Are you looking to become a top-tier executive assistant? If so, you'll need to possess a unique set of skills that will help you excel in this highly rewarding yet demanding career. A great EA is resourceful, innovative and proactive, thinks independently and doesn't need much supervision or direction. A good EA is a natural decision maker, with the ability to think under pressure and show good judgment. To help you become a successful executive assistant, we've put together a list of 14 essential skills that you'll need to master. The most effective executives reflect deeply on the parts of their workload that can be taken over or restructured so that they are partially taken over by the assistant.
For example, if they plan to be executive assistants in a legal environment, they should be familiar with legal terminology and procedures. People who can manage their downtime in the most efficient way are the best candidates for executive assistants. A good assistant quickly learns what an executive needs, what their strengths and weaknesses are, what can cause anger or stress, and how to best adapt to their personal style. Another example is Noreen Denihan, whom I named more than 13 years ago as executive assistant to Donald J. Data entry, record keeping and record keeping are important parts of what executive assistants do, and keeping up with the latest applications and solutions on the market will undoubtedly make their work much easier.
Try to find an executive assistant who is always looking for new technologies to suggest these improvements. If a project is important, but the executive doesn't have enough staff to dedicate it, a rockstar assistant will offer to take over. By using their experience and understanding both potential situations and the habits and needs of their boss, a great executive assistant can anticipate and overcome obstacles before they occur. Because of rapidly changing work environments and technological advances, executive assistants are working and occupying even more functions than before. As you may have already noticed, a dull moment is a rarity and a luxury for an executive assistant.
It's no wonder that the best executive assistants possess otherworldly organizational skills. After years of cutbacks, companies can increase productivity by providing more managers with this type of help, and executives who are fortunate enough to have a qualified assistant can benefit from finding ways to delegate higher-level work to them. While the types of tasks that executive assistants perform may vary from position to position, they all tend to perform similar high-level tasks and duties. If you think about it, an executive assistant is essentially a project manager tasked with managing a single but very complex project. That said, this is the best way to advance your career and add more value as an executive assistant. To become an effective executive assistant, you'll need to master 14 essential skills: resourcefulness, innovation, proactivity, independent thinking, decision-making ability under pressure, legal terminology knowledge (if applicable), time management skills, understanding of an executive's needs and weaknesses, ability to adapt to different personal styles, knowledge of data entry and record keeping applications, tech-savviness for suggesting improvements, anticipation of potential obstacles before they occur, understanding of rapidly changing work environments and technological advances, otherworldly organizational skills and the ability to delegate higher-level work.
