Whether you’re new to being an admin or not, taking the time to set up your administrative system is crucial. When you start any position, new project, or goal, we often create a plan or strategy on how to complete the goal. The focus regarding your admin role should be the same. How can you provide awesome administrative support? A bomb administrative system.
What is an Administrative System?
An administrative system is the structure and space to help you rock face at work. When well executed, it gives you stability and a foundation upon which to rely. It also allows you ability to forward that reassurance to those you support.
BUT an administrative system does not make the rules for you to follow, it’s a guide. Your administrative system is not a shared system, it is individual, and it belongs to just you.
You should base the administrative system on the “big picture” of your organization. The “big picture” of the organization gives you the shared goal that you and everyone else are working towards. Depending on the organization, the pictures will vary, but identifying should be a priority.
What are the Benefits of Having an Administrative System?
Administrative Systems Provide Clarity
An administrative system can help to provide clarity, not just for you but for your colleagues and manager. As you are figuring out how you “fit” within your environment, others might be trying to do the same thing.
By offering behavior that looks like a habit or routine, colleagues might feel more open to adapt to your style. This is a great time to establish your boundaries. Setting boundaries early cement in people’s minds the type of work environment you prefer.
Administrative Systems Act as a Road Map
When you get into the swing of things, the administrative system should feel as though it is its own machine. By feeding one part, it flows into the next. In this way, the system should feel like a roadmap in your life.
Your system can help you pinpoint errors and anomalies simply because it didn’t “quite fit” into the system. Your system can even give you your tasks because it runs off of routine and a steady foundation.
As you all know, I put everything into Trello, and because I have mostly digitized my administrative system there, I’m able to keep track of everything and get a daily to-do list.
Administrative Systems Gives You Peace of Mind
Imagine knowing that because you’ve set up your administrative system, you have ways to ensure you aren’t forgetting anything major. That is one big example of why it’s important to get up your administrative system – for peace of mind.
Your administrative system will give back what you put in. If you did a half-assed rushed job, you’ll have a half-assed system. If you put in the time, your work will continue to feed into your system, ensuring it is functioning properly.
There’s nothing wrong with re-evaluating your system to make it better, but start out at your best.
Setting up Your Administrative System
Being mindful of your circumstances and environment when setting up your administrative system is important. There is a difference between starting an administrative support job when there has been an administrative assistant or not. A successful administrative system should help you in your new environment.
Starting with an Existing System
If there was already a system in place, a good starting point is to taking the time to understand the existing process.
Understanding the existing process allows you to get a better understanding of the environment prior to your arrival. It highlights the interactions with colleagues and managers to which they have grown accustomed, and explains preferred communication style. Learning this process helps the people you work with to adapt, feel more comfortable, and adjust to your personality.
While you’re learning the old ropes, write your ideas down. Jot down any thoughts to improve, update, and change the process if necessary.
Be mindful to not complain or say negative comments about an existing process. Comments like these can seem unnecessarily petty. Keep in mind the person training you might have been the previous admin, or was good friends with your predecessor. Ideally, it is better to not create unnecessary negative tension.
Starting in a New System
If you walk into a new admin role, that has its own set of positives and difficulties.
My favorite positive (and most obvious) is – there is no norm. For example, a manager might not know what type of reports they want, and you have to create them. Or you might not have vendors or contracts in place, and you have to find new ones. OR the filing system is rudimentary, or even nonexistent, and you need to create one!
The fun/confusing part is that the exact parameters of your role are yet to be defined. (THIS IS MY happy place! Yasssssssss!!!!!)
You must create and nurture new professional relationships. Your actions will have an enormous influence on the spending, quality, and organization’s productivity.
Talk to your manager to ensure whatever plan you put in place best suits the needs of the organization. Your system should incorporate the most important aspects of the organization’s “big picture” while you’re developing your plan.
Take notes of your planning you try so you don’t keep all the information in your head. As the only admin, you are the organization’s archivist. Everything starts with you. Having a good understanding of the history in relation to the big picture is essential for you to provide administrative support.
Make sure while establishing your system to keep in mind and incorporate your manager/organization’s needs.
I hope you enjoyed learning about the administrative system and how to set yourself up to provide administrative support! If you liked this content, please consider joining my email list.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
