Workshop Objectives
Rich in learning practices, teamwork and illustrations pertinent to the participants' context,
this unique skills-development program has been designed for presidential and management assistants interested
in maximizing their potential for exercising greater responsibility beyond the present position.
The focus is on the skills and tools to improve performance, productivity, innovation; build a winning
team with bosses and
peers, and maximize value to your organization, in traditional, hybrid and virtual teams. This unique experience will help you:
- Set and negotiate goals, priorities and urgency in partnership with your team and
leader (manager or senior executive);
- Organize your day and manage time (deadlines, conference calls, meetings and teamwork), drop-in visitors
and time-wasters;
- Manage conflicts, difficult people, crises and awkward situations assertively;
- Make your manager(s) more effective; improve your working relationship;
assume more leadership and
managerial responsibility without the benefit of authority;
build empowerment-inducing habits;
- Clarify your role and excel in working with peers, multiple managers
and demanding clients;
- Practice in a friendly atmosphere and seek guidance from the webinar leader;
- Make your job more meaningful, build trust, and take charge of your
career growth beyond the present position.
We are confident empowering executive assistants, with skills of lasting value, is not
only fair and dignified; but it is among the best evidence-based business investments,
yielding immediate returns both to the participant and the organization.
Prework
Much of your time during these webinars will be invested to deal with back-home issues
and barriers to building a
winning team. We believe learning occurs most readily when quickly applied
to real-life situations you care about.
Therefore, we want you to do some thinking before the webinar about:
- Activities that make up your job and percentage of time spent on each per week.
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Two interpersonal situations you have a difficulty with on-site or in virtual work,
e.g. working for and negotiating priorities with one or multiple
bosses, cutting off conversations, keeping people from disturbing
your management, delegating work to others,
enforcing deadlines. Who is involved? When does it occur?
How do you usually handle the situation?
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DETAILED OUTLINE (2.5 Continuing-Education Units - CEU)
1. Taking Charge without the Benefit of Authority
- Start with a clear mandate
- The art of building and using constructive power
- Demonstration and practice
- Insights into interpersonal compatibility
- Profession executive assistant: A model of success
- Managing your boss: How to build a winning team
2. How to Set Goals and Priorities
- Personal and business goals: Practical validity tests
- How to set and validate your goals: Team exercise
- How to assess priorities and deadlines
- In-basket exercise on priority and urgency
3. Managing Conflicts and Difficult People Onsite, on the Phone and Virtually
- Diagnosing conflicts affecting administrative staff
- Understanding our behavior; preparing for the worst
- Managing difficult bosses, co-workers and others
- Dealing with aggressive and passive hostility
- Video case study, two team exercises and guided learning
4. Preventing Role and Responsibility Conflicts
- How to clarify your role with your boss and peers
- How to prevent unfair evaluations
- Practical exercise in role and responsibility charting
5. Working Smarter with Artificial Intelligence and Personal Organization
- Working smarter: Eight drivers to control your day
- How to control your day and focus on high-return tasks and the details that count
- Smart search with generative AI and advanced search engines: Tips to get the best results
- Practical AI teamwork: How to reduce your workload with artificial intelligence
- How to set reasonable deadlines; securing agreement
- How to reduce your workload with the invisible Web and artificial intelligence
6. How to Control Interruptions and Time-Wasters
- How to control drop-in visitors and interruptions
- Teamwork and practical tips to deal with major time-wasters
7. How to Prepare Shorter and Productive Meetings
- How to run effective meetings
- Teamwork on virtual meetings
8. Building the Foundation for Career Excellence
- How to develop courageous self-leadership and co-elevating leadership skills
- Practical neuroscience and Gestalt tips for building an excellent career and a proactive life
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Webinar Leader: Alain Paul MARTIN
Alain Paul Martin has a deep commitment and an extensive
experience in mentoring, training and coaching executive, administrative and presidential assistants and their leaders,
both the public and private sectors, NGOs and unions. While he teamed-up, in a wide variety of working conditions,
both face-to-face and
in virtual teams, with senior executives and their respective assistants, he has witnessed first-hand the grueling
workload and challenges facing assistants, most of whom are competent, capable and dedicated professionals, eager to excel.
That is why at Harvard University, he devoted an important part of his research to the advancement of administrative
professionals in the workplace, to enable them to build and harness career opportunities of lasting value. With the fast-growing
powerful AI applications (generative, predictive, RAG and PhysAI or LiquidAI), he continues to
focus on empowering executive assistants with cutting-edge marketable and high-paying skills and
practical tools, that make a difference to
the users' performance and their organization.
He is credited by many of his professional-development
alums to have had an inspiring and positive impact in their advanced education and upward mobility.
As Chief Architect, Harvard University Global System ™ and CEO, The Professional Development
Institute, Alain continues to lead workshops/webinars and the development practical innovation instruments for teams
comprising executive and administrative assistants,
managers, scientists, engineers, and other professionals in production, marketing and sale. He is a lifelong student and
practitioner of innovation
and decision
sciences (generative AI, leadership, system thinking, operations research, cognitive neuroscience, organization behavior and
alternative dispute resolution).
Alain is a 2012 Harvard Fellow, Advanced Leadership and a Harvard Business School's entrepreneurship alumnus
(1997-99 OPM). He graduated in Commerce (Quantitative Methods) from Concordia University (Montréal) and studied advanced
technology in Lille, France. He acquired skills in innovation at Harvard and system thinking, change management and organization
behavior at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (GIC), and mediation and
advanced negotiation for lawyers, at Harvard Law School, from which he is certified to teach negotiation in
corporations. For more: C.V. in PDF format
and at LinkedIn.
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