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What Does an Assistant Really Want to Do?

Jan 30, 2024 | About Athena, Accountability, Business, Delegation, Getting Started with an EA, Productivity, Remote Work

What FEEDS a high-caliber Executive Assistant? 

They want to be of Service to you!

You may think to yourself, “Really, they want to do this stuff that I absolutely do not want to do?” Yes, they do. “Really, they want to book my airline tickets and send out birthday cards? They want to help me iron out this issue with payroll, and look into better software to use for project management?” Yes, they do.

Not only do they want to do most all of those tasks and projects that you would find mind-numbing, annoying or soul-sucking, they want to do them with Excellence! They are after Excellence, I promise you. Nothing empowers an assistant more than knowing they “crushed it”!

What feeds them is you investing in them. This is, you helping them help you. You may think, “If I have to help them, then why am I even giving them this task to do?” Why? Because the direction and support you give them this week, will be the foundation for what they do next week. Next week you’ll feed them with a little more direction and support, and it will build on what they received last week. This week they will have new questions. Smarter and wiser questions.

Each week you’ll feed your assistant a little more direction and support. Then, exponentially, week by week they will become more and more valuable. Next month you will be able to say three sentences to them, and that task will get done, and it will get done the way you want. Why? Because of how well you invested in them last month.

Help them help you!

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Interested in learning more about hiring your own Virtual Executive Assistant? Click here to schedule a free consultation with us. 

 

 

 

 

Delegating: Take the Risk and Be Surprised

Sep 13, 2023 | Accountability, Business, Delegation, Getting Started with an EA, Productivity, Remote Work, Uncategorized

Athena CEO Gina Cotner was recently interviewed by Davina Frederick of Wealthy Woman Lawyer. The conversation moved into a discussion around delegating thinking:

I thought to myself, “Well, let’s just go there and see if I can start to speak somewhat intelligently about this.” Again, this is where I think the real freedom lies.

Yes – graduate level delegation is delegating thinking. Consider saying to your assistant (or someone who reports to you) something like:

  • “Go think about this please.”
  • “Go research this and tell me what you think and what questions you have.”
  • “What questions should I have?” 

The other graduate level delegation skill is to delegate an entire process or project, knowing that your assistant or whomever is working for you, doesn’t know much about the topic. And perhaps neither do you! Rather than you doing the initial research to figure something out and then delegating smaller pieces and parts of the next steps, you give the entire project to someone. After explaining what you think you want and what you are after,  you can then say, “This project is yours. I know you’ve never done this before, and neither have I. No problem. You please dive in. Lead the charge. Do some initial research. Let me know what you learn, what you think, what you see next steps might be and then let’s talk.” 

After this, the project is theirs. It belongs to them. Now you work for them. Now you work for your assistant. Your job is now to be a useful, valuable, responsive team player. 

Once they have done this initial research or an even deeper dive, you can start providing answers or asking more detailed and educated questions to partner in getting what you want done, DONE. This kind of partnership with your EA is an invaluable tool that will pay off huge once you get into a rythym! 

When you delegate more than you think someone can handle, or more than you think they are equipped to do, you will find out what they really are capable of! They may not be able to do 100% of what you have asked, but you may find that they can accomplish 90% and previously you would have bet they could only do 70%, but you got surprised while discovering that they are more capable than you thought. 

So… go experiment…and get surprised! 

 

 

 

Security and Confidentiality

May 18, 2023 | About Athena, Accountability, Business, Delegation, Financial Advisor, Getting Started with an EA, Productivity, Remote Work, Uncategorized

How do Athena EAs manage confidentiality, discretion, and security? Our Executive Assistants operate with the highest level of integrity required – which is all-important when you have people’s personal lives and personal data in your hands.

Please know that our values are not kept in a binder or on a shelf collecting dust. They are not framed on wall soon to become as impactful as wallpaper! Our values are talked about and discussed regularly. They are a compass for everyone’s development here at Athena.