Are you a manager, director or other senior-level personnel 
who wants to work more effectively with your administrative 
support professional? Did you know that partnering with your 
administrative assistants and executive assistants can actually 
help you to meet your professional goals at work? Would you like 
to know how to improve morale among your administrative support 
professionals and retain them as long-term employees? After all, 
isn't it a lot more profitable to retain existing staff than to 
constantly hire, train and get along with new staff? Here are 
five ways to work more effectively with your current 
administrative support professionals starting now:

1.  Assume that your administrative support professional doesn't 
know what's on your mind until you tell him. That's the one 
assumption it's okay to make in the office environment. Always 
remember that your administrative support professional is not a 
mind reader--no matter how in tune with your thoughts she or he 
may seem to be sometimes. It's that one time that you "assume" 
when things will go awry in your work relationship.

2.  Discuss your personal and professional goals. In order to be 
your partner, your administrative support professional needs to 
know who you want to be when. What do you personally want in your 
career? And what are you striving for on behalf of the company? 
These answers will affect your administrative professional's 
duties. She wants to help you achieve your plans. Knowing these 
answers helps her to clarify the prioritization of tasks and 
situations that arise daily. She'll focus on projects relevant to 
your goals first when possible. And she'll know and pass along 
pieces of information she happens upon throughout the year that 
would be useful or of interest to you.

3.  Discuss project expectations. When you're giving an 
assignment, make sure your administrative professional precisely 
understands the expected project outcome. This means you will 
need to clarify the outcome in your head first and then clearly 
relay that expected outcome to your administrative professional. 
Clearly voicing the precise (or nearly precise) expected project 
outcome before it happens means no surprises upon project 
completion and efficient use of your time and that of your 
administrative professional. Precise communication prevents 
misinterpretation by both parties which can cause bad 
relationships and inappropriate work results. If the results 
aren't what you asked for then maybe in actuality you didn't 
quite ask for the results you wanted.

4.  Have a daily briefing with your administrative support 
person. Meet daily whether either of you want to do so or not. 
This meeting forces communication to flow daily between you both, 
which is a good thing. And comfort levels with each other will 
rise. It could be a five minute meeting while standing. Or it 
could be a 10 minute meeting while seated that's officially 
posted on the calendar to happen every day that you're in the 
office at 9:00 a.m. Do what works best for you both. And make 
sure you're uninterrupted during this time.

5.  Support opportunities for your administrative professional 
to achieve certifications. For example, your administrative 
professional can become a Certified Administrative Professional 
(CAP) and a Certified Professional Secretary (CPS), both elite 
designations by administrative professional criteria. Encourage 
her or him to train and test for these titles as well as have 
your company pay the registration costs.
 

Karen Fritscher-Porter is the author of the 
eBooklet: 87 Ways You Can Work More Effectively With Your 
Administrative Support Professional. Order your copy at: 
http://www.admin-ezine.com/employertips.htm . 
Fritscher-Porter publishes The Effective Admin newsletter 
(http://www.admin-ezine.com). The monthly e-zine is distributed 
to 800+ administrative assistants and executive assistants 
globally to help them excel on the job and in their careers.