching for a new job unexpectedly or new tasks are added to your current position?
- Keep your resume updated regularly. By regularly, I mean update it AT LEAST once a quarter. It’s hard to regularly add new “accomplishments” when you’ve forgotten what you were actively working on. September is International Update Your Resume Month, so now’s a great time to get it updated!
- Develop a Professional Portfolio with samples of your work and projects you have actively participated on. Once you have your print version of your professional portfolio developed, go web 2.0 and develop an online or electronic professional portfolio. Admins who want to get noticed and stand out need to prepare and think more innovatively than the rest.
- NETWORK. NETWORK. NETWORK. You need to be ACTIVELY networking with others both in your profession and outside of your profession when you DON’T NEED them so that you have the relationships developed when you DO NEED them. Nothing frustrates me more than when an organization member loses their job and suddenly shows up at a local networking event and I’ve never (or rarely) seen them participating before. I feel used, and so will others. Networking isn’t just about people helping you when you need it, it’s about YOU being actively engaged in what’s going on around you and being a connector for others as well. You can’t be a connector for others if you aren’t connecting yourself. As admins, this is a vital element to our success! If you aren’t already familiar with the International Assocation of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), it’s the first place I recommend admins start their professional networking efforts.
- Develop your strategic administrative career plan. Do you have a plan? If you have a plan, does it have contingencies? What are your interests, talents, passions, strengths? What is your personal mission? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What are your goals? Creating a solid plan that incorporates all of these elements will put you in the driver seat of your career and give you the roadmap you need to get you where you want to go. As the saying goes, those who fail to plan, plan to fail. If you need help getting started creating your plan, download my free special report “From Reactive to Proactive: Creating Your Strategic Administrative Career Plan” created just for admins who need help getting started with this.
- Figure out what skills you need to learn to remain competitive and LEARN THEM. Embrace technology. Don’t fear it or resist it. Learn it. Electronic devices and communication are only going to get more technology and software based. Here are some required skills coming soon to a job description near you:
- Understanding how social media marketing works, how it can be used, which sites are best for which purposes both personally and for business.
- Website development training – basic website development, basic HTML, blogging or WordPress.org based training. Almost every company is utilizing or shifting to web-based, collaborative platforms, and you NEED to understand how to use this technology.
- Master the core Microsoft 2007 and/or 2010 software programs: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Get started learning Publisher, Access, Visio, SharePoint, if you haven’t already.Talk to recruiters or HR professionals and ask them what skills their clients are looking for. Watch the help wanted ads and job boards to see what skills hiring companies are seeking for the types of positions you may be seeking. Ask your executives what skills they’d like you to develop further as you continue to support them.
- Connect with non-profit organizations to volunteer your time. This is a terrific way to make professional connections and establish a network of contacts outside your current sphere of influence. If you’re looking for a job, it’s a great way to eliminate gaps on your resume and stay current in your field and keep your skills honed while you continue your job search. It also gives an opportunity for you to demonstrate the quality of work you do in the event they recommend you to a prospective employer.
Options abound, but you have to seek them out! One of my favorite quotes comes from Sherese Duncan:
“In order to think out of the box, realize there is no box.”
I do not advocate taking a pay cut when searching for a new position, but if you can’t demonstrate the skills you have, the value you bring, and show someone you’re proactively learning new things to be truly useful in the administrative position, it’s hard to sell a future employer on your salary requirements.
When you’re happy in your current position or with your current company, it’s hard to imagine being laid off or suddenly in a position where you need to look for a new job. But business happens, and innovative, proactive, success-minded administrative professionals are prepared with the skills and proof of their work product when it does. You may be a few years from retirement and have no plans to work anywhere else, but things can change in an instant. No matter what your career objectives are or how close to retirement you are, you still need an updated resume, a professional portfolio, a fully developed and functioning network, and a career plan of action.
To quote a brilliant, administrative professional I met recently:
“Be savvy about what you want. Be honest.
If you hate being an admin- then get out of the profession.
If you love it and want to continue to grow- you have to do the legwork.
The job market is too tight for sitting back and hoping what
you’ve done in the past will be enough. Get busy!”
– Kemetia M K Foley
Request Approved! Gaining Employer Support for Professional Development
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If I walked up to your desk and asked you to give me $20, what would you say? You’d probably respond with, “Why?” or “What do you need it for?” or “I don’t have $20, so you need to ask someone else.” I can also hear a few smart, sarcastic replies coming my direction…and probably understandably so after all, I didn’t even give you any context for my request or what I needed that $20 for.
