It goes without saying that at some point in your career, you will have to work under pressure, meet tight deadlines and deal with stressful situations. Although organisations should care for their employee’s wellbeing and strive to create a calm environment, this is not always achievable. There will be times when, even for the most […]
I can remember the first meeting I went to instead of my manager was terrifying. It was a last-minute decision because she was running late and I didn’t have time to prepare myself properly. I didn’t do anything in the meeting except take a few notes and agree to report back to my manager later […]
On pretty much every job description for Assistants, you will see the phrase, ‘must be a team player’. It is so common that it is easy to skim over that requirement – sure, we all have to be team players, next! But, I want to pause a minute and look at the skills required to […]
As assistants, managing details to ensure things run smoothly is a big part of what we do. We take pride in our detail-oriented nature as it relates to all that we produce, from professional email correspondence to travel arrangements to company-wide projects and initiatives. We are the doers and the boots-on-the-ground, working “in the weeds” […]
Assistants are regularly asked to juggle multiple tasks and projects while reacting to other people’s urgent requests and deadlines. It is not an easy gig! When your To-Do list doesn’t stop growing, how do you plan what to do first? When you do plan, there will be the inevitable surprises, re-prioritisation of work and of […]
There are now quite a few of us in the Assistant world running around shouting that you, lovely Assistant, are a leader within your organisation! You may not manage a team, but you do work in a management role. You manage your Executive, you work with and support the leadership team, and you should see […]
One of the most common challenges I hear from Assistants who want to push their career forward is that their Executive’s do not trust them enough to hand overexciting projects and tasks. This is generally because the Executive struggles to delegate and likes to be in control of all of their work, or they don’t […]
I was recently reading through the comments on one of the fantastic online networks for EAs when I saw an Assistant had posted a question asking if it was okay to take time off following a knee operation, even though her boss had assumed she would be back in the office the next day! As […]
The trait that I admire most in exceptional leaders (think Oprah Winfrey and Brene Brown) is the time they dedicate to learning new things. I love that they read, take on new ideas and concepts and never stop growing. This is something that I always try to find time for, and I think it is […]
Working for someone who is a micromanager is hard work. There is no denying it, and it is especially true for Assistants. We are there to save our Executive’s time and the organisation money. It is hard to do that part of our job if our Executive is involved in everything that we do. Micromanagers […]