Skip to main content

Personal Assistant - the 21st Century Way

As my first job was as a PA at NCR to two sales managers who didn't speak to each other, I learnt early how difficult the life of a PA can be.  I enjoyed getting everything organised, though, and loved working with all the sales guys and getting to understand the sales processes.   And so my very first job exposed me to two things which enabled me to grow in business, sales and IT.

Today being a PA is a well paid career choice, and the incredible abundance of information available online, from weather patterns abroad to the rules of etiquette in different locations globally, has helped to establish a new generation of personal assistants – people who create the kind of structure that can help make their bosses look good.

We are starting to notice that executive level leadership within companies are looking to hire personal assistants who not only have ICT skill sets, but can utilise these skills to source relevant and accurate information to help manage the office.

These are the small matters, the trivial things that also require attention, but do not necessarily have to be done personally by the executive in charge. These tasks could be left to the PA to resolve  - or the PA could use technology and information to be proactive, take the initiative and help clear out these responsibilities.

Managers of businesses want to employ personal assistants who possess the confidence and skills to gather information, if and when necessary, to take care of day-to-day tasks in the office that will alleviate some of the pressure off senior management.

For example, a forward-thinking and competitive PA, knowing his or her boss has a trip abroad scheduled, could look up weather conditions at the destination and email an advisory message on what ought to be packed. 

It is a small thing, really, but it is very helpful. It removes one of the many items that the boss would have otherwise had to pay attention to. By simply taking a bit of initiative and accessing information resources, the PA has added measurable value.

From there it moves into strong skills in Excel, Word and PowerPoint, creating presentation material, managing board input, enabling senior management to spend less time doing, and more time thinking and planning.   A great PA is an asset most executives don't know that they are missing, until they find the perfect match.

 And being an expert PA can be the ideal grounding for moving into many different roles within business.   Just think about some of the skills that are required, logistics, travel knowledge, computer skills, time management, catering and event planning.   All career possibilities in their own right.

www.accsys.co.za/peopleplace

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feeding the Right Wolf

Feeding the Right Wolf This Cherokee story resonated with me (see below).     Like many business people, I get caught up in managing details, instead of focusing on strategy and growth.   Measuring myself against the Good Wolf concept has become a way of thinking for me. Feeding the good wolf - focusing on the right stuff! In a previous article on this topic, I commented that the message is simple, the wolf you feed is the one that grows. The good wolf attributes in a business are where we ideally should spend our time, that good old 80 – 20 rule focusing on our   engaged employees, improving client experience and quality of product,   to name a few. Creating a Good Wolf Environment While we have many different tools – appraisals, customer and employee surveys – to try and understand the temperature and levels of entropy in our businesses – the truth is that it is really difficult to explain to people that they are not seen as feeding the good wo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Its all about the numbers - retirement age

Weight, height, age, dress size, shoe size, all numbers that we (and the media) use to define people. I was fascinated by an article from the Leicester Mercury where the age of each witness to a bus crash in January were carefully listed. Sue Kellett, 56, whose front garden is bordered by the wall, was one of the first at the scene. Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Bus-driver-airlifted-hospital-collision-tractor/story-20512289-detail/story.html#ixzz31lXUuyZg Read more at http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Bus-driver-airlifted-hospital-collision-tractor/story-20512289-detail/story.html#9cHShVptF30lJw4X.99 Sue Kellett, 56, whose front garden is bordered by the wall, was one of the first at the scene. Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Bus-driver-airlifted-hospital-collision-tractor/story-20512289-detail/story.html#ixzz31lXUuyZg Read more at http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Bus-driver-airlifted-hospital-collision-tractor/story-20512289-detail/story.htm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is the employee toxic or simply disengaged?

Is the employee toxic or simply disengaged?  And how to tell? Dissecting Employee Behaviour We spend hours of management time dissecting employee behaviour to ensure that not only is each employee delivering to a minimum expectation, he or she is not actively undermining the effectiveness of the business. We design KPAs (or KPIs, or whatever we want to call them), we run regular appraisals, we discuss career paths and succession plans, and  as long as toxic employees are delivering on their job description, we keep them! It’s only after they leave, when you hear the collective deep breath of relief from colleagues and management, that you can be absolutely sure of the negative impact. Underperformance vs Undermining My view has changed – rather an underperformer, than an underminer. So what to do? Once you have firmly established that undermining is the problem, the first step is to tell them that you are onto them! Never an easy task, because very few p...
Post a Comment
Read more