Administrative Assistant's Update

December 2018

Focuses on the training and development needs of admin professionals and features topics such as hard skills (software competencies, writing, communication, filing) and soft skills (teamwork, time management, leadership).

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DECEMBER 2018 2 Trying employee-to-employee engagement Admins, especially executive admins, often get a view inside management that co-workers don't see. Admins see how the sausage is made: how management conceive strategies and deploy tactics to achieve higher levels of engagement among employees, for example. Boosting employee engagement is the challenge du jour in today's workplace. In a recent article based on his new book, Be Chief: It's a Choice, Not a Title, Rick Miller calls attention to Gallup estimates that "as many as seven out of 10 employees are not bringing their 'A-game' to work every day" and that the resulting lost productivity carries astronomical cost ($500 billion in the States alone, ac - cording to Gallup estimates). The "chiefs" in Miller's book are en- gaged employees who are "disciplined and creative in their chosen craft and team well with others, working in an environment where they can connect what they do to who they are." Although enlightened management can bring about positive change in employee engagement, Miller says this is "insufficient" and that what is really needed is a change from "top-down focus to a side-by-side focus." It begins, he explains, "with the understanding that any employee can impact the engagement of every employee in a group" and he backs up that contention by citing research conducted by several prestigious U.S. universities into the influence of person-to-person communications. In particular, a study by a Yale researcher, Miller says, "proved that positive emotions spread from person to person in a work environment" and resulted in "improved cooperation, decreased conflict, and increased task performance in the workplace." Engagement is contagious, Miller says, and can start "from anyone, anywhere in an organization." Miller points to workplace prac - tices such as new-employee selection, education (especially soft skills), recognition ("bottom-up" achieve- ments in particular), assessment (for engagement skill sets) and promotion, among others, as influencers in raising the level of engagement. From an admin's standpoint, your exec may be open to learning more about the above research as well as your own suggestions about some tactics that may lead toward deeper employee engagement within the group. Also, you might consider a leadership role for yourself in your peer relationships that stimulates side- by-side influence. E D I TO R ' S N OT E George Pearson Administrative Assistant's Update is published once a month by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. Director, Media Solutions, Canada: Karen Lorimer Publisher: Todd Humber Editor: George Pearson george@adminupdate.ca Associate Editor: Jennifer Lewington jennifer@adminupdate.ca EDITORIAL OFFICE (519) 271-6000 Administrative Assistant's Update Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. 1 Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Road Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 CUSTOMER SERVICE (416) 609-3800 (800) 387-5164 FAX (416) 298-5082 (877) 750-9041 customersupport.legaltaxcanada @tr.com Contents copyright. All rights reserved. © 2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. Contents may not be reproduced without written permission. Brief extracts may be made with due acknowledgement. Annual subscription: $195. Publications Mail Registration No. 40065782 GST# 897176350 UPDATE Administrative Assistant's Introverts as great networkers? "Networking" events would seem to be made for extroverts. But are they? Ryan Paugh, author of Superconnector: Stop Networking and Start Build- ing Business Relationships That Matter, writing in Fast Company, says "introverts have superpowers that make them phenomenal networkers." At a networking event, he says, do this: 1) Redefine networking. Focus on the needs of others and build some relationships. 2) Don't aim to work the whole room. Look for people standing on the fringes, not those "pushing themselves into a circle of conversation." 3) Focus on asking great questions. What excites people? What are they working on? 4) Listen to what they're not saying. "Glean how their needs might intersect with your capabilities and connection."

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