Managing relationships are key skills for PAs

This is a skill that is relevant to any office professional and to a wide range of careers outside of the office. However, it is particularly challenging for a PA. Nevertheless, many of the points made here may prove to be relevant to a diverse array of job types. However, what makes this aspect of job skills so important to a PA?

Personal Assistants are often the point of contact for your manager, team, department and even the company. This means that you need to be able to build relationships with a wide range of people. These people may vary in seniority, the nature of their working relationship with you and their character. This means that we need to adapt and use a range of skills to build working relationships with these people.

It is not good if a PA and their manager are if the PA fails to build relationships and has a bad image, as it reflects on all of the people connected to the PA. Therefore, careful attention to building relationships is key for your professional image and that of your manager or department.

PAs often have to organise or carry out a task for their team or boss. This may mean that they do not necessarily have the time or technical knowledge to deliver the task. This means that the PA will need to delegate or ask for assistance. In this case, a good knowledge of your colleague’s skills and also a good working relationship in order to get assistance from your colleagues. This building of relationships ensures that you can deliver your tasks through delegating and teamwork.

Often your boss will delegate the HR function of his job or other administrative tasks. This will mean that you are expected to be a point of knowledge. This means that you will need to develop knowledge, but also build relationships with contacts that can provide you with advice and support when you are facing more challenging queries.

PAs often have some responsibility for guiding members of the administrative tasks. This will mean that you need to develop a relationship with these members of staff so that you can motivate them and drive them to progress in their careers. This is a very different type of work interaction for a PA.