Ambition, confidence and hard work can transform you from secretary to manager, writes Ann-Maree Moodie
Does this sound like you?
You're talented and ambitious and plan to go places in your career. But for the moment you're stuck in an admin role taking care of the needs of the big players rather than working among them.
That was the case for Abbie*, a motivated, professional young woman who worked as a personal assistant in a large Australian subsidiary of an international company. The job was far from intellectually challenging and she found herself trapped in what she termed "the adminsphere".
"Eighteen months ago I was an executive assistant - a really good one but not a particularly happy one," she says. "It was a great job, with a fantastic, supportive and intelligent boss but I felt bored and I felt trapped.
"I wanted challenges, I wanted to run substantial projects from start to finish, I wanted to manage people and I wanted to be constantly learning, none of which I was getting in the admin role."
Following a series of governance and business communication workshops I delivered to her company, Abbie approached me to ask for my advice about how women can progress their career in management and business.
She was clearly an outstanding candidate for a managerial role. But it was important she set her own goals and take responsibility for achieving them. The first step was to tell her manager.
"Several months after my initial discussion with my manager, I was offered a secondment within our department working on a range of human resources projects," Abbie says. "This was a role [that] was created to give me the chance to 'step up' and for the managers involved to get a range of projects off the ground.
"My next goal was to prove my worth in the secondment, with a view to making it a permanent transition."
Then came the offer she was waiting for: a role as a manager, which she started last month.
"From the second there was a hint of me becoming a manager, I started to work out what I would bring to the role, what I needed to learn for the role and I started thinking like I was in the role.
"What are the team goals and projects? How does the team function as a unit? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
"This meant that when I was actually given the role I hit the ground running. I had plans prepared, I knew what we were expected to achieve and the basis of how we were going to do it."
Throughout the 18 months it took Abbie to rise from an administrator to decision-maker, she kept herself motivated by looking for ways to do better. She'd ask herself questions such as: "How can I improve myself?" and "How can I improve the processes and achievements that are part of the role?"
"After I completed a project I'd write up a debrief sheet about what could be done better next time and consult people involved in, or who were impacted by, the project to see what worked and what didn't," she says. "Then I'd plan my next project with those improvements in mind."
The critical moment was our conversation when told she was "good enough" to make her ambitions become reality. It is a lesson for individuals to learn to have more faith in themselves. It is a lesson for managers to instil confidence in promising staff.
"Up until that conversation took place, I had such a passive approach to my career," Abbie says. "I have a shameful suspicion that I was waiting to be 'rescued' from my current underachieving role, to be launched ready-made into a position of great responsibility and power, or worse still, I thought that I didn't deserve to be doing more.
"When I made the shift to considering myself a worthwhile investment, I discovered the company also thought I was a worthwhile investment."
* Abbie did not want her last name published.
Out of the adminsphere
It is possible to move from personal assistant to manager? Follow these steps:
* Talk to your manager about what you want to do. Have an honest chat about where you see your career at the company heading.
* Get a mentor. Ask: "Who has the job I want?" "Who do I consider a role model?" Ask them to be your mentor and catch up regularly.
* Upskill. Ask: "What skills do I need for the job I want to have?" It may be a short course, or something similar to a postgraduate course, such as a graduate certificate in management.
* Learn as much as possible about the company you work for. Find out where the opportunities are. The better knowledge you have about the business, the more you can contribute.
* Work smarter AND harder. Find smarter ways of doing things so you can take on more of the work that will get you closer to your goals. Be prepared for earlier starts, later nights and sometimes the odd weekend if that is what you need to do.
* Be patient. It will take time for people to see you differently.
* Don't expect anyone else to do it for you. Change will not happen unless you drive it.
