Heather Baker shares 20 of her favourite tips for Assistants
Those of you who follow me on social media will know I regularly share tips and ideas to enable Assistants to excel in their careers. In this article, I’d like to share 20 of my favourite tips with you.
1. An Assistant Works WITH Their Manager FOR the Success of the Organisation
This is the basis for any manager–Assistant relationship. Just like every other employee, an Assistant is there to enable the success of their organisation. It doesn’t matter what ‘level’ people are at; they all bring different skills and qualities to the company which, together, enable success – whatever that may mean to your organisation – profit, care, well-being, creativity, etc.
The Assistant works with their manager(s) to achieve this. When asked what you do, reply, “I work with the Managing Director for Company X.”
2. Assistants Perform Different Tasks, Not Less Important Tasks
The manager and the Assistant do the same job; they have the same objectives. They simply carry out different tasks to achieve those objectives. Assistants do not do the ‘less important tasks’ or the ‘smaller tasks’; they simply do different tasks.
Assistants bring specific qualities and skills to the team with their manager, who often may not have the communication, interpersonal, or organisational skills that exceptional Assistants have in spades.
3. Know Your Manager’s Objectives; They Are Yours Too
An Assistant is there to enable their manager to achieve their objectives; therefore, those objectives are the Assistant’s too.
How can you work proactively as an Assistant if you don’t understand what is important to your manager on that day/week/month/year? How do you know which calls to put through, which emails to prioritise, which meetings to get in the diary urgently and so on? How can you make decisions on your manager’s behalf? How can you work strategically with your manager?
I always recommend daily meetings (when possible) with your manager. At this meeting, you say, “What are our objectives for today?” On the first day of the week, it might be, “What are our objectives for this week?”
With more than one manager it may be slightly less often, but the more regularly the meetings take place, generally the shorter they will be. This is particularly important in fast-moving businesses.
4. The Exceptional Assistant Is an Emotionally Intelligent Leader
This is my definition of an exceptional Assistant. It means they understand themselves, their motivations, and those of others. It is vital for Assistants today to build meaningful relationships with colleagues, managers, clients, etc.; the role is no longer the ‘tea and typing’ of the old days. Assistants know to react to people and can adapt their thoughts and behaviours to positively influence the outcomes of interactions with others. They are emotionally intelligent.
5. Anyone Can Be a Leader
You don’t have to be a manager to be a leader… and some managers are definitely not leaders! Many employees are promoted to managerial roles because they are good at their job; that, of course, doesn’t mean they know how to lead others. Unless they are offered leadership/management training (which many aren’t), they will repeat what they have seen. That’s great if they’ve had good managers, but not great if they haven’t.
Assistants can become leaders with their emotional intelligence, and by inspiring others to succeed.
Your role as a leader is to bring out the best in others, even when they know more than you.
Dr Wanda Wallace
6. Everyone Has Their Own Story
Don’t judge others based on your story. Part of being emotionally intelligent is having the ability to see others’ points of view. We cannot make decisions or judgments of other people based on our experiences and values. We need to understand the other person’s experiences and values.
7. An Exceptional Assistant Always Offers Their Manager Potential Viable Solutions
Saying, “X has happened; what should we do?” gives your manager a problem. How much better would it be to say, “X has happened; this is what I thought we could do”, instead? With a successful working relationship, after time, you may even be able to say, “X has happened; this is what I did.”
8. Change Affects Every Aspect of Life
Taking a proactive approach to change is the only way to take charge of the future, either as an individual or as an organisation. Approach change with an open mind and learn to develop its positive elements.
Emotionally intelligent leaders often have to deal with change in the work environment involving new systems, hybrid working, or reorganisation. Assistants are frequently in the middle of implementing these and, of course, are affected by the outcomes.
It is vital, therefore, to take a positive view and react positively to these changes. If you feel negative towards something, find a way to express your concerns positively – for example: “Staff have concerns about the proposed changes; could I work with you to find a mutually satisfactory solution?”
9. When Delegating, Explain the Objective Rather Than the Method
Where possible, delegate tasks to a person who has the working style to deal easily with that particular task. It is usually better to explain what the desired outcome is, rather than the method, as people work effectively in different ways.
10. When Someone Makes a Mistake: A Bully Will Criticise, a Leader Will Coach
I worked with a bully; it was exhausting, demeaning, and knocked my confidence for quite a while. If I made a mistake, he would criticise me, usually when other people could hear. This man was very good at his job but had no idea how to be a leader.
