Did You Turn To Claude?
Your weekly round up of what's going on in the Admin world
Hey hey from a sunny Stockholm this week!
I’ve been neck-deep in workshops and planning sessions this week - and understanding first hand how important are the follow ups and action owners (mostly me, obvs).
Of course, the main news this week is the war in the Middle East. Please stay safe and check in with your friends, family and colleagues in the region.
Also this week, there was a surge over to Claude from ChatGPT - more on that shortly. There’s also been a study on how important are those boring meetings? Spoiler coming up!
I hope you have had a safe and productive week, and you enjoy your weekend.
Yvette
NewsWrap
Some of you might have been impacted by the war in the Middle East this week. First and foremost, I hope that you and your loved ones are safe if you are in an affected area.
If you have travellers either in the regions, or trying to get home via the affected regions, you have no doubt had a difficult time trying to support them. This is where your travel management companies have hopefully helped you - not least by simply being able to tell you which of your colleagues are affected (unlike one large company I know who had to send an email around to ask people to identify their colleagues who might be travelling).
This isn’t a note on the ‘what you should have done’ - rather, a reminder that if you are struggling, there are numerous EA networks where you can reach out for help from your peers.Were you one of the hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users who switched over to Claude in the last week or so? It’s incredible what can happen to a seemingly-invincible brand when they do something that a large chunk if it’s user base doesn’t like. Add to that the fact that Claude pounced with a couple of new features which made switching even easier. Were you one of the people who switched? What do you think of Claude?
[ad] Bolt for Business is a really helpful way to manage all your taxis in one place. You can also offer discount codes to employees as perks or incentives! Sign up here.
Should your executive take that meeting they always find boring? Studies are now showing that they probably should (assuming they actually have time and aren’t triple-booked again). However, only if they are prepared to actually engage and contribute to the meeting - it seems that when they do this, those “boring” meetings aren’t quite so boring after all, and can even help them be more engaged in their next meetings!
Keep your eyes on the Employment Rights Act if you either work in or have colleagues in, the UK. This latest discussion looks at how working from home could become a legal right for certain companies. If this happens in the UK, it might make other countries look at their own policies and rules around allowing people to work in a hybrid way. Look, hybrid isn’t going anywhere, so it’s not surprising that it will soon be set into law.
Executive briefings are things that you are either doing, or possibly need to do - in one form or another. Briefing our executives on what’s coming up, what’s been done, and what we need from them should be a staple of most EAs. This in-depth article from EA Campus not only looks at what should be included in a Briefing, but also when they should be given - and it’s not only on a Friday afternoon! Read this article and you can be one step ahead of your executive.
Looking for a Mentor?
I’ve teamed up with three fabulous mentors to offer mentorship across a range of specialties. You can book in for an hour, or a block of three hours, to get expert advice and guidance from one of four women who all have vastly different backgrounds and experiences. Take a look here
By referring your friends and colleagues to The Admin Wrap, you can earn yourself free access to The Extra Wrap - our in depth thought leadership pieces which are sent out every Monday. Can you make it to the top of the leader board?
🔎 RealityWrap
The People Who Quietly Make Work Better
Every organisation has a few people who make work noticeably easier for everyone around them.
They are not always the most senior person in the room. They are rarely the loudest voice in meetings. In fact, they often sit slightly outside the spotlight altogether. But when they are involved in something, progress tends to follow.
A meeting becomes shorter because someone has clarified the objective beforehand. A decision happens faster because the right information was pulled together early. A project moves smoothly because someone anticipated the next obstacle before it appeared.
These people don’t just do their own job well. They quietly improve how work happens around them. What they bring to an organisation isn’t authority or visibility: it’s clarity.
They notice when conversations are drifting away from the real issue. They spot when a project has stalled because no one has taken ownership of the next step. They recognise when a problem isn’t actually complicated, it’s just badly framed.
And then they do something very simple but surprisingly rare: they move the situation forward.
For many Executive Assistants, this ability comes almost naturally (and therefore you probably place little to no value on it). The role often sits at the centre of the organisation’s flow of information. You see the calendar pressures, the competing priorities, the projects that overlap in unexpected ways. You see where decisions are waiting and where teams are quietly stuck.
When you understand the full picture, it becomes much easier to spot the small actions that can unlock progress. A quick conversation with the right person or a gentle nudge that turns an open question into a decision.
None of these things look dramatic in isolation. But add them all together and they completely change the rhythm of how a team works.
Over time, the impact becomes clear. Teams with people who operate this way tend to move faster, not because they are rushing but because fewer things get stuck. Problems are surfaced earlier. Decisions happen earlier. Work flows instead of clogging up.
The irony is that this kind of contribution is often invisible. When work flows smoothly, no one notices the friction that was removed along the way. But anyone who has worked in a dysfunctional environment knows exactly how valuable that invisible work is.
Good organisations run on strategy, resources and leadership. Great organisations also run on people who quietly make the system work better.
And more often than not, those people are sitting just outside the spotlight, calmly keeping the wheels turning, and reading The Admin Wrap every Friday 😉
EventWrap
Smart Events are hosting their 14th EA Bootcamp on 11th and 12th March. Two filled days of workshops and training, taking place online so it’s available to everyone. Check out the full details here, including the line up of trainers and the complete agenda.
What should you do if you are in HR and have access to data on employees? At 2pm UK on 26th March there’s a webinar hosted by HR Review where you can find out. Using data to drive change is something I’m passionate about, so here’s your chance if you are in HR to see what change you might be able to drive, with the data you have.
The EA Campus is hosting a ChatGPT Masterclass on 18th March, covering prompting, secure protocols, and workflow integration. There’s a complete list of key takeaways so you can decide if this course is right for you. All attendees get access to the recording for three months, so you can refer back to it if you miss a bit.
For a list of Conferences, head over to the Conferences section in our Ultimate Assistant’s Toolbox.
If you are running an event aimed at administrative professionals, please send me an email and let me know all about it - hello@theadminwrap.com
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