The Successful PA

Course overview

Why choose the ‘Successful PA’ distance learning course?

Your role is changing fast. Are you ready? The role of the PA has grown hugely in recent years. Demands, responsibilities, knowledge required – all have increased. What should you do to ensure that you fulfil the role – and develop it – successfully?

As a professional PA, you’re involved in so many different aspects of the organisation. If you’re not taking action yourself, then you’re working closely with functional specialists who are. Either way, you need to be sure of your ground and confident of working successfully with executives across the company at all levels.
Falconbury’s ‘Successful PA’ course has been specially designed to give you a sound understanding of the principles of each of the key areas of the organisation.

When you’ve completed the ten-module course, you will have a proper grasp of the basics of finance, you’ll be up-to-speed on employment law and best practice. You’ll understand the techniques of marketing and will know how to organise PR campaigns and project manage effectively.

Personal development and people skills are prominent features of the course. You will learn how to be assertive, how to resolve conflicts and how to improve your negotiation skills – a crucial talent for dealing with people outside and within the organisation. Last but not least, you’ll be far better at managing your own hectic schedule – and other people’s.

This distance learning course will:

• PRACTICALLY illustrate key financial techniques to increase your knowledge and boost your confidence when discussing financial aspects with colleagues
• PROVIDE the skills to manage conflict and deal with difficult colleagues more effectively
• CONFIRM the basics of employment law and best practice you need to know to operate within the law
• HIGHLIGHT the key marketing and PR techniques and give you the essential project management skills to complete the task successfully
• INCREASE your value as a pro-active contributor to the management team
• EMPOWER yourself with confidence and knowledge allowing you to meet new challenges and responsibilities head on
• EXPAND your awareness of how business works and is conducted
• ENHANCE your interpersonal and people management skills
• SUPPLY you with new found skills and techniques in your current role as you learn
• HELP you make a quantum leap in your career development

Structured to fit into your working day

The course is designed to fit around your current commitments with each module requiring an average study time of up to 3 to 4 hours. It offers the flexibility of studying at work, at home or on the move, whilst having access to confidential help and support from the experts.

Plus receive a 50% discount on the Personal Effectiveness and Influencing Skills programme

As an option, you will be entitled and encouraged to attend ‘Personal
Effectiveness and Influencing Skills’ – an ideal opportunity to further enhance your skills and knowledge again with the emphasis on techniques of practical relevance to your everyday working life.

Course modules

Module 1: Time Management

• Develop a sense of personal time
• Identify your long-term goals
• Make mid-term plans
• Plan your day
• Streamline office work
• Meetings that are effective and run to time
• Delegate effectively
• Manage your stress levels and health

Module 2: Communication Skills

• What is communication?
• Listening properly
• Reading and absorbing
• Writing: the art of powerful messages
• Arguing and discussing constructively
• Speaking and presenting with confidence
• One-to-one interviews
• Managing meetings
• Communication within your organisation
• Briefings

Module 3: Conflict Resolution

• Managing conflict
• Dealing with difficult situations
• The techniques of assertiveness
• Motivation:
  • Adair’s 8 rules
  • Maslow
  • McGregor
  • Hierzberg
  • Three-circles model

• Getting the best from others

Module 4: Employment Law – Part 1

• Absence
• Appraisals
• Bullying
• Contracts
• Data protection
• Discipline
• First aid

Module 5: Employment Law – Part 2

• Handbook
• Job description
• Leave
• Notice boards
• Recruitment
• Training

Module 6: Finance

• Balance sheet
• Profit and loss
• Cash
• Records
• Concepts
• Interpretation
• Mastering the basics of financial management

Module 7: Marketing and PR

• Developing a strategic focus
• Product life cycle
• The effectiveness and efficiency grid
• The law of supply and demand
• Understanding your customers and their needs
• Building a dialogue with your customers
• What is PR and what can it achieve for you?
• The role of the PR Officer
• Costing PR on a small budget
• New product launches
• Choosing a PR company
• Crisis management

Module 8: Public Speaking

• Preparation
• Delivery
• Tricks of the trade

Module 9: Negotiation Techniques

• First steps and different approaches to negotiation
• Creative bargaining
• Dealing with pressure
• Influence and power
• Dealing with conflict
• Assertive and effective

Module 10: Project Management

• Early stages
• Planning
• Project in progress
• Follow through

Course contributors

John Adair is widely acknowledged as one of the most significant influences on management and leadership development in both business and military spheres. He studied history at Cambridge University and holds higher degrees from the Universities of Oxford and London. He became the world’s first Professor of Leadership Studies at the University of Surrey and is internationally known as a consultant. His many successful books, including Inspiring leadership and The John Adair handbook of management and leadership have sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide.

Barrie Pearson is Chief Executive of Realization, which delivers world class coaching and mentoring to entrepreneurs and chief executives to help them to groom their business to realise the maximum value before initiating their exit. In 1976, Barrie founded Livingston Guarantee plc, the first corporate finance boutique in the UK, advising on acquisitions, disposals, management buy-outs and buy-ins, fund raising and Stock Market listings. When he sold it, the company had become the largest and most successful independent corporate finance house in the UK. He has written twelve books and has presented seminars on corporate finance in the UK and as far a field as Europe, New Zealand and the Far East.

