Hallie sits down with the one and only Lucy Brazier—CEO of Marcham Publishing, publisher of Executive Support Magazine—to discuss her new book, The Modern Day Assistant, address misconceptions about the profession and its various titles, and offer practical tips for assistants to become strategic leaders in their role. This episode is packed with valuable insights for administrative professionals and business leaders alike, offering guidance on how to leverage the power of Force Multiplier roles for future business success.

View full show notes: https://founderandforcemultiplier.com/the-modern-day-assistant-with-lucy-brazier/

Welcome to this week's episode of the Founder and the Force Multiplier podcast, where we explore how founders and leaders work together with their right-hand partners to turn ideas into action and build wildly successful businesses.

Today, I am speaking with the visionary, lucy Brazier. Lucy is one of the world's leading authorities on the administrative profession. She is the CEO of Marsham Publishing, a global force synonymous with world-class conferences and training, including executive support live and modern day assistant and home of executive support magazine, the gold standard of training in print for administrative professionals. Lucy is passionate about ensuring the assistant role is truly recognized as a career and not just a job, and is dedicated to supporting the development of both senior and aspiring administrative professionals. I was thrilled to speak with Lucy about her new book the Modern Day Assistant and get all of her insights into the executive assistant role, chief of staff and administrative business partner positions, as well as her thoughts on how the role is changing now and what we can all do in the future to continue to elevate the administrative profession. If you enjoyed this episode as much as I think, you will then be sure to let us know in all the usual places, such as leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you're listening to this episode, hi.

Lucy, how are you? Oh, very well. Thank you, hallie, and thank you so much for inviting me back onto the podcast.

I'm so excited to be here. Of course, we have so much to talk about. First of all, congratulations on the release of your book, the Modern Day Assistant. I've had the pleasure of reading it already and it's fantastic. So what prompted you to write this book and why now?

I think it's something that's been on my bucket list for ages and really I run my two-day course all over the world, but it's 20 people every time that people come and I get people writing to me afterwards saying it was life-changing and I should turn it into a book. And I kept thinking at some point I'm just going to download it and put it into print format. And that's exactly what I've done. I just wanted to get the messaging and hopefully the empowerment into a lot more people's hands, people who probably weren't able to get the funding to come and do the course, and actually I think quite a lot of the people who have done the course have brought it as well. So I was really excited to write it and really excited to see the reaction and terrified also and I know you know that having written your book as well, because once it's gone, it's gone and there's nothing you can do to change it. That's right.

Yeah, yes, it is super exciting, a little terrifying, but you've done so well and it's great. It's going to be such an amazing resource for assistance executive business partners. What was the writing process for you like? Do you know what really?

I found the best way to do it was literally just to sit in chunks and write it, and a lot of it was written on planes. You know, my team said to me you have no time to write this and I really didn't have time to write this. I was, yes, I do, I can find time, and I really didn't. So I wrote quite a lot of it on planes when I was doing long haul flights with my headphones on and with my light on, annoying everybody around me like crazy. And then I wrote quite a lot of time, quite a lot of it.

In Seattle also, I was there for a week and I was there for a week on my own and I was doing one speaking gigs. So I was in a Airbnb and sat and wrote a lot of it there, but it was literally it felt like I was just downloading it from my head onto the paper. The editing process was far more interesting. I think you know I initially wrote it and the team at Hogan Page, my publishers, came back and said love it, but you're writing it as if you're speaking to an audience in a training room and you need to write it one to one. And that was wonderful, actually rewriting it as if I was talking just directly to one person, was a very interesting exercise, and I hope I've done that well.

Yes, yes, I felt like you were talking to me while you were writing the book, but I think that is such an interesting part of the writing process Like you have all of the content and all of the information in your head, and so much of a book really does come to life through the editing process, which is very cool. I want to read a little paragraph from chapter one and we'll chat about it. So in chapter one you wrote the future of the profession belongs to those who are proactive. They ask questions.

