Your role as an administrative assistant or senior secretary is changing - rapidly. And your ability to control your work is getting more and more important.

You need to know the best ways to get work done, how to gain support and cooperation, and how to really make the most of your opportunities.

Supervisors know there are no set specifications for your job and they agree that it's a difficult job to do well. But then, that's probably not news to you is it?

It's not news to the administrative and training professionals at Bonistar either. And it's why this powerful workshop was developed for you. Over the years we've observed that successful admin assistants and secretaries have learned some key skills, techniques and strategies.

How did you learn your skills and develop your techniques? By trial and error? From a busy supervisor, between phone calls and projects?

Well, if you want to take on more responsibility, you need to really focus on your skills, and on your personal and professional success. Come to this workshop and recharge your performance and career.

This Workshop's For You

Why? First, because it's packed with everything you need to know to improve key skills. It's been proven successful dozens of times, continuously improved and streamlined.

Second, you'll learn from a skilled facilitator with a proven track record. This workshop's been provided for people working in every industry and all kinds of organizations and situations. You'll benefit from our experience in working with people in situations very like your own.

Third, this session is limited to 25 motivated people. You get personal attention to your highest priorities and you get information, practice, simulations, role playing, feedback, more practice and more feedback.

What You'll Learn

* How to work with multiple bosses
* How to gain and use cooperation and support
* To deal with the unique sources of stress
* Four basic patterns of influence
* How the right goals can change your work life right away
* Ideas to help you speed through routine office work
* To broaden your role and "grow" on the job
* How to avoid communication pitfalls
* Selling your ideas, with timing and preparation

Workshop Registration

Preparing Agendas and Minutes
Gain professional skill, efficiency and confidence.

Turn a dreaded task into a chance to shine. This workshop gives you an opportunity to learn and practice key skills for preparing well-organized agendas and clear and concise minutes.

How did you first learn to prepare agendas and minutes? Was it in a special workshop when you were getting started? Or from an experienced supervisor, with on the job instruction and feedback? If it was, you were lucky. Most administrative staff learn by trial and error. Trial and error works, sort of, but it's painful.

Reading the agendas and minutes is also painful. You've probably seen some pretty bad examples.

If you can quickly produce informative agendas and useful minutes already, then this workshop is not for you. This is a basic course for administrative assistants and support staff who have an important job to do and who want the skill and confidence to do their work professionally.

Preparing good agendas and minutes is a lot harder than people think. The structures can be complex and difficult. But there are proven rules for success that anyone can use and that you can get in this convenient, enjoyable, one-day session.

What You'll Learn

* How to plan and prepare for meetings
* The relationship between agendas, meetings and minutes
* To address common problems with agendas and minutes
* How to use agendas as reminders
* Agendas & minutes as management & communication tools
* The purpose of minutes
* Timeliness issues for agendas and minutes
* Developing a general format for agendas and minutes
* How to take notes and prepare minutes
* Different minutes for different meetings

Key Features - Process, Practice and Your Priorities

This is high involvement, practical training. You get important information, and discuss it. You get powerful techniques, and try them out. You practice, get personal feedback and practice some more.

You'll discuss your challenges and problems. You'll get personal attention to your priorities and develop strategies to make sure you'll continue to develop and refine your new skills.

You'll improve your efficiency and get the professional confidence of knowing that you can consistently produce great agendas and minutes.

Workshop Registration

Writing Refresher: The Basics
Gain professional skill, efficiency and confidence.

The letters that you have to respond to are piling up and you have deadlines to meet. Yet no matter how fast you have to write, you can't let basic grammar mistakes happen and you can't get careless about spelling or punctuation. Your organization counts on you to project a professional image and you have to maintain your credibility in every written response.

This workshop is for those who want to refresh their basic skills for written communications. It covers the essentials of grammar, sentence structure, paragraph construction, spelling and punctuation.

If you want an organized approach to help you bridge the gap between formal "high-school" English or Language Arts training and the current business writing skills needed for successful written communications, then this workshop is for you.

If you can quickly produce clear letters or memos already, then this workshop is not for you. This is a basic course for administrative assistants and support staff who have an important role and who want the skill and confidence to do their work professionally.

