Many people think an executive administrative assistant is nothing more than a glorified secretary, but nothing can be further from the truth. While some of their responsibilities may overlap, an executive administrative assistant can do so much more. Let’s take a closer look at how someone in this position can help you grow your business.
Like a secretary, an executive administrative assistant is expected to carry out administrative duties to support your team. These tasks may include maintaining your calendar, scheduling meetings and appointments, taking notes during client meetings, making travel arrangements, taking and directing calls, taking messages, assisting in the preparation of reports, and performing basic bookkeeping duties.
Besides providing administrative assistance, an executive administrative assistant is also responsible for higher-level tasks like maintaining good office relations, preparing materials for presentations and conferences, handling requests and queries from customers, and conduct market research. This makes her an integral part of the team.
Think of an executive administrative assistant as your right-hand man or woman. She can review and filter all incoming and outgoing emails and calls for you, supervise and train lower-level clerical staff, and act as a liaison and first point of contact. Those are tasks you can’t just assign to someone else, so think of your executive administrative assistant as a chief of staff who is there to free up your time and perform high-level tasks that cannot be performed by others.
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First of all, you need to understand your strengths and weaknesses when you’re thinking of hiring an executive administrative assistant because you need to find one who has the strengths to offset your weaknesses.
Usually, these are the key skills that an executive administrative assistant is expected to demonstrate:
Communication – This is the most important skill for an executive administrative assistant. After all, your assistant will be acting as the first point of contact for you – both internally and externally. She’s going to be taking calls and writing emails a lot, so she needs to know the rules of grammar, punctuation, and spelling, and she’s also going to interact with your team a lot. Just remember that communication is more than just talking, It also involves listening and carefully choosing your words to say what you mean.
Empathy is essential for good communication, and it helps us communicate our ideas in a way that makes sense to others. It also helps us understand others better when they talk with us.
Time Management – Since an executive administrative assistant is going to be responsible for arranging appointments, calls, and travel for you, and maintaining your calendar, she should be good at time management. Don’t forget to test your top candidates’ time management skills during the hiring process because this will be vital.
Multitasking – As you may have already guessed, some degree of multitasking is essential to the role. An executive administrative assistant should be able to shift their attention from one task to another without losing focus. You want someone who knows how to work on things simultaneously and not panic when the workload was heavy. So when you interview your candidates, don’t forget to ask if they have any experience with multitasking and how they handled situations like that.
Organization – Okay, you should never get someone who is unorganized for this role. After all, your assistant is supposed to keep everything organized. Can you imagine letting someone disorganized handle your filing system? That’s a disaster waiting to happen.
Strong organization skills are needed for an executive administrative assistant if she is to maintain your calendar and schedule appointments. This skill should also help her meet deadlines as she juggles one task after another.
Leadership – That’s right. An executive administrative assistant should have leadership skills, especially if she’s going to supervise and train your clerical staff. This skill can be developed, but someone in this role should be proactive. Taking initiative shows the hallmarks of a leader in the making.
Technology – Don’t overlook this one. An executive administrative assistant should have the technical skills necessary to perform her duties. She should know how to use scheduling tools like Google Calendar or Calendly, file hosting software like Google Drive and OneDrive, and Microsoft Office software like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. If your assistant is going to help you manage your social media accounts, she should know how to use social media schedulers like Buffer or Hootsuite as well.
Where do you find an executive administrative assistant? Personally, I prefer to hire from the Philippines because of the affordable rates, and I’ve been using OnlineJobs.ph for a long time.
OnlineJobs.ph is an online job board exclusive to Filipino job seekers with over 500,000 resumes on the website. You will have to pay a $69 monthly fee to hire someone from the site, but you can simply cancel the subscription as soon as you hire someone. The good thing about the site is that they don’t charge you a fee on top of your transaction, and they don’t deduct fees from your employee like other freelance job sites do.
If you’re an entrepreneur who often feels stretched too thin, chances are you are trying to juggle all those roles, and it’s taking a toll on you. This may be the perfect time for you to hire an assistant to help you. Don’t try to wear multiple hats when you no longer have to. If your business is already on an upward trajectory, go ahead and delegate some of the tasks you usually do yourself. Your executive administrative assistant will be working alongside you most of the time to allow you to concentrate on the things that only you can do.
Don’t you think you need someone who has the right combination of organizational and people skills to help you grow your business? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send us a message.
Check out this article if you need help crafting the perfect executive administrative assistant job description.
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