Every business is only as strong as its leaders. One of the most important factors in helping business leaders succeed is providing them with the right support system. As the team members who offer this support and are key to helping businesses function, administrative professionals must be as reliable as the executives they support.
Administrative professionals keep all employees on the same page and help ensure that both day-to-day and big-picture operations run smoothly. They maintain the communication, structure, and organization that are essential to keeping businesses afloat. So really, every business is only as strong as its administrative professionals.
To help your business become as secure as possible, administrative professionals should be trained as leaders.
Reasons to Train Administrative Professionals as Leaders
- Improve communication. Through leadership training, the administrative team gains skills to effectively collaborate with employees at all levels. This helps to bridge gaps between departments and promotes a positive work culture. Administrative professionals also become trustworthy representatives for your business both internally and externally.
- Boost productivity. Leadership training empowers administrative professionals to delegate tasks and manage their time more efficiently.
- Enhance decision-making. By building on their critical thinking skills, the administrative team learns to make sound judgements and decisions that align with your business’s goals and values.
- Strengthen problem solving. Leadership training helps administrative professionals develop a solution-oriented mindset. This teaches them to better manage their priorities and handle issues independently while reducing their need for supervision.
- Develop a better understanding of business leaders. Administrative professionals must be able to relate to your business’s executives. By knowing what everyone else needs from your business’s leaders, the administrative team discovers what leaders need from them.
- Better customer service. Through leadership training, administrative professionals learn to approach difficult situations with professionalism. Their positive interactions with customers as a result can elevate your business’s brand.
Creating a Leadership Training Program for Your Administrative Team
Administrative professionals should be trained in the same skills as executives. These can include self-awareness, responsibility, decision-making, communication, compassion, team building, delivering results, and more.
Before building the program, ask your administrative team to take an assessment about their strengths and areas for growth in leadership. Try using a 9-box grid to gauge their potential and performance in specific leadership competencies. This can help you decide what to focus on in the training and how to best support your administrative professionals’ growth.
Training administrative professionals as leaders gives them the strength they need to hold your business together and be valuable resources to everyone within it. By encouraging the administrative team to thrive, your business will thrive, too.