As a business owner or major decision maker in a successful company, you recognize the need for a team that not only works together and achieves the business’ goals, but also has quality leadership and administration. To accomplish this, it is important that you find an administrative professional capable of taking your company and team to new heights.
Unfortunately, in many situations, finding this individual is the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. You can combat this issue by searching for an administrative professional who displays the following traits, and in doing so, you’ll be sure to find the best fit for your business that will help you and your team achieve new heights and goals you never dreamed possible.
1. Effective Communication
Imagine for a moment trying to run a team of foreign exchange students that speak no English whatsoever. As you try to describe their daily routines or projects they must accomplish, you become aware of the fact that they do not understand a single thing that you are saying.
Although this may be a drastic representation, the truth is that communication is the crux of all good business and industry progress. Without effective communication skills, your administrative leader will be unable to successfully run your team, encourage company morale, garner new networking opportunities and clients, and relay their results to you for review.
2. Able to Multitask
Although many business professionals now believe that single-tasking is the new multitasking, there is still a viable place for multitasking in business strategy. Being able to effectively find a balance between prospecting and executing projects is essential for business growth—and many admins have no clue how to achieve this.
However, a true administrative professional will be able to deduce when it is time for the business to focus on current projects and when it is time to focus on creating new opportunities for growth. This fine balance between new and current projects will allow you to get new clients—and keep them.
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3. Trustworthiness
Every CEO and business executive has more than likely heard the term “honesty is a virtue” time and time again throughout their career. Some professionals live by this rule, whilst others find ways around it.
A responsible and successful administrative professional recognizes the power of trustworthiness and chooses to be honest in all that they do. In this way, these individuals can ensure that their word is their bond and their bosses take it very seriously in any and all situations.
4. Focus and Productivity
Focus and productivity are crucial in the business world. With a focused business professional, you are sure to see productivity, and likewise being productive helps increase your focus. When looking for an administrative professional that will add value to your business, you must look for both focus and productivity together, as these are integral traits for growth and success.
5. Charisma When Dealing With Clients
As a business leader, you’ve definitely dealt with your fair share of disgruntled customers in your time. So you’re probably aware that a certain level of control and elegance is needed to transform this anger into understanding and appreciation.
A quality administrative professional will be able to communicate with difficult clients effectively and transform their negativity into positivity with ease. With this skill, they will continue to expand your client list and build your brand’s reputation in a positive direction.
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6. Having Accountability
Perhaps you’ve had an employee in the past caught on camera or actually seen doing something the wrong way. Despite how many times you explain the correct procedures to them, they continue to make excuses for their actions. This pattern can often be extremely difficult to break and frustrating to deal with.
What separates a quality administrative assistant is that they are not afraid to hold themselves accountable for all of their actions—even those that are not ideal or easy to take credit for. They can simply reverse the mistake and move forward. In doing this, they continue to gain your trust and have your respect throughout your business relationship.
7. Great Networking Skills
Although being able to keep current customers and business deals intact is a massive part of being an administrative professional, it is important to consistently network effectively for new opportunities, as well.
By being able to network successfully, your administrative professional can ultimately help expand your business, keep your image intact, and open up new opportunities for your business in association with other successful businesses on the market.
8. Recognizes Their Company and Boss’ Needs
Although we all would love to be able to communicate our every need during the day, being a business owner or executive means you rarely have the time to communicate your needs.
With this said, a quality administrative assistant knows your needs and the business’ needs before they arise and accounts for them ahead of time. In doing this, the individual helps you to reduce your daily tasks and keep you on track towards bigger and better opportunities.
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9. Able to Delegate Tasks Effectively
Just as being able to effectively run your team and grow your business is essential to the position of administrative assistant, administrative professionals must also be able to delegate tasks to the team in an effective manner. Without this, your team is sure to become confused, lose track of the goals and initiatives, and turn in projects that are subpar on dates that far surpass their actual due dates.
A quality administrative professional will know your team’s strengths and weaknesses, be completely aware of the tasks and specifications associated with them, and be able to delegate and track them accordingly. They should ensure all projects are done on time and reflect the you and your business positively.
10. Tech-Savvy & Quick Learner
Lastly, it’s important to have tech-savvy individuals invested in your business. You want a staff that is capable of learning new things in an expedient manner. By being able to recognize and use your systems, software, and tools to their full potential from the start, a tech-savvy administrative professional is capable of achieving more for your company in less time.
Since time is effectively money in the business world, this ability to cut time and labor costs by reducing training and learning curves is invaluable to a business owner. In this way, a tech-savvy administrative professional is far more valuable than one that is not tech-inclined.
With these traits now fresh in your mind, you can begin to analyze your current potential candidates and determine which ones should move forward in the hiring process and which should not. As each new step of the hiring process appears, review these qualities and reevaluate your current candidates until you have successfully chosen the one that is right not only for you, but for the job that lies ahead. By doing this, you are sure to see positive results and business expansion in no time.