If an Assistant wants to step up and make decisions on behalf of their manager, they must have an awareness of business acumen, says Heather Baker
An effective Assistant needs business acumen; without it, they cannot possibly excel.
What is it? It is a full understanding of how the business functions. If an Assistant wants to step up and make decisions on behalf of their manager, they must have this awareness.
Here are some ideas to enable this:
Know Your Manager’s Objectives
Speak to your manager and establish the aims/targets each day, week, month, and year. Align your objectives with theirs. If you understand their main concerns, you can then make appropriate decisions on online posts, emails, calls, priorities, meetings, etc.
An Assistant works WITH their manager FOR the success of the organisation.
Network
Talk to people, within and outside your organisation (of course, bearing in mind confidentiality).
It is incredibly beneficial to join an external network for Assistants to enable you to see other perspectives, learn from people with varying, yet similar, experiences, and obtain training (https://executivesupportmagazine.com/associations/).
Speak to other Assistants within your company too, the executives who also report to your manager, product or service experts, and members of other departments, such as HR, IT, etc.
Get people’s views and learn from their experiences; ask questions. In this way, you are also building relationships, a valuable asset for an exceptional Assistant. Creating effective relationships means you are more easily able to obtain collaboration and support from colleagues; you are more likely to be seen as a leader.
Read
Everything! Emails, reports, documents, tenders, reviews, news articles, business websites, social media contributions, opinions, books, and, of course, Executive Support Magazine. Highlight relevant topics in search engines.
Keep up with new technology, artificial intelligence (AI) in particular; follow tech companies and experts on social media.
Training
Attend specialist training courses for Assistants and also courses that cover specific, relevant skills, such as project management, chairing meetings, leadership, finance, decision-making, and emotional intelligence.
Senior Assistants are now very often required to have extra skills above the expected organisational and communication skills.
Attitude
How you behave within the work environment impacts on how colleagues perceive you and, therefore, your relationships.
Demonstrating an awareness of the qualities of a leader (integrity, self-motivation, positivity, for example) enhances others’ perception of your business acumen.
Attend Meetings
Not necessarily as the minute taker.
It astonishes me how many organisations have team meetings, for example, and don’t include the Assistants. Besides being rather insulting and patronising, how do managers then expect the Assistants to make effective decisions? I think it has a lot to do with the fact that many managers don’t truly understand how their Assistants can enhance their performance. If you experience this, you may want to encourage your manager to watch this video: Empowering Executives – How to Work with Your Administrative Professional with Lucy Brazier (youtube.com).
Learn to listen and how to contribute effectively. Read Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In (https://leanin.org/book) and follow the social media pages.
Being confident and believing in your own self-worth is necessary to achieving your potential.
Ears and Eyes
Keep them open.
One of the challenges during lockdown was the fact that Assistants were not seeing and hearing things happening while they moved around the office. This is often the way we can learn so much.
Those conversations you think have no relevance to you may turn out to be important and very relevant.
All the above will get you started on the road to excellence. You will begin to be seen as a professional who cares about the success of the organisation and in whom it is worth investing. Never stop learning, have the confidence to innovate, and remember who you are.
