Back in 2015, I was sharing my vision for transforming the administrative profession with another leader, and she said to me, “Holy cow, Lucy! If you get this right, you are going to change the working lives of half a billion women.” It scared the living daylights out of me.
But that evening I went home and a British movie, ‘Made in Dagenham’ was on TV. The story follows the struggle of the female workers who were classified as “unskilled” and paid significantly less than their male colleagues for the same work. One worker who thought it was unfair found her voice and changed everything. And I thought, someone has to do this for the administrative profession and why not me!
That was a daunting mission, but together with many others who are passionate about this profession, we’ve come a long way. We’ve spoken to thousands of you, your companies, and your HR departments, and we’ve seen real progress.
But here’s what’s scaring me now: I just turned 55, which probably gives me 5 – 10 more years to push this change over the finish line. The truth is, I don’t have as much energy as I did when we started this 10 years ago, and traveling isn’t as easy on me as it used to be. It takes much longer to recover 😂. But I made a promise that we would get this done for you—and together we will. The wonderful thing is there are plenty of new voices, with lots of energy joining this mission every day.
But, this can’t just be about a few voices leading the charge. It’s going to take an army of us to truly change the perception of the administrative profession, and that army starts with *you*.
You need to find your voices and start talking about how this profession has evolved—not just with each other, or here on social media, but with your companies.
Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some practical ways to do that. We want to help you to:
Advocate for yourself.
Educate your organisations.
Leverage resources out there already.
Restructure your administrative functions so you have clear career progression, goals, KPIs and training – just like everyone else.
Talk about the value you add to the bottom line.
Network and collaborate both internally and externally to aid communication.
Challenge outdated perceptions.
Get schools and universities to include administration as an exciting career choice.
Mentor and lead.
Attract new talent to the profession.
Help us help you. What have I missed – we’d love your ideas!?
Let’s finish what we started—together.
Are you ready?
