Do You Need a Personal Assistant?

It's great to be multi-skilled?be able to type your own correspondence, do your bookkeeping, answer all phone calls, prepare your PowerPoint presentations, organise your own travel, seminars, pick up and send your mail, pack orders, do your own marketing, do all the photocopying, ring your clients and prospects. However it may not leave you with enough time to focus on what really matters.

When you first start out in business, you will no doubt do most things yourself, yet to continue trying to keep control of every task that needs doing by handling everything yourself, you'll never be able to grow your business successfully. You'll run out of time and also be limited by your own skillset.

The same applies when you commence a new management role, you want to make a good impression and show that you are capable of handling all your responsibilities without asking for any assistance. That's fine if you can manage doing that effectively and maintain your sanity. However, if you are having difficulty and suffer in silence, other people?your team, colleagues and clients will eventually notice anyhow.

If you are a business owner or manager with a team of people, you'll go crazy trying to do everything yourself without some form of assistance?and being a good manager, your role is to manage and develop your people. Together you will achieve more? more productivity and profit or whatever your purpose is.

When you have people working for you, you'll find that managing your people will take up a lot of your time.

When you're at this level you do need some form of assistance whether it be a Virtual Assistant (personal assistants who work off-site in their own business and whom you can hire on as 'as needs' basis (see www.asecretary.com.au) or hire a person to assist you on-site whether it's part-time or full-time.

You may also have a suitable candidate in your office right now who is ready to step in?just make sure they have the skills you require. It's no good recruiting within your organisation unless the person has the attributes needed unless you are prepared to invest additional time and money to get them up to speed... and even after all that effort, they may still be unsuitable.

One of my clients decided to utilise their company's receptionist to help him with his workload as she had spare time at certain parts of the day. This lady was a typical sanguine personality which meant she was bubbly, full of life and excellent 'people person'? perfect for her role. This type of person is generally allergic to details and can be disorganised?the opposite of what my client required.

I knew it wasn't going to work but he was adamant to give it a go as he didn't want to invest in additional staff. It didn't take long for him to realise he had made a big mistake and that no amount of further training would bring her skill level to where he needed it to be. Within 4 weeks he hired a trained personal assistant who was highly organised and could easily undertake the tasks required.

Gary's Story

Gary is the Sales Manager of a building company. He manages a team of 15 people. Gary began coaching with me last year. One of his key goals was to finish work by 5.30 p.m. each day. At that stage he was commencing work at 7.00 a.m. and going home at 7.30 p.m. at night. Not much fun right? He had no time for his life. Working these hours he was overstressed, overweight, unwell and the long hours took their toll on his family life.

There were a range of other issues affecting Gary's productivity?the key ones were his poor time management skills, his inability to say 'no' and not having competent staff to delegate to. The staff issue was directly related to Gary's time management skills. When new people joined his department they were left to their own devices with no on-going training. The staff turnover was a direct reflection of his management skills. His regular team's performance wasn't monitored and they never experienced any further development. In other words, Gary wasn't an effective leader.

He had no dedicated personal assistant to delegate basic administrative tasks to and to assist him directly with his role. Gary had to look after clients and suppliers as well as his own team. The 'people' issues took up much of Gary's time, therefore he extended his working hours to catch up on his own tasks? many of which could have been delegated to a competent personal assistant.

Through using our Weekly Planner to record where he was spending his time, Gary discovered he was wasting a minimum of 15 hours a week on administrative tasks which could easily be handled by an assistant. Gary's time was worth $200 an hour and here he was wasting $3000 worth of his time minimum per week which could easily be delegated to a personal assistant who would cost his company $800 - $1000 per week.

The crazy thing about this was he procrastinated for weeks about hiring a support person. Once he saw the real truth, he quickly got off his butt and took action.

The Final Word

If you want to have more time to focus on what really counts in your business/organisation, then consider letting go and find an assistant who has the skills you need to help you be the best you can be.

Lorraine Pirihi, principal of The Office Organiser is Australia's Personal Productivity Coach. She specialises in working with businesspeople showing them how to dramatically boost their productivity, reduce the stress and the mess in their lives and have more time for enjoying their life.

---

7 Steps To Hire The Best

You can use this step-by-step method to hire applicants who... Read More

Build Rapport Fast! - Eight Easy Steps

Building rapport is all about creating a relationship, in the... Read More

Make It Easy to Reply - Voice Mail That Works

If you are like most business people, voice mail has... Read More

Necessary Tasks You May Want to Delegate

As a business owner, time is of the essence. Running... Read More

Working with Hearing Impaired Employees - Giving Them a Fair Go

Hearing impaired people often encounter difficulty at work because their... Read More

6 Ways to Keep Things Simple

Six Ways to Keep Things Simple We can have greater... Read More

Middle Managers Behaving Badly ? How To Stop This Damaging Your Results

More and more I hear and read about a looming... Read More

Whatever it Takes!

I have a sign on my office door. It pretty... Read More

New Leadership For A New War

Military analysts call this "asymmetrical" war (as if war has... Read More

Meetings and Road Trips

Managing a meeting is like setting off on a long... Read More

Safety Policy Sample Outline

Writing a safety manual is a tough job and most... Read More

What is the Most Difficult Part of an Improvement Program?

Answer: Starting one.Most of us realize that there is probably... Read More

How Your Business Can Pick A Software Developer

Eventually, your business is going to need to have some... Read More

Demise of the Lone Ranger Manager: A Lesson in Management Communication Style

When executives see themselves as solely responsible for the overall... Read More

Small Business Checking Accounts

ACCOUNTING AND BILLINGCHECK BOOKSWe recommend that you maintain a business... Read More

Joint Accountability: Another Key for Your Effectiveness

I once was part of a group of management professors... Read More

Are You Using the Right Form of Energy?

As we near the end of summer, here is a... Read More

Three Foundation Stones for Building Organizational Integrity

When the stock market crashed in 1929, there were a... Read More

How to Get the Best from Outsourcing

There's a great little article ('Business Lifeforms') on... Read More

Conquering the Number One Problem in Business--Poor Communication

The Number One problem in business is poor communication: between... Read More

Successful Managing Through Delegation

Managers should avoid the tendency to constantly delegate to the... Read More

Budgets that Damage - The Downsides of Making the Numbers

In my organisational career, I had budgets from the age... Read More

Empowering Others - Giving Them Some Control

It's been a pretty good weekend around the place -... Read More

Interviewing Applicants Can Be Hazardous to Your Wealth

1st Fact: Interviewing applicants is the most common way companies... Read More

Satisfied Employees, A Powerful Marketing Strategy

Even in today's still uncertain economic times, there are companies... Read More

Knowledge Management - Capturing And Structuring Knowledge Into Reusable Assets

Many organizations have an approach for identifying and recording lessons... Read More

When Change Is In the Wind...Heads Up!

In these days of takeovers and mergers, of downsizings and... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Improving Workplace Safety

This article relates to the Safety and Working Environment competency... Read More

ISO 9001 What Records Does My Business Need To Keep?

Which documents must I keep for ISO 9001?In addition to... Read More

Holding Effective Meetings Can Be Easier than You Think!

I'm sure you've experienced those typical "headache" meetings! You know... Read More

Bolster Credibility with Investors--Avoid These Phrases in Your Business Plan

Remember Papa John's commercial on TV with the slogan "Better... Read More

More Computer Consulting 101 Hiring Tips (Part 2 of 2)

Does your company need to retain the services of a... Read More

Can Your Business Run Without You?

If you are a business owner or a business owner... Read More