In the changing business environment, as an executive assistant, you play a very special role. It’s your job to help keep a key decision maker more focused on what’s important, and therefore more effective as a leader. Your communication skills are vital, and your interaction with your peers and other decision makers is a key a factor in how well ideas are transmitted across the company, and how easily important feedback reaches your boss.
To do your job well requires efficiency, excellent communication skills and the ability to work independently and creatively, often making decisions on your own.
You also need:
- Interpersonal effectiveness to deal effectively with other people, inside and outside your organization.
- Project management skills when you are given assignments to carry out which may require you to work and collaborate with people working in other departments, or even outside your company.
- Finance skills to grasp the basic concepts of finance, and then understand the ‘language’ of the numbers, so that you will be better prepared to assist your boss in financial matters such as budgets and business plans.
- Effective writing skills to get the right words on paper quickly and effectively. You will be able to communicate more clearly, more concisely and more persuasively.
Senior Executive Assistants
Writing Skills for Executive Assistants
Words matter - learn how to develop and enhance the way you use them. This includes: Key principles of writing; Successful correspondence; Writing to the point; Shaping your message; Avoiding writing traps; Politics and diplomacy; Managing minutes of meetings; Refining your writing. Read more
The Fundamentals of Finance for Executive Assistants
Understand the figures that give key information on the business and better support your manager preparing analyses and reports. This includes: How to talk the basic language of finance and accounting; The key financial statements; How is an international business financed; How to measure overall company performance; Helping to prepare a business plan; How to prepare an effective budget. Read more
The Professional Executive Assistant
This workshop provides Executive Assistants with tools and methods to become confident decision-makers and creative thinkers and how to better manage their work and their careers. Read more
Project Management for Executive Assistants
Learn the skills and the structure that will help you manage longer-term projects; act as a central partner interacting with various departments, and keep an eye on the budget and schedule. This includes: Factors that influence project success, and classic ways of managing them; Understanding the customer's requirements, leading to effective project initiation; Planning, implementing and controlling the project; Dealing with the unexpected; Communicating the right things to the right people at the right time; Closing the project. Read more
Communicating and Interacting with Your Colleagues for Executive Assistants
How to develop the ‘soft’ skills and abilities to maximise your personal and professional potential. This includes: Self-awareness; Personal openness; Handling conflict, Frustration and stress; Assertiveness; Making commitments to your development. Read more