8 ways to partner with your boss

Orlando, Fla. — If you’ve ever wondered what an admin needs to do to become a successful executive assistant, Judy Moreo is the person to ask.

Named Nevada Business Person of the Year in 2003, Moreo has worked with a range of assistants over the years, from her time as the first female executive at one of South Africa’s most prestigious corporations to founding her own performance-improvement consulting firm: Turning Point International in Las Vegas.

When it comes to a boss and his or her assistant, Moreo told those attending the Administrative Professionals Conference here in October, “One plus one equals one: One team of business partners.”

Here’s Moreo’s eight-step formula for becoming a partner with your boss:

1. Praise the good points of your boss’s behavior. “Behavior rewarded is behavior repeated,” Moreo reminded attendees.
   
   
2. Voice support for the boss’s goals to others as well as to him or her.
   
   
3. Volunteer to take on some of the boss’s routine jobs so he or she can focus on more important tasks. “But don’t take on so much that you’re overwhelmed,” says Moreo.
   
   
4. Stay alert for ideas that will save time or money or improve the workplace.
   
   
5. Offer to be a sounding board for the boss’s ideas or to help solve problems.
   
   
6. Help break in new employees.
   
   
7. Offer (tactfully) to help with tasks for which your abilities are better than the boss’s.
   
   
8. Let the boss and others know that you’re proud and feel fortunate to be working with him or her. 

If you stick to that formula, you’ll enhance what Moreo calls “your recognizing twinkle: What you leave in the minds of others long after you’re out of their eyesight.”