One major difference between administration careers and other professions is that others tend to have the benefit of being included in talent mapping and succession planning.

This means other professionals are nurtured, mentored and developed differently. They’re shown how to build out their career runway and how to highlight their value in meaningful ways.

Administration professionals are most often left to fend for themselves with this. It’s a horrible, cold, hard reality. It’s what drives me to do the work I do.

During my 27 year career as an Executive Assistant, I sat in countless Executive Committee Meetings where talent mapping was discussed.

I was a fly on the wall observing deep debate (sometimes very heated) and dissections of the performance of individuals. What I heard over and over again was enlightening.

As an EA I had a regular habit that served me well.

I carved out time every month to check in on how I was going, where I was going and how I was feeling. Not my performance goals, a more personal check in that was all about me, not what I could deliver for the organisation I was in.

I began doing this after noticing all of my executives spent time regularly thinking about themselves. Their career. Their success. Their happiness. Their development. Their professional relationships. Everything they needed to rise and rise and rise.

During my 27 ish year career as an EA, most of which supporting at the most senior levels, I experienced some really challenging times.

Mergers, acquisitions, public relations catastrophes, IPOs, changes in leadership, Royal Commissions, House Economics Committee appearances, the GFC, a pandemic, bullying, sexual harassment, unreasonable requests, demanding executives and some lean times with serious cut backs.

I also experienced some really amazing, happy, cruisy times.

Here’s the weird thing. The happy, easy times weren’t the moments in my career that brought me the most growth or opportunities.