OFFICE MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

SKILLS MASTERCLASS
CHARLES COTTER

FOKAS CONSULTING

FNB CONFERENCING AND LEARNING CENTRE

APRIL 2015
 TRAINING PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
• Personal Development

• Stress Management

• Professional Development

• Office Management and Administration

• Minute-taking

• Office space and environment management

 PERSONAL MASTERY
• Personality type

• Your self-belief, esteem and self-efficacy

• Personal needs, strengths/weaknesses and preferences

• Personal motivation

• Passion and interests

• Personal and professional goals, ambitions and aspirations

• Resilience
 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Organizational skills

• Tact and diplomacy

• Effective communication skills

• Maintain confidentiality in sensitive matters

• Display excellent judgment

 DEFINING RESILIENCE
• Resilience in psychology refers to the idea of an individual's
tendency to cope with stress and adversity.

• This coping may result in the individual "bouncing back" to a

previous state of normal functioning, or using the experience of
exposure to adversity to produce a "steeling effect" and function
better than expected

• Resilience is most commonly understood as a process, and not a

trait of an individual.

• Resilience is a dynamic process whereby individuals exhibit positive

behavioural adaptation when they encounter significant adversity,
trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress.
 RESILIENCE BUILDING STRATEGIES
• Positive

• Focused

• Flexible

• Organized

• Proactive
 DEFINING ASSERTIVENESS
• Assertiveness is the ability to express one’s
feelings and assert one’s rights while respecting
the feelings and rights of others.

• Assertive communication is appropriately direct,

open and honest, and clarifies one’s needs to the
other person. People who have mastered the skill
of assertiveness are able to greatly reduce the
level of interpersonal conflict in their lives,
thereby reducing a major source of stress.

• The Assertiveness Continuum

THE ASSERTIVENESS CONTINUUM
MEASURING YOUR ASSERTIVENESS
• Do you have difficulty accepting constructive criticism?

• Do you have trouble voicing a difference of opinion with

others?

• Do people tend to feel alienated by your communication

style when you do disagree with them?

• Do you feel attacked when someone has an opinion

different from your own?

• Do you find yourself saying ‘yes’ to requests that you

should really say ‘no’ to, just to avoid disappointing people?
LEARNING TO SAY NO – “WHO’S GOT
THE MONKEY?”
 ASSERTIVENESS STRATEGIES
• Be Firm and Decisive - Say No if You Have To

• Ask For What You Want - Matter of Factly

• Achieve Your Goals

• Constructively Resolve Conflict

• Be Interested In the People Around You

• Believe in Yourself
CONSOLIDATION INTO A PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT PLAN (PDP)
 STRESS MANAGEMENT
• Defining stress

• Perception of stress

• The Four Common Types of Stress

• Causes of stress

• Outcomes of stress

• The Pyramid Approach

• Stress management strategies

 PERCEPTION OF STRESS
• Importance: Refers to how significant the event
is to the individual.

• Uncertainty: Lack of clarity about what will

happen.

• Duration: The longer special demands are, the

more stressful the situation. The same holds true
for stressors. Stress of short duration is
sometimes referred to as acute stress. Long
duration of stress is sometimes referred to as
chronic stress.
 COMMON TYPES OF STRESS

• Time stress

• Anticipatory stress

• Situational stress

• Encounter stress
OUTCOMES OF STRESS
PYRAMID APPROACH
INDIVIDUAL STRESS MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIES
• Professionalism and Business ethics

• The attributes of professionalism

• How to Exhibit Professionalism

• Building credibility

• Creating trust within the team

• Core competencies of being a successful professional

• Networking and building business contacts

ATTRIBUTES OF PROFESSIONALISM
• Specialized Knowledge

• Competency

• Honesty and Integrity

• Accountability

• Self-Regulation

• Image
VALUE OF AN OFFICE PROFESSIONAL

In a survey of the Managing

Directors of the Top
5 000 businesses in the UK, they
concluded that having their P.A
made them more than 32% more
effective.
 BUILDING CREDIBILITY
• The Credibility Formula as: Credibility = Integrity +
Expertise.

• Achieving a distinguishable level of follower faith and

loyalty is certainly not an overnight occurrence and can be
achieved only through openness; committed people
investment and a proven scorecard of leadership and
performance excellence.

