Editor’s Letter – Coming full circle
Earlier in the month, I had the honour of presenting the keynote at PAFSA’s IYOTSA Conference in South Africa. As Global Brand Ambassador for International Year of the Secretary and Assistant, I have...
View ArticleEditor’s Letter – Excellence and the Assistant – doing ordinary things...
Striving for excellence is an important part of professionalism in any job. It involves trying to put quality into everything you do, and this attitude tends to separate the achievers, who make rapid...
View ArticleEditor’s Letter – The Way Forward
So that’s it! The International Year of the Secretary and Assistant is no more. After a year of speaking, writing, campaigning and generally stirring up the world’s Assistants and Executives it has all...
View ArticleEditor’s Letter – One Profession, One Voice
Our friend Bonnie Low Kramen is fond of saying that there has never been a more exciting time to be an Assistant. She’s right! There is so much change in the pipeline and the role is evolving like...
View ArticleEditor’s letter – An Open Letter to the World’s CEOs on Administrative...
There is a quiet revolution going on in offices across the world and it is coming from the most unlikely of employees. Last year, the American Society of Administrative Professionals conducted...
View ArticleEditor’s letter – Vive la Difference
This weekend I spent an informative and inspirational day with over 200 Assistants from Italy. I spoke at their Secretary Day conference with a translator using consecutive as opposed to simultaneous...
View ArticleEditor’s letter – A New Dawn
It has been ten years since there was an indepth piece of research on the Assistant role in the United Kingdom. Of course part of the reason for this was the recession – who wants to invest to get doom...
View ArticleEditor’s Letter –“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the...
It’s been an extraordinary couple of months. I have only been in London for just over two weeks and three days since mid July and most of the rest of that time was spent travelling in countries with...
View ArticleEditor’s Letter – Reflections
The year is drawing to an end and we are entering the period traditionally associated with reflecting on all we have to be grateful for. In many ways this has been an incredible year and there is much...
View ArticleEditor’s Letter – The Gift
The saying goes that if you give a man a fish, you have fed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you have fed him for a lifetime. For the last year we have been working on something very...
View ArticleEditor’s Letter – Don’t just count your years, make your years count
Back in 2011, with 23 years’ publishing experience behind me, I took the leap of faith and launched Executive Secretary as a global magazine. I had never been an Assistant and to be honest, initially...
View ArticleEditor’s Letter –“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”–...
In 1987, back when I was 18, I had the opportunity to visit Kenya. The plan was that I would spend a year in the middle of nowhere and teach English at a local school. But somewhere in the middle of...
View ArticleSpace – the final frontier
‘‘Holiday is a restoring thing which by a blast of magic turns a man back into himself’ GK Chesterton. There are martyrs in every office. You know the ones that I am talking about. The ones that tell...
View ArticleThe best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others
I have had several surreal moments in the last few weeks – some good and some bad. I was invited to take tea with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his staff at his foundation; He is such a huge personal...
View ArticleA modern day epidemic
Earlier this year, Victoria Darragh, CEO of the UK’s Association – The Executive & Personal Assistants Association (EPAA) approached me about working in collaboration to produce some statistics...
View ArticleThe Power of Association
On 1 February, one of the oldest Associations for Assistants in the world, EUMA (European Management Assistants) changes its name and brand to IMA (International Management Assistants). And this year,...
View ArticleEditors Letter
‘We are responsible for thousands of micro-decisions every single day; decisions that drive the bottom line. Demand to be inspired and inspire others!’ – Al-Husein N Madhany, Executive Secretary LIVE,...
View ArticleA Small Window in Which to Make History
Two years ago, at about this time of year, leaders of the Administrative Profession from around the world sat in Papua New Guinea and discussed how we could change the world for Assistants. Our meeting...
View ArticleLife is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans ~ John Lennon
I was once speaking at a conference with Anel Martin; author, trainer and fearless speaker and asked her if there was anything I could do for her. With typical humour, she replied that it would be...
View Article‘A Tsunami of Love’
When we relaunched Executive Secretary as a global publication back in 2011, we were very clear that we wanted to create not just a magazine, but a community. Our profession was just entering into the...
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