Key Features - Information, Practice and Feedback

This is practical training that is directly relevant for current business communications. The workshop is limited to 25 participants. You get important information, and practice using it. You get tests, evaluation and feedback. You raise the specific issues that are your priorities. You bring samples of your own work and you get personal feedback that will help you make significant improvements.

You'll improve your skills and confidence, knowing that you can write quickly, clearly and professionally.

What You'll Learn

* Common spelling and punctuation problems
* Subject and verb agreement
* Complete and well-ordered sentences
* The use of paragraphs
* Transitions to glue sentences and paragraphs together
* Noun and pronoun mistakes
* Old and new grammar and usage taboos
* The role and use of modifiers
* Gender writing issues

Workshop Registration

Dealing with Difficult People and Hostile Clients
Maintain control. Establish productive work relationships with co-workers and customers.

Let's be blunt - not everyone we work with is easy to get along with and not every client is a joy to serve. Dealing with these "difficult" people is something most people would rather avoid.

But backing away isn't usually productive and backing down is always uncomfortable. Being confrontational doesn't usually work either. So how do you handle the situation effectively? How do you stand your ground, establish productive relationships and focus on solutions?

Well, the first thing to do is come to this workshop. You'll learn to clarify situations and get to the root of problems quickly. You'll get skills to gain the initiative, take charge of problems and develop realistic action plans. You'll learn to deal with people confidently, in a non-combative way.

You'll learn specific techniques to counter aggressive behaviour, maintain your cool, and develop productive work relationships with coworkers and customers.

This workshop provides skills that make a big difference for the long term. Difficult situations are not just nuisances. They damage morale and lower productivity. When you've got these new skills, everyone will benefit immediately.

Why You Must Not Miss This Seminar

First, this one-day session is jam-packed with tips you'll need to know to improve key skills. It's successful and it's been streamlined for maximum benefit.

Second, you'll learn from an expert with a proven track record. There's no better authority than someone with first-hand experience.

Finally, this seminar is limited to 25 participants! You'll get personal attention to your highest priorities and you'll get information, practice and feedback.

What You'll Learn

* Understanding the conditions of conflict
* How to make sure you're not part of the problem
* How to develop a problem-solving atmosphere
* How to stay focused on work, not anger
* Tactics for dealing with difficult people
* When and how to confront
* How to handle being ignored and interrupted
* How to disagree without getting into an argument
* A solid plan for making assertiveness a habit
* Taking control and steering to successful solutions

Workshop Registration

Writing Skills: Letters and Memos
How to write quickly. How to get your ideas across simply, clearly and effectively.

"It isn't so much what you do, it's how you do it that counts." The cliché carries an important truth for successful writers. Talking face to face with people, you know that the words and tone you use combine to influence what people hear and how they respond to your ideas.

The same principles apply when you put your ideas in writing. Using principles of good communication, paying attention to the how as well as the what, can make the difference between letters and memos that are understood, well received, and acted on and others that are misinterpreted, resented and possibly ignored.

There are different ways to organize your messages and there are ways to create a tone that makes your readers want to understand. To write well, you only need to get your ideas across simply and clearly. It's not easy. But it is easier than you might imagine.

First, you must want to write clearly. Second, you must be prepared to learn and practice important skills. And third, come to this workshop.

More Reasons Why You Must Not Miss This Workshop

This workshop is based on the philosophy that good business writing does not take more time or effort. Writers who understand and use logical writing principles consistently create better correspondence in less time.

This seminar is limited to 25 participants. It's a high-involvement session where you get attention to your priorities and develop an action plan tailored to get results. You don't just hear about good writing - you do it! You focus on learning and practice in the seminar, and you learn to get the best results back at work.

What You'll Learn

* A step-by-step blueprint for writing
* Face to face writing and readability
* Style and tone
* The importance of clarity, emphasis and order
* Identifying the type of message: using the right format
* How to use language that's human
* How to plan, write and edit a business message
* Some effective ways to open and close correspondence
* How to eliminate windy phrases and "deadwood"
* How and when to use the "You" approach
* Adapting your writing to your reader
* Gender neutral communication
* Active versus passive writing
* Plain, simple and clear communication

Workshop Registration

Stress Management
Bottom line: stress costs you energy, time and money. Be your best ... on and off the job.

