In this week's episode, we discuss the evolution of the Executive Assistant role and the paradigm shift that has taken place in recent years.

Learn how to build trust with your leaders, develop executive presence, and ask the right questions to force multiply your leader's 20%. We also explore the concept of being an impact player and how adopting this mindset can propel your career forward.

Listen in and discover how you can command your seat at the table and become an invaluable Force Multiplier.

View full transcript: https://founderandforcemultiplier.com/executive-assistant-or-assistant-executive/

[00:00:02] Hallie: 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 we're going to talk about the concept of an executive assistant and how that role has continued to evolve, over the past several years, but I would say more, more recently, even in the past 10.

[00:00:47] It changed the trajectory of my career and set me on a mission to make sure that other EA. Force multipliers, executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders knew how important this partnership was to their businesses and their lives. I was so encouraged by the continued conversation around elevating the responsibilities, inclusion, visibility, respect, and the impact of the executive assistant career.

[00:01:23] Furthermore, Keller discusses how this force multiplier position can grow and evolve with the leader and earn the right to move into an assistant executive position. That is right. What if we stopped putting so much focus on the assistant part of the title and really started emphasizing the executive part of the role?

[00:02:05] Founders enforce multipliers are responsible for one high impact job. They simply make different contributions towards the overall goal, each rooted in their strengths. Executive assistants are critical staff and valuable members of the Inner Circle. Today's EA are business savvy leaders and are not content to sit on the sidelines.

[00:02:46] Titles such as executive business partner Force multiplier, and chief of Staff are becoming much more common titles across all industries, and I hope to see this trend continue. However, regardless of the title, it is much more about inspiring and enacting a paradigm shift. However, regardless of the title, it is more about inspiring and enacting a paradigm and mindset shift about the role than changing the title itself.

[00:03:34] Here are a few ideas to get you started on how to level up and command that seat at the table. Number one, ask the right questions to help your leader prioritize and execute projects. One of the most important parts of being a strong strategic partner and invaluable force multiplier is understanding how your leader or executive thinks and makes decisions.

[00:04:10] In lieu of mind reading capabilities, you can get a better understanding of your leader's decision making process with some key practices. And of course, by asking really great questions. If you want some of my, favorite questions, you can head over to our blog and get 10 questions that you can ask your leader to help prioritize and execute projects.

[00:04:48] Furthermore, you are leading up to your executive and down and out to others throughout the organization. Executive presence is an amalgamation of confidence, poise, clear and concise communication, reliability, vulnerability and strength. Tall order, right? So let's demystify this concept and discuss how we can cultivate our executive presence and grow your career.

[00:05:26] But we all know EA aren't just going to focus on the 80% Part of their job is helping the executive manage their 20%. An executive assistant manages the people details, timelines, et cetera, to make an idea come to life. We do have, a big breakdown of all of that on our website as well, so that you can look at how an executive assistant also helps their executive with their 20%.

[00:05:49] cultivate your confidence at any stage of your career. Cultivating confidence is a practice. You don't develop confidence by reading about it in a book or listening about it on a podcast. You build confidence through action and experience and having the courage to take those first steps towards change.

[00:06:09] Five, build trust with your leader. If there isn't trust between a strategic partnership, then the rest of the organization can really suffer some serious adverse effects. If trust is absent between two individuals who work as closely as a C E O and an executive assistant do, then how might they look to the rest of the organization?

[00:06:48] I have a breakdown of that, on our website, so go check that out. And finally become an impact player. Impact players are those individuals who make a significant contribution individually, but who also have an enormously positive impact on the team. What really differentiates them from their colleagues is that impact players believe that opportunity exists.

[00:07:35] Again, you can check out some more details on that on our website. So, Executive assistant or assistant executive, that is the question, and the answer is up to us.