Sharing Your Tips: Organizing the Boss

[susan silva]

(Yes I know we have had this topic in the general forums) but for the next few weeks I am going to post different elements of what admins do and ask for your best tips.  Hopefully everyone will join in with their one piece of advice and we can create some helpful tip lists!  First topic:

How do you keep your boss organized?

[gee4]

By being organised myself...I moved departments in November so in a way it was like starting a new job...

- regular 1:1's...although this is easy as my boss sits opposite me
- reading emails/minutes of meetings...which helps to give a heads up on future meetings and events
- familiarising myself with who people are eg. project managers etc
- listening at weekly team briefs...that's when I gather the most information on projects across the business area
- regularly updating contact list (for myself and my boss)

Write EVERYTHING down.  Sometimes twice 

- Keeping a communal 'to do' list - future planning.

- Scheduling in blank blocks of my managers time (even if it is only 10 minutes a week) to allow a catch up at a time   
  when I KNOW my manager is going to be free for me.

- Maintaining a fully comprehensive desk manual - mine currently stands at 100+ pages as it incorporates my tasks and
  details of what is expected of me, as well as all things directly relevant to my manager.   This includes contact details, 
  website addresses, regular deadlines, 'how to...' details etc.  Having a written record of our shared requirements is 
  vital.  We are a team of two - we need to be on the same page.
 
- Having a shared 'interesting info' tray, where either one of us can put anything interesting (articles, correspondance,
  magazines etc) helps us to keep each other up to date with random interesting things that may or may not be directly
  related to our specific work.

[Alice P.]

Great tips so far, here are a few of mine:

- Keeping his email free from junk and placing different subjects into his 5 categories, Immediate Action Required, Upcoming Action Required,  Informational, Interesting Low Priority, and we have a "Uncertain or New Sender" folder.
- A daily print out, EVERY morning of the meetings, a list of any documents he must deal with, if he has a meeting with someone he doesn't know well a short bio and other important facts for that day (maybe and employee birthday so he can say happy birthday when they walk by, people love when he takes the time to stop and take notice of employees birthdays/anniversaries, etc
- Keep his desk as paper free as possible, I go in twice a day when he goes out and organize and file papers.
- I block a "non meeting" for him at least a few times of week for his work "me" time where no one can bother him, no one interrupts nor do I patch in phone calls.

[peaches2160]

Shared Action Items listing
weekly (at least) 1 on 1 meetings for at least 30 min. to review key action items. schedule travel planning, etc.
Meetings in a box, when traveling.  Everything he needs a hard copy of and travel details in an accordian folder with travel itinerary and travel notes in front.  Fits in the briefcase and very compact and organized.
Blocked 1 hour planning time at least 3 days a week for his catch up time.
Try to combine meetings to save time, or, schedule back to back with the same or some same attendees in the same conf room.
Schedule calls at the end of the day or teleconference meetings so he can take them in car on the way to the airport or home.

[gee4]

How do you manage your bosses diary if this happens...

- A meeting request comes in
- Your boss is available on that date so you accept it
- Then you are asked to plan and organise a separate off-site meeting for the same date
- You decline the orginal meeting request as your boss can no longer attend
- It is removed from the diary when you decline
- Then your boss decides he needs to work in the office that morning and will join the off-site meeting later
- In the meantime the original meeting request has been declined, it has been removed from his diary and he wonders why he has no note of it when he gets a phone call about something later

Do you always reply 'tentative' to meeting requests, that way nothing gets removed and your boss still has sight of it?  I don't necessarily think it's a good idea because all diary entries are labelled free, tentative, busy or out of office and for me, it's a great way of knowing if people are in the office or not.

[peaches2160]

Gee-  In response to your last post, I always reply tentative to keep them in the schedule.  Then. closer to the meeting, I will go into the schedule and decline or leave tentative and bring to his attention in case he wants to step out and join the other, which I set up as a teleconf participation on his part if this is the case.  When declining, I always contact the sender with available times in the event he is mandatory in the meeting. 

Since I will now be working with a new boss effective next week, it will depend on her work style and how she prefers these be handled.  However, I most likely will keep the same practices until which time over the course of the next few months,  I become familiar with her style. 

[gee4]

Thanks Peaches.

I just feel if I reply 'tentative' to everything, I will end up with so much in the diary that is not confirmed, my boss and I will be worse off.

It was a last minute decision on his part to work in the office yesterday morning so hard for me to keep track if he keeps changing his mind.

[officepa]

I find that if I leave meetings as tentative in the Outlook diary, bossie thinks he does not have to attend as he has not accepted (or I have not accepted onhis behalf).

Also the person arranging the meeting ends up calling me to see if he is attending or not as they have not received back a confirmed acceptance or decline.   Or worse, they assume as they have not received a response one way or the other, he is not attending and when he appears at the meeting, they have not catered for him in terms of papers, refreshments, or even once, a chair!!

He now tends to accept all invitations and if more than one comes in for the same date and time, they show sitting along side each other in the diary so he can see them all - decide what he is going to - I can then contact the others to give his apologies.

[gee4]

Cathy,

I agree.  I think meeting requests need some kind of response, the important ones anyway.  I guess last minute changes cannot be helped.  To be honest, my boss was preparing for another meeting tomorrow so he really didn't have time to spare on this occasion.

[peaches2160]

My method is, some I leave that are in conflict, but are a hot topic at the time,  i go into the schedule daily and do a quick clean up and reply as declined with comments for those he will not attend