Annie:
Welcome to The Whole Assistant Podcast where assistants come to embrace their badassery and discover how to show up more strategically for their careers, their executives, and most importantly, themselves. I'm your coach, Annie Croner. Join us as we dive into the skills, strategies and mindset that will help you unleash your full potential. Let's go. Hello. Welcome to another episode. I cannot believe we are already in 2025, you guys. I know.
Annie:
I am super excited for this year. I've got some big plans for this year. I don't know about you. I just led a bonus training for those who signed up for my Black Friday offer for Leveled-Up and we talked about our word for the year and our hopes for this year and who we plan on being at the end of the year as a part of our goal setting. And I am fired up for 2025. I cannot wait. We are going to have so much fun. I'm going to have so much fun this year and I'm just really excited.
Annie:
And to get our year off on the right foot, I'm hosting a free masterclass currently. So if you're interested in the masterclass, you better go sign up quick because there aren't. There's probably not going to be many more days where it's going to be offered. And the title of the masterclass is Three Ways to Establish Trust in Your Executive Assistant Role. I'm going to be discussing how trust is crucial to developing a more strategic partnership with your executive, where to invest your time and energy to make the greatest impact, and one secret that will turbocharge trust with your leader. If you're interested in looking into this free masterclass, go to wholeassistant.com/trust it's only one hour and it is a jam packed hour. I make sure of that. And you guys, it's also just really great to get online and connect with other EAs and people who understand the role of an assistant or administrative professional.
Annie:
You can go to wholeassistant.com/trust to register or just click the link in the show notes below. Okay, in the vein of developing trust, I'm going to be talking today about the power of consistency. So when many of us think about developing a more strategic partnership, we often don't think about how we're showing up and about how showing up consistently impacts the partnership. But it totally does. I've seen in several instances the downfalls of a lack of consistency. So first of all, lack of consistency can cause stress or frustration on behalf of your leader because they aren't quite sure which version of you is showing up. Also, consistency can lead to micromanaging because you've not actually established trust yet, and your leader is not quite sure whether or not you're going to get the work done and do it well. And also lack of consistency can cause your executive to never give you increased responsibility or it's just going to take a lot longer to get that increased responsibility because there again, consistency is so vital to establishing trust.
Annie:
So here are some ways in which consistency fosters trust, and I'm just going to share a story. Whenever I think about consistency and whenever I think about how we show up, I'm reminded of a speech that was given at a department graduation, my department graduation back in college. I studied theater. I studied design specifically. And one of my favorite professors was speaking at my graduation and he mentioned that 98% of success was simply showing up and showing up on time. And that really stuck with me. And so I think often that we are unaware of when we're showing up, how we're showing up, like who we are when we show up. And consistency is really key.
Annie:
So if you're walking into work 10 minutes late, 20 minutes late, a half hour late, and you're not reliable, it will affect your success not only as an executive assistant or strategic business partner, but also in life as a whole. Also, for those things you've been tasked with that need executed, consistently do them when they need to be done. Following through on commitments and doing what you say you're going to do will foster trust over time. And actually communicating with your executive and never assuming they know something is also a great way that we can show up consistently. Making sure that we're constantly putting things in front of our executives that they need their attention, making sure that we're like staying on top of things on behalf of our executives. And I think a lot of us kind of a hindrance to showing up consistently is this underlying belief that we're bothering our executives or that we just don't want to interrupt their busy day. Right. But I do think that consistently showing up and showing up on time and showing up ready to work and with a good attitude, I think also consistently putting things in front of your executive that need their attention and holding that space for them.
Annie:
I know for me as a business owner, it's fascinating being on the other side and now having a couple of people who work under me and they support me and they support whole assistant and they are my partners in running whole assistant, just how frequently I forget something, even though I'VE got this, like, really cool system to manage everything. And. And I do really appreciate when my assistant, V reaches out to me and asks me and follows up with regards to something. So I will also just say that you probably are not bothering your executives as much as you think you are. Now, if you get ignored and you're constantly putting things in front of your executive, maybe it's just not a priority for them or maybe there's some other dynamic going on there. I'm not saying that all of this is your fault by any stretch of the imagination. I'm also not saying that if you're being micromanaged, it is your fault at all. But what I am saying is that if we can develop that trust by showing up consistently, it will go a long way to serve us in our career and to also serve our partnerships.
