You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “There’s always room for improvement.” This is particularly true when it comes to your job, even if you feel you’re already very good at what you do. In fact, the skill sets hiring managers sought even five years ago are vastly different from those they look for today.

Administrative assistants are now expected to manage a much wider range of responsibilities. Managers and executives rely on the technical and interpersonal skills of their support staff in a variety of ways, whether it’s creating PowerPoint presentations or acting as an executive’s sounding board for testing messages or concepts before she meets with other employees.

What does this mean for you? Even if you’ve been successful at the same job for years or you’ve reached a professional plateau and find yourself uncertain of your next career move, it’s important to continually enhance your knowledge level and abilities. By focusing on acquiring skills in strongest demand, you’ll continue to grow professionally and make yourself more marketable to prospective employers.

Evaluate Your Skills

Start by taking an inventory or “career audit” of your technical and soft skills. This is similar to a financial audit, except the elements comprising your personal “profit and loss statement” are far more qualitative. For instance, are you good at budgets and presentations, but feel you could use some work on your interpersonal skills? Or maybe you’re a great communicator and have many contacts throughout the company, but you’d like to boost your Internet research abilities. Whatever the case, assess yourself honestly and identify the areas in which you’d most like to improve. Let’s look in more detail at some important technical and interpersonal skills:

• Technical Skills. Bring yourself to expert level in software systems you already know and offer to teach others so you’ll reinforce those skills. Because many managers and executives use word processing software and handle their own e-mail correspondence, support professionals have time for larger, more extensive projects. Find out what other programs are important in your office. If you become an expert in additional software, you’ll be relied upon for your experience in troubleshooting problems and providing feedback on usage issues to information systems staff. In addition, improving your business writing style is essential as you increasingly use e-mail to communicate with colleagues and supervisors.

• Interpersonal Skills. Technical abilities are important, but if you don’t possess the interpersonal skills to go along with them you can sabotage your career. Why? Because administrative staff members are often the first people to interface with prospective clients, job candidates, investors, and other parties who can have a major impact on the company’s success. Internally, support professionals communicate more frequently cross-departmentally and with senior executives. These factors make strong interpersonal skills critical. Some other qualities to consider are: flexibility, willingness to learn, problem-solving skills, and a proactive, positive attitude.

After you’ve decided which skills you think you’d like to improve, it’s good to get some feedback from your supervisor. Be proactive and ask for a meeting with your manager. Let him know what your plans are for skills enhancement and see if he’s in agreement. Are there other areas that pose a greater need for the company or department? Can the company pay for any of your training?

Your professional network is another good source of ideas when you’re deciding which skills you should work hardest on building. Your contacts may have valuable information as to which abilities are becoming most important — as well as how you can acquire them.

Build Your Skills

After you’ve identified the skills on which you’ll focus, what’s the best way to go after them? Formal, in-person classes may first come to mind, but there are many other ways to enhance your skills:

• Learn online. Accessing the hundreds of self-taught courses available via the Internet allows you a convenient way to expand your horizons.  The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) offers outstanding online courses through Element K. 

• Find a mentor. Seek out someone whom you admire to help you improve your “soft skills,” such as diplomacy, persuasiveness and problem solving. Don’t limit yourself to work acquaintances when seeking a mentor — school instructors, contacts at professional associations and volunteer groups, as well as former managers at other companies are all good resources.

• Study your role models. You may not even need to ask someone to serve as a mentor to benefit from his or her experience. Merely observing closely the habits of one you admire professionally can help you build your skills. Notice how the person navigates office politics or successfully juggles multiple projects without missing deadlines.

• Read as much as possible. Make industry publications, general business magazines and your daily newspaper required regular reading. You’ll find articles that could help you enhance the skills you possess and keep up on the topics relevant to your company.

• Volunteer for new projects. Offer your assistance within professional or social organizations and on new projects at work. Planning a fundraiser or organizing a company outing, for example, can give you valuable experience while also increasing your visibility.

• Be a teacher. Once you’ve learned a new skill offer to train others. You’ll reinforce your knowledge and strengthen your leadership abilities.

Enhancing your skills isn’t just a “one-time” effort; it’s an ongoing process. Conducting a career audit will give you a broader sense of your accomplishments and the factors contributing to your success, and provide a valuable opportunity to evaluate your professional progress and plan your future. And as you acquire knowledge, the sense of accomplishment gained from continued learning will likely enable you to uncover new skills and talents.

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