Hi there Terry from DotPointz. Today we're going to talk about the top six
qualities of a superb administrator. So the first quality is keep accurate
records however you, whatever your system is however you file things whether it be
electronically or in hard copy, a really top quality administrator can put his or
her hands to a document in seconds knows exactly where things are and not only
that when they find a document it's accurate.
So keep accurate records of meetings keep accurate records of things that
you've been asked to do and keep accurate records of projects. It's so
important because guarantee the one time that you don't keep an accurate record
you will need to go back to it and it won't be there. If you don't just do this
as a sound baseline habit make sure your active records are
orderly and accurate. The second quality of a top-notch administrator is you have
to be super organized you you you can't be in a senior administrative role
and be disorganized. Managers can do that because they can have organized people
around them like us in terms of their support staff but if you're an
administrator and you want to be good at that and you need to be good at that in
this day and age administrators are a dime a dozen
the good ones stand out so you've got to be organized and it's your habits it's
from how you organize your desk your files your work day all of it it's so
important I can't emphasize that enough. So the next thing I want to talk about
is a really strong administrator is able to think ahead and and preempt what
might be coming so in other words you're not just dealing with
what's right in front of you you're thinking about I've got this coming I've
got this due or my boss might need this at a future time so the ability to think
beyond just what you're concentrating on at the moment and seeing it in a wider
context or seeing ahead of time of what's coming in the future is something
that's really important if you want to stand out from other administrators.
The fourth thing is and I did allude to this point in the last one is you need to see
what small tasks that you think you're doing in the wider context because
everything that you're doing at a lower to medium range level of an organization
actually is the base of that organization whether it's the records
you keep whether it's the quality of letters you write whether it's the
quality of minutes that you're taking everything that you do as an
administrator whether it's keeping good records of contracts whether you're on
the front line and you're actually dealing with your company's clients see
yourself in that wider context and you'll understand that an administrator
even if your managers don't understand we know as administrators that although
quite often in companies administrators are not highly valued and that's
reflected in the salaries that we're paid or that some of us are paid just know
that we know the value of good administration anind that is why we exist
so just see yourself in the wider context. It helps you get through some of the
mundane tasks that you're doing and it enables you to see
that actually without the grunt work that goes on
behind the scenes which comes from those of us who are administrators a company
really wouldn't be able to progress as they're doing so what we do allows our
managers to be more strategic in their focus to think about much more higher
level things because we keep the engine running.
The thing that I'd like to point out is a quality that you don't always see an
administrator and that is the ability to show initiative so what this means in a
real office context is that you've got the ability to to see where things can
be improved to be able to add value above and beyond what you're actually
doing at that moment or two it's related to the point I made about pre-empting
what managers or bosses might need so it's it's thinking ahead of time and
thinking I might be able to prepare something in advance for my manager
before he or she even asks for it that's how I endeavor - our initiative in my
role I'm always thinking about what's coming ahead and I want to be in a
position where I prepare things in the background before my boss even asks for
it. So that either I can present it if it's
ready before he asks right or when he asks for it because inevitably he will
because you know if you're thinking that far ahead then it's ready and it's not a
burden on your current workload so that ability to show that initiative really
demonstrates and that you're more than just a run-of-the-mill administrator
that you're actually one of those high-level administrators and the last
thing I'd like to point out and this is not an exhaustive list but the key to
being a strong administrator is that you're reliable under any circumstance
and what you might find and you might have this in your own experience is that
managers will know who in the office they look around they survey the office
they will know who they can depend upon to get things done and unfortunately
sometimes you only get one shot at that when you get asked to do something and
you're given the opportunity to deliver. I strongly encourage you every time you
get that opportunity particularly in the early days or if you're being asked by
someone who hasn't asked you before who's in senior management you need to
deliver when you're being asked because that shows that you're someone
who can be relied upon and you'll be asked again because you'll find if you
survey your workplace there are people who can't be relied upon and they wonder
why they don't get the opportunities to do different things and it's because of
some stage of their career they've earned a reputation whether stated or
unstated that I tried to give that person something to do and they didn't
deliver so you know a manager could be less inclined to do that again so if you
want to stand out as an administrator because it's so important work that we
do then follow these six guidelines and you'll improve your professional brand
and that can only be a good thing for you in the workplace.
Learn more at DotPointz.com