What next?
It's the classic question for a PA – when you've achieved all the skills which to go to make up a really effective management assistant, what's the next step? For many PAs, their thoughts turn to knocking out the second word of that job title, and stepping into 'management'. What does this really involve?

A PA who has recently taken the step is Jodie Holloway, now office manager at Ash Communications of London. "Prior to my role as an office manager at this communications consultancy, I worked as a PA to the national sales director of a leading lingerie retailer," she explains. "In this role, I supported the sales director but was also involved in areas that fell outside of the PA remit, such as customer-service liaison for stores, HR, and working on a monthly newsletter. Working beyond the traditional job spec of a PA and having taken on more managerial type tasks gave me the confidence to tackle an office manager role."

But exactly what is management? It is a much over-used and mis-used word, and difficult to define when many 'managers' do very different jobs. "In my current role as office manager, I oversee the day-to-day running of the office – from the procurement and running of equipment in the office, to managing the landlord's enquiries to overseeing the holiday diary to ensure all the teams continue to run effectively. I have to make decisions in all of these areas.

"In other areas such as the accounts, new office systems, staff management, buying in new systems etc, I am not responsible for the final decision but play an instrumental role in putting forward ideas. My role as office manager definitely involves making more decisions with regard to the actual business as opposed to being specific to one person, as in my previous role as a PA."

Being launched into a management role can be a shock. Geoff was a sales director at a stationery supplier when his boss was summarily fired, and he found himself promoted to managing director. He said later: "Overnight I found myself responsible for things I never knew existed!"

Does Jodie find that office manager requires any completely new skills? "I definitely acquired new skills – particularly in areas which I was less involved in as a PA such as IT and accounts. I attended specific courses to further my knowledge. As an office manager, it is important to ensure that each employee understands procedures. Effective communication and often assertiveness is very important – I feel the role has enabled me to develop both of these skills."

So what might be a promoted PA's attitude to the responsibilities of managership? A big hazard here is that the one thing in which very few managers have ever been schooled is how to manage staff. By contrast, one of the classic skills of being a top PA is to be a team player, and this is a wonderful skill to take into management. The PA's experience in contact across a staff framework at all levels gives experience of seeing how people interact, and that is a valuable asset in knowing how to create a team, and thus manage effectively.

Being a team-manager doesn't mean any lack of personal authority – but it certainly spreads the load. Staff can solve no end of practical company problems by themselves, if they are only given the chance to be involved.

Once on the management rung – what do you do next? Does Jodie see herself as a future senior manager, director, or developing the experience to run her own business? "In my current role as office manager, there is potential to grow and develop my current role and take on more responsibility as the management team require which as I gain more experience, I hope to be able to do."

It is a sensible question to ask whether you want to keep climbing the ladder at all. There is the danger of the Peter Principle, a wonderful and long-established management theory which holds that 'people get promoted to the level of their own incompetence'.

This means that when organizations think someone is capable in their job, they reward them with promotion to a slightly more difficult position. There almost certainly comes a point when the person is promoted to a job which is just a little too hard for them to manage… but generally, bureaucracy doesn't allow for anyone to be demoted again. This, according to the Peter Principle, explains why much of Britain's top-level management is composed of people who are out of their depth… ! The lesson here is simple – it is wise to know when you are fulfilled and happy in a job. Going a step too far may be disaster.

There is one fascinating administrative-management route for the PA, which was viewed with suspicion about fifteen years ago, but now seems to be taken seriously. The newest profession or 'discipline' in the commercial world is that of facilities manager – they used to be called 'buildings managers', but suddenly discovered that they could build empires by taking on all the administrative tasks that nobody else wanted. These days, the facilities manager is the source of wisdom on anything from security systems to the menu in the canteen.

Is this a route for the PA? It is a wonderful management route for the manager who is capable of understanding several different concepts at once – and that is a classic PA skill. There's a big management world out there. There's nothing stopping an ambitious PA going and finding it.