Review of 2011 and a very big Thank You

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6 Key Steps to Effective Decision Making as PAs & EAs

As PAs and EAs we need to make many decisions every day, some have very little consequences, i.e. whether you have toast or cereal for breakfast, but others have a much greater impact on our lives and the consequences of these decisions can affect our professional reputation and our own, and our boss’s, success or failure, i.e. if you choose to put a call through to your boss from the Chairman five minutes before he/she gets on a 13 hour flight or not.  If we don’t make clear, informed decisions we still get a result but we have potentially lost control of the outcomes and life just happens at us, rather than with us. 

Why is this skill so important to PAs?  Because our lives are based around making decisions for our bosses and ourselves, whether that be in event management, managing the careers and direction of teams of PAs, or what information, and who, gets through to our bosses - you’re making executive level decisions every day that have far reaching consequences and it’s crucial that we have a frame work to get it right.

All successful PAs and EAs, without expectation, need to cultivate the ability to make clear and confident decisions on behalf of their boss quickly and accurately.

Effective decision making puts us in control of our circumstances and is about making transparent, informed and pro-active assessments and choices.    It is in fact a hugely complex and in-depth subject, there are a multitude of internal and external factors that influence how we make decisions.  I’m not going to cover all of these here, what I’m going to do is offer you an effective framework for you to start to put into practice and apply to enhance your own personal and professional decision making skills.

1.       Define what exactly the actual decision to be made is.

If we let our minds speed away with us it’s easy to leave out important information that we do actually require to make a fully informed decision, we start to *filter* and make assumptions based on our previous experience and our own personal values.  Stop for a moment and think analytically.  Start off by analysing and identifying the issues that the decision must address.  What is the decision to be made? Why am I making this decision? What is my aim and objective of making this decision?  What will be consequences of making this decision be?

2.       Fully understand the context in which the decision is being made.

Each situation that you face is unique, whilst our previous experience is an important baseline of knowledge we can draw from, be cautious of a *one size fits all* approach to decision making.   You’ll need to consider many factors that will influence the context of the decision to be made.   If you are making a decision on whether or not to put a call through to your boss from the Chairman before a 13 hour flight but have similar previous experience of putting a call through in which your boss was furious because he/she missed their flight because of it, consider the new context.  Is the situation the same, what is going on with the company right now, if in the middle of a takeover, this call has a very different context to your last experience of putting a call through at a time critical moment.

3.       What options do you have available to you.

Get creative and don’t box yourself in, this is the time to let your mind run wild and think up as many outrageous solutions as possible – if you don’t dream it, it can never happen.  Get input from others outside of the situation, brain storm, develop your ideas.  If your boss needs to be meeting with 3 different clients in 3 different cities in one day don’t automatically think “This can’t be done.” Think “how can this be done”.  Do the meetings need to be formal; will an evening dinner work just as well?  Does the meeting need to be in person: will video conferencing work just as well?  Is the location set in stone; would hosting one of the meetings at a novel or unusual venue closer to one of the other meetings work?

4.       Assess the consequences of your decision

The assessment of the consequences of your decision is about which option will produce the optimum result in relation to the context and your objectives of making your decision.  It involves understanding the very real consequence of your decision.  One way to assess the consequences of a decision is to ask yourself: “How much will I regret making this decision”.   Decision making isn’t about not taking a risk; it’s about what is a reasonable risk and assessing the consequences of those risks.

5.       Prioritise your options – and chose one

Having analysed, brain stormed and assessed your options, you should have arrived at a list of possible ways forward.  Now is the time to commit to your decision, own it and ensure that you can justify the why’s and the how’s of your decision.   Have you understood the context? Do you know what the options are and the consequences of each? Is your reason decisive and convincing?

6.       Obtain buy-in and support for your decision – take action

If your decision involves other people it is critical to get their buy-in for you to be able to implement it.  If you have decided to select a particular venue for the next Management Meeting that hasn’t been used before and is 100 miles further away for people to travel you must be able to validate your decision, the reasons that you took it, and the benefits to the Management Team.  If you are confident that you have addressed each of the steps above and can demonstrate the advantages of your decision you should have no trouble at all in justifying your decision.

