Luke Marchand

So your Executive Assistant is doing a great job handling the standard EA tasks like managing your inbox, schedule, and to-do list, but they are capable of doing even more.  Here are 5 advanced tasks for Executive Assistants:

Project management

As your liaison, your assistant can be a project manager in your place. As the visionary leader of your company, your time is best spend on generating new ideas and creating vision for the future.

If you spend most of your time on tedious project management, you will find yourself caught up in the “now” with little time to discover future opportunities and threats.  As you implement new ideas and tasks, your assistant can:

• Identify delegable tasks
• Find the best person for the job
• Provide instructions
• Monitor delegates’ progress
• Deliver important updates to you

Oversee internal resources and culture

As the leader of your company, you should be the champion of culture; a healthy company is built on its healthy culture. But your position is to exemplify and promote that culture, not to create company culture resources.

Your assistant can help develop, strengthen, and maintain company culture by:

• Facilitating conversations in employee forums
• Creating and auditing company resources like how-to’s and policy manuals
• Holding and organizing events for the company
• Researching and implementing new culture-strengthening policies and activities at your company

Optimize workflows 

Your assistant can document processes and procedures for you and your company. This allows you to identify inefficiencies and redundancies in your operations.

Once you have documented your processes, your assistant can use these as tools for streamlining delegation and handling hand-offs when employees transition in and out of roles.

Do something new

What are those new ideas, initiatives, and tasks that have been sitting on the “someday maybe” or “I should get that done” list? Your assistant could be the one to finally get those things done.

These are the perfect tasks you can delegate to your assistant when you feel there is nothing else to do.

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Conclusion

These 5 advanced tasks for Executive Assistants can be instrumental in helping you achieve New Levels of Freedom and Growth.

Got a few more? Let us know what other high-value tasks you would include on this list.

Looking for an EA? Sign up for a discovery call, and we’ll discuss the process with you. It’s a no-pressure, no sales gimmicks environment. We believe in starting with a helpful hand.

Your Executive Assistant supports you and makes your life easier – but how can you make your assistant’s life easier?

Here are 5 high-value habits that will help your assistant help you:

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Define and refine your communication

 

Communication is the centerpiece of any relationship. When your communication is frictionless, your entrepreneur-assistant relationship will be frictionless.

As soon as possible – definitely this week – sit down with your assistant and ensure you have a strong mutual understanding about:

Means of communication:  What lines of communication should you and your assistant be using?  Should your assistant use different tools for different situations? Email for non-time-sensitive issues? Text messages for emergencies?

Set up a daily connect:  This daily touchpoint provides:

• Up-to-date information on any unexpected events or updates
• A specific time to communicate with each other so nothing goes unaddressed
• An accelerated understanding of each other

Times:  Clarify with your assistant what times are appropriate to call and text.  Allow them to share their boundaries, too.  Detail your different ground rules for emergencies and day-to-day communications.

Once you have defined your communication, refine it.  Test and see what works for you and your assistant – prioritize smooth communication above all else.  It should be the first priority.  Build on your strategy with effective communication tricks that work for you.

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Equip them for success

 

Ensure they:

1. Have access to
2. Are aware of

Their resources: Starting a new position can be nerve-racking.  Being aware of available resources alleviates pressure, boosts confidence, and increases productivity.

Provide information on:

• Best-practices
• How-to guides
• Tools (and tutorials about those tools)

Tools may include:

• Team communication platforms (Slack, Teams, etc.)
• Password managers
• CRMs
• Their own email address
• Shared drives (Google Docs, Onedrive, etc.)
• Company phone extension
• Scheduling platforms
• Billing platforms
• Wordprocessing software

Their Team: Create a culture of support in your company.

• The assistant position is a unique one with no direct counterparts. Take time to ensure they feel comfortable and familiar with the rest of the team, not isolated.
• Ensure they know who they need to go to for what. Who do they go to for designs? Who do they ask about purchases?

