What are the 3 most important things I like about our profession?

The opportunity to be of service to others: Senior executives and their teams rely on our support to make their workdays easier. It is rewarding to know that what I do daily makes a positive difference in the lives of those around me.

The mental acuity required by the profession: Requiring to be ‘on top of things’ daily keeps me mentally sharp, focused, and able to complete a variety of tasks.

The business acumen we can gain: Working closely with our executives and their teams and taking notes in meetings gives us the opportunity to gain a good understanding of the business we are supporting and how strategies and decisions impact results.

What is the most difficult part of being an assistant and how to overcome it?

For me, the most difficult aspect has been finding balance. In general, when we show competence, work ethics, and flexibility in our schedules, it is easy for teams and organizations to ask for more and more, and then some more. The increasing demands on time and output have the potential to become daunting, making it necessary sometimes to push back and ask for clarification on priorities.
Having good conversations with our leaders is the best way to overcome this challenge – we must make them aware of our workload, how we are investing our time and efforts, and ask them to clarify what the priority items are. Coming prepared to suggest what needs to be dropped or delegated in order to be able to handle the additional workload is also helpful!

My best Stress Management Tip

Take a two-minute break to do deep breathing, repeating my favorite stress-reliever mantra: “One thing at a time… one thing at a time!”

My best Crisis Management Tip

Above all, stay calm -bad things happen. Accepting this is essential to manage any crisis. Any actions we take depend on the nature of the situation, but in general, they include:

• Taking ownership, asking questions to clarify whenever possible before deciding next steps
• Being accountable, apologizing when required
• Looking for solutions, not culprits. Reaching out for help if needed
• Taking corrective action as soon as possible

My message to new professional assistants globally

It has been said that professions such as ours will soon be replaced by Artificial Intelligence. We may see new tools developed that make tasks we currently perform more efficient and/or automated, and organizations may drastically reduce the number of people working on administrative tasks, increasing the number of executives/people in teams that one assistant supports, etc.
The way to stay relevant and be indispensable can be found in being someone who CARES… Using the acronym that is widely used in customer service and that directly applies to our profession, we need to excel in:

• Communication
• Accountability
• Responsiveness
• Empathy
• Solution-finding & implementation

No AI can compete with the human skills of empathetic listening and understanding, intuitive and strategic thinking, creativity, and leadership. As a new EA, make sure to work on these skills and show your organization you are the professional who CARES the most!