The best assistants are endlessly curious. They really understand their business and how to communicate and collaborate effectively. They see themselves as managers and a core part of their role is leading up, driving the agenda for their executives. They manage projects and explore where they can add more value so that they can make a more confident contribution to their businesses. And I read that and said well, that sounds just like a leader to me. So I'm curious what you see is changing the most right now for the administrative profession, and what should the modern day assistant really be focused on?

first, I think the role has changed absolutely completely over the last 12 years full stop. I think the last recession back in 2008 really opened the doors for assistance to step into new, more middle management roles and to take on a lot of the stuff the middle management were doing. So I think the stats are something like 89% of assistants are now doing events and there are 53% doing HR and then loads of them doing finance and marketing and bits and pieces of stuff that the middle management used to do. And then, of course, with AI, the role is changing because a lot of the task-based stuff is going. If you can do the same thing twice in the same way, it can be automated.

But I think COVID is probably the best opportunity we are ever going to have, this new world of work, to change the role into what we want it to be and what we talked about we talked about it being for so long which is becoming this administrative business partner. So where is it used to be? That you would have the executive who was given their goals and the assistant would be running along behind going. I'm here to support you. What can I do to support you?

It's very much now that the assistant has to understand the goals also, and the two of you are working in partnership to hit those goals together. So you are going on this journey, this intellectual and leadership journey, together to hit that goal, where you are doing the administrative part and they are doing the part that they were employed to do. So the two of you have got your very specific roles and if you think about the world of collaboration, which I know is one of the big buzzwords right now, that is all about everybody having trust and respect and not just working together, but thinking together and bringing your core skills and competencies to a partnership. That means that the business ends up with one whole, complete, ideal person that they have employed.

Yes, I love that, the collaboration and the partnership and I know that we've talked about that before, how important the partnership between these two individuals is. But I completely agree with you that we're finally feel like we're moving in that direction At least, I hope that we are and I feel like we are really moving in that direction where these two individuals or sometimes it's three are really working hand in hand to accomplish one job For sure, for sure, and you and Adam do that beautifully.

I know from interviewing you that it is really well when I have shared your video with anybody. You're such role models for the way that it should work.

Yeah, well, thank you. So there it feels like a big, a tall order for assistance to be stepping into this role that sometimes was used to be filled by middle management, or now kind of stepping more into this leadership position to become this strategic partner. Is there anything that you would recommend because there's so there's so many things to tackle in that space what is maybe like the first place that an assistant could lean into? That would really make a big impact in their leveling up their role, do you?

know what. I think part of that is going and finding the global skills matrix. I think if you go and find the global skills matrix as a first starting point, which is at globalskillsmatrixcom and is a free resource, which is a career framework for assistance that's been put together by the heads of associations from 29 different countries it was a six year research project that we did in order to put it together I think that will show you very clearly the skills you need at each level as an assistant and you're able to look and go well, where do I sit within this? And it also looks at the kind of tasks that a business can expect at each level. So now you've got that, if you're reading that, you understand what excellence looks like at your level and you can see where your skills gaps are, so that you can aspire to be the best assistant that you can possibly be at your level. Now, once you've done that, then it's about making your executive understand, and it could be as simple as going and saying I found this tool. I think it would be really useful for us as a way to measure the performance of the assistance within the business and to make sure that we are getting value and return on investment from each one of them, and I would like to talk to HR about it and, by the way, I am seeing myself as a level three assistant here. So here are the kind of tasks and the kind of skills that you are going to get from me and the kind of things that you're able to give to me. So I thought that whole conversation going, because I think the thing that we're getting more as a reaction than anything else from global skills matrix is businesses going. Oh my gosh, we had never thought that we could use our assistance this way, and if everybody else is, we're missing a trick. So I think starting that conversation within your business is about how assistance can be utilized and also the career progression.

