Annie:
Welcome to The Whole Assistant Podcast. I'm your host, Annie Croner. I'm a former assistant who's passionate about our profession and I'm also a certified coach who's invested in your success. You've come to the right place if you want to know what it looks like to stand in your power and achieve success as an assistant. From overwhelm and burnout. Now onto today's episode. Welcome to the Whole Assistant Podcast. Today we are talking all about how to deal with an inexperienced executive.
Annie:
But before I launch into that topic, I do want to share about something really cool that I have for you all. So I am now running a Black Friday deal for pre registration for the next round of the Leveled Up Assistant, which begins January 31, 2025. So if you've been wanting to get into the Leveled Up Assistant, if you're on my wait list, now is the time to join. Because when you join now, during this promotional period, you will receive 2024 pricing and $200 off when you pay in full. You'll also get access to ultimate Time Management for assistance, and that is lifetime access. It's my course designed specifically for executive assistance and the unique challenges we face in working off of someone else's priorities. And then I'm also offering as an extra bonus specifically for Black Friday, access to a live group career mapping session and exclusive access to a live 2025 goal setting session. So you get all these extra goodies as a part of my Black Friday pre registration promotion.
Annie:
You can go to wholeassistant.com/levelup to learn more. I believe that this promo price goes until Tuesday the 26th and so please check it out. And also there's a template if you would like to request your company to sponsor you for this. So I've just created a super simple template for you to go ahead and just send to your executive. Feel free to modify it as necessary to request professional development funds. Okay, let's get into the topic of today, which is Dealing with an Inexperienced Executive. So this is kind of a broad topic, right? Because what does inexperience mean? So I'm going to be breaking it down this way. We're going to be talking about dealing with someone who hasn't been in a leadership role before, dealing with someone who has never had an executive assistant before, or onboarding a new executive into a company.
Annie:
Now this last one is a little bit different because you may have lots of experience in the company and your executive may have none in the company, but they may be an experienced Executive. So they're all just a little bit different. These three categories. Dealing with someone who hasn't been in a leadership role before, dealing with someone who's never had an EA before, and onboarding a new executive into a company. And they all kind of tend to have a unique challenge associated with them. And so I'm going to start out by talking about how most executives find themselves having an executive assistant. Most executives, by and large, unless you're dealing with a young founder in a startup, and they have never really had an executive assistant before and they're just now needing the help because they've started this company. Most executives work their way up through the ranks in a company and then they are gifted an executive assistant at some point.
Annie:
So they literally have never been working, have never worked with an executive assistant before, really have no idea what it means to work with an executive assistant. And then you tag onto that, all these misconceptions socially about what executive assistants do, the things you see in the media, etc. And it can lead to a lot of confusion for this executive. There are just so many issues that I have seen as a coach that come up around dealing with an inexperienced executive. Either inexperienced in working with an EA before or literally overall inexperienced as a manager before. As in this is the first time they have ever managed anybody or anything. I see this a lot in startups where right out of college they, they create this startup with a pal and they have no idea what it means to actually manage people. And they have no idea what it actually means to manage an executive assistant or to leverage their executive assistant in the way that they should.
Annie:
So here's some of the issues that I have seen come up in scenarios like this. The first issue is insufficient delegation. They just aren't giving you enough to keep you busy or engaged. Now, insufficient delegation can come from a lot of different people. It can come from somebody who's very inexperienced in working with an executive assistant. It can also come with someone who you have not built trust with. So if you're newer to your position and in your role, it may just be that you've not established that trust piece with your executive. So if that's.
Annie:
You give it six months to a year and then circle back. But insufficient delegation is an issue that I see a lot. Especially the person has really no clue how to manage people in general and really no clue how to manage an executive assistant. That is one issue. Another issue is unrealistic expectations. So there's the insufficient delegation side where you aren't being Given enough. And then there's also the unrealistic expectation side where people are expecting you, or your executive may be expecting you to manage literally everything in their lives and you're there going, this is a really unrealistic expectation. They're setting unrealistic timelines for completion.
