The importance of having someone to talk to

Recently, I met with a former colleague for an inpromptu lunch. It was very timely that we met because I had a lot of things on my mind that I needed to vent about and it turned out so did she. Sometimes we just need someone to be our sounding board and an outsider to the situation can often see things more clearly.

The admin profession lends itself to taking on new and sometimes challenging projects. If something needs to be done at the office that doesn't fit anyone else's job description, it is usually the assistant that is asked to do it because, well, we are the assistant and our position is not cast in stone. (In all honesty, that is what I like about the job, but sometimes it makes it a little difficult).

This is where an assistant network can come in handy. I often reach out to my network to get answers to problems that come up at the office or just to lend a sympathetic ear. Having the opportunity to hash it out with another assistant is a great resource. We can all help each other.

For instance, I found it challenging when I first started my new job. I had a big learning curve going into it and I didn't know any of the other assistants so I felt all alone with my challenges. I can tell you my friends and colleagues got a lot of phone calls in those early days and it was a wonderful resource and help to me.

Below are some things that I have found helpful to build my network:

1. Join a professional association such as International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP). IAAP is a group of assistants who get together and encourage each other in our jobs and careers. Sometimes I go to our dinner meetings and take polls at the table I am sitting at about some office procedure I am thinking of implementing and get their feedback on how they do things in their offices.
2. Read professional magazines when you get the opportunity. IAAP has a magazine that comes with being a member called OfficePro and it has very useful articles. When I receive my copy, I circulate it to the assistants in my office for their information and reading. Another one I like is Administrative Assistant's Update, but there are others.
3. Sign up to some interactive Admin Assistant sites such as OfficeArrow, Admin Secret and DeskDemon. They have discussion boards where assistants write their questions or concerns and assistants all over the country (and world) read it and if they have an answer, try to help. It is surprising how similar our situations are, no matter where we are from.
4. When you leave a job, you don't have to leave your network behind. I am still in contact with people from many of the offices I have worked in over the years. It is nice to keep the connection for our mutual work benefit.

One of the reasons I like having outside networks is since they do not know the people or history about a particular work situation, they can look at it with a neutral eye. We do have to keep our company privacy in mind when sharing and never give specific details, but it is easy to give a general work situation and no one is the wiser as to who it is about and no company secrets are shared. The problem that sometimes occurs with sharing with current co-workers is it can turn into office gossip. Some situations however need to be kept in-house and only those who are involved would benefit from discussing it and understand what it was about. This is where a strong assistant team is nice to have. Since our positions are so similar, it is to each other's benefit to work together and help each other.

Perhaps, you are reading this and thinking some of these things can be a big time commitment. I understand! We do need to have a life outside of work so I find the best thing is to pick a few that work for you. Check out some of the sites and organizations and see which you would find to be most useful. Ask yourself if you have the time to go to a meeting once a month. Perhaps those with young families do not, so gear your outside activities to what you have time for and what you can afford.

The nice thing about on-line sites is for the most part they are free, but what they don't charge in fees they can take up in time, as many of us have experienced with sites such as Facebook. You can spend a lot of time in front of your computer.

Work life balance is always the best way to go, but if you need a hand or a listening ear, just reach out. There is help out there and it is usually closer than you think.

Psst! I'm in a bad mood, pass it on...

I was at the cottage with a friend and she was cranky and started to get wound up about something to do with her husband. The longer she couldn't get in touch with him, the angrier she became. When she finally did reach him she started off really nice. "Hi, how are you?," she said sweetly. Then you could see it progressing downward from there. She had an agenda and was going to let him have it. By the end of the call her husband had caught her crankiness and it ended up with them both being angry.

What happened?
Crankiness and bad moods can be passed on. I am sure after that call her husband got off the phone and kicked the dog or was cranky with a sales clerk at the grocery store. I have been at the office in a perfectly good mood going about my business and getting a lot done. Someone comes in my office and starts in on me about something or other. At first I am taken aback, wondering what the heck happened, and then I get angry and because I couldn't get it off my chest with this person, the next person I meet will probably feel my crankiness and then they will wonder what happened and pass the bad mood on to the next person.