So I've done about 20 hours of interviewing really top flight assistance now on where we're at, and there are two things that are really striking me. The first thing is that I felt like we were far, far further forward than we were, which is slightly depressing, but it's the truth. You know, I think people come to conferences or they listen to us speaking and they go yes, let's do the thing. We're so excited to do the thing, and then they come away and they go. The thing is difficult and then it doesn't get done. And I have actually I want to do a campaign around it, because I think we are in this position right now, coming out of COVID, where we have a really one off opportunity to change the world for assistance, and if we miss it because we're sitting there doing the thing we always do, which is to say let's see how it shakes down for everybody else and then we can look at where we fit into that. This is not going for that. This is the time to go. This is what we want for the future of our profession and we're going to create it for ourselves and for those who come after us. So I think that's the first thing I'm finding.

And the second thing that I'm finding is that every assistant that I have spoken to, bar one in that whole 20 hours says to me their business treats it like a job, still, and not a career.

And for most of them they are saying to me still, I can't get promoted, I'm at my ceiling. The only way to get promoted is to make up some BS title which is going to take me out of the administrative profession because they can't get the funding otherwise, or for me to move into a different company, and either way the business is losing out. Either way the business is losing out. So we've got to get this piece right. You know, this is a profession for half a billion people. It's a fifth of the world's working population. It's the biggest employer of women. We've got to get this sorted out, because I spoke to a company yesterday who said to me they have just done a career progression for everybody else in the company and they've left the assistance out. How do we go and have those that conversation? I just can't believe that 12 years into this campaigning there are still companies that are sitting there just leaving assistance out.

Yeah, it's so true. I was actually talking to a company recently as well, with one of their employees who was looking to get some sort of promotion or wanted to up level their executive assistant role, and they weren't necessarily concerned about the title, but they realized that the HR department had executive one through executive four, and yet HR did not know what the difference was between executive one and executive four, because she was like an executive assistant number two or level two, and she was like, well, how do I get to level four? And they were like we don't really know. And so I immediately sent them the global skills matrix and I was like we need to start here. You've got to get your HR team on board, you've got to start explaining this to them. Use these as the common language, the common framework. I think that is. It's an invaluable tool. And but you're right, there's still. There's still a lot more work to be done Massive work to be done.

Yes, that's fine. We're up for it, aren't we? Yes, yes.

Yes, thanks. A few minutes ago you mentioned the title administrative business partner and I had some questions around that, because I'm starting to see administrative business partner, executive business partner those titles become much more common and I'm wondering what you're seeing? How are they comparing to an executive assistant or an administrative assistant role? Are they replacing those titles or are they different roles?

No, I think assistant is an interesting one for me because I am seeing it kind of going the way of secretary, because it suggests that we're assisting and we're not doing. And we're very definitely doing. And when you get into those more strategic levels where you are doing project management and you are helping to shake the goals and KPIs and you're running departments of other assistants and you're doing I don't know research projects on behalf of your exec, then you are stepping into it being an administrative business partner, because what you've got is you've got your executive skills over here and you've got your skills over here and when it meets in the middle, it is that one complete employee. So that isn't about you assisting anyone. That's about the two of you coming to the table, bringing your skillsets and using them for the good of the business.

So administrative business partner was actually the title that they started out with at Google. It was Ann Hyatt who created it and it was the lower level of assistant who was the administrative business partner and was the higher level, which is the executive business partner. And it seems that there are businesses who are really liking that and who are adopting it and I think it's really interesting that when she did that and they went recruiting for the first time. They got as many men interested in the roles as they did women, and I think that's because men don't like to assist, they like to do.

Right, yeah, oh, that's very interesting. Years ago I think it was my very first executive assistant role the title was executive secretary and that visa was a. It was an immunicipal role, so they hadn't made any changes for many, many years and interestingly, that title did that turned me off from the role. I took it, but I had them change it to executive assistant. And then it's interesting that now we're seeing almost this other shift 10, 12 years, 5th, 12, probably 15 years later for me as executive assistant is maybe going to be rolling into that executive business partner, which I think does better explain the way the role is moving in the direction.

