What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages-of A Secretary

The advantages of being a secretary:
• most of the time you get a high paying salary
• you go on business trips
• you get to work with intelligent people
• if you are good at working alone then you do not have to work in a team
• you make your own way of doing things

The disadvantage if being a secretary:
• long work week
• not getting to spend a lot of time  your family
• many business trips
• high amounts of stress
• tedious tasks
• always being a subordinate
• more often than not things are always your fault even when they are not

What Are The Strengths And Weaknesses Of A Secretary ?

strength is I love having collaborated efforts with my group mates. And my weaknesses I think is easily trust to the other.

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Secretarial Role and Responsibility

• Typical Role

• Eyes & Ears of the CEO, Board and Management

• Deciding on the tasks

• Preparing the agenda

• Distribution of tasks

• Preparing notes / minutes for the office, Board 

• Action Taken Report

• Compliance status

• Information seeker and dissipater

• Complimentary Role for administration

• Changing Secretarial Role

• Advances in information technology and 

increased computerisation

• Changes in organisational structures

• Changes in organisational cultures and working 

practice

• Advances in IT

• Require upgraded secretarial work

• Resulted in decrease in the quantity of more 

routine and mundane work

• Increase in the quality and accuracy of the work 

produced by secretaries

• Changes in Organisational Structure

• Move towards flatter and less hierarchical 

structures has given more senior secretaries the 

opportunity to take over some managers’

responsibilities

• New Secretarial Skills

• As team workers

‰ need to be assertive

‰ to manage pressure and conflicting demands

‰ to have an understanding of group dynamics

‰ both co-operative and collaborative, and be able to 

manage conflict and consensus

• As independent workers

How to Develop Secretary Skills

Improve Your Secretarial Skills

Secretarial jobs require a wide variety of skills and attributes, and if you want to land one of the better-paid roles that are out there, you will have to make sure that your skills are a cut above the rest. If you are unsure of what employers will be looking for in a secretary, it can pay to have a look through some relevant job vacancies, such as those advertised in the public sector jobs section of the Guardian Jobs website. Here is a guide to some of the key skills and attributes required by a secretary, and advice on how to improve them.

As a secretary, you will have to communicate with a wide variety of people, so good communication skills are a must. You must be able to talk fluently in English, and it is a big plus if you have some familiarity with other languages as well. As you will be spending a fair proportion of your time making and answering phone calls, it is important to cultivate a friendly, relaxed, and professional phone manner. Before you begin a phone call, it can help to take a deep breath, as this will give your voice energy and help you to sound relaxed and confident. It is important not to talk too quickly, especially if you are leaving a voicemail message, as this can make your voice less intelligible. Try to sound as sincere and friendly as possible, and listen attentively to everything that the other person is saying. Even if you have a heavy workload, you should put aside all other concerns when you are answering the phone, or else you run the risk of sounding distracted and unprofessional.

Good computing skills are vital in secretarial jobs. Most secretarial roles require a strong familiarity with Microsoft Office, so if you only have a basic working knowledge of the programs in this suite, you might want to consider going on a course in order to improve your skills. In particular, you can really speed up your productivity by learning all the keyboard shortcuts associated with these programs. Most secretarial jobs also demand a fairly high typing speed, and while you will probably have learned to touch type at secretarial college, it is almost always possible to improve your typing speed with dedicated practice.

Other attributes that are desirable in a secretary include good time management and strong organisational skills. A good secretary will punctual to a fault, and be able to list and prioritise tasks in order of importance. Try to gain a strong working knowledge of the filing system in your place of work, and if you can see where improvements can be made, you should try to make the necessary changes yourself, as this will show initiative. However, you should check with your superiors before making any radical changes to their filing system, as there might be a good reason behind a seemingly impractical arrangement.

what will i learn?: 

On completion of this training delegates will:

• Have developed the skills to make a greater contribution to their manager and team
• Become more pro-active
• Plan, organise and manage their day more effectively
• Use essential project management tools and techniques in their daily functioning
• Improve their customer service skills, with both internal and external customers.

course outline: 

• Managing the relationship with your boss    
• Anticipate your boss's needs
• Working with multiple boss's
• How to get organised and stay organised
• Personal efficiency
• How to organise your work-station for improved efficiency
• Organisational Planning    
• Learning to delegate
• Managing small projects    
• Assertiveness skills for the PA
• Learning how to say NO
• Organisational image
• Customer Service and dealing with difficult people

What is included?

• Highly skilled presenter
• Comprehensive  course pack
• Certificate of attendance
• 5 star training venue
• Lunch, tea and refreshments
• Parking

Top 10 Qualities of a Great Secretary

Top 10 Qualities of a Great Secretary

1. Organized and detail oriented.

2. Puts the boss's and company's "best foot forward" since he/she will most likely come in contact with clients before the boss does.