What if I walked up to your desk and said, “I need $20 from petty cash to pay the pizza delivery guy for pizza at our staff lunch today, can you help me?” You immediately know a lot more about my reason for making the request. If you maintain the petty cash, you can probably help me. If you don’t, you can probably direct me to the right person or the proper procedure for submitting the reimbursement request.
I share these examples because a lot of times when we ask for our employer’s support for training or professional development requests, we walk up and ask for their support without providing enough details or a solid business case for why they should consider our request, and many times their responses are disappointing to us as a result. So what can you do to improve your chances of getting your requests approved for employer support of training and professional development?
Step 1: Do Your Research.
Facts are persuasive. Do your homework before you make your request so you know exactly what the training you want will include and what other options may be available in various price ranges, formats (online or teleclass vs. in person), and locations. Have facts and statistics available to support your request. These websites are a great place to find valuable, supporting information and statistics to justify a training investment:
- www.Adminology.org
- www.iaap-hq.org – Research/Trends Tab
- http://coned.howardcc.edu/business_and_workforce_development/customized_training/ROI_for_customized_training.html
Step 2: Prepare Your Business Case
You need to think like a business owner or company executive. Build a business case for your training proposal request. Learning what goes into a solid business case is something you’ll be able to use throughout your career as you support teams and executives who need to gain support for their ideas or projects as well.
The key elements of a good business case include:
- Situational assessment and problem statement
- Request description
- Solution description
- Cost and benefit analysis
- Implementation timeline
- Critical assumptions and risk assessment
- Conclusions and recommendations
When you create your proposal based on being able to supply relevant information for all of these key areas, you’ll be thoroughly prepared for questions or additional information your executive may request when you make your request. I’ve created a sample training business case which you can download here to see what a completed training business case may look like. It may not always be necessary to submit this much information, but preparing your request by going through this process will ensure you have put the appropriate thought and research into your request BEFORE you make it.
Step 3: Presenting Your Information
Some times are better than others for presenting your request. Avoid rushed, high stress, busy times. Look for opportunities when your executive is in a positive frame of mind and office activities aren’t as hectic.
If you know your executive takes in information best when it comes in short, succinct, bulleted lists, then present your business case that way, too. If you know your executive is more relational and likes to know the history and support behind something, then adapt your presentation style to match. Some executives prefer verbal exchanges, some want to see it on paper. I recommend a combination of both. I often suggest planting the seed verbally that you are going to be presenting a training proposal, then water that seed by following up with your written documentation. Your request may require some nurturing, but the effort is worth it when your request is approved.
NEVER make your request in front of a group of your colleagues or co-workers. Your executive may be willing to approve your request because you’re a dedicated, hard worker, but that may not be the case for everyone you work with. So don’t assume it will be approved for all if it’s approved for one.
Always try to present your requests at the beginning of a budget year if you can. Your chances of gaining approval are much better when the funds aren’t yet spent or fully allocated. Better yet, submit your request while they are working on budget planning for the year so your request can be built into the budget from the beginning.
If you’re smart, you’ll also put some thought into how you’ll prepare someone else who may need to cover for your absence. Do you have documented procedures for your position? If not, then get started putting your Administrative Desk Reference Binder documentation together today so you can be out of the office for training and the office is still able to run smoothly in your absence.
Step 4: Show Return on Investment (ROI)
When you can demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) your company will receive as a result of investing in your training and professional development, the chances of receiving a request approval will also increase. In order to do this, you need to create pre-training objectives you want to achieve. Document new ideas, key takeaways, new relationships you want to build, and next steps you want to pull from the training.
Document the objective outcomes after the training is completed and share this information with your executive. The IAAP website has a fantastic Return On Investment Planner which you can find here: http://www.iaap-hq.org/events/ROI.pdf
Step 5: Responding to your training request APPROVAL!
When your request is approved, THANK your executive in both verbally and in writing. Send them an e-mail, write them a thank you card, show your appreciation for their support!
Thank them with continued great performance also! Regularly point out the little things you learned that you just used or implemented from the training and how the company or your executive benefitted – continually reinforce the ROI.
