Essential Management Skills For Executive Secretaries And Personal Assistants Abf Secretaries Conference

ESSENTIAL MANAGEMENT SKILLS
For Executive Secretaries And
Personal Assistants
Kenny Ong
CNI Holdings Berhad


About: CNI
1. 18 years old
2. Core Business: MLM
3. Others: Contract Manufacturing,
Export/Trading, eCommerce
4. Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, India,
China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Italy, Taiwan
5. Staff force: ± 500
6. Distributors: 250,000
7. Products: Consumer Goods and Services


“Be more initiative and get
things done fast.
Understand the working style
of your superior and assist
him accordingly”


Intro:
Q1: Do you want a good career?
Q2: Do you want a good career Fast or Slow?

So….do you want to be a Professional or

Amateur?


Management Skills

1. Job
7. Career

2. Boss
What to
Manage?

6. Attitude

5.
Discipline

4. Relationship

3. Time


1. Managing your Job


Managing Your Job

“Know your job well, do it
well, and be better than
anyone else doing it.”

Managing Your Job
Types of Roles
Type of Work

Type of Boss

•Ambassador/COO

•Chairman

•Representative

•CEO

•Office Manager

•Corp. Division Head

•Advisor

•Business Unit Head

•Administrator

•Division Head

•Standard

•Department Head

Real Level = Type of Work + Type of Boss


District Engineer
Duties and Responsibilities

End Results

Control, operate and
maintain the District
Distribution System

Ensure uninterrupted supply to consumers
in the district by operating the District
Distribution System.

Plan and design the High
voltage system

Ensure availability of adequate supply for
future needs of industries in the district by
planning and designing the High voltage
System

Manage major supply
projects to customer in the
district.

Ensure satisfaction of the major customers
in the district by managing supply and
Distribution.

Supervise all technical
staff in the district.

Ensure high performance and productivity of
technical staff by adopting proper human
resource management methods on selection,
training, coaching, counselling and motivation.


Managing Your Job: End
Results
Type of Work
•Ambassador/COO
•Representative
•Office Manager
•Advisor
•Administrator
•Standard

End Results?


Managing your Job: Skills
F1

Information Management

F2

Communication and Influence

F3

Planning and Organising

F4

Working with others and in teams

F5

Mathematical Techniques

F6

Problem Solving and Decision Making

F7

Technology

*based on research findings: “Skills essential for participation in adult life”,
Queensland Studies Authority 1994, 1998, 1999


2. Managing your Boss

Managing your Boss
1.
2.
3.
4.

Boss’ problems
My Boss, the Client
Boss’ Personality
Bad Bosses


Managing your Boss: Boss’
problems

“You can get anything in
life that you want if
you can help enough
people get what they
want”


Managing your Boss: Boss’
problems
A. Top Four Leadership Challenges
1. Getting people to work together who have different
agendas (60%)
2. Balancing competing demands and priorities (56%)

3. Motivating and inspiring employees in a world of
constant change (48%)
4. Accomplishing difficult assignments without the
necessary resources (45%)


Managing your Boss: Boss’
problems
B. Top three challenges affecting Business today (if your
Boss is a CEO or Business Unit Head)
1. Recruiting, retaining and training talented employees
(49%),
2. Developing and implementing business strategies that
result in profitable returns (49%)
3. Reducing operating costs to increase efficiency (41%)


Managing your Boss: Boss’
problems
C. Unspoken Problems faced by Bosses (1/2)
1. Too much communications (Email outlook, intranet>, IM, mobile, office phone, blackberry,
etc….)
2. Uncooperative Heads from other departments/business
units
3. Conflict among subordinates
4. Too many meetings to attend
5. Follow up on tasks (especially tasks delegated to
others)
6. Lack of resources

7. Incompetent subordinates
8. Unbalanced family life


Managing your Boss: Boss’
problems
C. Unspoken Problems faced by Bosses (2/2)
9. Pressurized career progression
10. Too much information to read, store and retrieve
11. Need for more influence and power
12. Multiple and conflicting accountabilities (some are not
even recognized officially)
13. Monitoring the performance of multiple
projects/committees
14. Forgetfulness
15. Stress
16. Lack of Time


Managing your Boss: My
Boss, the Client
1. Do not treat your boss as a boss. Treat your boss as a
Customer
2. I used to have four main clients at every client: the HR
Manager, CEO, Company, Staff
3. Now in CNI I have also four clients: Boss, Big Boss,
Company, Employee
4. What I have learned about properly managing clients
and customers**

Managing your Boss: Boss’
Personality
People

Peaceful: Phlegmatic

Popular: Sanguine

Open

Closed

Perfect: Melancholy

Powerful: Choleric

Task


Managing your Boss: Bad
Bosses
If none of these strategies work, you have two choices:
1. Choice A - If you have good personal reasons for
staying in your job -- you love your work, you're
learning a lot, you like the people you're working with -you can hold your nose and ignore your boss as best
you can.
2. Choice B - Or, you can quit: life is too short too deal
with this kind of abuse.

3. Managing your Time


Managing your Time: Time
to Know
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Time is irreversible
Value = Time + Money
Love is spelt as T.I.M.E. to your loved ones
Interruptions will always happen
Time investments compound
“I don't have time” = lower priority
Time required for something expands
according to expectations


Managing your Time: At the
HEART…
Only three things really matter in Time
Management:
1. Prioritize
2. To-do List

3. Maximize


1. Prioritize
H

Urgent

L

Automate.
Predict.
Delegate.

DO this.

Delay.
Downtime.
Don’t do.

Deadline.
Markers.

Important

H