3. Always answers the phone and greets visitors with a smile on his/her face and in his/her voice.

4. Has up-to-date skills and the ability to learn new skills and procedures with ease.

5. Knows when to keep his/her mouth shut and when not to. Doesn't quibble over the small stuff.

6. Listens well and presents solutions rather than dwell on problems.

7. Presents a professional appearance and attitude at all times. Doesn't bring personal problems to work.

8. Follows through quickly and efficiently with all tasks.

9. Terrific spelling and grammar skills, and knows how to interpret the boss's hieroglyphics!

10. Remembers the pressures the boss is under and doesn't bother the boss with every little problem.

What do YOU think are the qualities a good secretary or other office professional? Post your ideas in the Best & Worst About Secretaries message board!

How to Be a Secretaty

How to Be an Organization's Secretary ?

Whether you are talking about a student council, political group or special task force, all organizations require a secretary. The secretary is arguably the most important officer as s/he is responsible for organizing, assimilating and disseminating information within and without the organization. They need to be organized, hard working, intelligent, and possess excellent writing skills.

Steps:

1

Decide that this is the right job for you. Some people think that it is easier to be secretary than treasurer or president, but many meeting veterans will tell you that the secretary's job is much more difficult.

2

Meet with the outgoing secretary if possible. Have him or her give you the previous meetings' minutes, correspondences, reports, administrative orders, etc.. With any luck, these will already be well organized and ready for you to take them over; if not, read the next step.

3

Get a filing cabinet or a briefcase. These should be provided by your organization, but if they are not, buying used is a good first step and an excellent way to reduce unnecessary expenses on your part or on the part of your organization. There are many filing systems that can be employed for administrative documents like meeting minutes, by-laws and so on; read up on these and determine which is the easiest to follow and the cheapest to implement, and stick to that system. If you received the files in a disorganized mess, you don't want to leave them that way for the next secretary when your tenure is completed.

4

Learn that good organizational skills make a good secretary. If your organization's office is not well organized, this is something that should be addressed right away. Use the office to store all relevant documentation and try to employ the same filing system that you have used on your filing cabinet.

5

Go from small to big when organizing files and documents. Begin by filing all relevant documentation into a filing cabinet or briefcase, and then organize the entire office and organization using the same system, but on a larger scale. That will make the office very user friendly and afford a lot of peace of mind to you and your successor.

6

Develop good contacts and use them wisely. A friendly, professional demeanor is very important to an organization's secretary. You will learn very rapidly that most secretaries rely on an intricate network of friends and contacts to conduct day-to-day business.

the role of the secretary

What is the role of the secretary?

The role of the Secretary is to support the Chair in ensuring the smooth functioning of the Management Committee.

In summary, the Secretary is responsible for:

1. Ensuring meetings are effectively organised and minuted
2. Maintaining effective records and administration
3. Upholding the legal requirements of governing documents, charity law, company law etc (where relevant).
4. Communication and correspondence

Defining the role in your organisation 

What this means in practice depends on the style and size of the organisation:

Where there are no paid staff members...

...the Secretary themselves will carry out all these duties and may also take a greater role in the day-to-day administration of the organisation. This can become a time-consuming role. Some management committees have more than one person with formal responsibility for secretarial tasks (e.g. a Minutes Secretary, Correspondence Secretary and Membership Secretary). Others delegate some of the administrative responsibilities to volunteers outside of the management committee to reduce the burden.

Where there are paid staff members...

 ...many activities can be delegated (e.g. record keeping, taking minutes, filing correspondence, communication of activities etc). The Secretary then ensures that their responsibilities are met, but will have less involvement in actually carrying them out.

Each Management Committee will have its own way of doing things, and the way in which work is shared out can also depend on the skills, interests or amount of time that a person has to offer. Always ensure that the role description for your Secretary matches the current dynamics of your organisation. (see links below or click here for more on developing role descriptions).

Main responsibilities of the Secretary

The responsibilities of the Secretary of a Management Committee are outlined below:

1. Ensuring meetings are effectively organised and minuted

• Liaising with the Chair to plan meetings
• Receiving agenda items from committee members
• Circulating agendas and reports
• Taking minutes (unless there is a minutes secretary)
• Circulating approved minutes
• Checking that agreed actions are carried out.

More on the Secretary's role at meetings

2. Maintaining effective records and administration

• Keeping up-to-date contact details (i.e. names, addresses and telephone numbers) for the management committee and (where relevant) ordinary members of the organisation.
• Filing minutes and reports
• Compiling lists of names and addresses that are useful to the organisation, including those of appropriate officials or officers of voluntary organisations.
• Keeping a record of the organisation's activities
• Keeping a diary of future activities

3. Upholding legal requirements

• Acting as custodian of the organisation's governing documents 
• Checking quorum is present at meetings
• Ensuring elections are in line with stipulated procedures
• Ensuring organisation's activities are in line with its objects
• Ensuring charity and company law requirements are met (where relevant, unless there is a separate company secretary)
• Sitting on appraisal, recruitment and disciplinary panels, as required.

Kind Of Communication Skills

What Kind of Communication Skills Does a Secretary Need ?