It's moving Totally. But what's so interesting is that all over the world there are different titles still. I mean Brazil I'm going to any minute and the title there is very definitely still secretary. I've just been to India and the term is still secretary. In Africa, the term is still secretary and in the Netherlands the term is still secretary. I mean, just in the heart of Europe they've just decided that the term is secretary. So I think it's also cultural. I think there is nothing that is in Brazil. It's the only place in the world where you have to get qualified to be a secretary. So they're very proud of their secretarial profession. In America, when we were still executive secretary magazine because the term was evolving but it hadn't quite got there yet I had one woman who came to my booth and said I'm not even going to pick up your magazine on principle. It is great that you don't understand that this isn't the term anymore. So you know it's something people get very passionate about. It's why we changed the executive support magazine.

Yes, yeah, but you're so right, it can be, it can be cultural, and then I even think of, you know, in the government in the United States there are secretary positions or secretary of state or something like that, and those are very highly lauded positions, and so it's a little bit of a question the secretarial, the UN, you know it's, and secretary means keeper of secrets, which I kind of like you know, yeah, yeah.

The title thing is always just super interesting, but it's again. I think it's fascinating how it's continuing to evolve. And then we are kind of starting to throw Chief of Staff in here a little bit and I know that you talk about the Chief of Staff role a bit in your book. So I'd love it if you shared your perspective about where does that fit in to the titles and the executive support that we're talking about? Is it an executive support role? Is it a leadership role? I'd love to just hear your thoughts about where that role fits into all of this.

I am really clear on this. This isn't a shoe in for executive assistance, and I think problem is that a lot of businesses are promoting senior assistance to the role of Chief of Staff because, like I said earlier, there's nowhere else for them to promote to, and so what's happening is like everything else in our amazing profession there is a huge confusion around that, and what we're finding is that suddenly the role of Chief of Staff, and what it's actually meant to be, is getting confused with what businesses are just doing in order to give people a feeling that they've been promoted. To me, it's very clear A Chief of Staff is a senior VP position. You probably need an MBA or a very least of people qualification in order to be able to do it. Where it does fit in for some very, very senior executive assistants that want to make the move and are prepared to do the work is that it's very much a process and procedure driven role, and that, of course, is where the assistant shines. So you do have to do the work in order to do it, and it's very clear to me that it's a very powerful trio. So you have to have the three working together in order to get it right and you've got the CEO who faces outwards and drives the business forward out into the world and is making sure that they're seeing clients and they're doing new deals and they're coming up with new revenue streams and really getting the messaging about the business out into the world. Then the EA is running the day to day and the office of the CEO and is making sure that they are delivering what they need to deliver and the Chief of Staff is facing inwards and is managing the rhythm of the business. So they are basically doing the CEO role but facing inwards, so making sure that the process and procedure for the entire business is done properly, possibly being a stunt double for the CEO when they need to be very much looking at research.

So, for example, if you were to be looking at an office move, for example, my Chief of Staff would probably go and look at all the research around what kinds of offices were most productive and would look at what was out there currently in terms of what people were saying about office moves and the impact on that and what was going to make it most successful. Once they had put together a proposal as to the way it should all be done, they would probably hand it to the EA, who would deliver it and make sure that it worked properly. Or if you were doing their travel plans the next year which is insanity that you would probably, as a Chief of Staff, go. Okay, I'm going to look at the last five years. I'm going to see where she made the money. What are the gigs that she was doing that she does every year? Why is she doing those? Where do we do talking because of relationships.