What to Do When You Don’t Get the Response You Wanted
- Respectfully listen to the reasons for the “No”
- Ask again in a different way or at a different time
- Ask how you CAN help make it possible (brainstorm possibilities)
- Ask what is possible if this is not
- Ask when it may be possible, if not now
- Ask what you can do to improve the way you’re asking
- Don’t give up! It may be “No – not right now,” NOT “No – never.”
“You don’t get what you don’t ask for.”
— Julie Perrine
“What you don’t ask for stays the same.”
— Unknown
As the technology landscape and the administrative profession continue to change at rapid speeds, it’s more important than ever for administrative professionals to stay current in their own professional development. Ultimately, your professional development is YOUR responsibility, not your employers. But it doesn’t hurt to seek their support when they are also a direct beneficiary of the skills and abilities you bring to the position every day. When you assemble a complete, well researched, solid business case to support your training request, I’m certain you’ll find more favorable responses to future requests.
Additional Resources:
- Professional Development on a Budget http://empoweredcareerwoman.blogspot.com/2010/08/professional-developmenton-budget.html
- BOOK: Love It Don’t Leave It: 26 Ways to Get What You Want at Work by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordon-Evans
What strategies have you used to successfully gain employer support for training and professional development requests? Share your ideas and comments here on our blog.
© 2010 Julie Perrine International, LLC
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, EZINE OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:
Julie Perrine, CPS/CAP, is a personality strategist, personal brand analyst, and administrative mentor who teaches administrative professionals and entrepreneurs how to increase their professional opportunities and achieve more productive and meaningful relationships by utilizing innovative technology, ideas, and people. Learn more and request your FREE copy of our special report “Creating Your Strategic Administrative Career Plan” at www.AllThingsAdmin.com
5 Reasons Why You Will Benefit From Utilizing a Professional Organizer
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Me? Hire a Professional Organizer? But I’m an administrative professional. I’m organized. I can find everything I need when I need it…most of the time. Or can you? Perhaps your desk and workspace is spotless, but you may be struggling with how to get things done more efficiently or how to be more effective managing projects assigned to you. Or maybe you’re someone who knows you do need some assistance with organizing your work space to be more efficient, but you don’t know how to do it or it seems so overwhelming. You NEED a professional organizer!
If your office is stacked with piles and files, there is a perception associated with it that you aren’t organized (even if you claim you can find anything you need in that stack). If you never empty your inbox, how do I know you’re going to get the document I left there for you? If your e-mail inbox is so full you overlook my messages and aren’t able to respond in a timely manner, my confidence in you may be damaged. You cannot afford to be in this position as an administrative professional. Sometimes we need to call in an expert to help us overcome a roadblock facing us.
I remember the first time I told someone I had hired a professional organizer to help me with my home office. They were in shock. “But you’re one of the most organized people I know,” they exclaimed. “Why do Y-O-U need a professional organizer?” What you’re able to do or need to do for others and what you’re willing to do or still have time to do for yourself can sometimes be two very different things.
As an administrative professional who is very organized and has worked with a lot of managers and executives who needed me to be organized for them as well, let me share how working with a professional organizer can help you become a better administrative professional, improve your productivity and efficiency, and continue to make you look like a star in and out of the office.
- A Professional Organizer is much more than an organizer. The truly qualified and talented professional organizers are efficiency experts in every sense. They help you layout your work space and office properly. They help you implement systems for processing daily work and project requests more efficiently. Many can coach you in better utilization of technology for organizing your time, projects, and e-mail. No matter how organized you are, you can always improve your efficiency. Having an objective perspective from an outsider looking in will help you identify ways to improve how you work. Keep an open mind and be willing to change how you work.
- Working with a professional organizer is NOT just about creating files and removing piles from your space. It’s about creating systems and processes that fit how you work best so you can maintain it for maximum productivity moving forward. It’s about creating homes for things so you can put them away when you’re finished using them and you know where to go get them the next time you need them. Then you can help those you support do the same. The principles are applicable at work and at home.
- Working with a Professional Organizer speeds up the organization process. When you have a person sitting next to you asking you key questions to help you make a decision about where to file something or if you need to keep the item at all, you make decisions more quickly and can move through higher volumes of stuff than if you sit there looking at it by yourself. Plus, clutter can be overwhelming and downright depressing! So having someone to encourage you as you plow through the piles and helping you get past the emotional and mental issues associated with the clutter is vital.
