In­ter­na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion

of Ad­min­is­tra­tive Pro­fes­sion­als (IAAP)

A stel­lar Ad­min­is­tra­tive Pro­fes­sion­al (AP) can be a com­pa­ny’s se­cret weapon.

Suc­cess­ful com­pa­nies re­ly heav­i­ly on work­ers with top-notch ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­als. They are the shrewd wiz­ards be­hind the com­pa­ny cur­tain, the chiefs who keep the of­fice run­ning ef­fi­cient­ly, the emo­tion­al­ly in­tel­li­gent jog­glers and de­tail-ori­ent­ed co­or­di­na­tors.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, the ter­mi­nol­o­gy was “Sec­re­tary” or “Ad­min­is­tra­tive As­sis­tant”; which was syn­ony­mous with things like sched­ul­ing, book­keep­ing, and ar­rang­ing trav­el. Not so to­day! While these func­tions are still an im­por­tant part of the job, in this evolv­ing tech­no­log­i­cal­ly dri­ven econ­o­my, ad­mins are tasked with a lot more.

To­day, there are hun­dreds of job ti­tles that qual­i­fy as ad­min­is­tra­tive sup­port. In to­day’s busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment, the po­si­tion is an ex­ten­sion of the ex­ec­u­tive team as tasks be­come more au­to­mat­ed and ad­mins are more ef­fi­cient than ever. Ad­mins are busi­ness part­ners to the ex­ec­u­tive, ex­ec­u­tives, de­part­ments, and com­pa­nies they sup­port. They are of­ten one of the few em­ploy­ees in a com­pa­ny who knows the en­tire busi­ness and is ex­pect­ed to un­der­stand how the com­pa­ny’s unique busi­ness sys­tem works.

What does it take to be the kind of ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al busi­ness­es can’t do with­out?

Here are a few per­ti­nent skills that can help you get hired, suc­ceed on the job and dri­ve your ca­reer.

1. In­dus­try knowl­edge

Know­ing the three T’s of the in­dus­try — ter­mi­nol­o­gy, trends and train­ing — and be­ing able to ar­tic­u­late them on your re­sume means that even as a new hire, you will be­gin to con­tribute im­me­di­ate­ly. A savvy ad­min pro­fes­sion­al is not on­ly fa­mil­iar with these con­cepts, but al­so knows how to use them to full ad­van­tage on the job.

• Ter­mi­nol­o­gy -

Know­ing the lan­guage of a par­tic­u­lar busi­ness sec­tor means an ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al new to the com­pa­ny can keep up with and con­tribute to con­ver­sa­tions in the work­place right from the start.

• Trends -

To­day’s ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­als should be knowl­edge­able about in­dus­try­wide trends, whether it’s man­u­fac­tur­ing, bank­ing or even health­care. They should al­so be think­ing proac­tive­ly about how these trends could po­ten­tial­ly im­pact the com­pa­ny.

• Train­ing -

Em­ploy­ers pre­fer ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­als who are not on­ly tech-savvy but al­so well-versed in the com­pa­ny’s most-used tools. They look for in­di­vid­u­als who proac­tive­ly up­date their ad­min­is­tra­tive skills through train­ing.

2. Ex­per­tise in soft­ware and so­cial me­dia

Us­ing Mi­crosoft Word, Out­look and Ex­cel is a giv­en for any ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al’s ca­reer. But pro­fi­cien­cy in Of­fice365, Google Work­space and oth­er cloud-based pro­grams, and ex­pe­ri­ence run­ning vir­tu­al con­fer­ence calls and meet­ings, or­ga­niz­ing newslet­ters and cre­at­ing Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tions can give an AP a com­pet­i­tive edge. Man­agers and ex­ec­u­tives al­so val­ue as­sis­tants who know how to use ac­count­ing, pay­roll and HR ap­pli­ca­tions.

An ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al with a work­ing knowl­edge of the ins and outs of so­cial me­dia can be a huge as­set for an em­ploy­er, too. Small and mid­size com­pa­nies, in par­tic­u­lar, some­times need help man­ag­ing a Face­book or Twit­ter feed and may not have the re­sources to hire a so­cial me­dia spe­cial­ist for the of­fice. These skills can help the com­pa­ny or ex­ec­u­tive build an on­line pres­ence, which is es­sen­tial to stay­ing in the game in to­day’s mar­ket.

3. Art­ful ar­tic­u­la­tion

Good com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills are cru­cial for a suc­cess­ful ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al. Most of­ten, you’re the first point of con­tact in the of­fice for clients, cus­tomers and ven­dors. You may al­so be the go-to per­son in­ter­nal­ly. The abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate clear­ly, con­cise­ly and per­sua­sive­ly, both ver­bal­ly and in writ­ing, is some­thing hir­ing man­agers seek when eval­u­at­ing top ad­min­is­tra­tive as­sis­tant skills.

4. Bud­get per­cep­tive­ness

Com­pa­nies are al­ways on the look­out for an ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al who can find ways to save mon­ey and help the busi­ness be­come more ef­fi­cient. You’re on the front lines every day — over­see­ing day-to-day op­er­a­tions, se­lect­ing ven­dors and ne­go­ti­at­ing con­tracts — putting you in the per­fect po­si­tion to look for op­por­tu­ni­ties to min­i­mize of­fice ex­pens­es. Propos­ing cost-ef­fi­cient so­lu­tions to those with­in the com­pa­ny is a good way to make your­self in­dis­pens­able to the or­ga­ni­za­tion.

5. Abil­i­ty to dis­play grace un­der pres­sure

Man­agers ap­pre­ci­ate ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­al who can think on their feet. Every day, new sit­u­a­tions arise in the of­fice re­quir­ing quick de­ci­sions and im­me­di­ate ac­tion. Stretch­ing your skills be­yond your job de­scrip­tion to tack­le the un­ex­pect­ed shows you’re well-po­si­tioned to han­dle the com­plex­i­ties of to­day’s work­place. You ef­fec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cate with col­leagues and clients in an even tone, ex­em­pli­fy­ing emo­tion­al in­tel­li­gence at work.

Big Pic­ture Think­ing

Big pic­ture think­ing might sound like some­thing best left

to the vi­sion­ar­ies of the

world, but in truth,

every­one can cul­ti­vate the

abil­i­ty to think ahead.

Con­sid­er dri­ving. Good

de­fen­sive dri­ving

in­volves scan­ning

ahead to see

where the road

is tak­ing you. This

same tech­nique

ap­plies to ab­stract

con­cepts, like

com­pa­ny goals.

What road are

you paving for

your com­pa­ny

with the ac­tions

you take to­day?

What ob­sta­cles

do you ex­pect to con­front? Once you can vi­su­al­ize these things, you can pre­pare for them.

Trust­ed Ad­mins are of­ten de fac­to ad­vi­sors to se­nior lead­er­ship. They can serve as a sound­ing board for new ideas, sug­gest new process­es, or even weigh-in on hir­ing de­ci­sions. The best Ad­mins pro­vide valu­able in­sight

by mak­ing rec­om­men­da­tions based on an un­der­stand­ing

of a com­pa­ny’s busi­ness and

its cul­ture. Know­ing how to

think about things in the

con­text of a big­ger

whole is crit­i­cal.

About IAAP

In­ter­na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ad­min­is­tra­tive Pro­fes­sion­als (IAAP) is a non-prof­it pro­fes­sion­al as­so­ci­a­tion serv­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion. IAAP is ded­i­cat­ed to help­ing of­fice and ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­fes­sion­als ad­vance their ca­reer in a de­mand­ing and ever-chang­ing busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment. IAAP pro­vides ad­mins with the knowl­edge, skills, and in­sights that build to­ward job ad­vance­ment, suc­cess, and recog­ni­tion.

For more in­for­ma­tion:

https://www.iaap-hq.org/