Annie:
They are expecting you to book personal things for them or whatnot, when that is not in fact your role. Because they've never really worked with an executive assistant before or they're really inexperienced as a manager. Another issue is really unclear communication. So so often our executives will find themselves in places where they're unclear of what their priorities are. So they don't know how to then communicate those priorities because the priorities actually haven't been set. And so what that leads to is just really unclear or muddied communication and a lot of fire drills and a lot of fires to put out. Another issue that I see a lot with inexperienced managers or people who are not used to working with executive assistants is inconsistent feedback. And they're going so fast and so furious, or they are just conflict avoidant like most people are.
Annie:
And so they don't like giving consistent feedback. And so then you aren't sure if you're, what you're doing is good enough or it's meeting their needs. That is also an issue that I've seen. I've also seen things like micromanaging or just basically not leveraging you to your full potential or overloading you without any sort of support or any sort of gauge for how much time what they are giving you is actually going to take. Right. So then the question becomes, how do we actually manage these situations and how do we actually manage up and how do we actually train our executive with regards to what we are capable of and with what we in with regards to what is actually sustainable for us and how best to utilize and leverage us as executive assistants or strategic business partners. Especially if your desire is to really become more of a strategic partner to your executive. We're really going to have to showcase our capabilities and the way that we do that is by speaking up.
Annie:
So offering to take on more. And I will tell you that this is so frustrating for most of my clients because when they offer to take on more, typically they get, oh, no, thank you. Oh, I'm fine. Oh, this is good. But I think it's really important that we keep planting that seed. So I really want you to think of speaking up and using your voice, especially if you are being underutilized or you do have that insufficient delegation piece at play for you. Or perhaps you're even new in your role and you're trying to showcase what you're capable of to your executive to take on more that you are planting seeds. And so when a scenario comes up, you can offer to step in and help in the way that you feel is appropriate.
Annie:
If they say, no, don't stop. Don't stop bringing it up. Which is more often than not what my clients do because they get super, super frustrated and they just don't bring it up again instead of staying on top of it and instead of pointing out other subsequent scenarios in which they could potentially help or take on more. Okay, so I really want you to view speaking up and using your voice as planting seeds and as watering those seeds. And it's so fascinating. I've had several clients tell me that they've spoken up, they have put it out there, and it falls flat. Their executive doesn't take them up on it. But then a couple months later, their executive has this really bright idea and, oh, why don't you take on this and this? And you're like, yeah, I got there faster.
Annie:
And they can tend to feel, like, gaslit almost. The executive assistant can tend to feel gaslit because they actually planted that seed months ago. Their executive lost sight of the fact that that was actually brought up to them months ago. And then they bring it up as their brilliant, brilliant idea. Part of this is that we are also getting there faster. We may have more experience in our executive, in our roles, and to actually wait for your executive to catch up can be super, super challenging. We also need to speak up to educate our executive sometimes. Sometimes our executive thinks that we should take on everything and do all the things.
Annie:
Now, as a former personal assistant, in addition to being an executive assistant, I was great with that. But there were certain things, even in that case, that I was unwilling to do. So anytime I was asked to do something that I was unwilling to do, and I'm not going to give any kind of case point for that right now, but I like to educate my executive with regards to, oh, no, that's crossing a line for me because of A, B, and C. It's not. I cannot do that one thing. And there was very, very few times where I wouldn't actually execute on anything I was asked to do. And the few times that were were very much a boundary issue for me. And I would just educate my executive on those things.
Annie:
Okay. I also do feel like it's really going to be important for us all to set those parameters or boundaries around certain aspects of our roles, like perhaps working hours or doing personal TAs, just so that everyone is clear on what it is you're willing to do, what it is you aren't willing to do. And I don't even, I wouldn't even look at it as being willing to do or not willing to do. Boundaries just typically are. They just are. They just exist in the world. And it's more around you deciding how you want to show up for yourself in those moments. And really there again, advocating for yourself so that you can take better care of yourself and so that you aren't overextending yourself in your role or with your role.
