What are the 3 most important things I like about our profession?

The variety of tasks

Throughout the several interesting trainings and workshops I’ve followed with SmartEvents, it has become clear that the word “Assistant” is not sufficient anymore to fully cover this profession. Yes, we are assisting, but we are also coordinating, organizing, networking, presenting, etc. All this requires a hell of a lot of different skills, which deserve to be adequately recognized (and should not be underestimated). It is the variety of all these different aspects of the job that I find very interesting. From booking hotel rooms to organizing all sorts of staff events or VIP visits from scratch.

Helping people

All the assistants that I have come across are natural-born helpers. I am no different. And the appreciation and recognition we get to do this are most rewarding. However, I do think we need to keep 2 things in mind:

1. You cannot always jump immediately for everybody, on every request. Although we always want to do this, we (and others) need to realize that this is simply not always possible.
2. From time to time, some people might want to take advantage of your helpfulness

For these 2 reasons, I think it is important to set your priorities, make good planning, communicate openly and most of all: set your boundaries. We all know that the word “no” is not in our dictionary, but if you cannot (immediately) meet a request, we need to be open and transparent about it.
As Laura Belgrado expressed it so nicely: be loyal and helpful, but not at the expense of your own wellbeing.

The social contact

I sometimes consider myself as the social “glue” or “bridge” between colleagues from different levels, different departments, or different countries. As a linguist, I do not only like to hear and speak several languages, but I also have a genuine interest in people and their culture. Positive social interaction gives me such great energy and I strongly believe that what unites us is more significant than what divides us. However, as an assistant, we have to be able to adapt to and deal with different kinds of people. This can sometimes be challenging too, but nevertheless very fascinating. In the Ultimate Assistant’s Bootcamp Sue France showed us a new way to look at the different types of personalities, which I found very interesting and useful. Having this background knowledge can sometimes help you to put things into perspective or look at a specific situation from a distance without taking something too personal. This always helps! Another useful lesson that Sue France taught us, is: “Treat people the way THEY want to be treated, NOT the way you want to be treated”. Some food for thought…

What is the most important part of my working day?

It might sound familiar to some… you have 8 emails open, of which you’re trying to reply to 4 at the same time – while answering quick questions on the Teams chat, and finishing off a translation. On top of that, you get a phone call with an urgent request, and you see 2 new emails coming in about an important issue. By the time all the “side-projects” are finished, you forgot where you were working on or what it was you really needed to achieve that day. You just tend to jump around from one thing to another, without a clear direction. I don’t know about you, but at the end of the day, this makes me feel like I’ve done everything and nothing at the same time. It’s exhausting and not satisfying.

To avoid this situation I try to set my goals and define my to-do’s for that day, at the beginning of each day. I have experienced that this helps me to stay focused more, to prioritize the new incoming tasks (i.e. if not more urgent than my goals for that day, I plan them for another day), and to return to the order of the day after an “interruption” took place. Another good “focus” tip that a colleague of mine gave me, is disabling email (and Teams) notifications. Do try it!

To write down these goals I use OneNote (Lizebeth Koloko gave us some interesting user tips!). The great thing is that you can link it to Outlook and other Microsoft applications and that you can add a “To Do Tag”. And believe me: every time you can tick a box, you get such a fulfilling feeling and at the end of the day you can clearly see what you have achieved! Check, check, check!