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Give them full visibility

 

Your assistant needs full visibility into your life and practices. Don’t hold back or cut corners when building trust and understanding between you and your assistant. Here are some essential practices:

• Explain not only the WHAT but the WHY.  If your assistant understands your values and how you make decisions, they can make better choices for you and represent you with peak precision.
• Ensure they have access to ALL your calendars – personal and professional. This helps them help you in a holistic manner, ensuring you never doublebook or neglect anything – personal or professional.
• Be honest with them about how you are feeling, so they can help you find a healthy balance in your schedule.
• Tell them what is working and what is not – solve your problems and optimize faster (just make sure you’re not too abrasive with feedback).

Your assistant is there for you – even more than for your business.  Let them be the one professional connection you can be transparent with. It will make your assistant’s life easier – and yours, too.

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Give them assistant-specific support

 

As mentioned before, assistants occupy a unique space in a company. They face unique challenges and have few or no close counterparts in your organizational structure. Like most entrepreneurs, you probably don’t have the time to develop and provide assistant-specific educational resources and coaching.

At Superpowers, we provide the easy button!  With a Superpowers Membership, your assistant can build their skills through our unrivaled Curriculum, Coaching, and Community.

Curriculum: Our training intensives, masterclasses, continuing education resources, playbooks, and learning events equip your assistant to exceed your expectations.

Coaching: Reach your goals sooner! Our one-on-one coaching accelerates your assistant’s growth by providing personalized accountability, correction, and mentorship.

Community: Your assistant doesn’t have to do it alone. We provide a community for sharing ideas, best practices, and problem-solving techniques among top-performing Executive Assistants.

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Let them lead the relationship

 

We have a saying at Superpowers: “You are the boss, but your assistant is the leader in the relationship.”

Give your assistant full permission to keep you and your life on track.  They can help you get more done when they have complete freedom to confront you about inefficiencies, make scheduling decisions for you, manage your correspondences, and remove delegable tasks from your to-do list.

Your assistant is your efficiency specialist.  When they are free to point out weak points in your approaches and introduce solutions, they can help you maximize your time.

Here are a few specific permissions to give your assistant:

Your Task Filter: Give them permission to audit your to-do list and remove low-value tasks.

Your Liason: Allow them to represent you in correspondences, meetings, and task delegation.

Your Personal Coordinator: Allow them to schedule your appointments, identify unproductive behaviors, and provide all-around feedback and coordination for your work life.

You make your assistant’s life easier and your life easier when you focus on managing your company and they focus on managing you.

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Conclusion

These are 5 high-impact habits you can began implementing to make your assistant’s life easier as they help you.

Are there any habits you’ve found valuable in your relationship with your assistant? Feel free to share them below.

 

Haven’t found your ideal Executive Assistant yet? We pride ourselves on training and equipping the industry’s top-performing assistants.

If you’re in the market, we are happy to talk through the process with you on a quick 30-minute call. We focus on equipping you to make the best hire – whether it’s with us or someone else.  Sign up here today.

You already know an assistant can be helpful for managing your work schedule, email inbox, and to-do list.  But there are so many other ways your assistant can make your life easier.

Here are 10 creative ways to use your assistant:

Information summation

 

As a business owner, you need to be up-to-date on the latest trends and ideas in your niche and beyond.  Your assistant can review important reports, books, and podcasts and provide you with summaries of the key points.

Like your own personal Spark Notes, your assistant can help you remain highly-informed without you having to take time away from completing high-value tasks and building relationships.

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Delegation translation

 

Delegation is difficult for entrepreneurs because it’s often more time-consuming than doing it yourself. An assistant can speed up this process.  Next time you are completing a delegable task, record yourself talking through the task as you complete it.

Then, send that to your assistant. They can process the video and break it down into a clean, scaleable instructional tool for your delegates.

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Gift-giving

 

Gift-giving is another creative way to use your assistant. Thoughtful gift-giving can strengthen your relationships, both personal and professional, but do you often have time to select the perfect gift? This is a high-value task you can delegate to your assistant.

