Attention: Administrative Assistants, Executive Assistants, Secretaries, and All Administrative Support Professionals.

Do you have a question, problem, or dilemma related to your administrative professional job or career?

Share it with The Administrative Professional Job Performance and Career Success Coach™ by following the directions and using the e-mail address posted below.

The Admin Pro Coach™ may address your question or issue in The Effective Admin™ Newsletter or in a supplementary publication to it. If so, you'll receive a complimentary copy of that digital publication issue with the coach's response. (So be sure to give me a permanent e-mail address to reach you at -- questions are not answered immediately.)

Please include your first name (or initial if you prefer more privacy), job title, and state and country with your question, problem, or dilemma. Be as succinct or elaborate as you want in explaining it.

Send it to:
 AdminProCoach@albeepublishing.com

Your question becomes the property of The Effective Admin and may be edited for length or clarity to fit the publication column. The Admin Pro Coach tries to answer as many questions as possible. So be patient if you don't see your question addressed immediately.

If you would like to get past questions and answers to the Admin Pro Coach, see the product in the column to your right for ordering details. Another administrative professional may already have asked just the question that's on your mind today.

Warmest Regards,

Karen

Karen Porter

The Administrative Professional

Job Performance and

Career Success Coach

and Founder and President
of The Effective Admin

FOR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANTS, SECRETARIES, AND ADMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISORS:

 

Ask the Admin Pro Coach: A compilation of 10 questions and answers from administrative professionals globally to the Admin Pro Coach. These Q&A's previously appeared in The Effective Admin newsletter issues of Sept. 2008 - March 2010.

 

Topics include:

1. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Project Overload Dilemma

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"I work in a fast-paced environment, supporting a global team of 7. In my current and previous admin role, I am struggling to learn when and how to say 'no.' As a result, I am often faced with impractical deadlines and sometimes I let my colleagues down by not being able to deliver. ... I would be grateful for some guidance, different suggestions for different situations would be a great help!"

2. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Supervisor Dilemma: Communicating Why You Terminated Their Co-worker and Quelling Related Fears

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"...I had to let an admin person go (who had been with the company many years) due to lack of performance. This is causing some real issues within the company that I’m not sure how to handle. ... How should this be communicated within the company? I don’t want to trash the long-term employee but need others to understand that we are trying to grow the company and cannot hold on to non-productive employees."

3. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Seeking Promotion — Ambitious Admin Seeks Promotion Beyond Admin Level

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"Please tell me how I can get a promotion from admin. asst. ... I just received the annual merit increase. I couldn't get extra responsibilities or extra attention or recognition from other higher staff. Shall I wait longer to [be promoted]. I feel impatient...."

4. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Succeeding Despite Lost Confidence

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"I have been an administrative assistant for about 20 years. Until five years ago I was able to keep a position for a minimum of 10 years. Over the last five years, I’ve had difficulty keeping a position in this field. During this period, I’ve also gone through a difficult ... What am I doing wrong? ... I have lost confidence due to the loss of many jobs. Can you please offer me some insight as to what I can do to succeed and continue to grow and progress in this position?"

5. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Career Path for Administrative Professional

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"I'm currently employed as an administrative assistant.... I would just like to know if there is a clear career path for an administrative assistant (e.g. admin assistant to admin specialist to office manager)? Would there be any other areas where we can advance to?"

6. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses When to Just Handle it Without Informing Your Boss

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"I was promoted to an executive assistant for a top level executive. How do you determine what problems you should share with your boss and what problems you should keep to yourself and just deal with? For example, ...."

7. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Recommended Classes for Aspiring Administrative Assistants

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"What classes would you recommend someone take at a university who is interested in becoming an administrative assistant?"

8. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Improving Attention to Detail to Avoid Mistakes

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"I've been an executive assistant for fifteen years. I'm currently in a new position working for the vice president and chief learning officer.... My new boss is constantly finding minor details that I have overlooked in my work. I've never had this problem before in my career. Can you please recommend a way to improve attention to detail?"

9. Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Goal Setting for Secretaries and Assistants

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"I am the assistant to a governor appointed agency head. .... I will finally be getting my review within the next few months and will have to fill out a form which outlines my goals. Working as his assistant, I’m not sure how to list “goals” as a secretary/assistant. ...Any suggestions?"

10.Dear Admin Pro Coach Addresses Do I Need to “Dumb Down” my Resume to get a Job?

Dear Admin Pro Coach:
"I lost my job working as a medical administrative assistant, ... In my search, I’m not being considered because of my pay range, which I’ve lowered, or being told I’m overqualified. Staffing agencies don’t respond to me either. ....I’m at a loss as to my next search step and feel like employers are unsure of what I want because of the shift in the medical arena. Do I need to “dumb down” my resumes...?"

This printable file is 17 pages (8 1/2" x 11" paper size, excluding title and table of contents page) and is in PDF file format (read with free Adobe Reader software).

 

$49.95 USD Per Person

Pay with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express

 

 

All Prices are Per Person. For the right to distribute these publications to multiple people in your company, change the quantity in your online shopping cart to the number of people on your distribution list. Then click the recalculate button if needed and check out. That gives you the legal right to distribute the publications to the amount of people you purchase them for.

 

Brought to you from Karen Porter, The Administrative Professional Job Performance and Career Success Coach™ and founder and president of The Effective Admin -- serving thousands of administrative professionals just like you since 2004.

Have we met? For 18 years I worked on site in corporate, nonprofit, and higher education environments. I know what you do and deal with at work because I've held various administrative professional level positions too -- at five different employers. Plus I've worked side by side with admins when I've been employed in unrelated and higher level positions.

Even now, I spend all my working hours researching and writing in depth about the administrative profession. I reach thousands of administrative professionals through The Effective Admin resources and regularly correspond one on one with admins. With almost 24 years experience interacting with the "real" workplace and working admins, I am well aware of the substantial job you and your administrative professional colleagues perform daily.

These days, I'm gladly putting my ongoing research and 20+ years experience interacting with the real workplace to work serving administrative professionals like you with my professional development and training resources. Check out the knowledge, information, and practical strategies I share that will make you a better administrative professional ongoing.

My focus is on giving you relevant, practical information that matters in your job performance and career management.

(c) 2004-2010 Albee Publishing Company - All Rights Reserved