• Leader behaviour, actions and decisions congruent with

reliability, fairness, consistency and transparency are
instrumental values which can enhance follower perception
of the leader’s reputation, standing and eventually, their
willingness to follow and support that leader.
COVEY’S EMOTIONAL BANK
ACCOUNT
COVEY’S WIN-WIN MINDSET
 TRUST ENHANCING STRATEGIES
• Open and transparent communication

• Mutual respect and tolerance for individual

differences

• Demonstrated care and sincere interest

• Recognition for the value of each individual

team member

• Co-operation and shared commitment

 CORE COMPETENCIES OF BEING A SUCCESSFUL
PROFESSIONAL
• Identify our most valuable skill sets

• Market our skills that are most in-demand

• Target who we want to market ourselves to

• Articulate our ability to solve an employer's problems and alleviate their

pain

• Proactively start and engage in meaningful industry conversations

• Position ourselves as a subject-matter expert

• Know our worth

• Know our limits

 NETWORKING AND BUSINESS
CONTACTS
• “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”

• Research has proven that those employees better equipped with the
social skills necessary to network effectively and build sustainable,
professional relationships with key organizational decision-makers, tend to
climb the corporate ladder substantially faster than those who lack this
capability.

• Research indicates that between 50% and 75% of jobs are never
advertised.

• So networking can be 12 times more effective than answering an

advertisement.

• Networking is a process of building strong and enduring relationships that

are mutually beneficial.

• Refer to network pointers and guidelines.

PROFESSIONAL VALUE AND WORTH
 OFFICE MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
AND PRACTICE
• The necessity of management

• Defining management

• Management roles

• Management skills

• Management functions

• Management resources
 THE IMPORTANCE AND NECESSITY OF
MANAGEMENT
• Management directs a business towards its goals

• Management sets and keeps the operations of a

business on a balanced course

• Management keeps the organization in a

equilibrium with its environment

• Management is necessary to reach the goals of

the organization at the highest possible level of
productivity
MANAGEMENT SKILLS
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
OFFICE ADMINISTRATION ROLES
 MINUTE-TAKING FUNDAMENTALS
• The scope of minutes

• Tips and warnings

• The criteria of effective minutes

• Preparation (pre-meeting)

• Transcribing (during meeting)

• Writing minutes (after the meeting)

 SCOPE OF MINUTES
• Where and when the meeting took place?

• Who was there and who was not?

• Who was the speaker and what did he/she say?

• What has been decided for the group (resolutions)?

• Who has agreed to do what?

• Who is responsible for implementing it?

• When should it be implemented?

 CRITERIA FOR GOOD MINUTES

• Be factual and accurate

• Be short and to the point (concise)

• Clearly indicate the meeting proceedings and discussions

• Concentrate on resolutions and decisions taken at the meeting

• Show decisions clearly marked “agreed” by the Committee

Members

• Follow the agenda headings so that they are easily understood

 CRITERIA FOR GOOD MINUTES
• Be written in full sentences

• Indicate how many members attended the meeting or

list their names

• State the time the meeting was opened and closed

• Be written in the past tense

• Be written in plain, easily understood language

• Be consistent in their format and content

MINUTE-TAKING (TRANSCRIPTION)
PROCESS
OFFICE SPACE AND ENVIRONMENT
MANAGEMENT
ERGONOMICALLY CORRECT CHAIR
 OFFICE DESIGN

• Green Plants

• Lighting

• Aromatherapy

• Air Quality

• EMF Protection
 OFFICE DESIGN

• Colours

• Music

• Breaks

• Organization - Feng Shui

 MEANING OF FENG SHUI
• A Chinese system of laws considered to govern
spatial arrangement and orientation in relation
to the flow of energy (chi), and whose favourable
or unfavourable effects are taken into account
when siting and designing buildings.

• The art of placement – knowing what to put

where and in what colours, shapes and
materials, to create an environment that
facilitates happiness, serenity, tranquility and
harmony.
FENG SHUI OFFICE RE-DESIGN
 CONCLUSION

• Key points

• Summary

• Questions
 CONTACT DETAILS

• Charles Cotter

• (+27) 84 562 9446

• charlescot@polka.co.za

• LinkedIn

• Twitter: Charles_Cotter

• http://www.slideshare.net/CharlesCotter