Your assistant can research and select gifts that stand out and fully reflect your sentiments.  All you need to do is select from the list of options they put together.

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Maintaining your personal social media presence

 

Your assistant can represent you on your personal social media accounts by:

• Posting content for you.
• Engaging with the content posted by important personal and professional connections.
• Helping you stay in touch and up-to-date with important people in your life.  They can filter out all the unnecessary info and provide only the most important details, so you don’t miss important moments.

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Date night planning

 

Entrepreneurs are driven by excellence. They strive to be the best and give their best in everything they do. Unfortunately, a lot of entrepreneurs have expended all their creative energy by the end of the work week, so there is little left in the tank for planning meaningful, fun, and creative date nights (or family nights).

Your assistant can help! As a part of our unrivaled Curriculum, Coaching, and Community, we provide our Superpowers Assistants with resources on preparing, presenting, and planning out date nights for their entrepreneurs. Allow your assistant to:

• Create a “menu” of different date night options – each with a short synopsis.
• Then, you can indicate what you like and what you don’t.
• Once you select your favorite option, your assistant can arrange the rest.
• With time, your assistant will learn your preferences more and more, and you will continually have a bank of exciting, well-crafted, and ready-to-go date ideas for you and your partner.

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We hope you found some valuable and creative ways to use your assistant.

On the lookout for an ideal assistant? We can help! We provide discovery calls for successful entrepreneurs who are interested in finding their ideal, high-performing Executive Assistant match.

We talk through the whole process of finding an assistant, so you can feel equipped to make the best choice for you – and we skip all the sales gimmicks. We believe if it’s a right fit, it’s a right fit.  Feel free to sign up for a call today!

 

 

Your assistant can improve your personal life by optimizing your work life and, thus, allowing you to spend your time how you want. But in what other ways can your assistant help you outside of the office?

Here are some of the impactful ways entrepreneurs are leveraging their assistants in their personal lives:

 

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Handle all the little personal to-do’s

 

Your assistant is there to make your life easier, even with the small things.  When you are distracted with small, nagging personal tasks, you are unable to be your best, most creative self.  Your assistant is happy to help:

• Small, incidental purchases
• Booking a babysitter
• Booking a date night
• Canceling a subscription
• Researching weekend activities
• ANYTHING small on your to-do list

 

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Be your “day off” filter

 

Many entrepreneurs take free days, but a lot less spend those free days feeling free. With disruptive calls and fears that the office might be on “on fire,” business owners have a hard time truly relaxing.

When it’s time for your free days, your assistant can monitor your inbox and work number, filtering out low-priority concerns and alerting you only when it’s necessary.

You can rest easy, knowing your assistant has your back.

 

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Complete gift giving

 

Do you usually have time to select the perfect gift for special occasions? Thoughtful gifts are universally appreciated and often essential for maintaining your important personal relationships. You can delegate this important task to your assistant.

Your assistant can research and select gifts that stand out and fully reflect your sentiments. They can bring these options to you, and you can make the final decision.

Your assistant can track your loved one’s important dates in your calendar, with a reminder the day of and one the week before, so you have time to prepare something for them.

 

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Manage your personal schedule

 

Your assistant can manage ALL of your calendars, not just your work calendar.  In fact, this is preferable, so you never end up having conflicts between your personal and work commitments.  Make it to every piano recital and football game.

Allow your assistant to improve your personal life by:

• Adding all your commitments to a unified calendar
• Blocking out time for family time, friends time, and personal time
• Identifying events that should be on your calendar but are not
• Giving you extra prompts for tasks you have a history of neglecting or forgetting
• Communicating with your loved ones to coordinate your calendar with theirs
• Prompting you when you may be neglecting/it’s time for certain personal commitments

 

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Keep you accountable for non-work goals

 

If your assistant has access to and manages your schedule and to-do list, they can also help you stay on track with your non-work goals.

Trying to stay healthy? They can schedule workouts and check in to see if you follow through.

Trying to read more? They can keep you on track and keep a running list of good books for you.

