Managing Special Assignments: Advanced Best Practices for Administrative Professionals

OVERVIEW

Refine your organizational skills to keep your projects on time, on budget, and on target. You've mastered the planning, executing, reviewing, and revising skills, making the difference between success and failure. You are good at getting the different stakeholders to provide information or direction and to show up for important milestones meetings.

You're ready to hone your organizational and general administrative skills, communicate even more effectively, avoid major project pitfalls, and work well with others to meet project deadlines and objectives. Build on your fundamental knowledge and expand your capacity to balance day-to-day work and these special assignments or projects.

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND

Now that you have begun using basic project management skills and tools, you should be getting better results. However, these basics are not enough for continued success. You must continually improve your existing skills in project management, communication, understanding human nature, and working across organizational lines.

You will have new challenges as you lead successful projects. Take a deeper dive into current project management standards and use more sophisticated tools. All of this can be overwhelming on top of your many responsibilities and priorities. You will develop a plan to integrate new skills and tools systematically and use references for your own continuous improvement.

AREAS COVERED

Build on Your Fundamental Knowledge

• What are your strengths and challenges of managing projects as an administrative professional now?
• What is a project?
• Where do PM standards come from?
• How does something become a best practice?
• Project life cycle

Hone Organizational Skills

• Learn advanced skills and principles in project management
• Managing time proactively

Communicate Even More Effectively

• What is your most effective communication zone?
• Using active assertive communication as administrative professionals
• Mastering active listening
• Managing project communication through RACI
• Meeting challenges with stakeholders, dispersed teams, and virtual teams

Avoid Major Project Pitfalls

• Recognizing and avoiding common pitfalls
• Analyzing risk
• Establishing an early warning system
• Escalating risk proactively
• Expecting the unexpected
• Management skills for administrative professionals

Meet Project Objectives

• Establishing and clarifying concrete objectives
• Developing more detailed plans to reach objectives

Bring in Projects on Time, on Budget, and on Target

• Executing detailed project plans
• Managing exceptions and deviations from plans
• What management wants to hear in your reports

Continuous Improvement as a Way of Life

• Implementing lessons learned throughout project
• Going beyond lessons learned
• Keeping project data; key measurements

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

As a result of this project management training, you will be able to:

• Build on your fundamental project management knowledge
• Hone organizational skills as administrative professionals
• Communicate even more effectively
• Avoid major project pitfalls
• Meet project objectives
• Bring in projects on time, on budget, & on target

WHO WILL BENEFIT

• Administrative Professionals and Executive Assistants who have taken a basic project management course
• Experienced Administrative Professionals and Executive Assistant Project Managers
• Managers of Administrative Professionals or Executive Assistants
• Administrative Professionals And Executive Assistants charged with improving project management