Administrative Assistant's Update

UPDATE PM #40065782 P R O F E S S IO N A L D E V E L O P M E N T F O R C A N A DA' S O F F IC E S U P P O R T S TA F F Administrative Assistant's APRIL 2015 UPDATE Design your deadline Researchers have discovered that when you set a deadline can have a big influence on whether you'll meet it. When people started a project in one year and their deadline was in the next year (for instance, they started in June and set their deadline in early January the following year) they were less likely to meet their deadline. But when they moved their deadline into the same year (for instance, late December) they were much more likely to meet it successfully. And the same thing happened when the deadline was in the same month (for instance, for a project happening in April, making it April 30 rather than May 1) people were more likely to meet their deadline. Source: Canadian Business; the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. INSIDE The right time . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The best times to tweet, post and pin on social media. Conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Don't ignore the elephant in the room—deal with it. Here's how. Glad you asked . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 When the conversation's stuck, try asking a question. Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 What are the trends for administrative professionals this year? A look at benefits, training and tasks. Continued on page 5 Credit: gosphotodesign/Shutterstock Made a mistake? Mend it and move on By Ulla de Stricker Mistakes happen. No one can be so careful that they can avoid ever making an error or using poor judg- ment. We've all had an "it looked like a good idea at the time" situa- tion from time to time. Of course, it's one thing when our slip-up simply affects our- selves. If other people are af- fected as well it's more serious, and we need to take appropriate action in order to fix the mistake and be able to move on from it. Let's say you made a mistake. We're not talking a cata- strophic event here—just the kind of thing that may have caused a delay, an unhappy customer, or some hurt feelings. Naturally, the specific circum- stances will dictate the most ap- propriate course of action. In many cases, the "face up to it" approach will be best. Face up to your mistake Directly acknowledge the error in front of the people who were af- fected. It may mean asking for five minutes with the boss to make an apology, or it may mean writing a sincere message to express your regret about what you've done. The key point is to own what was done as opposed to making excuses for your behaviour. • I am sincerely sorry for my lack of tact. I am embarrassed to have been so insensitive, and I hope you will accept my apology. • I deeply regret my lack of care in causing X. I offer to Y in order to mitigate the effects. I apologize for the inconvenience and take away an important lesson in paying at- tention. Again, I am very sorry. • My abject apologies, Doris. I was wrong when I assumed X and did

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