Collaboration is the hallmark of a great Assistant-Executive relationship. But, whilst planning for the new year, don’t forget to plan your own development and training explains Kathleen Drum
We are very excited to feature an extract from Lucy Brazier’s book, The Modern-Day Assistant: Build Your Influence and Boost Your Potential, as the cover article in this issue. Lucy will be hosting book launches in different locations around the world, so if you would like to meet her in person, please subscribe to our free weekly newsletter, Take Five, to see if she is coming to a city near you.
The extract we have chosen, “Building Powerful Partnerships”, is a timely reminder that neither you nor your executives need to do everything alone. Collaborating and solving problems together is the hallmark of a great Assistant-Executive relationship. Diana Brandl takes this a step further in her article “Unleashing Intrapreneurial Spirit: How Assistants Can Thrive in Their Organizations” whilst Richard Arnott’s article “Enhancing Your Executive Presence as an Executive Assistant” will enable you to communicate more effectively and contribute to the success of your team.
As we head into the latter part of the year, it is easy to become overwhelmed with the thought of all that needs to be “finished” before the arbitrary stop at year’s end. If you’re marking the holiday season with an event for your team or organisation, Lisa Gareau’s article “Creating a Hospitable Welcome for Our Guests with Food and Drink” has some great ideas.
With family commitments and celebrations coming to the fore in the lead-up to the Christmas break, as well as planning for the new year, it can sometimes feel like you are juggling too many things. Julia Schmidt’s article “10 Ways to Energize Your Work and Life” has some great self-assessment questions to get you thinking about how to manage your energy at this time.
And, whilst planning for the new year, don’t forget to plan your own development and training. Our training courses and events for 2024 are up on the website (https://executivesupportmedia.com/product-category/events-training-courses/), so get your requests to your executive or HR department now! If you need any help with making your case for training, or in deciding which course or event is right for you, please get in touch with Sophie Douglas (sdouglas@executivesupportmedia.com).
For those of you currently setting goals or key performance indicators (KPIs), we have a number of articles available in the magazine archive online, and on our YouTube channel. Marie Herman’s article from 2017, “Writing Your Own Self-Assessment (and Goals)”, is consistently rated as one of our best articles in this space, along with the accompanying #adminchat video, and is a great place to start.
Happy planning!
Kathleen