As mentioned above, decision making is a complex psychological area that is driven by many different internal and external factors.  The above points provide a foundation structure to allow you to become more confident and methodical with the decisions you need to make on a daily basis.   If you are interested in developing your decision making and problem solving skills further you might benefit from our 1 day intensive training course The Strategic Business Assistant which covers these subjects in depth.

*  Preview of article written for International Confex PA Day 8th March 2012

Quote of the week...

"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning." ~ Catherine Aird

The Office* Show 2011 - A personal review

Well, the Office* Show 2011 is over, the stands have been broken down and packed away, the pink carpet rolled up and the seminar theatres returned to empty rooms devoid of the sounds of networking, laughing and engaged PAs.   

Running for the second time in London’s famous Earls Court Exhibition Centre it was a huge event dedicated to the working lives of Executive PAs, EAs and Office Managers, it launched the first ever National PA Day and welcomed approximately 5,000 professional Assistants through its doors, close to 200 exhibitors and a glitzy party at London’s Planet Hollywood complete with drag artists, not to mention the celebrity key note speakers and a Ricky Gervais impersonator and a flash mob.

So what’s the verdict?  Was it worth all the travelling, time away from the office and wear and tear on the shoe leather of walking miles around the show each day?   

The Castalia Coaching & Training Stand

From my perspective... yes, absolutely.  It was a great chance to catch up with lots of old friends that I’ve made over the years and the Show gave so many PAs the opportunity to all be in the same place at the same time; to network with peers, share experiences, learn and meet new suppliers.   I met hundreds of PAs in my training seminars and on the exhibiting stand who wanted to talk about their development and hope to be able to welcome many of them onto our training courses in the future to support them to develop and grow in their roles.

We were delighted to have hundreds of new subscribers to our monthly PA Development Bulletin who I hope will enjoy reading about news and events from the PA industry and benefit from the development articles and maybe win the odd prize or two from the competitions that we run throughout the year.

Personal Effectivness in an Executive Environment Seminar

The seminars seemed to go extremely well, for many PAs with limited access to training budgets this show is a valuable opportunity to learn and develop new skills that they might not necessarily be able to do otherwise, it is a huge part of the appeal of the Show and I hope that everyone who attended my seminars came away inspired with some new found skills to apply back at work.   And even though the Show itself seemed a little quieter on the second day, the seminars certainly weren’t, with a capacity of 80 in our seminar theatre, we counted in 98 PAs to our Friday morning session on Personal Effectiveness in an Executive Environment, and had people sitting on the floor and standing but everyone who came along to it seemed to have a great time.

Sadly I personally didn’t attend the Show party at Planet Hollywood, being in the middle of the show and running seminars the next day; I popped myself into bed for an early night to be fresh for the second day of running my seminars - well that was the plan to start with but ended up having several glasses of wine with the lovely Lucy Brazier who owns Executive Secretary Magazine, and that's kind of the point of this Show, you end up meeting new people and making new friends.  I had great chats with everyone from the pa-assist.com team to Executive PA Magazine, I heard all about the fabulous new PA Life and the exciting things the IPA are up to.  But a personal plea to the Office Show organisers – can we have the party on the second night of the show next year, it sounded fantastic and I do so hate to miss a good party!!! 

All in all a great event, it’s the PAs and EAs that make it or break it, and I hope that all who attended found benefit from networking with fellow PAs, to the Key Note Speakers, meeting new suppliers and the training seminars.  This show is the biggest and best - and I'm already looking foward to next year.

Laura, Gerry, Susie, Sophia & Lisa

I’d also like to add my heartfelt personal thanks to the Castalia Coaching & Training team: Gerry, Sophia, Laura and Lisa who where all completely fabulous and worked amazingly hard to make the Show a success for Castalia – thank you ladies from the bottom of my heart :)

So did you attend?  I’d love to hear your verdicts as well, how was it for you?

Quote of the week...

"There is no such thing as failure. There are only results." ~ Tony Robbins

Business networking for PAs & EAs – is it really worth it?

