Developing certain basic skills creates the solid ground on which Personal Assistants and Secretaries can build advanced skills to excel at their job.

If you are a Personal Assistant looking to build essential skills, consider taking the Foundation Skills for Personal Assistants and Secretaries Training Course delivered by pdtraining in Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and other cities in Australia.

A personal assistant is required to manage both people and information. Management skills, therefore, are used everyday to complete tasks. For effective management, communication, time management, organising, stress management, and handling of difficult situations becomes necessary. A personal assistant that is able to carry out almost any task without delays, conflicts or compromise in quality can quickly become an important asset for the company.

Managing Information

Noting down information, sharing, tracking and storing it, is a daily task for a Personal Assistant. With much information to handle, it is easy to lose, misplace or make errors. Therefore, organising information becomes essential. Creating a system of management such as creating categories according to date, type, file type, etc. can help in easy retrieval. 

For electronic information, it is best to use software that automatically categorises information. If need be, you may use multiple software applications for the management of different kinds of tasks. When doing so, make sure that you keep things simple. Otherwise, management of these various software applications can, in itself, take up much time. Therefore, choose wisely.

Managing People

Management of people requires expertise in communication. When sharing information, be precise and polite. Do not allow others to take up more time than required. Redirect a conversation to the relevant when you feel it is going into a tangent. Make sure that the person you are communicating with is satisfied with your efforts. If not, provide better support and follow up.

When engaging in conversations of significance, use active listening to absorb the important. Develop the skill to switch between active listening and passive listening according to the situation to save your energy.

Managing of Time

You have only a specific number of hours to complete a specific number of tasks. To make the most of those hours and to smoothly, without stress, fulfil all your responsibilities, you need to learn to manage time better. 

Prioritising makes a huge impact on what you achieve during a day, a month or a year. First, differentiate between important tasks and urgent tasks. Tasks that are the most important to you must be done first thing in the morning because these tasks will provide you the fulfillment that you are seeking. To complete the urgent tasks, beat procrastination and quickly complete them so that your mind is free from those tasks in the remaining hours. Creating a list of urgent tasks is a good way to quickly complete them. Effective management of time means fulfilling every task that you need to complete every day without working extra time or feeling the stress.

Related Article…

Pdtraining delivers 1000’s of professional development courses each year in Brisbane, Sydney, Parramatta, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth, so you can be assured your training will be delivered by a qualified and experienced trainer.

All public Foundation Skills for Personal Assistants and Secretaries Training courses include am/pm tea, lunch, printed courseware and a certificate of completion.  Customised courses are available upon request so please contact pdtraining on 1300 121 400 to learn more.