How Assistants Can Help Get Stuff Done in Their Organisations
In any organisation, one of the most valuable skills is the ability to get things done. Assistants, in particular, play a crucial role in driving projects forward, maintaining momentum, and ensuring that tasks are completed. In this article, we will explore how Assistants can help get stuff done in their organisations and how they can add tremendous value to their organisations by effectively managing momentum and moving tasks forward.
Understanding Momentum and Staying Focused
Momentum is the force that keeps a project moving forward. It’s the energy and enthusiasm that propels a team to achieve its goals. However, maintaining momentum can be challenging, especially when faced with unexpected obstacles or shifting priorities. Assistants can help by having a good understanding of the organisation’s goals and objectives and ensuring that everyone is focused on achieving them.
One way to do this is by introducing a weekly WIN team newsletter that showcases goals being met or progress reports. Alternatively, a weekly team meeting can be held to clearly define the goals and tasks for the week or month ahead. By understanding the goals and strategies in place, Assistants can help ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives.
Building Relationships and Motivating Others
Building strong relationships with colleagues is key to motivating them to complete tasks. Assistants can bridge communication gaps between executives and their teams, making sure everyone feels valued and has what they need to move their work forward. If an executive is often unavailable, assistants can step in to facilitate clear and consistent communication.
One way to do this is by introducing a team survey to understand how team members are motivated and gather feedback on what can be improved. By addressing bottlenecks and fixing any issues that slow down productivity, Assistants can help ensure that everyone is working efficiently and consistently.
Tactics for Managing Momentum and Moving Tasks Forward
There are several tactics that Assistants can employ to help move tasks and projects forward:
- Project Status Reports: Assistants can create clear and concise project status reports that quickly and concisely report the project’s status to stakeholders. These reports should include the project name, summary, timeline, scope, budget, status, achievements, bottlenecks, action items, and praise.
- Meeting Notes and Action Items: Assistants can document action items during meetings, not afterwards. This ensures that details are captured accurately and gives the person assigned the action a chance to ask any clarifying questions. After the meeting, assistants can circulate the notes and use the first five minutes of every meeting to check in on the previous meeting’s action items.
- Chasing Colleagues for Outstanding Work: Chasing colleagues for outstanding work can be challenging, but it’s essential for moving tasks forward. Assistants can make it easy for colleagues to respond to follow-up requests by being realistic with deadlines, being polite and showing empathy, explaining why the work is needed, and making the process as easy as possible.
The GTD Workflow Framework
The Getting Things Done (GTD) workflow framework, developed by David Allen, is a useful method for managing tasks and projects. The GTD method involves five stages: capture, clarify, organise, engage, and reflect.
- Capture: Assistants should capture all important information in an external hard drive or inbox. This could be a notebook, app, or digital storage space. Everything important should be stored outside of the mind to prevent forgetting.
- Clarify: Assistants should organise the captured information by assigning due dates, delegating tasks, setting reminders, breaking down larger tasks, and making items as actionable and specific as possible.
- Organise: Assistants should categorise and label tasks or group them into projects. Time blocking and theming days or weeks around particular tasks or projects can also help with organisation.
- Engage: With a decluttered mind and organised tasks, Assistants are ready for action.
- Reflect: At the end of every day and week, assistants should take a few minutes to reflect on their experience, what they did well, what they are most satisfied with, and what they could do better.
Assistants play a crucial role in driving projects forward and maintaining momentum in their organisations. By understanding the organisation’s goals and objectives, building strong relationships with colleagues, employing tactics to manage momentum, and using the GTD workflow framework, assistants can add tremendous value to their organisations. By showing that a large part of their value is around getting stuff done, assistants will be in high demand and will contribute significantly to their organisation’s success.
If you’re an Assistant looking to further enhance your productivity and time management skills, consider enrolling in the Productivity and Time Management online course. This course will provide you with the tools and techniques you need to effectively manage your time and increase your productivity, helping you to become even more valuable to your organisation.
