Last week, we asked you to share your biggest professional achievements for this year on our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages. We got a lot of wonderful responses, and they got me thinking about types of goals and how to achieve them.
A lot of people think their accomplishments for the year have to be huge, but that’s not necessarily true. They can be little things, too. It’s all the little accomplishments that lead to big achievements, and every small goal adds up to help you advance your career. So don’t over look those things as you’re taking stock of the year! If there are things you didn’t accomplish, figure out how you how can you divide and conquer smaller goals to help you get a little closer to your big goals.
You should also look at your achievements for this year as jumping off points for next year and years to come. To give you a little inspiration, below are some of the 2014 victories you sent us last week, along with ideas on what to do in 2015.
“Graduating with my administrative professional degree and signing my first two clients in the past week as I start my new virtual assistant business.”– Michelle G.
Congratulations, Michelle! Now that you’ve earned your degree and you’re striking out on your own, make sure you have a digital professional portfolio that includes an updated resume. Also, as you complete projects and add clients to your roster, you should regularly add relevant work samples to your portfolio. A digital portfolio isn’t just for jobseekers; it can help you win new business, too!
“Celebrating my one-year anniversary with my company, and having my boss go on about how good a fit I am…and everyone else agreeing.” — Valerie M.
It’s so hard to find a job that’s a good professional fit, and a place where you’re appreciated! It sounds like this is job is one to hold on to, Valerie! Make sure you highlight all your first-year accomplishments in your professional portfolio and continue to add to it throughout next year. Then, when your annual review rolls around, you’ll be able to show your boss the sum of all your contributions and accomplishments, and give him or her all the more reason to rave about you!
“I have had meeting coordination overload this year. The meetings, some of which were out of town, were all successful and everything else has been completed as well.”–Donna J.S.
Donna, to make your 2015 a little easier, figure out what you can do to prevent the overload and make the meeting coordination process easier for yourself. Do you have documented procedures for your meeting planning process? Creating some can make it easier for you to tackle each event and ask for help if you have too much to do. Meeting planning templates can also help lighten the load — we have a free sample on our website!
“Going from managing one lawyer to managing two.” — Kathy C.
Kathy, and anyone else managing multiple executives, one of your primary goals in 2015 should be to get organized. Whether it’s putting your workspace in order, creating an e-filing system or getting your inbox under control, all these small things can make you more organized at the office and help you better manage multiple execs. There are lots of apps that can help you keep your executives straight and everyone organized!
“Finished three (procedures) manuals: mine, and two other people’s.” — Tana K.
Amazing work, Tana! Now you need to make sure you continue to update your manual on a quarterly or semi-annual basis, and remind those you helped to do the same!
Whether you accomplished everything you set out to in 2014 or you still have some carry-over goals for 2015, now is the time to celebrate your victories, reflect on your accomplishments and start setting new goals! Every level of accomplishment brings a new set of challenges and opportunities. Identify how to turn those challenges and opportunities into tangible goals to keep you moving forward in the year to come.
Download a free career planning template here.
© 2014 Julie Perrine International, LLC
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Julie Perrine, CAP-OM, is the founder and CEO of All Things Admin, providing training, mentoring and resources for administrative professionals worldwide. Julie applies her administrative expertise and passion for lifelong learning to serving as an enthusiastic mentor, speaker and author who educates admins around the world on how to be more effective every day. Learn more about Julie’s books — The Innovative Admin: Unleash the Power of Innovation in Your Administrative Career and The Organized Admin: Leverage Your Unique Organizing Style to Create Systems, Reduce Overwhelm, and Increase Productivity. And request your free copy of our special report “From Reactive to Proactive: Creating Your Strategic Administrative Career Plan” at www.AllThingsAdmin.com.
