WORKING WITH TEAMMATES! 

This month we begin a four part series on working with teammates.  And we start with the high-S because an overwhelming majority of our administrative assistants and support staff fall into this category.  The reason for this is simple.  The job for most administrative assistants requires the kinds of behaviors that S’s enjoy.  They usually have a ton of process and procedure to follow, they get to work with people mostly one-on-one and build relationships, and they really enjoy helping people.

Working with the high-S:

In the last 30-years I’ve worked with thousands of financial advisors, sales people, and management and sales teams, and the one thing I’ve found is that the best administrative assistants are predominantly S’s.  This doesn’t mean that other behavioral styles can’t be great assistants as well or that other members of our team aren’t S’s too.

But here are some thoughts on how to help your high-S assistant help you.  S’s love helping people, forming relationships, and following a process.  And they hate conflict.  They don’t even like to have conflict in the same room with them.

1.So if you are uncomfortable with conflict you will never say, “No!” because that means a conflict is about to start.  The closest the high-S ever gets to saying “No!” is…“no problem.”  So when your high-S assistant says “No problem,” stop what you are doing and ask them, “Are you sure?”  This keeps you from being upset when you come in tomorrow and your “no problem” is still sitting there.  Plus, S’s are great listeners so they love it when someone listens to them.

2.S’s love being rewarded for the work they do, not necessarily the results they produce.  The challenge for us is that we have a whole bunch of high-S assistants who do really great work for us and our clients and we reward them by giving them more work to do.  Take 20-seconds out of your busy day and just say, “Thank you!”  Buy their lunch or get them and their spouse tickets to the ballgame.  It is really discouraging for them to do all that work and never hear what their work accomplishes for us.S’s love being a valued member of the team.  Make sure they know they are important to your team and they will come in on the weekend to make sure your work gets done.

3.And here’s a tip that will make your high-S assistant more effective immediately.  The main goal for most S’s is to get their work done and go home.  So they come in every morning, work hard to “clean their desk off,” (get all their work done), and go home.  Now it’s almost time for your assistant to leave and you have to run to a meeting.  And you have this little project—not much to it, just make a couple copies and send to a client….but there isn’t time to get it done today.  So on your way out you drop this little project on her desk and you say what you think makes you a great boss—“It’s okay if this doesn’t go out until tomorrow.”

Now you head out to your meeting thinking what a great boss you are.  But here’s what is really happening.  Your high-S assistant has worked all day to get her work done and go home.  And now you have laid this little project on her clean desk, a little project but a little project she didn’t get done.  She will worry about it and think about it all night, may be late to work in the morning because she didn’t sleep well.  She will get your little project done tomorrow but now it’s a lot larger than it started out to be because she has worried about it all night.

So here’s the tip—If it’s closing time and it won’t get done today—IF IT DOESN’T MATTER WHOSE DESK IT LAYS ON OVERNIGHT…LEAVE IT LAYING ON YOURS.  Put a “post-it note” on it and lay it on your assistant’s desk in the morning.  Start doing that today and watch what happens!

Anything we can do to help our administrative assistants and support staff be more effective will in turn make us more productive.  So help them avoid conflict, thank them for the work they do, show them what a valued member of the team they are, and be careful about giving them projects to do right at closing time.  Help your assistant help you.

Remember, at Keese Consulting our future is invested in your success.

Make yourself a great day!

Ron Keese