With us being nominated for the Virtual Business Awards I was thinking recently about the way we have come since November 2007.

It’s been 3 years and just how much I had to learn! Running a small virtual assistant business is nothing like being employed in the City. When you are employed you:

1. Typically work for 1-5 people, same people, day after day (unless someone changes job or is made redundant).
2. Deal with the same workload:email, diary, paperwork, meetings, projects, travel, a few conferences thrown in here and there, a few purchasing orders to do… OK it does vary a little based on the department you work in, but the core of PA tasks will be the same wherever you are.
3. Start and finish at a set time, have (at least in theory) a lunch break, water cooler moments.

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When you are talking to someone face-to-face, you have a lot of visual cues to help you – your tone of voice, gestures, movement, eye-contact. But with none of these visual cues present in our written communication, how do we earn trust and confidence when we write letters, reports or e-mails? In written communication, especially e-mail, we have to find other ways to evaluate the person who is ‘speaking’.

Style in written communication means attention to proper spelling and punctuation, proper sentence construction and full spellings instead of abbreviations suitable only for SMS messages. Style includes being creative in what you write and how you write. It also means making your communication look visually attractive. Finally, considering appropriate tone and structuring your message logically forms part of the business writing style.

Benefits of good writing style:

• Relevant, precise communication appropriate to the reader’s level.
• Logically structured.
• Easy to see what action is required and when.
• More approachable because our language is less formal and more friendly (unless you are writing a legal letter!).
• Saves your and your readers’ time and increases business efficiency.
• Enhances understanding and increases your professional image.
• Creates better rapport with customers and business partners.

Effective writing gives a professional impression of you and your company. It is perhaps the most demanding work we do on a daily basis. If you learn to pay attention to all the various aspects of style in your writing, you will increase the value of what you write, achieve better results, and gain a distinct advantage in today’s online world.

If a business does not develop people effectively they may decide to move on, taking with them knowledge about the business and its products, good experience and an individual link for clients to an organisation. In its place is the cost involved in recruiting a new staff member, put at £5,500 by recruitment consultant Angela Mortimer.

In order to create the right learning environment to enable your employees to benefit from Continuous Professional Development (CPD) you could follow the following steps:

1. Define a clear structure of what development solutions there are available and who they are suitable for.
2. Use development solutions that include a variety of techniques.
3. Agree the investment in development in terms of time and money.
4. Create visible ‘role models’, providing insight into the role of senior positions.
5. Help your staff develop both their strengths and their weaknesses.
6. Establish objectives around CPD and review.
7. Measure and evaluate continuously.
8. Remember the little things like ‘Thank you’ and ‘Well done’.

If you want to create an environment where continuous learning and development is an integral process, you will have to invest time and energy. In the long term the benefits can outweigh the costs. Spot and nurture talent as talented individuals can be an organisation’s biggest asset.

There are three challenges we have to deal with during a meeting: dealing with conflict, keeping everyone energised and managing information.These are issues that can cause time spent in meetings to be much less productive.

After researching the issue for some time in order to make the business life of our clients more efficient – here’s some practical advice to lessen the impact:

• Talk privately with each of the individuals to plan an agenda that steers clear of hot topics;
• At the beginning establish rules agreed with everyone;
• Use large displays to record what is said in the meeting;
• Remain positive at all times, allow all contributions to be made.

People’s energy varies through the day. However energy levels may also be low due to the style of the meeting. Using the same approach over and over again will stifle a meeting e.g. endless presentations:

• Minimise presentations, set (and adhere to) time limits;
• Use wall charts to share information with blank spaces for people to complete information during the meeting;
• Change the format – sessions, group discussions, small group discussions, pairs, individual thinking time;
• Give people the opportunity to talk;
• Use energisers.

Managing information can be as much of a challenge as managing people. If we didn’t need to share or jointly create data and ideas there would be no need for getting people together at all. Getting this right can make a huge difference to the success of a meeting.

If you capture the information in real time during the meeting, it will make your meetings a lot more productive. Why?

• People can see that they have been heard. This encourages participation;
• All the information is visible together;
• Agreements are much more likely to stick to;
• Gives people an opportunity to speak up if there are still issues to resolve;
• Focuses the attention of a group and gives a focal point for discussion.

Think in advance of your follow up documentation. Having the right outputs produced after a meeting can do a lot to support the ongoing follow-up of actions afterwards. Assign someone to prepare minutes, record action points and track the completion.

So, to conclude – our Top tips for information management:

• Plan how you will manage the information before, during and after a meeting;
• Think about different ways you could handle the information;
• Minimise the use of PowerPoint;
• Maximise the use of wall charts;
• Use the group to help with recording the meeting.

Before anything else, ask yourself:  ‘why do we need a meeting?’ Once you’re clear about the actual reason for holding the meeting you have a great foundation on which to build up. Also don’t forget that meetings can be held online using webinars.

According to a recent poll by Monster.co.uk people you work with can be the main source of your work frustration. Messy and disorganised colleagues irritate 40% of office residents, while too much “management speak” is in  second place with 32%. And 16% are frustrated by too many meetings using up all your time.

Feeling frustrated when you have to work with messy or disorganised colleagues – who can hold you back in you work – is understandable. However, it may be that you messy pal isn’t aware of your true feelings.

Monster recommends the following tips when dealing with irritating people in your workplace:

• In an open-plan office it can be hard to escape office noise. Bring in headphones: listening to music or a self-development CD can be an effective way of reducing the background noise.
• Meetings are a necessary part of business life. However spending too much time in meetings can be detrimental to your performance and your business success – assess whether the meeting is always necessary, if you can use a teleconferencing facility or desktop sharing to achieve the same results.
• Use easy-to-understand language every time you speak or write, others in your business and those you deal with will follow suit shortly.
• Focus on employees’ strengths to achieve top performance. It will benefit the business as it will encourage higher productivity, more job satisfaction and commitment. Your colleagues will be motivated by tasks that interest them.
• Communicate with your colleagues and staff, provide honest feedback about their performance as well as relationships with other members of the team.

If you feel that your office is drowning in paper, files and assorted items – it’s time to use a professional de-clutterer. Many virtual assistants offer this service: they will come to your office for 1 or 2 full days and during this time convert it from a messy piles of papers, files and loose stationery to an organised, clear-desk environment which will enhance the productivity and motivation of your staff. Contact us now for a recommendation of a professional de-clutterer in your area.