Dear Amazing Assistant,
I’m happy to announce that you can now download Goal Setting for Assistants immediately.
2019 Performance Reviews and 2020 Goal Setting are just around the corner, and I want to make sure you have the right performance or SMART goals–or have time to meet with your manager to make appropriate adjustments–so you get the review and annual bonus you deserve.
Until next time, thanks for being you.
Teri
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It’s hard to believe it’s June 16th and you have six months to achieve your performance objectives at work. Your performance will influence your annual review with your manager resulting in a potential year-end bonus, salary increase, or promotion. Or all three.
I had years that I was ahead of my goals in June and years where I was behind due to a variety of reasons.
How are you doing? How can I help you now to reach your goals? If y0u are so overwhelmed you can’t even answer this question, that’s okay. Send me an email and tell me what’s going on in your EA world. Maybe I can help–for free.
Until then, thanks for being you. You rock. Don’t forget it.
Teri
tericase@gmail.com
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Dear Executive Assistant,
I hope your 2018 goal setting exercises are going well. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the Goal Setting for Assistants workbook or if you are struggling with your goals. I am here for you!
I’m excited to tell you about a new workbook I’m working on for you: Process Improvement for Assistants. The objective is to build rapport and trust with your manager because you are an efficient process user and owner.
The format will be similar to Goal Setting for Assistants–it will be short but impactful, because I know you are busy and carving out time to focus on YOU can be a challenge when a million people need your input and assistance.
Though I have a list of areas to include based on my own decades of experience, I’d love to hear from you. What processes or responsibilities do you own that are sucking up too much of your time? You know, those time-killers, those things that have to be done in a timely manner, but otherwise aren’t a priority and they might be keeping you from focusing on what you really need to focus on: the goals you’ve committed to.
I want to make sure I write the best workbook for you. Let me know if you have a responsibility or process you’d like me to cover.
Have a great day.
Teri
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How do I toot my own horn with my manager and ask for a raise?
Let me know if you found this video helpful. And if you have any questions, please email me at teri@tericase.com or tericase@gmail.com and I will respond in a video*.
Have a great week.
Teri
*you will remain anonymous
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I Support You
I know each of you are facing two important processes that will not only financially impact your life, but will impact your job satisfaction and work-life balance:
For your year-end review, now’s the time to pull out your 2016 objectives, recognition you’ve received, and any SMART changes you discussed at your mid-year review.
And you can use this guidance to set your SMART goals for 2017.
If you have any questions, want to toss around a few ideas, or need any help, please do not hesitate to contact me.
You’ve got this!
Teri
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Proactive vs. Reactive
Every excellent executive assistant I’ve ever worked with has a similar trait: she finds a solution to a problem. Not a Band-aid to the problem, but a proactive solution to avoid the problem occuring again.
This trait is often demonstrated in the way she approaches issues in her personal life, too, which brings me to the following.
With the recent tragic murders our nation has suffered on both sides of the law, I want to proactively participate in looking for a solution and being a person of change in a productive manner.
From now until September 1, 2016, I am donating 100% of my profit on Goal Settings for Assistants to a proactive organization, The Badge of Life. You can read more about the proactive efforts of The Badge for Life and WHY I chose them in this newsletter on my personal website.
If you’d like to participate, please Click Here to order a paperback or e-book of Goal Setting for Assistants which includes an example of an EA’s annual performance goals from beginning to end.
Please feel free to share, share, share this newsletter. I look forward to updating you in September with the amount of money donated. Thank you so much for participating.
Until next time, stay proactive.
Teri
P.S. Do you have a topic you’d like me to cover? Please contact me, I would enjoy helping.