This happens with e-mail as well. The worst time to write an email is when you are angry. My boss calls these types of e-mails "crankograms." I am sure you know what I mean and have received them yourself and felt the sting of it. I wrote about it in an article called I got an e-slap on the wrist.

What can be done about it?
As I watched my friend get angry with her husband, I got a clearer view of what happened. (It is easier to see when you are on the outside looking in, rather than the one who is angry). She was frustrated. She couldn't get an answer so she slowly started to get worked up and by the time she reached him, she was already angry and he didn't have a hope. He reacted to her anger by being angry himself. Both of them probably didn't really know what they were angry about, but were each left with a bad feeling.

Same thing at the office. Your boss might have been sharp with you and you are wondering what you did wrong. You are frustrated and so the next person who crosses your path will probably feel the brunt of it. I think some good tips would be:

1. Don't come up with your own conclusions without communicating with the person first. My friend assumed since she couldn't get in touch with her husband, he was ignoring her. It ended up that the phone lines were down because of a thunderstorm in town and he had been trying to reach her since early that afternoon.
2. Never send an e-mail when you are angry. I often write the e-mail and get my frustration out and then send the e-mail to myself. When I open it, I get a better idea of how it will be received and often re-think what I write. Thank goodness the Internet was also down so my friend couldn't e-mail her frustration to her husband. It is always worse to have things in writing and harder to take back.
3. I find talking it over with a friend can be a good way to organize your thoughts. Once my friend had calmed down we started talking about it and she realized she had jumped to conclusions and shouldn't have reacted as she did. She ended up calling her husband back and apologizing for her bad mood. The good thing about apologizing is even though a bad mood was passed along, saying you are sorry goes a long way to making things right. (I wouldn't recommend talking about a co-worker with someone at the office or it ends up being gossip and spreads a bad feeling about that person. Talking to a third party who is totally uninvolved is much better.)

The bottom line is to think before communicating, but do communicate. And remember, bad moods can be passed along so stop and ask yourself if that is what you really want to do.

A funny thing happened on the way to the office...

I have been asked to speak in December and I am supposed to be funny. How do you plan to be funny in December? With me it is a hit and miss sort of thing and sometimes I am funny, sometimes I am melancholy. How do comedians do it?

I went to a writing workshop and the woman who was presenting said that comedians are only as funny as their writers. If you have very funny writers around you, your material will be great. If not, then be prepared to be booed off the stage... Yikes!

So how am I going to be funny in December? Perhaps you can help. Do you have any funny office stories that you want to share? Let me know at pattyannrobb@rogers.com

The only one I can think of is something a friend of mine told me about a woman at her office. This woman was speaking to the CEO and her skirt slipped down to her ankles. My friend said it didn't seem to faze her and she quickly pulled up her skirt and kept talking like nothing happened. Hmmm! I wonder what that CEO was talking about that night with his wife. "Honey, you will never believe what happened at the office?" HA HA

This assignment of course is a result of "Just say yes". Someone asked, it's something I've always wanted to do, but my fear kept me from saying yes. Fits the criteria, so I will plunge on and hope for the best.

Now I am off for a week's holiday at the cottage with my daughter and grandson. Yippee!

Patricia

Colour Coding Works ...

I have never been a fan of colour coding, until recently. I was in back-to-back Committee meetings and I decided to use two different colours of folders, a blue one for the Committee members, with an attendance sheet stapled to the inside cover for my purposes, along with their meeting packages, and a red one for the Chair with everything the Chair was going to need.

Because the meetings were right after the other and I had lots of packages with me, it was easy to distinguish what went to whom just by looking at the colour. I also put them in order of the meetings so it made it even easier.

Without the colour coding, I would have been in a panic trying to find the packages, but as it was, it went very smoothly.

Too much colour however can be confusing. Keep it simple and easy to remember. When you are busy, busy and don't have time to think, having two or three colours to choose from will help make things easier.

Try it, you may like it.

Meeting preparation...

I have an upcoming Board meeting and want to be prepared for everything that is needed to make it run smoothly.

To-do lists

I have to-do lists for the Board and Committee meetings and a to-do list for the Board Reception and Dinner. You can never go wrong if you are making a list and checking it twice.

