Chief Executive Assistant to the Founder and CEO of Office Dynamics, Joan
Burge
Originally from Iowa, Jasmine made the leap of faith in 2006,
when she attended a World Class Assistant Seminar hosted by Office Dynamics and
learned that her mentor, Joan Burge, was looking for an assistant. She phoned
Ms. Burge, interviewed for the position, and six years later, is making an
impact on office professionals all over the world.
Jasmine’s duties
include, but are not limited to, arranging contracts with speakers and vendors,
making travel arrangements for Ms. Burge, organizing Office Dynamic’s annual
conference, event management, marketing, maintaining the Office Dynamic’s blog,
and managing all social media outlets.
A day in the life of Jasmine Freeman
As a married, mother of four (ages 1-16), she has learned to
balance work and personal life. Her day begins at 4:15 a.m. when the alarm goes
off and by 5:30 a.m. she has either went on a run or performed P90X exercises
with her husband. Afterwards, she dedicates time to free flow writing in a
journal. By 6 a.m. she awakens the kids for their morning routine and is in the
office by 7:30 a.m.
Her day starts with a one-on-one meeting with her
assistant. During the meeting they
review tasks from the day before and discuss what’s ahead. Jasmine comments
that this is an important meeting because it gets everyone on the same page.
Brief daily team meetings affectionately called the “team
huddle” or “pillar huddle” include the rest of the five office members. The Pillar Huddle is a discussion of the five
pillars of life: spiritual, career, family/relationships, wellness, and
financial. In the “huddle,” members talk about their inner most personal
feelings, attributes, and thoughts. The Pillar Huddle is modeled after a
program Ms. Burge implemented where one member of the team shares something
special that is related to one of the five pillars; it could be a video, quote,
or article to build upon each of the pillars. The pillar huddle encourages
self-expression and brings the group closer together as they learn more about each
other on a personal and professional level.
Manage yourself, then you can manage time and Stress
Aside from her many duties as a wife and mother, assistant
to the CEO of Office Dynamics, and supervisor, she is a volunteer and leader in
many organizations. She is a member of the International
Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), Vegas Young
Professionals (VYP), VYP Toastmasters, serves on the VYP Advisory Council, and
is a recent graduate of the National Speakers Association Speaker Academy and
former personal wine consultant.
When asked how she manages so many responsibilities, she
said, “Get to know who you are and where
you want to be.” For example, as
someone who is a “morning person,” this is the best time of the day to hold
meetings because she is more alert and open to informal conversations. Optimizing work habits is another method for
self-management. She wakes up early so that she has more time to get her daily
routine started on the right foot.
Jasmine handles stress with a calm, even keeled, attitude. She refers to herself as a “duck on the
water.” Just as a duck sits quietly and graciously on the water, it is still
mindful of its surroundings and acts quickly when threats are afoot. On the
surface, she is calm with the confident attitude of “I got this!” Her strongest
attribute is the ability to remain calm, cool, and collected and she will take
over the reins when necessary.
Task management: organize then prioritize
When prioritizing tasks, she first organizes them using the
A-B-C-1-2-3 System. She notes that every task has a folder. On a daily basis,
she assesses what has to get done, first using the A-B-C process:
·
(A)
important and urgent tasks
·
(B)
important but not urgent tasks
·
(C) tasks
that are not important or urgent at the moment, but are on the “radar”
After the A-B-C analysis, it’s time to number tasks in an order
to complete for the day from the (A) pile, hence the 1-2-3 step:
·
(1) urgent and important
·
(2) important, but not urgent
·
(3) non-important or urgent but still need to be
completed
Jasmine notes that she reevaluates her tasks every 3-4 days
or as needed as priorities may have changed. The key is to identify the
importance of tasks by first organizing them, and then the prioritizing process
is much easier.
As the right hand woman to Ms. Burge, Jasmine refers to
their relationship as a “synergistic partnership.” This is the realization that it takes
individuals working together to produce the best results. Her advice to new administrative
professionals just starting out in their career, “Get to know who you are and where you want to be, how to communicate
with others using their preferred style, and keep learning, growing, and
challenging yourself. Don’t leave that responsibility up to other people.”
Jasmine encourages getting connected and communicating with
her peers in the administrative profession. Feel free to connect with her
through your preferred outlet below.
Follow Jasmine on Twitter @OfficeDynamics
Connect with Jasmine on LinkedIn
2 comments:
I do agree with your thinking but frankly I do not like daily meetings in the office they always make me bored but they do work.
If you promote yourself and good ideas you can do whatever you want, now i am trying to develope with a few friends some to modify the interface of whats up
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