Annie:
I also just want to touch on emotional consistency for a minute. Consistency is not just about actions, but also about attitude, energy, and mindset. Now, I'm not. I do want to give a caveat to this. I'm not going to say that you can't have a bad day or you can't have an off day or even an off week, or that things aren't going to happen in life that will knock us and that we need to show up in a fake way. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is if you can be really consistent in terms of how you show up with your executive, it will serve to support you. It will serve to support them.
Annie:
And I remember working for my last executive and there would be times where something would be going on. My executive would be having like a rough moment or a rough day. And I just decided that I wasn't going to ingest any of that, that I was going to be like an anchor for him. And that served our relationship really well. I can only imagine what it would have been like had we both been freaking out. Right? Because we'd be feeding off of each other's energy and we'd be almost feeding into that frenetic type space. And I think just being the calm in the storm, not ingesting what is going on around you so that we can show up consistently emotionally for our executives. There again, it's totally okay to deal with your own humanity.
Annie:
I'm not saying to neglect the humanness of life. But if we can be intentional about actually showing up emotionally consistent, that will also serve us and it will also develop trust. Because if your executive feels like you're a safe person to be able to speak with about challenging situations. That can also be really helpful in fostering trust. Of course, when I say a safe person, I don't mean the only person, but one of a few safe people that your executive can turn to that can really help to foster trust as well. I also think having a consistent, positive, solutions oriented attitude can build rapport. So instead of getting flustered when your executive gets flustered, if you can constantly be looking for a solution to offer them and even letting go of some of the things that may offend us, or even letting go of some of the drama to address the data and provide a solution to your executive, that can also go a long way in developing that trust piece as well. So be thinking about even how you're showing up.
Annie:
When I say consistency, I don't just mean doing things the same way all the time. How are you showing up for your role? How are you showing up with your executive? How are you showing up in the workplace? I also think that oftentimes we are an extension of our executives. We are the keeper of their personal brand. So if we really want to really tap into that piece, we're going to have to show up consistently with regards to those things as well. We're going to have to not gossip about them. We're going to have to make sure that we are showing up consistently with regards to being their brand ambassador and almost like their brand keeper in a way. Now, I'm going to share a few barriers to showing up more consistently. I think one barrier that comes up for a lot of us is thinking that your leader won't notice.
Annie:
Thinking that your leader won't notice if you're on time. Thinking that your leader won't notice if you miss a deadline. Thinking that your leader won't notice if you don't do what they've asked you to do. Now, in some cases, this is true. Sometimes the priority shifts and moves and sometimes we're working in environments that is constantly shifting and moving. And I think that we can also feel defeated sometimes if we feel like our executive doesn't actually notice our work, right? So then we're showing up not consistently because we don't think they care anyway about us or our work. And it just will take so much of your power away if you live into that narrative, as opposed to living into the narrative of it doesn't matter how my executive shows up, I'm going to show up for myself in a way that serves and supports me and also serves and supports them. I know this job can be just so thankless a lot of the time.
Annie:
And that's when we need to tap into giving ourselves a pat on the back. Showing up in community finding your community of executive assistants, administrative professionals who truly understand what the role is like. Because I gotta tell you guys, there are very few roles like the role of an admin or an executive assistant. Not a whole lot of people understand what it is we do on a daily basis. Not a whole lot of people understand what it is that we keep off of our executives plates and desks a consistent basis. So really leading into that community. And if you don't have a community, if you're looking to level up in 2025, I'm about ready to open the doors for the Leveled up assistant. In fact, I think they opened up today.
Annie:
So please check that out. You can go to wholeassistant.com/levelup to learn more. I love the community inside of Leveled up. It's a 16 week program. I love all the sharing, I love the collaboration calls, I love the coaching, I love the training and I also just love the shared experience that we all have as administrative professionals, executive assistants and strategic business partners. So that's the first kind of roadblock that I have seen to showing up more consistent consistently is thinking your leader won't notice. I think also another barrier to showing up consistently is thinking that consistency doesn't really matter. They're again throwing your hands up and being like this probably doesn't really matter anyway and I'm just going to push it off and whatever.
