APWA 2016 Support Staff Seminar

Workshop Summaries

APWA 2016 Support Staff Seminar

Workshop Summaries

By: Stacy Leitner and Lisa Olsen

What Are Your Sights Set on?

Each administrative professional can have a rewarding and satisfying career.Today’s 21st century administrative professional has no limits–only those you set for yourself!This session will focus on helping you to find happiness in your career.We’ll begin our journey by exploring and discussing priorities and what matters most to you as you navigate your career.Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you prepare for this session:

What aspects of your job as an administrative professional do you enjoy most?
What’s motivates you to excel in your career?
How do you measure career happiness?
To have a true meaningful and satisfying career, what are your sights set on as decide to possibly advance your career?

Invest in Your Career by Advancing in Technology

There is an underlying expectation today that administrative professionals will serve as the technology specialist in their organization.With the advances in technology, the Information Age brings rewards and challenges to administrative professionals. Administrative professionals are often challenged by innovation and highly sophisticated technologies. One of the greatest challenges for administrative professionals in today’s workplace lie in their capacity to accept and adapt to change, to learn new computer skills, and to share information with others. This session will encourage you to want to make the investment in advancing your technology skills.

Insights into this session include:

Learn the benefits of earning the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification and how the certification can enhance your skills and effectiveness for greater productivity in work assignments.
Discover the importance of administrative professionals needing an accessible online network of business contacts.
Learn what social media technologies are most relevant to the administrative professional career, why it’s critical to learn these technologies, and how to best utilize these technologies throughout the day.

Analyze This!…Scenarios That Will Make You Think

In this short, power session we will dive into several challenging workplace scenarios. We will analyze and discuss situations that administrative professionals face using critical thinking skills and sharing best practices.

Making Teamwork Work!

Teamwork is defined in many different ways. One company’s sandbox is not like any other! But one thing is for sure; however “teamwork” is defined, everyone wants it, and most administrative professionals expect it.

Whether we are talking about elaborate QA teams, self-directed project committees, or just good old fashioned rah-rah team spirit, most business experts agree that people working together on teams can accomplish more than they can as individuals.

We are designed for community. People have an innate sense that we should be with other people. Regardless of how we believe it got there, we have a need to be together. In business, this typically translates into what we call teamwork, but this is not always the exact manifestation of our need for community!

As administrative professionals it is important to support an environment where relationships flourish. Regardless of the reason for having community, the benefits to the business are extreme. People are happier when they feel connected and happier people produce better.

The question is, what can you do today to foster a sense of community and build stronger teams and a happier sandbox experience?

This powerful and timely workshop will focus on the following key objectives:

Teams need intentional people who can remain focused and productive. Make every action count. Do you have a plan and purpose for everything you do? Strategies for being intentional with your time.
Discover the three C’s of teamwork: Communication, commitment and creative collaboration. What does each require?
What are the characteristics of an effective team? What does it “look” like in the workplace?
What are the 8 signs of a trustless team?
You and your boss: The most important team! Learn new strategies for being a relationship engineer! Tips for exercising these ideas for increased job satisfaction.
Team work activity: The Tower Exercise! Expand your creativity during this engaging, fun and lively exercise to learn more about effective team dynamics.