Now let's do a proposal as to what we think is out there she isn't doing yet and put it all together to go. This is what we recommend for next year. Once we'd sign that off, we'd give it to the EA, who would make it happen in the most cost-effective, efficient way possible. So there's a very clear delineation to me between the two. Yes, if you work really hard as an EA, you can get to be Chief of Staff, but every time I say it's not the same thing on social media, I get crucified by people who have been made Chiefs of Staff. Going. Well, I'm a Chief of Staff and I get that, but it is the role was ever meant to be. So I'm hoping we can get clarity on it before it becomes as confused as the rest of our profession.

Yes, I agree, and I really like how you explained the differences between the role, because I also feel like they're very different roles and both incredibly valuable to the operations of an organization. But, to your point, what we see a lot is when an EA or anybody maybe gets moved into a Chief of Staff position and they don't backfill with an executive assistant or they just assume that this person is going to do both. I see it fall down and fail more times than not, or then, or in my opinion, that person's not actually a chief of staff. They're really end up being an executive assistant with the title, simply because Any type of in my opinion, any type of chief of staff work is always going to fall by the wayside Because you have to handle the day-to-day and so you, by default, you end up serving as executive assistant and maybe, if you have time, you can work on something more forward Looking. But even if you have the title, you end up really serving as the executive assistant. So the three people is critical, in my opinion.

I know different roles and and for a smaller business, I think as much as for a bigger business. I mean for me, because I'm away so much on the road. Having a chief of staff who runs the business while I'm away is just amazing.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, what is? What are your thoughts on chief of staff versus chief operating officer? I?

Think they're different things. I think the chief of staff is there to support the chief executives. The chief operating officer is there to run the business and to make sure that the operations part of the business works, and they are very different things.

Yep, okay, I agree, I agree as well. I tend to get that quite. I don't know if you get that question from time to time, but I I do too like so. Should I move into a chief staff role? Should I move into a chief operating officer role? And I say, well, they're two very different roles. What do you enjoy doing? What are your strengths? They're not the same thing.

Yes, because, yes, a chief operating officer is running the rhythm of the business, but it is from an operations point of view, it's not from a people point of view, and I think, right, that's a very different, a very different thing. So, yes, you probably need all four to get it done Properly, but I would say you could probably work without the chief operating officer if you needed to, and just have the other three, certainly is a small business.

We've got the three. We haven't got the chief operating officer yet. That's probably when we grow it.

Yes, okay, great, good. Another thing that I've been hearing a bit about from clients and just in the administrative community in general curious if you're hearing the same thing is that there's I'm starting to hear much more about these two different reporting structures. We have executive assistants who are directly reporting to their executive, their CEO or their you know COO, and then I'm starting to hear more executive assistants who are starting to report to an executive assistant manager, so somebody who oversees all of the admins for the organization, and they're not do as Directly reporting to their executive. What are you hearing and what are the pros and cons of those two structures?

Again, I'm very clear on this, which is that a Chief executive doesn't understand what an assistant is capable of. And to me, I am really promoting all over the place at the moment the fact that I feel that we should have administrative departments. Now. That's quite a new idea. I think a systems traditionally have sat siloed right the way across the business and that means they can't share best practice and it's why they get left out so often. I think you know it's almost like HR sit there and go. Have we rolled this out to everybody? Yes, we've done. The sales department and the marketing department and the finance department. Can you imagine any of those departments without leadership and them saying to them Well, you work it out for yourself. We're going to just allow you to go and do lunch and learns. If you have to get together and work out what success looks like for you, it would be chaos, and yet they think that that's okay for the administrators.

And to me, I feel like the minute you put a department in place, the word department means there is structure, there's leadership, so you could go when I'm big. I want to be that person, I want to get to be there. It means there's now a career framework. It means there are clear goals and KPIs and everybody understands what performance looks like and excellence and what underperformance looks like. More importantly, and when you have executives managing assistance who don't understand the ab in role, what you get is she's a very nice girl and she manages my calendar nicely, so let's give her a raise, which is not right for anybody.