Stress. It's the spice of life and a key ingredient for excitement, achievement and fun. Without it life would be dull indeed. But when you have an overdose of the spice, from overwork, exhaustion or imbalance, you get distress.

In this workshop you learn to strike a balance between healthy excitement and health-destroying exhaustion. You learn to take control of your stress levels in realistic, enjoyable ways.

If you believe that life is better when you're in control, then "Stress Management" is for you. Come to the workshop, develop powerful skills, and enjoy increased self-discipline and emotional control.

One participant recently commented, "I've waited over a year to take this workshop and it was worth the wait." If it's time for you to get more control, please don't wait. Take your most important first step. Register now.

More Reasons Not To Wait

First, this one-day session is smooth. It includes the key information and techniques you'll need to take a giant step forward and it's been refined and streamlined to make sure you get the most out of your time.

Second, to develop skills you must practice, and preferably get some feedback. In this workshop you get plenty of both. This isn't a lecture, or a stage presentation. It's a workshop, limited to 25 participants, and it's high involvement learning.

What You'll Learn

* Strategies for dealing with workplace stress
* Personal stress analysis
* Coping and control strategies
* Relaxation techniques
* How to balance stress
* Relationships: stress, work and productivity
* Getting results under pressure
* Humour, exercise and nutrition for stress control
* Three key principles of stress management
* How to tap into your energy resources
* How to monitor and anticipate your stress
* Strategies for stress avoidance

Workshop Registration

Personal Productivity and Work Effectiveness
Take control of your work priorities and time and get results for yourself, your team and your clients.

It's difficult to keep your balance when supervisors, clients, and coworkers are tugging from a dozen directions. Your plans can be sabotaged by an overflowing in-basket, phone calls and drop in visitors.

Well-organized, professional and efficient ... that's how you want your work to be. You need that kind of life and your organization needs that kind of performance.

You may be surprised to know that of all the factors affecting success, few are as important as the ability to deal with multiple tasks and changing priorities. Take a moment to think about it. What if you had more control?

Well this workshop will help you gain control of your work life, get organized and handle competing priorities. Your projects, priorities and day to day work changes. Your abilities can also change. Your success is first and foremost your responsibility and taking control of your personal effectiveness and work effectiveness is incredibly important for you.

Learning to control your productivity and get the results that are important can be hard. But it doesn't have to be. This workshop helps you develop skills and a clear plan.

Three More Reasons Not To Miss This Workshop

First, this one-day session provides key skills and you'll leave with a solid plan for making changes that will help you achieve work and personal goals.

Second, by achieving your priorities faster, it makes your whole organization more effective.

Finally, this workshop is limited to just 25 participants. You learn key concepts and develop workable methods to fit your own situation.

What You'll Learn

* How organization goals affect your daily work life
* How interdependence relates to your personal productivity
* How to decrease major time wasters
* Practical tools to manage time effectively
* How to deal with coworkers and interruptions
* How to deal with "crisis" issues and interruptions
* Tips for saving time on unexpected priorities
* How to minimize the impact of surprises
* How to handle competing priorities

Workshop Registration

Building Effective Work Teams

This one-day course is designed to develop skills in working with colleagues and in team situations. Participants will learn about group dynamics and the usual sources of conflict. They will learn skills to become more versatile and effective in their working groups.

Participants will:

* Identify the characteristics of an effective team.

* Assess the functioning level of their group as a team.

* Gain understanding of other team members by:

• identifying their own personal work style
• seeing how other members of the team identify their styles
• learning the strengths and challenges of each style
• learning the value of a team that is composed of a mix of styles

* Improve communication among members of the team by learning the most effective ways of communicating with each style.

* Review briefly the basic principles of win-win negotiations.

* Practice negotiating small friendly deals with colleagues that increase job satisfaction, cooperative working relationships and service delivery.

* Learn typical stress reactions to change.

* Practice a few practical strategies for turning the stress caused by change into a challenge and opportunity for building a flexible, open and cohesive team.

Note: In this workshop, limited to just 25 participants, you learn key concepts and develop workable methods to fit your own situation.

Workshop Registration