This cast gives our guidance on how to effectively anticipate in order to assist someone more fully.

Whether you're an assistant project manager, an assistant bank manager or assistant to the sales manager, the key to great assisting is anticipating. This is a very pedestrian topic to write a podcast about, but we know that ordinary performers churn through the work that's in front of them. Great performers on the other hand, pick their eyes up off their immediate action list and look to what's about to happen. That's the way they head off problems and ensure that everyone is able to make the most of their time and energy.

When we talk about delegating, we often use the model which Stephen Covey describes in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He describes time as vase which is filled with stones, pebbles and finally grains of sand. If you fill the vase with sand first, it's much more difficult to get the stones in. The stones represent the major priorities. It is those that the principal needs to concentrate on. The assistant's role is to pick up the sand.

Whilst expenses or managing cash levels or ensuring production space is available may not be essential priorities for an executive, a bank manager or project manager, if they are not done, they are in danger of causing a sand-covered slippery surface. Clearing that surface is the assistant's role.

In order to do this effectively, the assistant needs to anticipate. How do you do that?

This Cast Answers These Questions

  • How do I become a better assistant?
  • How do I predict the work that needs to be done?
  • How do I make my work take less time?

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