Annie:
I think that can also be a barrier to our success and it may just be an awareness issue. I don't think a lot of us think about the link between showing up consistently and developing a more strategic partnership with our executive, but that link is totally there. So I really want you to pay attention to that consistency piece and really recognize that it does matter. Another barrier to showing up consistently is lack of prioritization, prioritizing your workload, prioritizing how you show up for yourself in your role there again, if you show up consistently tardy, what message is that going to send to your leader? Does it say I'm trustworthy or does it say something else, something that you may not want it to say? I think also another kind of barrier to showing up more consistently is abdicating responsibility. There again, checking out. And also guys, I'm not going to downplay or dismiss that some of us do not work in the healthiest of environments. So you could be doing everything right and feel totally deflated. Because you're not treated very well.
Annie:
And so I just want to mention that too. I feel like these episodes can feel like you're being gaslit. That's not my intention. My intention is to speak to those of us who are maybe not paying attention to some of these things and to point out that when you pay attention to these things in decent environment with a decent executive and a decent leader, that more often than not it will strengthen the relationship and propel you forward. If you're in an environment where that's not the case, I think that you can probably do everything right and still feel really deflated and frustrated. So then the question becomes how do we show up more consistently? So when it comes to consistency, what gets monitored gets improved. Re Establishing integrity with yourself is the place that I would start. Be honest.
Annie:
Regarding areas needing growth. It can be really challenging to show up more consistently if we're unwilling to look at our areas of growth and what needs improved. I think also addressing underlying beliefs and thoughts that are causing you to show up less than optimally is another thing I would have you do. Like there again, thinking your leader won't notice, thinking that consistency doesn't really matter, thinking that they're too busy and this job is so thankless, why should I care? Those types of things are not going to probably have you showing up at your best. So really dealing with those underlying beliefs and there again tapping into your own self sufficiency and deciding to show up consistency for you like end stop period is probably a great strategy for dealing with some of those thoughts and beliefs. Also developing your systems and processes will go a long way in helping you to show up more consistently. There's no better way to show up consistently than to do the work of outlining and articulating your processes. I think that even if you are a veteran in this industry, there are so many tools out there, there are so many things coming in the market with regards to AI.
Annie:
I think it would be silly not to tap into some of those tools and strategies in order to optimize our processes and to grow and to streamline and to show up more consistently. And so there again work on one process or integrity improvement or or thought per week, Small consistent improvements over time really add up. Another way which we can show up more consistently is to do it with a buddy. So being accountable to a colleague, being accountable to your work bestie, being accountable to someone who is growth minded and on their journey as well can go a long way in improving your consistency. And I just don't feel like it's helpful to do this work in a vacuum. When we do this work in a vacuum, that's when quiet quitting happens. And I think also it can feel really deflating when we have a rough day or when we go off track a little bit and there is no accountability and we don't have a buddy or a friend or a colleague that we can lean and rely on. That can be really detrimental when it comes to showing up consistently.
Annie:
And I also just love to participate in growth activities within the context of a community. It's so much more fun to work on yourself with other people present. It's so much more fun to work on yourself with other growth minded professionals. To be perfectly honest with you, I really hope that this episode gave you some food for thought when it comes to showing up consistently, when it comes to how you're showing up for work, when it comes to how you're showing up with your executive. And you guys, if you would like to join me inside of Leveled up, please check that out as well. It's a 16 week program. We're going to be covering the five foundations of strategic partnership. There's going to be a coaching component, there's a collaboration component, and there are just so many aha moments.
Annie:
You can go to wholeassistant.com/levelup enrollment will be open through Friday the 24th and then not again for a few months. So please check it out. I actually have a template if you'd like to ask for employer sponsorship as well an email template on that page and I will link to that page in the show notes below. But until then guys, I hope you have a great and lovely rest of your day. Hey, before you go, don't forget to grab my free Strategic Planning Session guide. This stealthy playbook will help you and your executive find clarity on their priorities so you can make a greater impact. Go to wholeassistant.com/guide or click the link in the show notes to snag your copy. And if you're loving the podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, and share with another assistant ready to level up.
Annie:
Thanks for listening and until next time, keep embracing your badassery.