Advanced Planning & Communication

Planning and scheduling fundamentals

• Types of planning tools
• The key principles of effective planning, using the Wheel of Success
• How to stay one step ahead: getting things done before you are asked, and avoiding crisis situations
• Identifying and clarifying your priorities when dozens of people and tasks demand your attention
• Merging your priorities with your manager's so you travel on the same track
• Setting attainable goals that stand the best chance of being met

Time management

• Basic principles of effective time management
• Identifying and eliminating time wasters
• Processes, habits and systems that optimise your effectiveness
• The difference between effective, efficient and perfect
• Barriers to effective time management, and how to overcome them

Managing your executive's time

• Managing your executive's time and workload
• Time-saving email management strategies
• Diary management: techniques for creating more time

Building a strategic partnership with your executive

• The assistant's role as a strategic business partner
• Working "with" rather than working "for" your leader
• Discovering your executive's daily priorities
• Forward thinking and self-leadership as an attitude for partnership success

Meetings

• The elements of an effective meeting, and the five essential tools of world-class meetings
• The agenda setting process, and common meeting time wasters
• Taking minutes, and the responsibilities of meeting leaders and participants
• Ensuring buy-in and participant involvement
• Organising virtual meetings

Understanding organisational structure

• The relevance of organisational structure, and the types in common use
• Advantages and disadvantages of various structures
• Spans of control, and knowing where you sit in yours
• Policies and procedures of organisations
• Understanding and clarifying purpose, vision and mission

The administrative professional role

• Major roles and responsibilities of an office administrator or executive assistant
• Identifying your own role, and what your organisation actually requires of you
• The strategic role of today's administrator
• Introduction to management theory and its practical application
• Working with others comfortably, and improving on-the-job performance
• Measurement techniques for office work

Modern administrative skills

• Harnessing the power of the mind through mind mapping
• Managing larger projects to meet deadlines
• Problem solving techniques
• Becoming more proactive
• Working with more than one manager

Advanced internal communication and interpersonal skills, including conflict resolution.

Key learning areas

• Thomas Kilmann conflict model. The five modes (competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating) based on assertiveness and cooperativeness, practising shifts for high-stakes decisions and cross-functional projects
• Communication types and effectiveness. Written, verbal, nonverbal, group and public channels, matched to business situations by complexity and risk
• Stakeholder interactions. Mapping internal and external expectations, structuring messages with clear objectives, and applying etiquette for escalation and pushback
• Conflict management and dynamics. De-escalating, reframing issues, and contrasting positive with negative interactions to foster psychological safety
• Confidentiality and body language. Handling sensitive data on need-to-know principles, diplomatic deflection, and real-time nonverbal adjustments for credibility
• Assertiveness and diverse audiences. Tailoring core messages from executives to frontline while keeping them consistent

Administrative professionals are often the first point of contact between the organisation and the outside world. This module covers representing the organisation with diplomacy and strategic intent, to clients, suppliers, regulators, media and the public.

Key learning points

• Adapting corporate tone and message for diverse external audiences
• Handling sensitive or high-stakes correspondence, including investor communications, executive statements and client disputes
• Managing impressions through professional discretion, confidentiality and responsiveness
• Using communication as a strategic tool to build trust and long-term relationships
• Balancing transparency with tactical discretion in executive correspondence
• Managing incoming media enquiries with precision and control
• Internal coordination: ensuring unified messaging between departments and leadership

The contemporary skills required in a technology-driven workplace, and strategies for adapting as those technologies change.

Covered in this module

• Document and data management with AI integration
• Prompt engineering: how to get consistently good output from tools like Copilot or ChatGPT
• Selecting the right AI tool for the task, whether creating documents, editing, researching, scheduling or automating processes
• Best practices for digital collaboration and communication in virtual environments
• Ethical use of AI in the workplace: what is allowed and what is not
• Understanding AI applications in administrative tasks
• Ethical considerations and information security
• The limitations of AI

Want to go further? Our two-day Microsoft 365 Copilot at Work masterclass takes this module and expands it into eleven hands-on labs in a live Microsoft 365 training tenant.