Introduction:

Executive assistants nowadays hold a very important position of influence and build a powerful partnership with the senior management team. This course will enable you to have the right competence to work in partnership with your manager. After all, your success will have a direct effect on your manager's success. You already hold this position because of your current capability. This program seeks to supplement your current set of capabilities and competence by adding highly needed competencies that will lead to excellence in your position.

Throughout this program, you will discover ways to enhance your self-empowerment, confidence and forward thinking, allowing you to become a true business partner with the executive team. You will learn and practice powerful emotional intelligence strategies which you can immediately apply at the workplace. Moreover, you will participate in in-depth discussions on the importance of building systems and having a systematic thinking approach, leading you to create several systems at the workplace. You will also be involved in real negotiations with other participants which will enable you to gain the competence to plan and lead negotiations with suppliers. Finally, you will develop action plans which will enhance your professional image and the image of your department and company.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course delegates will be able to:

• Build and maintain different organizing systems that will lead to increased productivity
• Generate win-win outcomes in any negotiation session
• Provide full support to stakeholders in order to enhance the success of the business
• Apply emotional intelligence to foster excellent business relationships, laterally and vertically
• Plan and present strong business cases to their managers
• Design an action plan which will enhance their personal, departmental and organizational image

Who Should Attend?

Administrative Personnel, Supervisors, Administration Officers, Administrators, Secretaries, Administrative Personnel, Clerks, Document Controllers, Executive Secretaries, Administrative Assistants, Assistant Controllers, Data Loaders, Camp Admins, Projects Administrators, Technical Assistants, Office Managers, existing or prospective Office Managers, Senior Administrators and Supervisors of junior level employees, anyone involved in office management and administration skills and practices

Course Outline:

Partnering Strategically with Your Leader

·        Understanding the strategic role of today’s executive assistant

·        Working with versus working for your leader

·        Achieving higher engagement and involvement in your leader’s scope

·        Self-empowerment: creating your own mission statement

·        Increasing your share in decision making

·        Developing forward thinking: being a proactive thinker

The Power of Emotional Intelligence (EI)

·        Understanding the four dimensions of EI

·        Awareness of own role

·        Management of own responsibilities

·        Awareness of office politics and environment

·        Management of stakeholders

·        Recognizing how stress and feelings affect performance

·        Applying EI in building relations and dealing with difficult situations

Presenting Your Ideas with Passion and Credibility

·        Planning for a convincing presentation

·        Developing and organizing objectives and content

·        Delivering the presentation and fielding questions

·        Using visual aids to support the presentation

Building and Maintaining Systems

·        What is a system?

·        The why and how of systems

·        Filing systems: controlling documents, e-filing and cloud storage

·        Time management systems: planning, organizing and controlling

·        Idea generating systems: spotting and implementing improvements

·        Self-management systems: setting your own targets and exceeding them

·        Using discipline to maintain and ensure system continuity

Negotiating with Internal and External Suppliers

·        Principles of successful negotiations with internal and external suppliers

·        Negotiation planning

·        Negotiations tactics

·        Aiming at win-win outcomes

·        Negotiating for the long term

Protocol and Business Etiquette

·        Principles of business etiquette

·        Phone, e-mail and meeting etiquette

·        Understanding values, beliefs and perceptions

·        Dealing with different personalities and cultures

·        Creating a personal brand within the organization

COURSE LOCATIONS