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The Accountable Leader

Nov 17, 2020 | Accountability, Business, Delegation

Our CEO Gina Cotner frequently speaks to other Admin and Executive organizations on successfully managing expectations what accountability really looks like. Our own team of high-performing Executive Assistants are continuously trained and mentored on setting and managing expectations.

We recently came across this excellent article on Inc.com that addressed what words really matter as an accountable leader:

“Leadership, after all, is primarily a function of determining a direction and influencing people to move in that direction. However, that makes it sound far too simple. Moving a group of people collectively in any direction is hard. One of the most challenging parts is that you are ultimately responsible for the way your team and organization performs. Not only that, but you’re also accountable.“

Full Article on Inc.com

 

Managing Expectations

Oct 28, 2020 | Delegation, Getting Started with an EA, Productivity

Recently, Gina delivered a workshop at the amazing Empower 2020 Summit for Assistants, put on by our friends at Base.

Here is an excerpt from the discussion on what it takes to truly be a high-caliber executive assistant:

 

Managing Expectations of those around you, particularly the expectations of your client/ boss.
 

I’ve noticed that assistants tend to be people pleasers. Who are my people pleasers? Be proud! You do not want people to be upset or frustrated. That is upsetting and frustrating for you, my people pleasers. And sometimes we pay a little too much attention on making sure somebody’s not going to be upset, which then reduces your power and effectiveness.

A very professional and confident way of avoiding having people get upset is to manage expectations. What do I mean by that? Let me illuminate something about the power of “expectations” in general.

Let’s say it’s midnight and you’re in the mood for a piece a cake from your favorite bakery. Do you get your car and drive to your favorite bakery at midnight and then get upset and frustrated because they’re closed? No. Why? Because you had NO expectation that your favorite bakery would be open at midnight.

So when you have an expectation, of somebody or something, and that expectation goes unmet, you will often find yourself upset, frustrated, or annoyed. This is true for most of humanity. Unmet expectations make us mad, frustrated, and upset.

So, knowing that and being wise about that, you can avoid people getting upset and frustrated by making sure you’re always setting, resetting and level-setting expectations. As you can imagine, this process will also bring your executive certainty. It may not be “good news”, but it will be certainty. Certainty and Facts always prevail over just “good news”.

I can tell you as an executive myself, and a business owner of a rapidly growing company, I would much rather have the truth and the certainty about something (even if I really hate what the truth is) than for somebody give me some half truth, hoping I won’t be as upset. When somebody gives me the straight scoop about something, I can continue to Captain the ship. I will figure out what to do next. That’s how I got where I am in life. That is how I built a very successful company very quickly.

And many times, the straight scoop involves re-setting expectations. “I said those three things would be done by Friday but given that hot item that just came up this morning, those three things will be done next Monday.” No need to even apologize! That is the actual, current, real status of things right this moment. If your boss has an issue with that, they will let you know. They may have no issue with it at all.

The 10 things your boss gave you yesterday and the 10 more the day before, are not all going to get done by tomorrow. You want to be the planner and author of the expectations.

When you reset expectations, it also ensures that I, as the executive, am not going to get blindsided. I’m not going to be surprised that something isn’t done, or isn’t progressing in the way I was expecting.  Then if it IS really important to me – that thing you just told me won’t get done until next week – I now have the opportunity to do something about it. I can re-prioritize what is on your plate. I can get you more resources. I can go to work on it myself. I can delegate it to somebody else. I have options and can continue to Captain my ship.

The other great thing that happens when you reset expectations, is that then YOU are not panicking. “Oh my God how am I going to get all this done?” You’re not going to get it all done. You stop, re-plan, and re-set expectations, and then get back to being a Rockstar.

This moves your brain out of “overwhelm mode” and gets you back to being effective, professional, and high-performing. Back in your zone. In your sweet spot.

 

Failure isn’t the opposite of success

Oct 19, 2020 | Business, Productivity

Yes, Bill Gates, I agree. “Success isn’t binary.” 

Is the opposite of Success, Failure? No. Success is incremental. Are you learning lessons along the way? This is key. And this has been the key for our company. Certain clauses in our Master Service Agreement are there now because of a lesson learned.

Why does every virtual Executive Assistant at our firm have a Performance Coach? Because we learned lessons from being too distant from our contractors and staff.

Why do we invoice on the same two days of the month regardless of the day of the week? Lessons learned.