Annie:
Okay, so in terms of showcasing your capabilities, I'm a huge, huge fan of speaking up, using your voice, and continuing to use your voice even if your executive doesn't take you up on it, even if they want to handle the task themselves, or even if your request to take on more falls flat. I know this is also super frustrating. I have a number of clients who over the years have brought up managing their executive's inbox and they currently don't have insights into their inbox, managing certain pieces or functions that are really typical for executive assistants to manage. And yet they don't have access. And so I know how frustrating it can be. But there again, when, when something gets missed because you don't have insight into their inbox, you can then bring it up again. Oh, this would be a great situation in which it would have helped me if I'd had access to your inbox. Right.
Annie:
So actually using your voice and tracking those scenarios for yourself and then also tracking those scenarios for your executive as well, to educate them to allow you to step into those roles to so that you aren't being insufficiently utilized. I think also sometimes if you are able to and you actually have developed trust with your executive because they may have never utilized an executive assistant before or because they may be new in their leadership role or they're new to a leadership role. I do think that sometimes jumping in and doing and asking for forgiveness and not permission is not always a bad thing. Like just jumping in and doing the thing that you know needs to be done and then circling back with your executive later, depending on your relationship with your executive, depending on whether or not you feel like that would be safe for you to do in your current work environment with your current executive. That is something that I also encourage you guys to do because sometimes our executives really do suffer from decision fatigue and especially if you're dealing with an Executive who is newer to their role, is newer to managing people, is newer to having an executive assistant, they may be also having decision fatigue. That is also a very, very, very real thing. So showcasing your capabilities, speaking up, offering to take on more consistently educating, setting those parameters or boundaries, just jumping in and doing all great strategies for showcasing your capabilities. Another kind of strategy that I would encourage you all to consider implementing are communication protocols.
Annie:
So by communication protocols, what I mean by that is figuring out your executive's communication style and then creating a system around that communication style. So back in the day, I, when I was an executive assistant, I had created the most beautiful Trello board. And I thought for sure my executive would want to see my Trello board because I had outlined on it what I was going to be working on today. He could see my workflows. He also created an app and he was very tech savvy. I'm like, he's gonna love this, he's gonna love it. So I downloaded Trello to his phone, I logged him into my board so he could see, nope, wasn't his communication style. Did not want to engage with my Trello board at all.
Annie:
Did not care what was on my task list for the day, and also did not want to meet with me one on one, weekly. We did not have a weekly touch base meeting. It just never worked out. It always got pushed, it always got rescheduled. And the communication style that I found worked best in my last relationship with my last executive was that I would send a weekly update email to him and I would outline everything that I got and accomplished for him that week. I had a template email that I would send and it was broken down by buckets of work. So if you want to send a similar email, just break it down by the buckets of work that you manage. And then at the end of the email, I had items needed from him.
Annie:
So a list of things that I needed from him before I could move forward on certain things. And then also my plan for the upcoming week, for the next week. So this is my Friday email that I would send out. It was very time consuming to draft, but I will say that that was a communication protocol that I set up. And on occasion on like, there were a couple times where I'm like, well, he's probably not even going to read it anyway. I'm not going to send my weekly update email. You better believe that he was following up with me on Monday, being like, annie, where's my email? Right? So that's the other piece in this. You have to show up consistently.
Annie:
Consistency is key. And you may think that your executive doesn't notice, but I can almost guarantee that they do. I can almost guarantee that your executive will notice whether or not you're consistently showing up. And I do think that it's also really a great communication protocol to follow up with written communication around what was agreed upon. Say your executive tells you things something in passing and you're like, great, I'm on it. Just sending a follow up email, hey, this is my understanding of what you need. Please let me know if something needs adjusted and that way you've got it written. Because sometimes our executives, their minds will change, but only after they give you a task and they're just going so fast and so furious that as much as you can document, I'm a fan of documentation, I would encourage you to do so.