- Working with a professional organizer helps you identify your trouble spots so you can avoid them in the future. Whether you think you have them or not – you do! Another set of objective eyes and ears working with you in your work space is extremely valuable. I’m a saver. I like to read things on paper versus on the computer. So I maintain a lot of information in my home office for reference purposes that catches up with me if I don’t stay on top of it. Working with my professional organizer helped me identify some of my bad habits and strategies for overcoming them. This was huge for me.
- A Professional Organizer can provide you with tactics and strategies for working more effectively with chronically disorganized or ADHD co-workers also. You may joke about this with your team members, but these are legitimate issues facing some people and it impacts how they work and how you work successfully with them. Look for a professional organizer who is certified by the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization or the National Association of Professional Organizers in these areas.
How do you gain your boss’s support for hiring a professional organizer?
- Refer to the professional organizer as a productivity or efficiency expert instead of a professional organizer.
- Document all of the areas or situations where you feel you could be more productive but need additional support in getting past road blocks you may be facing.
- Do your research and give them facts and figures on the amount of time saved, money saved, and productivity increases that an organized and efficient workplace will provide when it comes to the company’s bottom line. Your professional organizer can provide some of these stats for you or the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) website is a great resource also.
- Be willing to pay for the first session or two yourself. Then document the improvements and the systems that have been implemented so your boss can see the tangible results. This may cause them to support paying for future sessions for you and other members of your team. This may be enough reason for them to even reimburse you for past sessions you’ve already paid for yourself. Either way, the personal investment is worth it!
What to look for in a Professional Organizer
- Look for a Certified Professional Organizer.
- Find one who is a member of NAPO.
- Ask for references or referrals.
- Meet with them for a consultation and/or talk to them by phone before you hire them.
- Do Internet research and see what others recommend.
The strategies and tips you’ll learn from working with your professional organizer will make you a more valuable administrative professional to all of the executives and teams you support. I assisted one of my executive clients with organizing her files and desktop piles recently using strategies my professional organizer taught me. Here is what she said when we were finished: “I just wanted to give you a BIG THANK YOU for all your help in organizing and sorting my office. I absolutely LOVE it and it feels so good to be out of the chaos – it really is incredibly calming for me.” Her co-workers thanked me, too. It had that big of an impact on the entire team. Prepare to feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally when you clean up your space.
When we’re all being asked to “do more with less”, a professional organizer can help you squeeze more time from your day, increase space and improve productivity in your office, and give you strategies you will be able to apply everywhere. Plus, you’ll look like the office super star once again!
What are some of your organizing challenges or strategies? Share your ideas by commenting here on our blog.
© 2010 All Things Admin and Julie Perrine International, LLC
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, EZINE OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:
Julie Perrine, CPS/CAP, is a personality strategist, personal brand analyst, and administrative mentor who teaches administrative professionals and entrepreneurs how to increase their professional opportunities and achieve more productive and meaningful relationships by utilizing innovative technology, ideas, and people. Learn more and request your FREE copy of our special report “Creating Your Strategic Administrative Career Plan” at www.AllThingsAdmin.com
7 Keys to Asking for a Salary Increase
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You want a raise; you may even deserve one. You’ve been a consistent, high performer. You’ve attained a professional certification. You’ve significantly contributed to multiple team projects. You proactively pursue professional development to continue honing your skills. So how do you approach your boss about this ever delicate topic?
1. Do your homework BEFORE you initiate the conversation.
What are other professionals with your education, experience, job title and job duties earning? Can you document these amounts?
When does your company typically review salary increases? What criteria are used to determine those increases?
Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples as much as possible as you collect your data. I typically encourage admins I’m working with to check their company’s internal job postings to see if there are similar positions posted. Some companies have pay scales or ranges that they will post on internal websites, so that gives you some starting guidelines. If you contact Human Resources, some will give you the low-mid-high ranges for current job postings if you already work for the company. At the very least, they should be able to give you the low-mid-high range for your current position. This helps you get started.
Use your network within other companies or associations to see how much information you can gather as well. If I want to know the pay scales for a job posted for a local employer, I typically find an administrative or HR contact inside that company to help me do my research. The value of a fully developed network of contacts in multiple companies cannot be emphasized enough here.
There are several resources I use when it comes to researching wages and salaries:
- www.officeteam.com: The OfficeTeam Salary Guide for administrative support staffing is a terrific resource. The OfficeTeam Salary Guide is updated annually, and it provides the most reliable and job specific information I’ve found on administrative support salary ranges. Get to know your local OfficeTeam representatives and take advantage of their information and resources.