What it is, I think, core to this, hallie, is the fact that it is the business that employs the assistance, it's not the executives. So why is the business employing the assistants? What is the role there to do? And it's so interesting because when I talk to the executives and when I talk to the assistants, they look blank when I ask that question and they say well you know I'm there to do stuff they don't really want to do, and to do the grunt work and to support and get.

And when I say, no, you're not. You're employed by the business to make sure that every dollar of the executive salary is best spent. So, in other words, you should be looking at the pile of work like a metaphorical pile of papers and be thinking I can do that one, I can definitely do that one, I can probably do half of that one, but that is something only they can do, so you take that and you deal with that. So To me, it's very much about having somebody leading the administrative team who understands how to get the best out of them, who understands how to put KPIs and goals in place, who understands how to measure performance so that everybody is on an even keel. They that the business understands how to get the best ROI out of that department.

And when you talk to Executives and to HR departments in those terms, they look like you've hit them over the head. And then they start jumping for joy because they go, ah, fantastic, we've been tasked with doing this forever and we had no clue how to do it. So to me, it's just about talking to them in HR terms and in business language, so that we're very good at assistance. I think about going. I so need to do this. You know I need the opportunity to step up, to do this and it's going to be, you know, right for me and my career. And please let me do that Because it's something I've always wanted to do. And the executives go no, I don't really want you doing that, but they're not putting it in terms of what it's going to do for the executives and for the business.

We've got to start presenting it in that way so that then they're able to go. Well, that's a no brainer. Yes, of course, of course, of course, because we can see immediately what the return on investment is in terms of finance or in terms of time to the business.

Yes, what, what size company or, I guess, what size administrative team do you think would start to necessity forming a department?

I think it's. It depends on how you want to see it. I mean, quite frankly, even if you're right at the beginning, I'll give you a good example. I had a girl this week who works for a Charitable organization and she is there and she is looking after the CEO and she's had a real impact. And the CEO has said I think you need to employ somebody who's going to work with you, who's going to do more administrative tasks. Well, you know there's a start. She's got somebody reporting into her. That could be the beginnings of a department if you structure it properly from the beginning.

But when it comes to looking at wider businesses, like bigger businesses and I'm talking to some really huge ones you know BlackRock have just got global skills matrix over the finishing line and that was hugely exciting. And you know they are going to be doing a case study which Harvard Business Review we're hoping will pick up because they've done several with them already. But it's going to be 18 months down the track, I reckon, before it's there. But you know, I think those bigger businesses you start by going well, what do they need as a business? What does the business need? Let's look at their executive team, their leadership team. Let's look at the next level down or whatever. At the top, you're probably going to need one to one support. Maybe the level down it's one to two, one to three, then, if you get lower than that, maybe it's one to five. The average assistant has four executives now, by the way, that's, that's the average has gone up right over the years.

I'm assuming yeah.

Yes, but some businesses are also putting a pool in place who are doing all the task based reactive work, so that both the assistants and the executives can go to them. So if you start with working out what they need, then you can test to look at what you've got and then you can do a matching exercise and go okay. So this is what we need. What do we have to do to get there and how do we make sure we're filling the skills gap so that we have succession planning and so that we're able to make sure that it's structured properly so that the business has a world class administrative function? That's underpinning everything that the executive team are trying to do.

Yeah, yes, I think I must have heard you talk about that, because I the whole concept of the administrative department, because I was sharing that with some of my clients recently too, and because they're starting to form administrative departments, and I said, well, you need to lock the loose, that you need to look at the global skill range Like it is. I'm thankful that it is starting, is starting to emerge, it's starting to become more of a conversation. So thank you for doing that work, because you're the one you're leading that, that charge, when, when you have in this administrative department structure in place, whether it's small or large, what do you think are some of the best practices? To, yes, have that administrative leader, but then also to make sure you're still forming a very strong partnership with whoever you're directly reporting to. Does the EA or does the assistant have two people they're reporting to, or how do you see that working well?

