When you read a job posting for an EA role, it sounds easy enough, right? These job descriptions are generic because each role is tailored to the executive needs and the specific EAs unique skillset. In today’s post, I’ll explore the top skills I feel are needed for an entry-level EA. This is a long post because the EA role is complex.
I’m writing this post for 2 reasons:
- To educate non EAs about what this role is actually about.
- To educate people considering the role but don’t know what is required. It’s much more involved than people realize.
Earn trust & related skills
In the Earn Trust post, I wrote why it’s important to earn trust. It’s at the top of this post because without trust, you simply will not be an effective EA. A trust broken is very difficult to mend.
Here is a short list of advice related to trust: do not gossip, under promise and over deliver, do your best work, ask for help when you need it and learn when to say no.
While everything can be learned on the job, the more you bring to the table at the start will better positioned for success. This is by no means an exhaustive list and I could easily write more detailed posts on each.
Calendar management
Priorities are ever-shifting and need to be managed. Scheduling and rescheduling meetings is a fact of life and a core skill for EAs. You need to regularly review your executive’s calendar and proactively manage scheduling conflicts.
Beyond meetings, leaders need time to do their work, take breaks, have lunch, complete pre-reads, process meeting information, travel from one meeting to the next, coach their directs, develop their network, and dream up the Next Big Thing.
All day back-to-back meetings is the quickest path to burnout.
EAs coordinate with other EAs to schedule meetings. You need to develop solid relationships with your peers in order to effectively schedule meetings. Don’t forget to effectively and efficiently manage your own calendar.
Email management
Managing an executive’s email may or may not be required. A high level of trust between you and your leader is required because you have access to highly confidential information.
You need an effective system to manage your own inbox effectively. I recommend implementing simple automation tools, such as Outlook Quick Parts, to quickly generate repetitive email content.
Apps, Policies
In my opinion, EAs need to be at least intermediate users of word processing, spreadsheets, slides, org charts, instant messaging, and teleconferencing apps. As the people always in the office, EAs can expect to troubleshoot printers, copiers, computers, laptops, network connections. I’ve Google-searched and solved my own laptop issues on multiple occasions. Guess what?
In addition, you have to learn and master the systems your company uses for expense reporting, procurement, customer/client management, travel, conference room booking, space and project management.
EAs are expected to provide advice and guidance on company policies and procedures or know who to contact for such information.
Travel coordination
You’ll coordinate all aspects of your leader’s travel: flights, hotels, ground transport, restaurant reservations. Complex multi-city travel may require a spreadsheet to plan the trip. International travel may require researching and applying for visas, understanding local culture and customs, obtaining local currency, special charging cables/plugs for laptops and mobile phones.
You need to understand your leader’s travel preferences for flights, lodging, ground transport, dietary restrictions, travel times to/from the airport.
Once the travel is booked, you need to provide your executive with an itinerary, with contacts, confirmation numbers,
I supported a Medical Director who REFUSED to layover at O’Hare International Airport. Under. Any. Circumstance. Every trip to the Midwest had to be routed to a different airport. This requirement not only added travel time to/from his destination and impacted where he could stay when he visited Chicago, it meant more time for me to research options to develop the itinerary.
Expense reporting
You need a system to collect receipts from your leader and process expenses according to company policy. You need to learn the app your organization uses. I’ve used Concur at my 3 most recent companies and it looked and behaved differently at each.
Documents
Depending on the team, you may be responsible for writing content, proofreading, copy editing, managing paper/digital files, publishing content, taking meeting minutes.
Document control includes additional responsibilities: managing shared network drives, managing access, platforms like SharePoint and Google Drive and distribution and rules-based permissions lists.
It is useful to know how to create and edit templates. It’s a great time-saver to use Styles and the Navigator in Word to easily move content around.
Meeting minutes
Many EAs dread taking minutes. I’ve worked in a variety of industries and took minutes on unfamiliar, technical topics ranging from the radioactive safety, surgical teams, sales meetings, and mechanical engineering. I was the only admin support in a room full of very smart, very technical professionals. Everywhere I worked, my minutes were praised for accuracy and usefulness post-meeting. Did I know what they were talking about? Not at first but eventually, I learned enough to take effective notes.