- www.iaap-hq.org: The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) website has some great data and survey information that may be useful as you do your research.Here are the results from the IAAP 2009 Benchmarking Survey: http://www.iaap-hq.org/newsroom/journalistresources/2009survey.html Here is a list of additional resources and information you may find helpful: http://www.iaap-hq.org/resources/keytrends/index.html
- Do a Google search on specific salary information, job titles and their associated duties. Get very specific in a Google search such as: salary ranges for administrative assistants (do the search in quotes to get a better search result) or try salary data for executive assistants.
- www.Salary.com
- www.Payscale.com
- www.SimplyHired.com
Salary.com, Payscale.com, and SimplyHired.com have also been useful. You can search info based on area of the country, job title, duties, etc. They have limited reporting if you only use their free portions, but it will help you get started with your data collection.
2. FACTS are persuasive.
Salary related discussions may feel a bit intimidating, but FACTS are persuasive. The more prepared you are, the better the conversation will go. Know what you’re trying to achieve. Be willing to consider alternate solutions if what you originally ask for doesn’t materialize. For example, if you can’t get more money, can you get more time off or additional company paid training or something else that is of significant value to you? These may not cost the company in the same way a salary increase would and may be easier for your boss to approve. Think about these things ahead of time and write your ideas down. Keep your list with you during the meeting so you can reference it easily during the conversation.
3. DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT.
Document where you’re at and what you’ve accomplished. Document what your professional development goals are. Document what the industry salary ranges are for your position and take all of the supporting data with you when you meet with your boss. Be prepared with solid support for your claim. Even if you never need it, you have the data if you are challenged on your numbers.
If you have a professional portfolio with documentation and samples of your work in it, take that with you, too. Sometimes our employers become used to the excellent support we consistently provide. Showing them the actual work product (and volume of it) presented page after page in your portfolio can be a very impressive reminder of what you actually do for them. The visual reminder is powerful.
4. Think “what am I worth” vs. what are others around me are making.
It’s irrelevant what other around you are making. I cannot stress this enough. Do not bring what others are making into this discussion. Think in terms of – WHAT AM I WORTH? Are you doing things that support that claim – if so, document them. When you document your reasons based on “what am I worth” and present your reasons with that perspective, then you have a much more positive and proactive reason to go meet with your boss.
See how these two examples sound to you?
- “I provided critical support for the completion of the RFP for XYZ Company – a $2,000,000 contract – in a record two day turn around time.”
- “I work twice as hard as Susie, and she makes more than me.”
The first one says I’m a valuable member of the team. The second one says I have a whining problem. How do you want to be perceived?
5. Strategically plan the meeting with your boss.
We all know there are good times and bad times to approach a boss based on hectic schedules, moods, or other things happening within the company. So don’t time this meeting on the day before they leave on vacation or the day after they return. Don’t ambush them the day before a big board meeting. Be thoughtful about the best time, date, and setting in which to have this conversation.
I strongly recommend having the meeting at a location outside of your boss’s office. Use a conference room or go get a cup of coffee together at a local coffee shop. You want a more neutral setting free from distractions and away from the center of power the boss’s office often has associated with it.
We also know everyone communicates differently. Some like a lot of detail with facts and figures, some just want a high level overview. Some prefer a verbal exchange, some want to see it on paper, too. You should know your boss’s communication style preference and present your request accordingly. On the flip side of that, once you’ve presented the information, give your boss the appropriate space and time to process the information and make a decision. Some need thinking time to process the data. Some may make a decision on the spot. Don’t expect or demand an instant decision, or you may ultimately sabotage your entire effort. Give your boss time to think and take action. He or she may need to present your data to his or her boss in order to get your raise approved.
6. Practice your presentation and delivery.
When I help candidates who are looking for a new job, I often go through mock interview questions with them to give them practice answering the questions. This is especially helpful if you’re leaving a position or a company for negative reasons. You don’t want your voice or demeanor to shift to a frustrated or defensive tone. To overcome this, you have to practice answering questions over and over again with a smile in your voice and a neutral look in your eye. This takes practice. I encourage people to have their family and friends randomly ask them, “So tell me why you’re looking for a new job?” Practice makes perfect. Use this same approach as you prepare for this discussion also. Sit down with a trusted friend or advisor and do a test run. Have them ask you difficult questions so you can practice thinking on your feet and using your documentation to support your answers.