I think, of course, you're going to be in partnership with your executive, but it's about the leader of that team making very clear what the expectations are from that, from that level of assistant that is serving you, because I think very often the executives have no idea how to use the assistance.

I've seen various businesses put charters in place that say this is exactly how you can use your assistant to each level, and using the global skills makes to say this is the kind of thing that you can expect from them. Here are the competencies that they'll have, here are the kind of tasks that they can do, and when it comes to the end of the year and you've got your year end review, it's very much going to the exec and going well, here are the skills how would you rate them? But also the person who is managing the department, looking at what their behaviors are and looking at where they are lacking, maybe in skills, and how they can make sure that they've got budget for training for that. Because I think if you stop looking at it in terms of this is a resource and you start managing them like talent, all of a sudden the whole thing changes and that can only be good for both the assistance and for the business.

Yeah, absolutely. We talked a little bit about the executives, assistants or the assistants as being strategic and working on their strategic mindset, and in chapter seven of the book, you talk about all about becoming more strategic. What is one thing that an assistant could do this week to become more strategic?

I think reading everything helps. I think trying to get invited to leadership meetings helps, and I'll explain both those things in a minute but I think the most important thing is to start asking why. I think assistants are amazing at the how and the what and the who and the where, and they very rarely ask why. And you read in the beginning. I think, about being endlessly curious. The best assistants being endlessly curious and asking questions.

The assistants that ask why are going to step into the strategic far quicker. Why are we doing that? Why did you make that decision? Yes, yes, so that you start to really understand how they're thinking and why they're making those decisions, because that makes for far more confident conversations and contribution. As far as the reading things goes, there's a great story from Anne Hyatt, who was the chief of staff at Google, you know, who says that when she worked as an AID for Jeff Bezos, the first time she ever worked in his office, she saw on day one that he had reading material on his desk and she went out and she bought it and she read it cover to cover. And from then until when she left, every time you had new reading material on your desk, you went and read it and she said she never mentioned it but it meant they were always on the same page and they always had interesting things to talk about.

And I think leadership meetings is the other thing for me, because it's another one of those things where we go, hey, I should be in those meetings, can I be in those meetings? And they go. No, really not. There's confidential stuff, but that's because we're not presenting it as in what it's going to do for them and to me. You know what it's like when they walk out of those leadership meetings and you go. If there anything for me and they go, yeah, probably, let me look at my notes and then you never hear from it again. And you know, if you'd been there, there would be millions of things that you would be able to follow up on them, where you would understand what was going on. So to me, leadership meetings, firstly, it means that you are going to be able to see what's coming down the track and you're going to see if there are bottlenecks coming up. You're going to learn the language of business, because I think for most assistants they're scared of speaking up because they know what they want to say but they're not sure whether they've got the terminology quite right. It means you're going to build relationships with all the other senior leadership team around that table who are going to start seeing you differently and it means that you're able to be a better problem solver because you know who to go to if there is a problem, but also if you're talking about what's in it for your executive.

I know that Helen Clark, who was Richard Branson's assistant, said that she was always in leadership meetings, firstly so that he didn't ever have to take notes, so he could be 100% present. And she took all the notes and she made note of everything he'd agreed to do and then she calendar it so he never had to think about it again. She also was in there to look at what everybody else had agreed to do, and if anybody else had something that was going to impact his work, she would make a note of that and chase them. And finally, she'd look at body language so that if anybody wasn't totally on board, she could say to him, not in a spying way, but she could say I don't think John's quite got that yet. So her value, just by sitting in those meetings meant that she was taking notes and notes and notes of things. That meant she could be proactive as opposed to reactive, and get on with her role, which was to make him phenomenal, which, of course, is what every exec wants.