Annie:
I think also doing simple things like requesting deadlines, I love this because then you'll be able to kind of gauge the priorities without actually having to ask what the priorities are. Now I'm also a big fan of having those communication, communication around the priorities and all of that. But just requesting a simple deadline should help you be able to better manage your workload as well. I'm also a huge fan of agendas for your one on ones or for any one on one that your executive is a part of, or any touch base or any meeting essentially that your executive is a part of, you should have an outcome in mind prior to booking that meeting. So agendas, things like that, coming up with a communication protocol for yourself and for your executive can be hugely, hugely helpful in just ensuring that everyone has the information they need to execute. Especially you. Especially you. And then last but not least, I touched on this one just a minute ago.
Annie:
Showing up consistently. So having the open lines of communication, having those communication protocols set up, showing up with integrity, showing up on time. If you're in office, I cannot tell you how much showing up on time will set the tone that you are trustworthy. It is wild, but it's totally true. Being fully transparent with regards to what's on your plate, what you're capable of, your capacity, all of that and then showing up consistently over time is actually what develops trust. And that's regardless of whether or not you're working with someone who is inexperienced as an executive or is very established as an executive and very fine tuned and attuned to working with an executive assistant, it does not matter. Showing up consistently will go a long way in establishing trust. Okay? And I do want to mention that sometimes there are no win situations.
Annie:
So depending on who your executive is and their personality, you may find yourself in a situation where the standards are always changing. The bar for success is always moving. They tell you one thing, but they actually get on you because you didn't execute it a certain way or you didn't do something quite right. You always feel like you're on unstable ground. So I'm just going to share that I do think that these people do exist. And I have coached people who have worked with challenging personalities and narcissism and narcissists and people who are just not easy to work for and who raise their voice frequently and all the things. And when I say that I'm sharing some key strategies to deal with an inexperienced executive, I am by no means saying that you should stay in any relationship where this is happening, whether it's a work relationship or otherwise. Right? So if you're showing up consistently, if you're showing up with integrity, if you're showing up with transparency, if you've got communication protocols in place and you are effectively speaking up and showcasing your capabilities and this person isn't receiving you, that is a whole other issue.
Annie:
It's just a whole other issue. And I did want to mention that because I don't want you to feel gaslit by this episode. Episode. I know that especially if you're dealing with a very challenging personality, it can feel really challenging to hear all of this, all of these strategies, and to not feel gaslit or feel like this is somehow your fault that your executive is showing up the way they're showing up. Okay, so there are. There is such a thing as a no win situation. That is not what I'm speaking to today. What I'm talking about today is just an inexperienced executive who may have no idea how best to leverage you, who you actually feel is a decent human being and may just be lacking in leadership skills, may just be lacking in experience as a leader, may just be lacking in experience as someone who has never worked with an EA before.
Annie:
Or perhaps you're the one with the knowledge. You're the one with the institutional knowledge, and your executive has moved on and now you are onboarding a new executive into a company. All of those are very, very different than dealing with a narcissistic personality. Okay, so I hope you found this episode helpful. And if you have a strategy that you would like to share that has been really helpful in onboarding a new executive into a company or dealing with someone who is really green in their leadership role, or really inexperienced in working with an executive assistant. I would love to hear about it. So please feel free to email me at [email protected] and share that strategy. I may bring it up on a future podcast episode, so please share that with me.
Annie:
I would love to hear your thoughts, your ideas, what has worked for you in the past as well. Okay guys, that is what I have for you guys today. Be intentional. Be whole. That is all for now. I help assistants apply the concepts I share on this podcast. If you're ready to take your growth deeper and you're curious whether working with me in a coaching capacity is right for you, please email me at [email protected] to schedule your complimentary discovery. Call.
