20 The Power of Hiring the Right Executive Assistant

It’s that time of year that I began to hibernate and take a good look at the business mission, direction, vision, and team members. This includes independent contractors. I take a step back and take a serious look at what worked, what I need to start doing, and what I need to stop doing as I move into the new year.Maybe it’s time you took a good look at your executive assistant or your need to hire one. With the right assistant, you can go so much further than trying to do so with the wrong one. I’ve been a dual-preneur now for over 20 years, and there is one thing that I have learned both on the corporate and entrepreneurial side: it’s the importance of having the right type of executive assistant on your team. The challenge for the busy executive is we need an EA that has been corporately trained, yet not so corporate that they can’t think outside of the box.Having started my corporate career from the file room, I’ve held many support positions along the way. Each role built on the next and provided me with an understanding of what it takes to be an exceptional executive assistant, learning how to create a happy executive with each of my positions. In this episode, I will share a few examples of what the right EA looks like. The first example will be when I once worked for the SVP of a sales division in a consumer packaged goods research firm. Knowing how to identify what he really needed by asking the right questions during my interview made him comfortable enough to open up and share his pain points with me. This opened the door for me to share with him how I could make those pain points go away. It worked. They called to offer me the job before I made it to the train to head home. I’ll even let you in on my secret weapon from the summer. How I managed to move mom into an assisted living facility, launch a new podcast and a new website while working a full-time job, taking care of clients, giving international keynote speeches, being a board member, and a member of several committees all while holding down my full-time job and maintaining my personal life and marriage without losing my mind.See you inside the episode.