 

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Keep you up-to-date on relationships 

 

Your assistant can keep you up to date on important personal relationships by monitoring your social connections through social media and by tracking important dates like birthdays and anniversaries so that you can engage with your loved ones in a meaningful and timely manner.

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Handle trip planning 

Whether it’s a business trip or a personal family trip, your assistant can:

• Book hotels, flights, and restaurants
• Plan activities
• Ensure you will have no conflicts
• Monitor your email and goings-on at the company, alerting you only when there’s an emergency

 

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Handle event planning

Need to plan a Christmas party, organize a birthday party? You can improve your personal life by taking on the bulk of the process:

• Scheduling the event
• Booking the venue
• Booking catering
• Sending invites
• Planning the theme and activities
• Ordering decorations
• Collaborating with others involved

 

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Be your mental health partner

At Superpowers, we train our Executive Assistants to monitor and support your mental and physical health.  While they are not a substitute for a professional, they do work more closely with you than anyone else and are ideally positioned to help you stay healthy and balanced.

Our Superpowers Assistants strive to identify and combat entrepreneur burnout and stress early, so it does not become a larger problem.

 

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Here are our top actionable ways you can start leveraging your assistant toward an improved personal life.

Get out there and enjoy time with the people you love!

Looking for that ideal assistant? We are happy to get you started on the right path with one of our discovery calls! Feel free to book one today; it’s a no-pressure, highly-informative conversation.

This week at Superpowers, we had our third Quarterly Learning Event. We had an incredible time learning from Ryan Henry, a certified EOS Implementor. EOS Implementors help visionary entrepreneurs turn allusive, visionary ideas into achievable goals.

EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, is “a complete set of simple concepts and practical tools that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs around the world get what they want from their businesses.”

Why is it important to be a visionary entrepreneur?

One can hire people who can complete tasks, crunch numbers, and manage teams, but an entrepreneur’s unique genius is in their ability to see new possibilities, build a vision around those possibilities, and get others excited about that vision.

Ryan talked about the 5 roles of a visionary entrepreneur – here’s what you need to know:

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Visionaries Generate Big Ideas

 

As a visionary entrepreneur, you are responsible for vision-casting and propelling your company forward with new and innovative ideas.  Without a clear forward trajectory and a thought leader, any organization loses steam and cohesion.

A visionary entrepreneur follows current trends, watches for shifts in your market, and identifies exciting and valuable opportunities as they arise. As an entrepreneur, this probably comes naturally to you.

Making it practical: The challenging part of generating big ideas is the transfer from an idea to actionable steps. Your job is not to be the Implementor – this is the responsibility of your COO, Chief of Staff, Executive Assistant, or an external Implementor. Your job is to have conversations about your creative vision with your Implementor and team.

These conversations are essential for turning your visionary ideas into actionable steps:

• What major issues do your team members perceive in reaching your goal?
• What is their understanding of your vision for this project?
• What unique perspectives can they provide on the process?

Finding thinking time: Allow your Executive Assistant to protect your time. They can manage your schedule, inbox, and to-do list, ensuring you stay on top of your highest priorities. They are your task filter, filtering out low-value tasks that are not worth your time.

It is impossible to eliminate 100% of the distractions 100% of the time, but allow your assistant to eliminate 100% of the distractions for select periods of pre-scheduled vision-casting and problem-solving time.

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Visionaries Build Big Relationships

 

While many visionary entrepreneurs understand and appreciate the value of relationships, they tend to overwork themselves, leaving scarce time to invest in professional and personal connections.

This is a strategic mistake. A visionary entrepreneur often sacrifices valuable relationships to “bang out a project.” Visionary entrepreneurs avoid sacrificing major long-term relationships for minor short-term progress.

Your assistant can help you build and maintain high-value relationships in your life:

As a part of our Superpowers Curriculum, Coaching, and Community, our assistants receive training on representing their entrepreneurs through social media, email, and other correspondence.

An assistant can post on your social media and engage with your connections through your social media account. They can watch for important events in your clients’ personal and professional lives and provide meaningful responses on your behalf.

