Personal Narrative: My Role As An Administrative Assistant

In my present position I am an administrative assistant in the superintendent’s office of a large public school district in New Jersey. When my present boss was promoted he reached out to me for assistance with various concerns he was facing in his new position. Working for him for about 16 years, he was well aware of my organizational abilities and leadership skills. A short time later I joined him as his administrative assistant in the central administrative building. When I arrived I found a disconfirming and hostile environment. The most visible issues were communication, work responsibility/workflow, productivity and moral. The staff communicated in tangential and ambiguous manner not only amongst themselves but to their superiors. This was most apparent in the Human Resource Department, however all of the departments were effected including the educational department, which includes the subject supervisors, special education supervisors and the central administration. This vital central office was struggling due to lack of leadership, respect and extreme physical disorganization. The objective was to engage and empower in order to create and support. Which would facilitate effective communication, as we reorganized job related activities, packed up
We did this by including everyone in creating job descriptions, responsibilities and most important workflows. In some way we used the “The Gibb Categories of Defensive and Supportive Behaviors” Our approach was to be descriptive, problem orientation (which we called problem solving). After 5 months, we achieved productive communication by including everyone in on our plans, expectations and results. Defining jobs, breaking down task for each internal department, giving the employees a voice and having them create their wants and needs for the