Managers and executives who are fortunate enough to have secretaries – also referred to as administrative assistants in many organizations – will tell you their department or office would be chaotic without them. A good secretary is the hub of the office wheel that keeps all of the spokes in place and everything moving forward on the right path. Organization skills, attention to detail and computer and office equipment proficiency are important abilities. However, being able to communicate in writing, speech, and face-to-face situations is critical for being a successful secretary. Every industry uses secretaries, so your choices of which field to enter are broad.

Training Materials

Powerpoint training materials to teach MS Office & Soft Skills.

corporatetrainingmaterials.com

Oral Communication

Secretaries are often the first point of contact for their departments, and commonly play the role of gatekeeper. As a secretary, you must be polite and discern the nature of each call or request so it gets routed to the proper person. This requires tact and proficiency, as you may need to solicit information to help a caller or visitor properly. Some secretaries provide training to other personnel, such as with new office equipment. Others give high-level presentations in board and committee meetings.

Written Communication

Excellent written communication skills are essential for a secretary, requiring a broad vocabulary, proper grammar and good spelling. Be prepared to answer correspondence – sometimes preparing and writing letters for the boss. You may take notes at meetings and then compress relevant information into a brief summary. With e-mail so common in business, you may also be responsible for superiors’ e-mail responses, and you need to treat all office e-mail as proper business correspondence.

Interpersonal Communication

If you want to be a secretary, think of yourself as a level-headed ambassador, able to act with diplomacy and get along with diverse individuals. You will be building relationships with other departments and people from all levels – from board chairpersons to cleaning staff. Be prepared to bear the brunt of frustrations from irate callers who have been put on hold, or an unsatisfied customer or investor, while maintaining a professional demeanor.

Career Outlook

If a secretarial career appeals to you, the 10 year job outlook through 2020 calls for the same growth rate as other professions, about 14 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The May 2010 annual median income was $34,660. Since virtually every industry has secretaries, you have a wide choice of settings, so you should consider your interests and strengths, as well as each industry’s economic health and hiring growth.

Secretary for Communications, Tourism and Culture

The Secretary for Communications, Tourism and Culture was bureau secretary in the Portuguese administration in Macau. The Secretary was responsible for communications and promoting the colony of Macau. The department's sections were merged into the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture (Macau). Before the transfer of Communications to the Secretariat is was called Secretariat for Tourism and Culture.

The responsibilities for communications was transferred from the old Secretary for Public Works and Communications.

List of responsibilities:

• Cultural Affairs Bureau
• Macau Government Tourist Office
• Macau Sports Development Board
• Institute of Tourism Studies
• Macau Grand Prix Committee
• Macau Tourism Office in Portugal

Secretarial

 A secretary, personal assistant, or administrative assistant is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication, or organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit of more than one. In other situations a secretary is an officer of a society or organization who deals with correspondence, admits new members, and organizes official meetings and events.

A secretary has many administrative duties. Traditionally, these duties were mostly related to correspondence, such as the 

Etymology :

The term is derived from the Latin word secernere, "to distinguish" or "to set apart," the passive participle (secretum) meaning "having been set apart," with the eventual connotation of something private or confidential, as with the English word secret. A secretarius was a person, therefore, overseeing business confidentially, usually for a powerful individual (a king, pope, etc.). As the duties of a modern secretary often still include the handling of confidential information, the literal meaning of their title still holds true.

Contemporary employment

n a business many job descriptions overlap. However, while administrative assistant is a generic term, not necessarily implying directly working for a superior, a secretary is usually a personal assistant to a manager or executive. Other titles describing jobs similar to or overlapping those of the traditional secretary are office coordinator, executive assistant, office manager and administrative professional.

• At the most basic level (Grade / Band 1 or 2) a secretary is usually an audio typist with a small number of administrative roles. A good command of the prevailing office language and the ability to type is essential. At higher grades and with more experience they begin to take on additional roles and spend more of their time maintaining physical and electronic files, dealing with the post, photocopying, emailing clients, ordering stationery and answering telephones.^[1]

• A more skilled executive assistant (Grade / Band 4 to 6) may be required to type at high speeds using technical or foreign languages, organize diaries, itineraries and meetings and carry out administrative duties which may include accountancy. A secretary / executive assistant may also control access to a manager, thus becoming an influential and trusted aide. Executive assistants are available for contact during off hours by new electronic communication methods for consultations. Specialized secretaries at higher level also include Medical and Legal Secretaries/Personal Assistants.

• The largest difference between a generalized secretary and skilled executive assistants is that the executive assistant is required to be able to interact extensively with the general public, vendors, customers, and any other person or group that the executive is responsible to interact with. As the level that the executive interacts with increases so does the level of skill required in the executive assistant that works with the executive. Those executive assistants that work with corporate officers must be capable of emulating the style, corporate philosophy, and corporate persona of the executive for which they work. In the modern workplace the advancement of the executive assistants is codependent on the success of the executive and the ability of both to make the job performance of the team seamless whereas the job place evaluation is reflective of each other's performance executive secretary for now.