One book that I strongly recommend which will help you successfully maneuver through this “crucial conversation” is Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. You’ll never regret the time or money investment for this book.
7. Schedule the meeting.
Be confident. Be professional. Be polite. Be respectful. You certainly don’t want to create an uncomfortable situation with your boss going forward. If you go in with the right attitude and mindset open to several positive outcomes, you’ll be on the right track.
What if your boss says no?
- Ask why. In order for you to understand what you may need to do to be considered for a salary increase, you have to know what it would be based on. If its performance related, ask your boss to help you create a performance improvement plan so you and your boss can track your positive path forward together.
- Pull out your list of alternate suggestions that don’t involve a salary increase but may include things such as additional vacation or floating holidays, additional company paid professional development or training, a company paid professional association membership, etc. Ask if these items might be considered.
- Are you ultimately willing to search for a new job? This is a question you need to seriously ponder before you initiate this conversation. If you like your job, your boss, and your company, you may be o.k. with leaving things as they are – especially if you’re able to work out a plan for the future with your boss which outlines how and when you may qualify for a salary increase. If you can’t work something out that satisfies both sides, you may need to consider how this impacts your future opportunities and willingness to remain in the position. But you won’t know until you ask, and when you document your value to the company, you may be very pleased with the result.
Additional resources:
- http://careerplanning.about.com/od/negotiatingoffers/a/raise.htm
- http://careerplanning.about.com/od/negotiatingoffers/a/negotiat_salary.htm
- http://humanresources.about.com/od/salaryandbenefits/a/ask_raise_2.htm
- http://humanresources.about.com/od/salaryandbenefits/a/pay_raise.htm
© 2010 All Things Admin and Julie Perrine International, LLC
Have you successfully asked for a raise? Share your ideas by commenting here on this blog post.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, EZINE OR WEBSITE? You may as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Julie Perrine CPS/CAP is a personality strategist, personal brand analyst, and administrative mentor who teaches administrative professionals and entrepreneurs how to increase their professional opportunities and achieve more productive and meaningful relationships by utilizing innovative technology, ideas, and people. Learn more and request your FREE copy of our special report “Creating Your Strategic Administrative Career Plan” at www.AllThingsAdmin.com
Developing Your Personal Advisory Board
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When you need solid advice, whom do you call? When you are looking for productive feedback, to whom do you turn? Who causes you to think differently about things that may challenge you? Do you have a personal advisory board to help you through making difficult decisions, evaluating new opportunities, or pursuing professional goals? If not, how do you develop one?
What is a personal advisory board?
A personal advisory board is a small group of objective people whom know you well, who are interested in your personal and professional success, and who are able to help you think. They can help accelerate your success and take some of the fear and uncertainty out of the process. A good personal board will provide both support and wisdom for you as you pursue your personal and professional goals.
How do I select my personal advisory board members?
Over the past five years, I have purposefully spent time developing a personal advisory board and identifying criteria for whom I should include. As my career has grown and evolved, having a personal advisory board has become more and more critical to my personal and professional success. I’m very selective about whom I place on my personal board. Here are some of the criteria I consider:
- Who sharpens me?
- Who inspires me to achieve more?
- Who supports and encourages me to keep climbing and reaching to achieve the goals I have set for myself?
- Who brings new perspectives and ideas into my life?
- Who stretches my thinking?
- Who is willing to offer truly constructive criticism when I need it?
- Who is willing to tell me directly that he or she thinks I have a bad idea or am headed in the wrong direction?
- Who brings a completely different background and set of experiences into my thoughts and awareness?
- Who knows and understands my strengths, weaknesses, and personality type?
- Are they emotionally tied to the outcome of my decisions? Or can they be objective?
- Are they positive and forward thinking?
These are the people I want to surround me and support me no matter what comes my way.
I have both men and women on my personal advisory board. I have administrative professionals, business owners, financial and legal professionals, and executive/success coaches. Their educational backgrounds vary. Their experiences overlap in some areas and significantly vary in others. It’s a fantastic mix of trusted advisors.
