Administrative Assistant's UPDATE
FEBRUARY 2014
Seminars and webinars
Seminar providers change their dates quite often. If you
plan to attend an event, be sure to verify dates, times
and places. Also, ask them about group discounts.
C A L E N D A R
Canadian Management Centre
www.cmctraining.org
(877) 262-2519
• Project management for administrative professionals
($2,195) – Feb. 10-12
Job Design Concepts Inc.
http://jobdesignconcepts.com/workshops.html
(416) 447-8832
• Communication skills ($399) – Toronto Feb. 13
• Supervise, motivate and lead others ($399) –
Toronto Feb. 27
• Assertiveness skills ($399) – Toronto Mar. 27
Mistakes
Continued from page 7
fortable feeling she was not open
to owning any part of the problem. She didn't seem willing to
consider the possibility she may
have told me the incorrect time.
Since the admin didn't own the
problem, she didn't come up with
any solutions. Everything was
left to the boss to handle before
I even arrived on the scene. The
result? By the time I was standing
in front of my boss to apologize
(the error could have been mine)
and recommend a new way to
handle scheduling, his mind was
made up: the admin was at fault,
the process she had been using
was poor and on a busy day, he
had to fix it. Rightly or wrongly, I
was found not to be at fault.
8
Want your event listed here? E-mail the following
information to joycegrant@sympatico.ca: Your
organization's name, website and phone number, the
name of the event, the price, the date and city. Listings
require three months' notice and are listed according to
space availability.
• Time management ($399) – Toronto April 10
• Business writing ($399) – Toronto May 8
• Meeting minutes made easy ($399) – Toronto May 29
• Speed reading ($399) – Toronto June 13
• Developing emotional intelligence ($399) –
Toronto June 18
Eli Mina Consulting
www.elimina.com (604) 730-0377
• Minute taking standards and related issues –
Edmonton May 20; Calgary May 22
• Robert's Rules of Order demystified – Edmonton May
21; Calgary May 23
Mistake #2
A colleague gave me some
instructions on how to prepare
a document for his client. Because I was rattled by the earlier
scheduling error, I listened to
his instructions but didn't hear
them, and didn't confirm my
understanding of his direction.
I met with the client and used a
different approach than had been
requested.
My colleague was a bit
puzzled when he received the
document and asked why I
hadn't followed his instructions.
I didn't hesitate: the error was
mine. I had made a mistake and
would prepare the document in
the requested manner on my own
time. I promised to take care of it
and I did.
While my colleague was sur-
prised by my error, his opinion of
my abilities didn't change. There
was no finger pointing, no emotion.
By the end of the day, my colleague was teasing me about my
brain-freeze, which I took as a
good sign.
There's no avoiding making
mistakes. When they happen and
are handled properly, you have
an opportunity to avoid damage
to your reputation by:
1) Taking responsibility for the
error.
2) Finding a way to fix it or to
prevent it from happening again.
3) Moving on.
Helen Latimer is a seasoned job coach.
Visit her website at helenlatimercoaching.com and connect with her on
LinkedIn.