This happens quite often; people who are successful in a position are promoted to management roles, but they have no idea how to get the best out of their teams. They have no idea how to inspire people to excel. They simply create a toxic environment where people are afraid to speak up or be proactive… a creativity killer.
A leader will discover why the mistake happened and find ways to resolve the problem. They create an empowering environment.
11. Regular Communication with Your Manager Is Vital
It is a fact that regular communication with a manager is vital for an Assistant to do their job effectively. How often, though, do managers say, “I’m too busy to speak to you”?
Maybe they’re too busy because they are not communicating with their Assistant, who could then take some of the tasks from them, enabling them to focus on their priorities. A manager who arranges their own meetings, for example, is embezzling their organization. They are paid higher salaries to do specific tasks and that doesn’t include arranging meetings.
So, if your manager says they are too busy, you can reply, “Maybe you’re too busy because you’re not speaking to me…”
12. “You Are the Most Important Person I Speak To” – My Former MD
We’ve established that regular communication between the manager and the Assistant is vital. These meetings should be in the diary just as they are for anyone else who needs to speak to the manager.
I always did this with my former managing director (MD) until one week there was a business crisis. I kept taking my meetings out to put other people’s meetings in. After a couple of days, my MD asked me why we hadn’t had our daily catchups. I explained the issue. “Heather,” he replied, “never take yourself out of the diary; you are the most important person I speak to.” Very flattering, but, in fact, true. I organised his life; he needed to know what I was doing, and I needed to know what he was doing.
13. Be More Flexible in Your Thoughts and Behaviours
I trained as an NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) practitioner for three reasons: firstly, as a business owner, secondly, as a trainer, and thirdly, to pass on the skills to Assistants attending my training courses. They are valuable skills I wish I had had when I was working as an Assistant.
Assistants must be flexible, as arrangements have to be changed at short notice, priorities change, etc. However, an exceptional Assistant must also be flexible in their thoughts and behaviours to influence the outcome of interactions with colleagues, managers, and clients.
14. Treating People Equally Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Treating Them the Same
Everyone is different; to treat people equally, we cannot necessarily treat them the same.
For example, some people like banter, others do not. Neither is wrong; they are simply different.
15. Reinforce Positive Perceptions
I’m sure many of you will have experienced some people’s negative perceptions of our profession:
“Oh, you’re just an Assistant.”
“Would you bring me a coffee?”
“The paper in the photocopier needs replacing.”
“What is it you actually do?”
The problem is that we sometimes reinforce those negative perceptions with our behaviour when we need to reinforce the positive perceptions. When people speak in a patronising way about the role, always reply ‘like an adult’.
I remember a delegate on one of my sessions telling me that when she had attended the quarterly meeting of the organisation’s Assistants, her manager would say things like: “Have you had a nice little jolly with the girlies?” She would simply laugh, which only reinforced the negative perception. We plotted, and the next time he said this, she replied: “Yes, we’ve had a good meeting and I have some ideas for how we could work more effectively; have you got a moment now?” He looked very embarrassed and realised he had been very patronising. He won’t do it again!
16. Reduce Minute-Taking Stress
Many Assistants have to take the minutes of meetings as part of their role. I regularly facilitate minute-taking courses. One of the key learning points that people appreciate is realising that they don’t need to write their minutes in the meeting. You can take notes in the meeting and write the summary afterwards.
17. When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed, Do the First Thing
Often we have days where there is so much to do, and the more we have, the less we can cope. If that happens, stop and think: “What is the first thing I should do?” And do that… It then gets easier.
18. Try One More Time
Limiting beliefs, lack of confidence, and lack of motivation. There are so many reasons we give up and don’t achieve our goals. I love this quote from Thomas Edison. One more time may lead to the success we desire.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Thomas Edison
19. Stop Standing in Your Own Way
Biggest obstacle I ever faced was my own limited perception of myself.
RuPaul
Similar to the quote from Thomas Edison, RuPaul points out that we are often the only ones standing in the way of our own development. This can be because of limiting beliefs or because we have had our motivation and confidence knocked out of us by bullies. As I say to everyone on my courses: “Remember who you are. You work WITH your manager FOR the success of your organisation.”
20. Never Say Never; It’s Always Worth a Try
“My manager would never do that.”
“That would never work in our organisation.”
“They’d never allow that in our company.”
“It doesn’t work like that here; I could never change things.”
But it might! But YOU might!
And finally, a bonus tip: when you are giving a presentation, don’t forget to check your teeth after lunch!