Graham Roberts-Phelps is a highly experienced trainer and consultant, specialising in sales management, with clients in many parts of the world. He is the author of many best-selling books including Customer relationship management, Companies don’t succeed – people do!and Working smarter, all published by Thorogood.

Greville Janner QC, now Lord Janner of Braunstone, is an eminent and highly experienced speaker. He has written over 60 books, mainly on employment and industrial relations law and presentational skills and public speaking. He is the
Founder and President of the JSB Group, which has successfully trained many thousands in the art and skills of speechmaking and communication.

David Martin FCIS, FCIPD, FioD runs his own successful consultancy – Buddenbrook – and is a Fellow of the Institutes of Chartered Secretaries, Personnel and Development and Directors. He is a regular seminar speaker throughout the UK and has written over 35 books including One Stop Company Secretary [four editions]. He is the author of Gee’s updating manuals Employment letters and procedures and Model employment policies and handbooks and is consultant editor of Tolley’s Company secretary’s link.

Ian Ruskin-Brown is a highly experienced marketing consultant. For fourteen years he was course director for the Chartered Institute of Marketing on their courses for marketing in the service sector. He designed, wrote and piloted the in-company training courses on marketing and selling their consultancy services for The IBM Marketing University, ICL Training and Kodak Health Imaging. He currently runs the course ‘Marketing your Services’ for Management Centre Europe, part of the American Marketing Association.

Ralph Tiffin is managing partner of a successful accountancy and consultancy practice. He has a wealth of experience of organisations throughout the world. He is author of several books including The complete guide to international financial reporting standards, published by Thorogood.

Cathy Lake is an experienced professional writer, having written on a range of business management topics for middle and senior level executives. Her knowledge of project management is based on a wide experience of successfully managing multiple projects for a number of clients.

Jim Dunn started TPS his own PR consultancy in
1969 which is one of the UK’s leading PR consultancies, handling a range of house-hold name clients in the travel, leisure, entertainment, property, financial and general consumer PR accounts.

Stephen Brookson qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Peat Marwick and, after a period with Grand Metropolitan plc, joined a leading organisation specialising in the provision of training for chartered accountants. During this time he gained extensive experience writing and presenting programmes on accountancy and taxation. He then joined Ernst and Young for a number of years as a consultant, leaving to set up his own consultancy working in the public and private sectors, both in the UK and overseas.

Julie Lewthwaite is a senior consultant at Project North East, a local enterprise and economic agency.

You might also be interested in...

Delegates who attended this course also went on the following courses:

Finance for the Non-Financial Manager 16 Mar 2009, 8 weeks 12 Oct 2009, 8 weeks An 8 week self-managed written distance learning study course. Sharpen your financial skills and boost your core effectiveness in 8 modules over 8 weeks (approx 3-4-hours a week)

Personal Effectiveness and Influencing Skills 1-2 Apr 2009 21-22 Oct 2009 A practical two-day workshop for those who need to achieve results through personal influence

Role and Skills of a Valuable HR Assistant 25 Mar 2009 14 Oct 2009 A one-day intensive briefing on best practice and employment law requirements for HR assistants and other HR professionals who would like an update

Advanced Role and Skills of a Valuable HR Assistant 20 Nov 2008 26 Mar 2009 15 Oct 2009 An intensive one-day programme completing your knowledge on best practice and employment law requirements for the effective HR assistant

Client portfolio

Our client portfolio for this course includes the following companies:

More information

The following documents are available for this course:

• Sample module [256kb]

Academy of Distance Learning in Business

ADLiB

The Academy for Distance Learning in Business (ADLiB1) has developed out of Falconbury’s pioneering work on short-course management and professional development.

As with the face-to-face training we do in our public and in-house programmes, our focus is on the practical and application-rich skills and techniques, which will enable individuals to develop their full potential as managers and professionals.

Our approach to distance learning is to use the self-study method at its best to make sure that you can flexibly acquire the knowledge and understanding of each chosen area in a way that suits you and your current work commitments.

ADLiB was set up to give a consistent approach across different subject areas, so that its users would know that our rigorous standards of excellence would be met in each course.

Every programme and each of the component modules is a combination of the training and learning expertise of Falconbury and input from its wide range of practically skilled writers and trainers. Where a course bears the ADLiB logo, you can be sure that our (and your) exacting standards will be met.

To learn more about how ADLiB and the courses can help you and/or your business call +44 (0)20 7729 6677

¹ ADLiB is the Academy for Distance Learning in Business and offers ‘best in class’, flexible self-study in key business, management and leadership via distance learning modules delivered directly to you, to work through at your convenience.

Ad lib is from the Latin ad libitum meaning ‘at one’s pleasure’ – we aim to make management and professional development enjoyable as well as worthwhile.

Ad lib could also be a loose latin short-form of ‘to the library’ – but in our case, we save you that trouble by using the best material available to us on each topic and assembled to give you maximum benefit.