How we do everything at our firm isn’t perfect or even “the right way” but many great structures are in place that keep us stable and growing, and they got there from a lesson learned. 

Read More via Inc. 

How Athena Started

Oct 14, 2020 | About Athena, Accountability, Business, Getting Started with an EA

Dorian – the first official employee of the Athena Executive Services Team

I left IBM in 2006 to “become an entrepreneur”. After going to motivational conferences and reading some Robert Kiyosaki, my 32-year-old self said to herself, “No need to be bound to a large corporation! I’m going to go be free! I’m going to be in control of my schedule and my earning power!” The 48-year-old version of herself today, chuckles. Good job 32-year-old-Gina for swinging out there, because otherwise we wouldn’t be here today, but of course, little did I know what all “being free” was going to take. As wise ones say, “Freedom ain’t free.”

Fast forward nearly 10 years to the beginning of Athena. My father passed away in the early summer of 2015. I got to spend the sacred last chapter of his life with him and then went home and floated through life for a few months until I felt ready to work again. I started getting the word out that I was looking for another business owner or C-suite executive who could use an Executive Assistant. I rustled the bushes of my community looking for a good opportunity.

One day my friend Tiffany said to me, “My boss could really use you.” She made the introduction and soon I was the EA for that CEO. I went to his office once a week to open mail and organize things, but other than that I managed many aspects of his life from my home office.

Some months later Tiffany said to me, “I’m going need you next quarter. I’ll need some EA support. Could you plan ahead for that?” I said,” I don’t really have any more bandwidth right now.” And she said, “Well, just find me someone like you.” Now, Tiffany was a friend of mine and we had a lot of mutual friends and acquaintances. So, I said, “Let’s put our heads together and see who we can think of.” We thought of Dorian. We knew she was unhappy in her current job, and we both knew we would really love working with her. Tiffany said, “Yah! Go talk to Dorian about it. See if she wants to come be my EA. Then we will pay you to be her ‘EA Coach’ and you can coach her to be as good as you while she’s working for me.”

I said, “Tiffany, if we do this, we cannot screw this up. We cannot mess with Dorian’s life. She’s been at her job for seven years. It’s her first real job as a young adult. We can’t mess with her life if she leaves a job and comes to work with us.”

After all the needed conversations, Dorian did leave her job and became Tiffany’s EA. Tiffany’s company paid me a little bit for every hour that Dorian worked, to coach her in becoming a great EA.”

A few months later Tiffany said to me, “There are two directors in the company, and they could really use an EA. It would make them so much more efficient and productive.” I said,” I keep thinking I should open this as a business, but I’m really not up for being an entrepreneur again.” Tiffany said, “Well that’s too bad! You just need to go open this as a business. Get over it and see who you can find who could be the EA for these two directors and start the business.”

I found an old friend of mine, Alison who was currently an EA for a property management company. She was someone I liked and more importantly, trusted. She had a young son and wanted to be home more with him. She shifted gears and said she would start working with us. So, in April of 2016 I opened an S-Corp in the state of Washington, and then took $5,000 to my local Wells Fargo and opened a business account in the name of Athena Executive Services, Inc. In May was our first payroll, and off we went into the future together.

While Dorian is no longer an official member of our team (her client loved her so much they hired her away as a full-time employee!) we still keep close tabs on her. She recently sent us this photo (above) and said, “When you are going for an ultrasound and want your little one to know Athena made her possible.” We know we are just one of many things that made her little one possible, and we are so happy to have been a contribution to Dorian and her family. Dorian wasn’t a business partner on paper, however she was the one who from before Day 1 of Athena opening said, “Ok Gina, you coach me. I want this kind of lifestyle. If you start this business, I’ll do it with you.” And she did. I attribute the four years of partnership with Dorian as one of the major reasons this little owl of a company took off!

Gina Cotner, CEO

 

Compensation and the High-Level Executive Assistant

Oct 6, 2020 | Business, Productivity

For many, the conversation about compensation can be uncomfortable or even daunting. What is a high level Executive Assistant actually worth? Who decides that amount and assigns a number value?

This excellent article, featuring several thought leaders in the EA space, is for and about the compensation of high-level EAs who support C-Suite and Executive Leadership Teams (ELT). Just how does HR decide what your specific role is worth?

“High level EAs are not being offered the money they deserve because historically there has been so little hard data available about the role, which is a relatively small subset of the larger “administrative professional” job family category.”