Also, your assistant can monitor and organize your inbox, ensuring that all important messages receive prompt and sufficient attention.  They help you manage your schedule so you can always follow through on commitments you have made to important people in your life.

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Visionaries Deliver Big Sales

 

We are not talking about being the sales leader in your sales department. We are talking about selling your vision, company, and self to your team, clients, and others.

Your job is to find others that fit your core values and the trajectory of your vision – people with the skills and character your vision a reality.  You get to share your vision with these people and get them excited about where the company is going.

The same applies to clients. A great visionary entrepreneur often sells a client before they reach the sales team. A conversation over dinner or a game of golf is all it takes. You are passionate about your vision, and your excitement makes others excited.

Work with your Executive Assistant and Implementor to remove the list of distractions that keep you from being the Visionary and “seller” of your company.

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Visionaries Handle Big Problem-Solving and R&D

 

When discussing problem-solving and R&D, we are not talking about sitting down and trying to solve every small issue in the company. You have a team for that.

Instead, spend your time solving problems and researching new opportunities at the highest level of your company.

• Does your company need to make a pivot to a new selector?
• Do you need to carve out a new niche?
• What upcoming trends could dramatically affect the way your company operates?
• What type of culture do you want to see in your company?

These are the issues you can tackle in your 100% distraction-free space. These spaces can be alone time, entrepreneur get-togethers, EOS conferences, Strategic Coach meetings – the key is remaining fully present where you are.

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Visionaries are Culture Champs

 

A visionary entrepreneur is their company’s culture champion.

Allow yourself to step back from working IN your busy and start working ON your business. Let your team run the day-to-day operations of your company.

When you walk around the office:

• Let go of the “boss” role.
• Avoid lecturing and commanding.
• Listen to your team members’ needs
• Ask great questions
• Connect with them on a human-to-human level.
• Build employee confidence.
• Model your core values.
• Let your team know that you trust them and have confidence in them.
• Offer meaningful praise
• Provide meaningful gestures of generosity and appreciation.

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Conclusion – What is Superpowers?

 

These are the 5 responsibilities of a visionary entrepreneur. Let your Executive Assistant delegate the rest. Growth will quickly follow.

Superpowers was founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. We pair you with an exceptional Executive Assistant who matches your unique wants, needs, core values, and working style.

Once we’ve found your ideal Executive Assistant, we equip them with our unique-to-industry Curriculum, Coaching, and Community. Armed with this unrivaled support, our assistants seamlessly execute your unique vision.

Interested in learning more? Your welcome to jump onto a quick, non-salesy discovery call. We focus on understanding your unique needs and equipping you to make the best choice for this important staffing decision.

This week at Superpowers, we had our third Quarterly Learning Event. We had an incredible time learning from Ryan Henry. Ryan is a certified EOS Implementor.

EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, is “a complete set of simple concepts and practical tools that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs around the world get what they want from their businesses.”

One of our favorite takeaways from Ryan’s talk was a list of the Top Ten Don’t Do’s for Visionaries. Entrepreneurs are Visionaries at heart. This is the highest-value skill an entrepreneur brings to the table.

You can hire people who can complete tasks, crunch numbers, or manage teams, but an entrepreneur’s unique genius is in their ability to see new possibilities, build a vision around those possibilities, and get others excited about that vision.

To achieve the highest ROI for your time, you must fully engage with being the Visionary for your company.  Here’s the 10 Don’t Do’s that will help you make that happen:

 

1. Don’t dictate.

Don’t dictate to your assistant and team what to do. Instead, open a conversation.

A Visionary needs an Implementor. An Implementor is someone who takes ideas, opportunities, and problems that you see and breaks them down into solutions that your team can address.

Instead of drive-by delegating and dumping underdeveloped tasks on your team, slow down, and create an issues list. This is something you can work through with your Implementor. Often your Implementor may be your Executive Assistant.

When you take time to break down the things in your head into actionable issues, you and your team can bounce ideas off of each other, ensuring complete understanding between all those involved.