So to me, presenting it that way and getting into that meeting is something that's really going to help you get more strategic, because you're going to understand so much more about what the business does. And sometimes assistants say to me well, yes, Lucy, but we're really technical business and I don't really understand it. And I sit in the meetings and they're talking and I don't understand and I say, yes, but you've got to start somewhere and it's no good just saying to me I can't step into the strategic because otherwise, because I just don't understand it, Ask the questions. You know you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less.

Yeah, yeah, I love those three suggestions Ask why, read what they're reading or pay to? Yeah, pay attention to what they're reading or listening to on podcasts. Getting into those leadership meetings are. Those are, to me, the three most probably the three most important things as well. I also recommend that EA's and assistants do that right, right away, because it makes it such a big impact so quickly, without having to necessarily have all of that business knowledge yet, but it's a great place to start. Okay, so I know that you're working on a lot of things, including that the book was released earlier in September and then it's coming to the US and Canada on the 26th, which is amazing. People are listening to this episode. They can go get it right now on Amazon. And what are you working on next? I know you just finished a major project, but I'm sure you've got some other things up your sleeve. Oh my goodness.

There's just so much stuff that's coming down the track. You know the day-to-day side of the business, the commercial side of the business, which is the magazine and the events and the training, and everything just keeps going. And obviously we're coming to do more of that next year and we've got live coming up next year in both Wellington running alongside the World Administrator Summit actually, so it's going to be really exciting but also in Seattle next year. I think that's going to be phenomenal. We're looking at launching a podcast ourselves, but it isn't a podcast like this, it's a podcast. If you get our newsletter, you know our newsletter is Take Five because it's five articles. So the podcast is going to be Take Five Minutes and it is literally we are going back to our authors to ask them to read their articles so that we are able to release an article regularly which is literally just five minutes but which is going to hopefully train the assistants over a period of time to listen to the training. Which I really, really am excited about.

And you know I mean the book.

I'm hoping that that turns into an audio book shortly.

But really my hope with the book was this because I went to Coagham Page with it, because I knew I could self publish and it would probably make me a lot of money.

But actually I've gone with them, which is a lot less money because it's a small percentage that I get, but because of the power that they have got to get me into being a business press, because I want to have this conversation with businesses and with CEOs and with HR directors, because we've been doing this with the assistants for 12 years and we are breaking new ground. However, if we're going to get this project over the finishing line, the next thing is really to talk to the executives about exactly how that is going to work, and so I need to be in those bigger press having those conversations and talking at chief executive conferences and HR conferences and things. So I think a lot of this next year is going to be built on that. And finally, we are building a piece of technology which is going to allow you to test what level you are on the global skills matrix.

Oh, that's fascinating. That is really exciting. It's really exciting.

We are going to be allowed well, you'll be able to get a license for yourself as an individual just what you can with disk or Belvin or whatever to say, okay, we're going to say, this is the level I'm at and here are your skills gaps so you can improve those. But there's going to also be the ability for a business to buy a license for all of their assistance to test them so that they can then go. Well, we can see as individuals and we can test before training and after training, and we can test when we're recruiting. But also we can go well, let's test everybody. Then let's see what training on level threes need, because when they do that, they're going to be rather than going, oh, let's train them on Microsoft or let's train them on this, they're going to be able to go.

They clearly need training on leadership. Let's make sure that that is what we're doing, so that we're uplifting everybody. So that is probably three months away from being in the market, and I can't tell you how excited I am about that, because every business I talked about the global skills matrix says great, we've worked out what the execs want and need. How do we test the assistance?

Yeah, that I did not think you were going to say three months. That's going to be here soon and that is very exciting. I can't wait to check that out. Yeah, I'm really excited. Yeah, well, congratulations again on the book. It's amazing, and I'm hoping it gets in the hands of all of the assistants around the world and into the hands of a lot of executives as well. I think they can benefit from reading it too, and thank you so much for spending some time with me today, hallie. It's a way to joy to see you.

Thank you so much for your time.