Leveraging Executive Assistants well

Leveraging Executive Assistants well

This week the Corporate Dojo team and I are very excited to be launching our freshly minted 'The Influential EA of the Future' program.  

Among the most common things I work to support CEOs and business owners to achieve, is creating the capacity and mindsets they need to focus on doing their own job.  All too often the leaders I work with at all levels of an organisation’s hierarchy are operating at one or two levels beneath where their focus needs to be.   

It’s common for CEOs to be operating in the trenches of their Executives roles and responsibilities, and in turn Executives often behave as a manager of teams across their portfolio.  Managers doing the job of supervisors and supervisors behaving like individuals on the team is almost daily observation I make. 

There are three strategies that are most often relevant to shifting this reality  

  1. Clear define leadership roles and responsibilities 

  1. Build leadership and management capability so delegating authority and accountability are possible  

  1. More effectively leverage Executive Assistants and administrative support people to remove noise and bring order to the chaos in the leader’s world 

By EA we also mean all the PAs, Office Managers and other Administration staff striving to support Leaders to deliver on their objectives.  These can feel like thankless jobs and at times extremely difficult positions to be in when Leaders don’t know how to help themselves by allowing their EA to do their job.   

There are countless examples I could point to of when lifting leaders and engaging highly skilled EAs has allowed the Executives I work with to improve their own performance and impact.   

For many years now we have been delivering leadership development programs, but for too long supporting the development of high performing EAs and members of administration support teams has remained on the ‘really must get to that’ list of priorities. We’ve finally gotten there.   

We’d love you to check out the program but at the very least spend some time reflecting on how well positioned your EA or support team are to make a significant contribution to your success as well as that of other leaders in your business. Among the most important steps you can take to support the success of your EA include these: 

  1. Engage with your EA frequently about key priorities and the role they can play to drive outcomes 

  1. Empower your EA to follow up on your behalf and influence accountability for agreed outcomes from members of your direct report team 

  1. Work with your EA to develop an operating rhythm that keeps you focused on the right priorities at the right time 

  1. Inspire your EA to have confidence and courage in making the level of contribution they can make 

  1. Invest in your EAs professional development.  In my experience there is vast untapped potential among the EA community.  Many are highly capable of becoming operational leaders and project managers if that’s what they want to do.  

 

 

To sign up to our 'The Influential EA of the Future' program. Head to the 'Events' tab on our website.

Or follow this link - https://www.corporatedojo.com/the-influential-ea-of-the-future