My favourite to-do list is a calendar timeline so I can see at a glance where I am at and what I need to do to get there. It is simply using an on-line calendar with space on each day to enter what needs to be done. I fill it out from start to finish and each day check what needs to be done and where I am at. I feel confident as I check off each item that things will be done on time. No surprises!

To generate a calendar in Word 2007, click on the Office Button (in the top left-hand corner). Choose New. Under Office Microsoft Online, click on Calendars. You will be given a choice of many styles and types of calendars. My favourite is the basic design, with large squares to fill in my to-dos. I customize it and remove the weekend days to give me more space.

Checklists
I also have a checklist that I go through to make sure we have everything we are going to need on the day of the meeting. Some things I have on this list is a memory stick with the minute templates, tentcards, meals ordered, meeting packages, pen, notebook, highlighter, calculator (I hate math so just in case they ask something that requires mathematical skills) and attendance records to establish quorum for each meeting.

Minute Template
I take my minutes on a laptop so prepare a minute template ahead of time. Then it is a simple matter of filling in the blanks on the day of the meeting. This does increase the preparation time, but on the day of the meeting it goes very smoothly with no stress.

To prepare a minute template simply use your agenda and put it in minute format. Under each agenda heading you can then record the appropriate information when you are in the meeting. To finalize your minutes, you will just need to tidy up the language and formatting for the Chair's approval.

Are you plugged in?
Once I plugged my laptop in and thought I had power, but the plug-in was not working. My battery power died half way through the meeting. I had a notepad and pen with me so continued the minutes by hand, but it was a lesson learned to check in the bottom right hand corner of my computer to see if I actually have power. If it is plugged in, it will show a battery with a plug symbol. If it is only operating on battery power, it will just show a battery. Good thing to check before the meeting begins.

Meeting Materials
To make it easier for the Chair and board members on the day of the meeting I set up the meeting materials in a binder in as user friendly a way as possible. I use the meeting agenda as an index with each item as a tab number.

Tab
1 Approval of Agenda (Motion required)

2 Approval of Minutes (Motion required)

3 Business Arising

4 Committee Reports

a) Executive Committee
· Tabling of Minutes
· Report on Board Professional Development

b) Nominations & Governance Committee
· Tabling of Minutes
· Term Renewal
· New Board Member Appointments (Motions required)
· Committee Membership

c) Finance Committee
· Tabling of Minutes
· Tabling of Financial Statements (Motion required)

d) Audit Committee
· Tabling of Minutes
· Tabling of Audited Year-end Financial Statements
(Motion required)
· Tabling of Auditor’s Report (Motion required)

e) Report of the Secretary

5 Chief Executive Officer’s Report

a) Strategic Directions (Motion required)

6 Board Correspondence

7 Next Meeting
(Be sure to include a calendar in the meeting binder
for yourself and the board members)

Motions
When a motion is required, I include the language of the motion for the board members at the appropriate tab:

MOTION
To approve the agenda of June 15th as presented.
Moved: Seconded:
CARRIED

The motion language is also included in my meeting template at the appropriate spot so all I need to do when we come to the motion is fill in the names of who brought the motion forward and seconded it.

The members of the board have always been appreciative of the simplicity of the meeting binder which leaves them free to make the important decisions and get on with the business of the meeting.

All done?
I enjoy the preparation leading up to the meeting. It is a lot of work, with the highlight being when the meeting runs smoothly and minutes are completed and sent to the Board members.

Whew! Now I am free to ... prepare for the next meeting! (It is a never ending circle isn't it?)

However, you can be sure I will use my previous templates and checklists and just change the date to the next meeting date.

Go with your gut feeling!

Have you ever had a moment's hesitation when you thought, "I should question that" or "I should take one more look" and then don't and later wish you had? Well, I have had two such incidents in the past two weeks. I read something that made me pause, but because I was in a big hurry and felt confident that the other person was covering that base, I let it go.

It is wise to take a moment and evaluate the situation.

In both of my situations, it would have been helpful if I had given my input. I am not sure if it would have changed the outcome, but at least I would feel confident that I flagged it for my boss.

Lesson learned and will now put me on high gut alert...