Meeting and communicating with my advisory board
Most of my personal advisory board members do not know they hold that “unofficial” title. I do communicate with each of them regularly, though, by phone, e-mail, getting together for coffee or lunch. I share what I’m doing and the goals I’m pursuing. I share my successes and my challenges. I bounce ideas off of them. They help keep me accountable to my timelines. One of my board members is so in tune with who I am and what I’m trying to accomplish, she sends me ideas and supporting information to keep inspiring me on an almost daily basis. I love that! Her random thoughts and tidbits of inspiration have been extremely valuable to me. In turn, this also inspires me to be the type of person others would want to have around them and supporting them as well. It’s contagious.
Giving back to my personal advisory board
As my advisory board members support, encourage, challenge, and inspire me, I realize this is not a one-way street. I am constantly thinking about ways I can add value to their personal and professional lives as well. I want to be the kind of advisor for my friends and colleagues who meets the same criteria I have set for my own personal advisory board. I also try to show my sincere appreciation in the form of small gifts or books, treating them to coffee or lunch occasionally, saying thank you verbally and in writing.
There’s an old adage, “There’s wisdom in a multitude of counselors.” Surround yourself with many wise advisors, and you’ll reap the benefits of their wisdom and insights as you actively pursue your personal and professional goals. Your long term success depends on it!
© 2010 All Things Admin and Julie Perrine International, LLC
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, EZINE OR WEBSITE? You may as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Julie Perrine CPS/CAP is a personality strategist, personal brand analyst, and administrative mentor who teaches administrative professionals and entrepreneurs how to increase their professional opportunities and achieve more productive and meaningful relationships by utilizing innovative technology, ideas, and people. Learn more and request your FREE copy of our special report “Creating Your Strategic Administrative Career Plan” at www.AllThingsAdmin.com
Travel Itineraries: Effectively Organizing Executive Travel
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Effectively organizing all of the details of an executive’s travel plans requires a travel itinerary template that you use consistently. Don’t ask your travelers if they want one – JUST DO IT! They’ll thank you for it later. And in the mean time, you’ll have saved them a lot of time and hassle in sorting through multiple documents or scrolling through multiple emails to find the information they need at the moment they need it while they are traveling. I know this because every executive I’ve ever created one for initially comes to expect and/or demand them for future trips. I’ve done a fair share of traveling myself, and trips with an itinerary are much more efficient.
Think Chronologically
If you haven’t done a lot of travel planning in the past, one of the first things I encourage you to do is THINK CHRONOLOGICALLY. What is the order of events for your traveler throughout their trip? This will help you get all of the arrangements made that are required from the start (flights, ground transportation, hotel, meals, meetings, etc.).
Using This Travel Itinerary Template
Click here to download your copy now.
My template is designed to cover all of the basic details that need to be included on an itinerary for a traveling executive. Not every trip requires airline travel. Not every trip requires rental cars. It may change from trip to trip and traveler to traveler. Remain flexible. Customize this template to make it fit more specifically to your executive’s specific travel needs.
Here are some tips to get you started:
- All of the items in blue or with blanks are the details you’ll need to insert or fill in as appropriate for each trip.
- If you have executives that travel frequently to the same places, save their past travel itineraries. Open the most recent version, update with the new date and travel details without having to recreate the entire document each time they travel. It’s a huge time saver!
- Print a final copy for your executive AND a copy for your file so you have the same information if they need travel assistance while they are gone. If appropriate, you can also print an additional copy for the traveler’s family so they know where they’ll be and when as well.
- If your executives have e-tickets for their flights, print a copy of the flight reservation from your travel agency or online booking service and staple it to the back of the itinerary just in case there are any issues when they check in at the airport.
Each time you need to create an itinerary, follow these steps to update the template with your executive’s travel information.
1. Personalize the HEADER information on the template
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Include your executive’s name and your company name.
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Insert your company’s name/logo.
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Update the travel dates.
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Do this on the 1st page AND also in the header so it prints on any additional pages of the document if your itinerary is more than 1 page long.
2. Update/add all AIRLINE information:
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Delete all previous times on the itinerary template.
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Update all airline information requested on the template: dates, times, flight numbers, airline 800 numbers, travel agency numbers, any information that might be needed while traveling.
3. Update the GROUND TRANSPORTATION information:
- Be sure to include car service info or shuttle/taxi contact numbers.
- List on the itinerary where the car service or shuttle will pick the passenger up.
- Include the confirmation number.
4. Update the HOTEL information:
- Be sure there is a hotel contact number to reach the hotel.
- Include street address and any applicable driving directions necessary.
- Include the confirmation number and room rate.
