Time is everything
If you are a business owner, you understand the concept of “not enough time to get it all done.” There is always something to do. You are responsible for everything, and there are not enough hours in the day! Recently, I read a fantastic and applicable book, “The Lazy CEO” by Jim Schleckser. The intention of Mr. Schleckser’s book does suggest that you actually become a lazy business owner, but rather that you learn how to delegate tasks to others rather than doing them yourself. As a business owner, you do not have enough time to do it all, but things still need to get done. Although there are critical areas that only you should do, like strategic vision for your business, most everything else can and should be delegated.
But to whom?
Executive Assistants are an excellent answer to this challenge and can be a game-changer for you as you run, scale, and grow your business. A great Executive Assistant can 2x, 3x, and even 5x your time. Think of how many smaller but important tasks you take care of each day. Those items add up quickly. What could you do with your business or home life if you could give those smaller tasks over?
Understanding the Role of a Remote Executive Assistant
A Remote Executive Assistant (EA) is far more than a personal assistant. A qualified EA is like a super-hero sidekick for your business, akin to an executive officer to the CEO. EAs can handle all but your most critical emails and calendar items. They can make appointments, conduct research, prepare reports, and send team communications on your behalf. Think of how long it takes you to compose an email. Multiply that by 100 in your inbox, which becomes a substantial amount of time. An EA is a time-multiplier for you!
Setting Clear Objectives and Expectations
Setting clear objectives and expectations is critical to maximizing productivity and communication with your EA. The last thing we want to do is hire an EA and not provide clear guidance. This scenario quickly ends in mismanagement of time and expectations and likely a poor experience. Instead, spend the time at the onset to set clear objectives and expectations for your EA after they are on board. Spending an hour here will save you hours of rework and headaches. I recommend doing this in three steps:
- Create a communication plan.
- Provide the Objectives and goals.
- Outline the specific business rules.
A great personal communications plan with an EA outlines:
- When will we communicate?
- How often will we communicate?
- How will we communicate?
- Who is responsible for resolving issues?
- When to delegate actions?
- When to elevate issues?
Then, create clear objectives that align with the communication plan. For example:
- Prepare the monthly reports by the 3rd of each month.
- Prepare the meeting agenda and meeting notes for the team meeting each week.
- Respond to emails in my inbox within 24 hours.
- Track team birthdays and provide cards and gifts on time.
Lastly, outline the business rules specific to the EA duties. For example:
- Answer all vendor emails. There’s no need to have me look at them.
- Provide a daily digest of my critical tasks and appointments.
- Authorized to spend $100 to solve issues without asking me.
These three sections comprise your overall EA Expectations and Objective document. However, this is a living document that you should review with your EA each month!
Leveraging Technology for Seamless Collaboration
Today, there is no shortage of ways to communicate with each other. Ironically, there might be too many ways that typically cause communication friction. That said, leveraging your technology to communicate, track, and resolve issues with your EA is crucial to maximizing their productivity. Referring to the communication, establish exactly how you will communicate for specific items. For example, utilizing your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Project Management system is an excellent way to keep all customer and project-facing items in the same spot rather than spread across text, emails, etc.
Chat is a great way to communicate quickly while keeping track of your discussion. Many companies use Slack or Microsoft Teams to do just that. It is far superior to text messaging and helps you keep work in the work bucket rather than blending it too heavily across your cell phone (also a way to prevent complete work burnout).
Establishing a Strong Work Relationship
Spoiler alert – this takes time! Like habit building, settling in with your EA typically takes three months. During this time, spend extra effort on communicating with each other. Your EA will learn how you work, what you like, what you do not like, what your preferences are, etc. Your EA will learn how you prefer to communicate, what you like telling your team, and how you like your reports. The short answer is that you are the one who needs to open up the most so that your EA can learn! When you do, you will dramatically increase your productivity and theirs because you have spent time breaking down communication barriers. Good news – there is a systematic way to make this happen rather than leave it to chance. My favorite way to improve trust and communication is through a weekly retrospective with the EA.
What exactly is a retrospective? This term is used widely in the software world. Other industries call it an After Action Review. The bottom line is this is a meeting meant to discuss and capture the following:
- What went well this week?
- What did not go well this week?
- What was unexpected this week?
- How can we improve our communication going forward?
You should meet with your EA, one-on-one, a minimum of once per week. This is a great format to use to discuss how everything went. Several things occur when you consistently go through those questions:
- You build transparency.
- You open communication.
- Those two things increase trust.
This weekly retrospective is a must-do if you want to supercharge your collective CEO/EA productivity!
Time Management and Delegation
Every minute counts. As a business owner / CEO, your time truly matters. There are far too many items, issues, strategies, and fires to deal with by yourself every day, so mastering the art of delegation is vital. Your EA is your partner in this “Delegation Fine Arts.” Of course, you will delegate many things to your EA, but you should also train your EA on how best to delegate certain items to the rest of the team. In doing so, your EA is acting on your behalf to delegate items you would have spent time reviewing and delegating.
Basically, you should delegate the delegation. For example. If you know that you will delegate particular customer questions to a teammate, then make a quick business rule with your EA that when those emails come to your inbox, your EA will know to delegate them based on your instructions. As a result, you did not have to read the email nor did you have to spend time delegating the task with instructions. Both cases saved you time!
Bonus—This is also a great way to empower your EA over time (refer to retrospective and building trust). Like any position, an empowered person tends to stay longer!
Clients have told us that the Executive Sidekick program has literally “changed their lives.” There is so much power in getting your time back! Imagine what life would look like for you personally and your business if you gained five, ten, or fifteen hours a week! That is more time to speak with clients, more time to plan your strategic projects, and more time to be with your family.
Conclusion
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, time is everything. No matter the size or type of your business, an Executive Assistant is an invaluable employee for scaling and growing your business. Your EA is more than a helpful assistant – they are a strategic partner and a productivity/time multiplier for your business. While the time saving is enormous, creating a smooth and productive relationship with your EA takes effort. If you do not already have an EA, the first step is getting one! The next step is to spend quality time developing the relationship, expectations, and goals with your EA. Devote weekly time to review, discuss, and improve your processes, communication, and expectations and watch your business soar.
The beauty of this partnership is more than the time savings you find. Having an EA frees up your time to pursue other opportunities, work on the business, and grow your company.
Are you ready to take this step and unlock your business’s full potential with a remote Executive Assistant? Learn how Sidekicks can help.