Unlocking Your Value as an Admin

Unlocking Your Value as an Admin

A note from Lauren

When Jillian and I were planning out this course, believe me it was Jillian that did all the heavy lifting, a common issue came up. We hear over and over again how assistants are constantly trying to prove their value. There is a fundamental issue with this approach.

Don’t forget to sign up to the webinar with Jillian below.


by Jillian Hufnagel
Guest instructor for the Goal Setting and Performance Reviews course

As a coach, mentor, and passionate advocate for the Administrative Profession, I get asked all the time:

  • How do I take control of my career path?
  • Can you help me articulate my value as an Administrative Professional?
  • How do I know that I am setting the right goals to prove my value?
  • How do I talk about my work to best showcase my skills and highlight my strengths?

Typically I respond enthusiastically with “Absolutely, yes, I can help! Let’s dive into what you are specifically struggling with…”

When I say the laundry list of what I have learned in my 2 decades of best practices, on the job training, the many-many times of falling on my face and getting back up…I would be remiss if I didn’t start with this major lesson I had to learn. The lesson is about how fundamentally backwards we approach the value that we all bring as admins and assistants in the first place. 

Your value comes from within yourself and does not need to be earned, proven, or showcased in order to be true – FULL STOP.

If you take away one thing from this blog please let it be that statement.

And now you are thinking, “Yeah, yeah, Jillian – very cute – that isn’t going to be what I actually put on my Goal Sheet or help with my Annual Review.” 

It is important for you to understand why I want you to question this paradigm before we dive into strategies and tactics.

Validation

Throughout much of my career I struggled with needing celebration, validation, praise, and gratitude from my leaders and teams to feel as though I had done a good job. I was consistently going above and beyond, making sure that the work that was done was efficient, effective, timely, within budget etc. I was overworked, stressed out, second guessing myself, and fearful of not getting opportunities to advance because I needed them to tell me that I was bringing value.

So now let’s look at it from a societal perspective. My lived experience in the US as a Xennial (sandwiched between Gen X and Millenials) has been this:

I have to earn my value...

So I was patterned/taught that value comes ONLY when I gain enough knowledge, obtain a degree, get a good job to earn money and provide for my family – then I could bring value.  THIS IS BACKWARDS! 

So let’s imagine together….cue blurry vision and soft music….

Imagine if you and everyone you know believed, understood, and honored that every single person brings value of some kind. 

What if every morning you woke up and before you looked at your phone with 8 IMs, 3 text messages, and 18 emails from your leader and teams about the fires that they need you to put out ASAP, you paused and said to yourself:

I bring value, everyday AND what I will give today is enough.

You can own your career development!


This post was written by our guest instructor for the Goal Setting and Performance Reviews course, Jillian Hufnagel. Jillian is an executive and administrative coach at Hufnagel Enterprises. Her course will help set you on a successful career development path through proven strategies, frameworks, and tactics!


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