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You Own Your Goals – Stay SMART
We’re about to enter the seventh month of 2016 and this means that you have six months left to meet the performance objectives you agreed to six months ago—goals that will determine your contribution to the organization and possibly a bonus, merit increase, or promotion. Continue reading
Toot Your Horn
We’re about to end the first quarter of 2016. The corporate goals are hopefully on track and earnings will be one of the measurements. Working closely with your manager, you’re probably clear where he or she stands on the department’s goals. But if you had to sit down with your manager today, would you be able to say how you’re performing? How often do you tell your manager about a compliment you’ve received for a job well done? Perhaps when you’re asked, you freeze up and can’t think of one off the top of your head.
We all want recognition and when the time comes for our reviews, we hope we will hear what we deserve. But we are assistants. The people in our orbit are used to getting nudges, reminders, and support from us. We should include reminding our managers how awesome we are and what we contribute to the organization, too. We are often the silent partner. Usually, we only hear when something is going wrong.
It’s time to toot our own horns or, at least, keep track of the horns.
I want you to start saving every compliment or word of praise and feedback you get in person, emails, instant messages, meetings…anywhere and everywhere. This will take you five minutes a week. If you wait until a mid-year or end of the year review, you’ll never remember how many times you were recognized by peers, managers, executives, or third parties.
Here is a simple way to collect comments that Toot Your Horn:
Trust me, you’re too busy to remember every compliment so file them somewhere.
When you need to write your own review, open this folder. Include quotes in your review. Have a file ready for your discussion with your manager.
When you’re having a bad day and feel unappreciated, go to this folder and remind yourself that you have awesome days, too, and co-workers value your input and experience.
Toot your horn and when someone else deserves recognition, be sure to send them a quick email that he or she can capture, too.
If you have a moment, tell me about a compliment you received this week.
Have a great day!
Teri
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“Manage my business”
I recently met with an executive and asked him a simple question, “What makes an exceptional executive assistant?”
He said, “She or he knows how to manage my business.”
By business, he meant HIS business not the company’s–his priorities, his responsibilities, his everything from emails to calendar to meeting goals and expectations.
The next day I was speaking with an executive assistant I used to work with who I consider an exceptional assistant. She was preparing to interview for a role with an C-Level executive who has a reputation for being difficult due to his communication skills and lack of organization. My colleague and I discussed how she might best support someone like this manager and it evolved into this post because whether you are trying to be a more proficient assistant with a current manager or going to work with a new manager, there are two areas of focus that will improve your mutual success.
Be Resourceful
I am a firm, FIRM, believer that the best executive assistants can be measured by their degree of resourcefulness.
Someone who is resourceful knows how to find the answer and the best solution, and this equates to identifying the next steps necessary to meeting a deliverable. Someone who is resourceful can take a small amount of information and run with it. Being resourceful means the assistant has strong relationships with co-workers, knows who does what, understands the company’s policies and processes, and can anticipate needs and outcomes of his/her manager’s business.
In fact, whenever I’ve been interviewed for a role and have been asked, “How do you gain trust with a new manager?” I always answer, “I make learning the company’s resources, both in process and in people, my priority so that he/she can ask me to take care of something without worrying about the when, how, and what needs to be done to accomplish the request.”
Resourceful steps you can take whether you are supporting a new executive manager or want to improve the relationship with your current manager:
Project Management
Next to knowing your resources, identifying the best way to stay organized is key. Each manager works and communicates differently. The tools you used to stay organized and on track with a previous manager may work for you, but it may not work with the new manager. It’s not just about your responsibilities, it’s about his/her responsibilities and the team’s responsibilities and this is where project management tools often become the best manner of staying on target with deliverables, due dates, and shifting priorities with more than one person on the team.
Here are a few tools I recommend. Most are free. I encourage you to carve out some time to check these out and see if one will work best for you and your manager:
And the below is a how-to YouTube video for MS Entourage. It’s impressive.
https://youtu.be/CwASqTuMQcI
Do you have tips you want to share on gaining trust with a manager or staying organized? Don’t hesitate to chime in. Also, are there any specific topics you’d like me to address?
Happy Working.
Teri
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