Speaker A [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome back to the Whole Assistant Podcast. It has been a minute, guys, since I recorded a new episode. That is because I was finishing up writing my book entitled The Strategic Business Partner. The tagline is still being worked out, but that is the main title. I am very excited about this book. It has been my main focus in my business for the last 6 months or so, and I have learned a lot about writing books as well. It's, it's fun and it is also kind of cathartic to get all my ideas out onto paper and to present this to you. The book will launch early October, I'm hoping, fingers crossed, if everything goes according to plan with the publisher.
Speaker A [00:00:42]:
And today I'm gonna be sharing 5 mindset shifts that separate strategic partners from great assistants. And a lot of this talk and a lot of this wording and a lot of this verbiage really comes down to how we identify ourselves. We may be doing all the right things. We may be lining up strategically with our executives, but not viewing ourselves as strategic partners. And that is really the only thing that's different between us and another assistant, right? Like between myself and somebody else. And as I've written this book, geared towards helping people become more strategic in their roles, this mindset piece is paramount. It's going to be paramount to your success. And also, really the main difference comes down to simply thinking differently about yourself and the role that you play in the organization and with your executives.
Speaker A [00:01:38]:
So the first mindset shift, and I'm sure I've talked about this on the podcast before, so this is going to be a bit of review for those who've been listening to the podcast for a long time. Is to stop being the solution and become solutions-oriented instead. So the old mindset, the mindset that is really common among us as executives, paraprofessionals, is if someone needs help, I should be the one to do it. That is not going to be helpful in helping you strategically align with your executive. It's not going to be helpful in making sure that you manage your time effectively. We cannot be the doer all the time. The new mindset Is that we want to move the business forward. We want to help our executive thrive, but we don't have to personally complete every task.
Speaker A [00:02:23]:
So everything that everybody brings us, we do not have to solution for them. We can be the person who teaches a man to fish instead of grabbing our fishing pole and heading out the door. And this mindset shift was really paramount to my success because what it allowed me to do, it allowed me to focus on the most important tasks that I was meant to complete that day, on the priorities for my executive, on my portion of the priorities. For the business to keep things moving forward. And it also helped me to not burn out again. As many of you know, I had suffered a really dramatic story of burnout. You can go back to episode 3 of this podcast that I recorded a few years ago and listen to that episode where I break down what that experience was like for me. I'm not gonna go into it here, but once I grabbed onto this idea that I didn't actually have to action on everything it was really helpful in protecting me from burnout moving forward.
Speaker A [00:03:17]:
The second mindset shift that I would have us all adopt is we need to stop reacting to chaos and become the anchor in any environment. So for anything like me, you can tend to ingest other people's emotional states, and I am strongly empathetic, which means this happens for me fairly regularly, especially when I'm not Aware of what's going on. I will be clacking away at my computer. I'll be feeling anxious. I'll experience tension in my chest, on my neck, and my shoulders that isn't even mine. And what happens when we're in that state is we tend to meet our executives up here in chaos instead of being the grounding anchoring force, that calming force. So in order to become the anchor, we actually have to hand back other people's emotional states to them. We have to remain calm in the situation.
Speaker A [00:04:05]:
And I know how hard this can be, especially if you are in a startup environment or if there's any level. Chaos around you, or if things are constantly shifting, priorities are constantly moving, it can be really, really challenging to remain in that anchoring place. But one of you needs to be thinking clearly. Your executive has so much on their plate. They're often up here riding the waves and they need that calming anchoring force to ground them. And if you are both riding the waves, then your, both of your prefrontal cortexes are gone offline. It is not gonna be helpful or conducive to you showing up more strategically in your role. It is also not gonna be helpful or conducive to your executive and them getting done what they need to.
Speaker A [00:04:47]:
So being that calming force, being that person that people turn to for solutions and the people turn to to bring the calm can be tremendously helpful in embracing your strategic partnership, embracing your badassery, and really stepping into the fullness of a strategic partnership. The third shift that I would have us all consider adopting is to stop rescuing everyone. We need to view ourselves as guides and not as rescuers. Now, I completely understand how rescuing feels productive, but it often creates dependence. Great assistants solve problems. Strategic partners build capacity. And by that, I mean, instead of just saying, I'll do it, We ask ourselves, who is the best person to own this? Who is the best person to carry this part of the business forward? How can I show up as a guide to my executive with regards to the rest of the team? How can I show up as a guide to the team with regard to my executive? And how can I help move the business forward instead of playing this frenetic energy game of trying to go around and rescue everyone? This one is particularly challenging because I think a lot of us get a dopamine hit every time We complete a task, or every time we step into that rescuer mode and we know that we have done a good job, we've actually saved our executive or team members from a disaster. And I'm not saying that we just want to sit there and watch people walk off a cliff.