5. Insert all pertinent MEETING INFORMATION in order of dates/times.
- Make sure to reference which time zone the time is listed in.
[TIP: Go to http://www.timeanddate.com/time/ to find out which time zone abbreviations apply at various times of the year.] - Include conference number dial in and passcode information in case their flights are delayed and they need to join the meeting from their cell phone until they arrive at the meeting location. (Trust me, it happens!)
6. Check each section of the itinerary for information that needs to be updated.
7. Treat the compilation of the itinerary as though you were the traveler. What additional information would you want to know?
- Driving directions
- Restaurant options and/or locations
- Entertainment venues
8. PROOF READ, PROOF READ, PROOF READ the completed itinerary. There are a lot of details here. Make sure you proof it well.
HOW TO NAME YOUR ITINERARY FILES
To keep your electronic files organized nicely, here’s an example of a file naming convention for travel itineraries. Note: XXXXXX = the 6-digit date
XXXXXX – Location – Name or Initials of Traveler (i.e. 073007 – Tampa FL – JLP
XXXXXX – Location Event Name of Traveler (i.e. 073007 – Tampa FL IAAP Conv JLP)
In these examples, the beginning date of the trip was July 30, 2007. The destination was Tampa, Florida for an IAAP convention. The traveler’s initials were JLP.
When using dates in your file names, consider using full six-digit dates so they always align in order by date. You may also consider starting with a 2-digit or 4-digit year, so you can find things by the year, then the month and day. Using the same sample data from above, that would look like this: 2007 0730 Tampa FL JLP
It may take a few minutes to assemble the information, but sending your executive on business travel with an itinerary is a HUGE value-add you can provide your executive(s) and your team as an Administrative Professional.
HAPPY TRAVEL PLANNING!
Click here to download your copy now. What are some of your travel planning secrets for keeping your executive’s travel efficient and organized? Share your ideas with us here.
© 2010 All Things Admin and Julie Perrine International, LLC
Share some of your travel tips and hints by commenting here on this blog post.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, EZINE OR WEBSITE? You may as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Julie Perrine CPS/CAP is a personality strategist, personal brand analyst, and administrative mentor who teaches administrative professionals and entrepreneurs how to increase their professional opportunities and achieve more productive and meaningful relationships by utilizing innovative technology, ideas, and people. Learn more and request your FREE copy of our special report “Creating Your Strategic Administrative Career Plan” at www.AllThingsAdmin.com
Do you know how to have “Crucial Conversations” successfully?
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I have a top 10 list of books that I recommend to admins and other professionals I work with. But this book had held the #1 spot since the day I started reading it years ago:
Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high
By Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
It should be required reading for all human beings! It IS REQUIRED reading for Success-Minded Administrative Professionals.
Have you ever found yourself in a conversation with two or more people that you did not know how to manage your way through? Did opinions vary? Were the stakes high? Did emotions run strong? If so, you were having a “crucial conversation.”
The authors make an audacious claim in the first chapter: Master your crucial conversations and you’ll kick-start your career, strengthen your relationships, and improve your health. As you and others master high-stakes discussions, you’ll also vitalize your organization and your community. The authors demonstrate through their research that strong relationships, careers, organizations, and communities all draw from the same source of power – the ability to talk openly about high-stakes, emotional, controversial topics.
Dialogue skills are learnable. This book takes you step by step through the mental and emotional processes to help you begin to understand how you personally react in these situations including the physical and chemical changes that take place in your body and how to overcome them. You’ll learn how to stay focused on what you really want, how to notice when safety is at risk, and how to make it safe to talk about almost anything. One of the key skills the authors teach you is how to stay in dialogue when you’re angry, scared, or hurt, and how to listen when others blow up or clam up. Finally, once you learn and apply all of these new skills, they show you how to turn crucial conversations into action and results.
When this book was recommended to me several years ago, I had no idea the profound impact it would have on my personal and professional life. Now, I apply the principles of how to have a crucial conversation every single day. Some days I’m more successful than others. But the skills are priceless. Learning how to have a crucial conversation is truly one of the most powerful tools that you can add to your skill set and apply to every aspect of your life.
You may visit the Vital Smarts website here and enroll in free webinars they host. Sign up for the Vital Smarts e-newsletter and you can download and read the first chapter and take their Style Under Stress Test. But don’t wait another day – get online, get to the bookstore, or go to the library – start reading this book today!
What books have you read that have profoundly impacted your professional development?
