Do you have what it takes to be successful?


Können ist nicht alles – Ihr Verhalten im Büro ist fast noch wichtiger als Ihre Sachkenntnisse. Mit diesen drei Tipps von Secretary Today steigern Sie Ihren Erfolg ganz beträchtlich. Secretary Today - Professionelles Business English für Sekretärinnen und Assistentinnen. Jetzt diese Ausgabe kostenlos testen ...

In any office job, and in particular as a secretary or personal assistant, you must be able to influence others, communicate clearly and establish credibility, says Sandy Allgeier, author of The Personal Credibility Factor.

Here are three of her most useful tips for demonstrating your credibility, together with my suggestions for what you can say in each case.

1 Don’t make promises you can’t keep

In your attempt to be helpful, you might find yourself taking on additional work, or agreeing to a tight deadline. Think twice before you find yourself in a situation like this. If you can’t keep your promise you’ll look very unprofessional. Instead, ask for time to check if you can really say yes.

  • I’m not sure without checking. I don’t want to make promises unless I can deliver. Let me get back to you later today.
  • Let me look at my schedule for this week and get back to you.

2 Own up to your mistakes

We increase our personal credibility when we acknowledge and apologize for mistakes. Learning from lessons and moving on is important for our career.

  • I’m sorry, that was my fault.
  • I’m really sorry for that misunderstanding.

3 Be flexible instead of enforcing rules

Rules and policies are helpful, but if we are inflexible and only rely on rules and regulations we lose credibility. Also, it makes people feel more important if you bend the rules a little at times.

  • I shouldn’t really be doing this, but I’ll make an exception just for today!
  • I suppose I can let this pass just this once. (Said with a smile!)

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