One of the questions I get asked most: how do you take meeting minutes when you don’t understand the subject? Here is my 5 things to take effective minutes:
- Learn to disconnect your fingers from your brain. Don’t fall into the rabbit hole of trying to understand WHAT the attendees are talking about. Instead, listen for clues as to what the group deems important and listen for action items, owners and due dates.
- Unless the notes will be used for legal purposes, there is no need to record word-for-word discussions. Record the gist using Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.
- Develop the habit of summarizing information. It is an extremely useful skill in all areas of the EA world. Practice by taking notes in your weekly sync meeting with your leaders and making notes for yourself on tasks and projects.
- When you find yourself stuck trying to understand a specific topic in a meeting, make a note to ask your exec or one of their directs later. People love to talk about their work and will gladly explain All the Things.
- Understand your leader’s business, goals, initiatives, objectives and the lingo. It takes time and questions. Again, taking notes on the answers will help you retain the information.
Project management
A project could be anything with a defined start and end date, related to the business. These can be big or small projects that may particular to the team and leaders.
Obvious EA projects include managing office space and coordinating team events.
Space management
Covid sent everyone home, but now folks are returning to the office. I’ve worked in organizations with a dedicated space manager and where the EAs manage their team’s space.
In 2022, I managed space for over 800 people in 55 corporate office buildings around the US and Canada. In 2023, I manage 2 seats: one of my Directors and my own. In 2024, who knows? If your company requires people to work in office full or part time, then you need mechanisms to manage space effectively.
Managing space requires understanding processes, apps, policies, managing people, offices and desks. People are weirdly possessive about space: feelings of entitlement, preferences for location, requesting non-standard desk set-ups. Everyone is special and they’ll tell you all about it.
And not always in the most polite manner.
Event management
Events can range from small team off sites to hundreds or thousands of attendees at a large conference. Events may be held locally or the group may travel to a special location. You are expected to coordinate all aspects of the event: the agenda, swag, travel, hotel booking, conference room booking, catering, off site meals, team-building events.
You have to communicate details to attendees, send invites and manage attendees, wrangle presentation decks, AV and room configurations.
People management
EAs work with a wide variety of people: their own leaders, directs, skip level leaders, other EAs, administrative staff, stakeholders and business partners, basically, everyone from housekeeping to the President/CEO.
Lead EAs oversee other EAs or Administrative Assistants, often without being their direct manager. Lead EAs serve as the administrative hiring manager, interview and onboard new team members, as well as coach their peers.
You need to understand people, communication styles, earn trust, manage confidential information (people WILL cozy up to you to get the inside scoop).
You may be asked to run meetings on behalf of your leader. As you advance in the role, you’ll be expected to lead meetings.
Communication
Being an EA can be isolating: people treat you as if you are at your leader’s level. They come to you as the subject matter expert, pump you for information then they exclude you from informal events because they are afraid you’ll blab to the boss.
Your leader expects you to share your knowledge and observations about the team. They need to understand the pulse of the team: who’s dissatisfied, what are they talking about, who’s a flight risk.
My first experience with this aspect of the role was when I was interim EA to a regional Partner. My first week on the job, he sat me down to set ground rules and expectations. When he got to Keep Me Informed About the Team, he said, “you’re not snitching. I need to know what the team is feeling. That’s part of your job.”
I wasn’t very successful with this at that job, but I’ve come to understand the importance of keeping my leaders appraised without gossiping. Stick to the facts. At. All. Times. Don’t let emotions drive you. That’s the quickest way to burnout. It is possible to focus on facts without becoming an automaton.
You’ll notice there was no mention of running personal errands, buying leaders coffee and lunches. Unless specified in the job description, it is NOT an expectation that EAs run errands for their executive.
In summary, being an EA is not just about being a calendar jockey. You need to exceed expectations EVERYDAY. Not just when you feel like it. This is a demanding role that requires an extensive skill set for a long, successful career.