With the UK’s largest Expo for senior level PAs just around the corner, I’ve turned my mind to the reasons and benefits of business networking for PAs.   The Office* Show (www.officeshow.co.uk) will attract around 5,000 PAs and EAs and hundreds of exhibitors, there will be parties, seminars, keynote speeches, competitions and many other attractions to the event specifically aimed at PAs.   There are of course, many other business events for PAs, with more and more networking groups springing up every month.  So why are we seeing a rise in networking events and what are the benefits? 

Well, firstly to answer the question in the title of this blog – is it really worth it - the answer for me is a huge resounding YES!   Networking is one of the strongest business tools we have available to us and most of the time it’s fun as well – that sounds like a win-win to me!  If you’re new to the world of business networking, it really can feel like an overwhelming prospect, walking into a room full of strangers, initiating conversations, talking about yourself – and the most overwhelming thing of all – SELLING YOURSELF!! 

Ok, so let’s break this down a little. There are two things I’d like to look at here.  Firstly, I’d like to breakdown the reasons and benefits of business networking, and secondly, how to do it effectively and make it work for your own benefit. 

Reasons and benefits to business networking

1.       Sharing experiences.  Over the last couple of years the profession of being a PA has taken massive leaps forward in terms of how the role is viewed – as a profession, but we all know that being a senior PA can still remain an isolated position at times.  By linking in with other professional PAs you can share your experiences, the highs along with the lows.  I talk a lot about the idea of creating a ‘professional identity’, and networking with your peers will give you just that, the feeling of belonging to a profession.

2.       Benching marking best practice.  By sharing best practice with your peers across industries you are able to bench mark your own working practices and learn about new innovations in technology and skill development that will support your own continued high performance.

3.       Sharing information.  By increasing your professional network you will increase your access to a huge pool of information of suppliers, recommendations of good and bad services and have instant access to the success (and failures) of your peers.

4.       Enhance your career prospects.  Should the worst happen and you are made redundant, or the time has come for you to move on from your current role, your network will be an invaluable source of information for new opportunities.   

How to become a successful business networker

1.       Relax and be yourself!  You’re not walking into a vipers nest, you’re walking into a room full of people feeling the exactly the same way that you are!  You’re all in the same boat and other people will be genuinely interested to know the real you, putting on a false front will be seen through and diminish your credibility.

2.       Make a positive first impression. When you walk into the room for the first time – do it positively!   Walk with purpose, our mothers where right when they told us to stand up straight and put our shoulders back and get our hair out of faces!  Make direct eye contact, smile and practice a firm hand shake.

3.       Practice your opening line and have a few questions up your sleeve.  “Hi, my name is Jane Smith, I’m an EA at Global Bank, this is my first time at this event, have you been here before?”  Your opening line/question will set the tone for the conversation; practice it until you are confident in its delivery.   Keep it positive – no moaning about the delayed train on the way to the event!

4.       Be interested in others.  Networking is a two way street, focus on the other person you are talking to, ask questions, find out about who they work for, what their specialities are and find common ground.   What are their passions, their challenges; can you offer them any recommendations?   Ask if they can offer you any recommendations, people love to be asked their opinions!

5.       Professional appearance.  I love the saying “dress for the job you want, not for the job you have”.   Pull out all the stops when it comes to your personal appearance at networking events.  Best bib and tucker are the order of the day, like it or not we’re all judged on our physical appearance.   This doesn’t mean go and blow 3 months’ salary on a Channel Suit, it means being smart, clean and professional – colour never goes amiss either.   At you next networking event, look around and see what stands out – colour...

6.       Follow up.  Meeting your peers at a networking event is the first step in building a long term relationship.  It’s is essential for you to have a follow up plan which is why business cards are a vital tool for you.  Connect on LinkedIn and suggest connecting again at another networking event.  On the subject of LinkedIn, if you’re not on it – you need to be, in my opinion it’s the best online networking business resource out there.  It’s a great resource for not only connect with your contacts but a great resource for information and articles (such as this one).  Please feel free to connect with me on there and add me to your network.

7.       Have fun!  Business networking shouldn’t be a chore, it should be fun.  Sure you need to have a clear purpose of attending events, but life is short and happy people are the most successful and draw people in with their magnetism. Relax and enjoy!

So be brave, get yourself out there and start networking and never forget the saying:  It’s not what you know, it’s who you know...