Speaker A [00:06:16]:
That's not what I'm saying. But we just need to be more aware of what is ours to own in our role and what is theirs to own in their role. And it is never your job to rescue anybody from their emotional state. Or to rescue the team from your executive's emotional state, or to rescue your executive from a team member's emotional state. And we can often find ourselves in that place of trying to rescue everyone, trying to make the situation better, and it's just an ineffectual way to operate because there is no way to actually effectively do that. So really taking on the role of guide. In my book, I talk about Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. He was a wise wizard who had the most power, arguably, among the Fellowship of the Ring or the group of people that were trying to destroy the Ring of Power.
Speaker A [00:07:01]:
And he actually held back a lot and he guided different players in their roles and he empowered them to step up and take authority when they needed to. And this is really powerful. Instead of just running the show, he was able to anchor himself in his enoughness and to guide the team through to completion. We definitely don't want to land in rescuing energy all the time. Now, there again, there are times where things come up for our executives, last-minute fires that we need to put out. I'm not saying that we don't wanna address those. We do. We need to for sure.
Speaker A [00:07:35]:
But oftentimes we take on this role for the larger organization and for our colleagues and coworkers as well. That will not make you effective. The 4th shift that I would have us all make is stop waiting for validation. This one is so, so challenging. Oftentimes we look outside of ourselves for validation instead of looking to our own enoughness and instead of looking to ourself and being self-sufficient in those ways. And unfortunately, this role is very thankless for most of us. We are often the ones behind the scenes being effective and, and actually the more effective you are, the more our work fades into the background because things aren't popping up for our executives that are fires. Because we're keeping them from popping up as fires because we're being so proactive.
Speaker A [00:08:21]:
And so waiting for validation, waiting for the attagirl from our executives is not a winning strategy for sustainability in these roles long-term. We actually need to be more self-reliant, self-sufficient when it comes to the validation piece. And here's the thing, no one applauds problems that never happened. The more effective you become, the less visible your work often is. So here's the deal. You set the standard for yourself. And if you meet that standard, you give yourself a pat on the back. And by setting the standard, I mean you get to decide what the metrics for your success look like because nobody else can.
Speaker A [00:08:58]:
And ultimately, if you're meeting your KPIs in the company, you're doing a really good job. If you action on items in the way that you want to action on them, if you're intentional with how you show up for yourself, if you decide to be the standard for yourself and you decide to set benchmarks for yourself, You will know at the end of the day whether or not you executed at your standard or not. So I think it's also good to, instead of asking yourself, did anyone notice me today? To ask yourself, did I live up to my own standards today? And that right there is so empowering. It's such a confidence builder if you're able to tap into that instead of looking outside of yourself for your own enoughness. What happens when we look outside of ourselves for definition or for someone to define us is that we often give away our power without even realizing that we're doing it. The 5th and final shift I'm going to touch on today is to stop thinking like support and start thinking like a business partner. Strategic partners ask different questions. So instead of asking what needs to get done, ask yourself what matters most in this situation? What matters most today? What is the highest priority item that I can action on that will have the greatest impact for my executive and the greatest impact in my organization? And instead of asking, how can I help? Ask what moves the business forward and action on that thing.
Speaker A [00:10:20]:
Instead of asking what task is next, ask what outcomes are we trying to create? One little shift can change everything for you. And this is where really aligning with your executive and their priorities can come in big. For you is that once we know what the priorities are, then we're able to action on them a lot more efficiently and a lot more effectively. So really getting clear on what your executive's priorities are is a great way to go. And I actually have a strategic planning session guide to where you can hold your own strategic planning sessions with your executive. It'll be linked in the show notes below, so be sure to grab that if you have not already. Okay guys, so that is what I have to share with you guys today. So most assistants think that the next level requires another certification and another productivity hack, another AI tool.
Speaker A [00:11:06]:
And I'm here to say that all of that is good. All of that is fine. We want to develop those skills as well, but they aren't the starting point for a more strategic partnership with your executive. Every strategic partnership begins with one simple decision. You stop seeing yourself as just anything, just an assistant, just somebody's support person. And you start seeing how you fit into the bigger picture. You start actually capitalizing on your strengths and seeing your strengths as assets instead of devaluing those strengths. Okay, so I'm gonna leave you with this one last thought.
Speaker A [00:11:38]:
I'm playing around with the week's power move on this podcast. It's something that I'm introducing today that I wanna carry forward. It's the one takeaway that if you don't take away anything else, take away this. And your week's power move for this week is I want you to catch yourself once this week When you're about to jump and rescue someone, I want you to pause and ask, what's the most strategic way to move this forward? Is it for me to manage this myself? Is it for me to delegate to someone else? Is it for me to point somebody else to their own solution, to be solutions-oriented for somebody without actually having to be the doer? Ask yourself that question this week and see what happens. Please feel free to report back. You can email me at annie@wholeassistant.com. Be intentional, be whole. That is all for now.
