Precious Emechebe
An appointment with the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) of any organization would most likely have you engaging with one person who is instrumental in ensuring a successful meeting – the Executive Assistant (EA). An EA is a professional who offers executive support to CXOs of organizations or other high-level professionals with the sole objective of ensuring their success on the job
Although EAs work with CXOs and other high-level professionals, their roles are sometimes misconstrued by outsiders to be one of ‘gatekeepers’ – keeping intruders off the office and life of CXOs, and ‘organizers’ – organizing the calendars, meetings, and conferences of Executives. With the myriad of organizational tools available today following the tech revolution, gatekeeping and organizing have never been easier. Yet, EAs are more valuable today than they were before the revolution. This is because the EA role has morphed from being just administrative to being strategic. In the words of The Assist, “The EA function has transformed from a supporting role to more of a strategic one. Today’s executives lean on their assistants not just for admin help but also for strategic counsel, technical expertise, and critical analysis. EAs are expected to dabble in things as wide and varied as project management, event planning, and internal communications.”
In today’s world, EAs are
- Strategic partners: They have a deep understanding of the industry they work in as well as the regulatory framework and policies that affect their industry. As a result, they make valid contributions that progress conversations and decisions of their Executives.
- Professional problem solvers: Impossible is a word that actually does not exist in the dictionary of an EA. They are super connectors and connect within and beyond their network, keeping a record of vital attributes of people they meet because they understand that relationships are more valuable than money. They are quick to provide help and consequently, are never stranded when they need help which earns them lifetime access to the dictionary of only possibilities and solutions.
- Trusted Confidants: A professional EA understands that one of the biggest responsibilities of the role is trust. This responsibility stems from working closely with those in whose corridors crucial information and decisions are made regularly. Therefore, trust is an attribute that they earn and do not trade for anything. Professional EAs are discreet, unassuming, and cautious of the words they speak because they hold the gravity of their responsibility in high esteem, understanding the consequences of loose lips.
Professional EAs see their role from the perspective of it being a profession and not just a job. They stay committed to the path of personal and professional development and join empowering associations and bodies to grow their network, influence and expand their horizon. Though it seems that the wrong perception of the limiting role of the EA is prevalent, a crop of professional EAs are rising to change that perception and shape the narrative to the truth that professional EAs are assets to their CXOs.
These said, two main factors determine how much of an asset EAs are to their CXOs:
- The CXO’s willingness to delegate pieces of his or her workload to the Executive Assistant. The whole essence of Chiefs having EAs is to have more time to focus on optimizing strategic thinking and execution. Melba Duncan, CEO of Duncan Group in her 2011 Harvard Business Review article titled The Case for Executive Assistants stated, “… an EA must make the executive 8% more productive than he or she would be working solo—for instance, the assistant needs to save the executive roughly five hours in a 60-hour workweek.” The reality is that good EAs save their bosses much more than that. Progressive-minded CXOs think deeply about the aspect of work that they can delegate to earn them more time to do strategic work and are very happy to hand them over to their EAs. As Robert Pozen, Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management puts it, “A top-notch assistant is crucial to being productive.” The empowered EA is able to listen in on phone conversations in order to organize and follow up on action items, manage information flow, attend to financial matters, attend important meetings in their stead and handle more planning and organizing. This delegation has to be backed by some level of authority. CXOs empower their EAs by making it clear that they trust their ability to represent and make decisions for them in their stead. This empowerment of course is founded on trust in both the competence and professionalism that the EA has displayed over time.
- The assistant’s willingness to stretch beyond his or her comfort zone to assume new responsibilities: Successful EAs are those who are big on personal development. They do not stick to the rudimentary requirements of their jobs, no. Rather, they take on stretch assignments, learn new languages and technologies to function in global markets, are travel consultants, diplomats, troubleshooters, human databases and give their CXOs a human face. These types of EAs are invaluable assets to their bosses because they are versed in their primary roles and have grown capacity and competence by voluntarily taking on new responsibilities that make them more valuable and dependable. Such EAs usually score high on emotional intelligence, are able to read their bosses’ shift in behaviour and temperament and respond correctly as well as accommodate their personal style to help them win. Because finding great EAs who have a good understanding of the job, the boss and is big on growth is tough, most bosses prefer to, as much as possible, grow with their EAs either within the organization or beyond.
Executive–assistant relationships are business partnerships: Strong ones are win-wins
About the Columnist
Precious Emechebe is the Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer of MultiChoice Nigeria. She shares from her wealth of knowledge and experience gained in her over 12 years of working as an EA in different multinationals and fields of business including Law and Human Rights, Customer Strategy, Sales Development and Business Operations and Projects among others. She is passionate about mentoring EAs and does this actively through Executive Support Professionals also known as ESPro, which she founded to fill the gap in capacity development and training for professionals in the executive support space. You can connect with her on the following platforms:
LinkedIn: Executive Support Professionals
Instagram: executivesupportprofessional- ESPro
Facebook: Executive Support Professionals – ESPro