With complete understanding and input from all parties, you can quickly go from giving an ambiguous “what if we” to an actionable plan.

 

2. Don’t do email.

As valuable as your inbox may seem, it’s not a high net-value activity for you. Trying to manage your inbox and work through all the emails will pull you away from the high-value vision-casting and networking you need to do.

Managing your inbox is an Executive Assistant’s expertise. They can monitor all incoming messages, filter out the unimportant emails, ensure each to-do gets delegated, and relay only the essential information you need to hear.

Something Ryan does when a client sends a long email: He has his assistant reply with, “Sounds like you want to talk to Ryan, let’s schedule an appointment…”

A quick phone call helps you get down to the root of the issue quickly and efficiently, no wasted time drafting emails back and forth.

 

3. Don’t do your schedule.

No more wasted time thinking through “what do we do next?” or  “when do we do this?”  Create your ideal weekly schedule with your assistant and stick with it. Design a schedule that creates predictability and eliminates questions.

Build the schedule to play into your unique weakness, strengths, and needs. Do you need time to be alone in the morning? Do you want a daily afternoon workout? Are you most efficient right before lunch? Put these into your schedule.

When it comes to week-by-week scheduling, your assistant will have a pre-determined context and understanding of your needs. They can schedule tasks in a way that optimizes your productivity and happiness.

 

4. Don’t do rocks.

As a Visionary, you need to focus your energy on working ON the company, not IN the company. If you spend your time working on these products, you lose valuable time you could be dedicating toward championing culture in your company and pushing the vision forward.

Let your Implementor and your assistant ensure these Rocks are effectively delegated and managed.

 

5. Don’t do weekly scorecard numbers.

Again, your place is working ON the company. Don’t get caught up with IN of your business. If you are worried about metrics and your performance in certain “in the company” tasks, you lose highly valuable time.

You also feel compelled to get these short-term, small-scope metrics right instead, losing focus on building for the future.

 

6. Don’t do to-do’s.

Stop offering to handle “this little thing” and “that little thing.” Let your assistant handle your schedule and to-do’s, and you can focus on creating your vision.

Your business is your baby, so it’s often hard to say no to tasks that come across your plate. Let your assistant be your task filter, ensuring you have freedom from tasks and distractions that get in your way.

 

7. Don’t do “in-the-business” work.

Don’t manage things. Allow your Integrator/your assistant to manage things. Do you have a COO/Chief of Staff/Executive Assistant? Let them step up and handle the day-to-day. If they need your help, they’ll ask for your help. Hire competent and trustworthy people to take the reigns.

 

8. Don’t be the Integrator.

When at all possible, get out of this seat. Integrator work is against your whole being as the Visionary.  An Integrator has a unique set of skills that often clashes with the equally powerful skill set of a Visionary.

An Integrator is a detail-oriented person focused on the “how” of your vision. You focus on the deep work that is required in building a vision and championing it to your team and network.

 

9. Don’t be the assistant.

Don’t assist your assistant – they’ve got this. You’ve hired an assistant who is competent and organized. They are there to make your life easier.

If you spend your time trying to make their workload easier, you take away their ability to help you live free and do the things only you can do.

 

10. Don’t live in fear.

If we’re honest, most entrepreneurs would admit they have control issues. Most of us Visionaries took control of our lives and became entrepreneurs. That took a lot of courage and work.

Now, your company has grown, and you can’t control every aspect. That is great! But it’s not easy to let go.

To make the process easier, find people you can trust. Your leadership team, your Implementor, and your assistant – They need to be a good fit for you, your work style, your core values, and your vision for the future.

Compatability with your assistant is especially important. They work closer to you than anyone else on your team. If you have a new assistant, the way you find trust is to exhibit trust. Let them know that you trust them. And also, let them know, with 100% clarity and honesty, what your goals are and what obstacles you face in reaching them.

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Interested in hearing more about finding your ideal assistant? Let’s discuss what you need to consider when finding the right assistant for you.  Book a Discovery Call today!