Talent mapping and succession planning is one of THE most important activities an organisation can undertake to ensure the health of an organisation.

If you don’t have the right people doing the critical work, you don’t have an organisation that will thrive. Things unravel pretty quickly when there are gaps in talent and vacant roles.

That’s why I always found it astonishing that only very rarely are executive assistants included in the process.

Throughout my entire career I agitated for this and only once was I able to shift it to have my role, as an EA to a CEO, included in the process.

It’s an enormous missed opportunity to not include the assistant cohort that support leaders in succession planning and this is why:

Recognition on Admin Professional Day is nice. It feels good to be seen, appreciated and even publicly acknowledged. But what feels even better to an assistant is meaningful support and appreciation that goes beyond cards, cupcakes, or chocolates.

Here's why:

Many assistants experience feelings of being undervalued or "othered" in the workplace.

“Just an admin”.

You might not see it or hear it, but it is there and for many it’s felt deeply every day.

The bottom line is this:

Assistants directly contribute to, support and enable the success of others.

Their work, though perhaps sometimes the least visible in an organisation, supports its healthy foundations.

Making something appear effortless is testament to the skill it takes to do a job well.

It is dignified, important work that deserves respect and inclusion, not"othering'.

Ongoing learning and development is an important way to remain relevant in a changing business landscape, keep skills fresh and support career progression.

During the course of my career I studied degree specialisations and many courses and programs to help me amplify my most valuable skills and develop new skills that would support me to expand my value offering.

It wasn’t easy. I had to do all of it in my personal time which, given the heavy workloads I experienced in my career, I rarely had enough of.

I know what it’s like to have the best intentions and sign up to study a course or program and then for it to feel like life can’t accomodate it. There’s not enough free time. There’s too much pressure already. All the valid reasons and the excuses.

I also know that we can often start something full of motivation and excitement and lose momentum mid-way through. We kid ourselves that we can skip a week here or there and catch up under pressure later, but the reality is this creates more overwhelm and anxiety that we don’t need.

That’s why I want to share some of the tips that helped me to prioritise the learning I signed up for, even when life was busy and the pressure was on.

A client asked me to bring ChatGPT and its possible impact on the assistant profession into a forthcoming corporate workshop, so I set it to test today with my to-do list as a test case.

I approached it through the lens of how it can create efficiency and whether it could do everything better than I could as a (former) EA.

Here’s what I put to the test:

Comparison to an article I’ve written for a magazine - based on my long experience working with CEOs

For ideas for a freebie to gift to my newsletter community next week - I related this to coming up with event ideas

Possible questions to ask in a podcast interview next month - I related this to creating a briefing document for a CEO

Writing a section of my next newsletter - I related this to drafting internal comms

Content for a solo podcast episode I’m recording - I related this to creating town hall content or first draft report writing on a market insight

An email response to a frequently asked question - I related this to a BAU assistant task

The ability to influence is one of the most critical weapons an executive assistant needs to have in their arsenal to be successful in their work, day-to-day and their career.

To be able to influence with impact is to understand that sometimes ideas and concepts need space to breathe.

It’s also to be able to choose moments carefully, adjust style as needed and respond with grace when things don’t go your way.

There’s an art to knowing when to press forward with tenacity and when to bide your time for the best results.

Here are some quick tips to help you influence through a roadblock with ease and grace.

Writing can be a huge challenge for many Executive Assistants and the source of hours of lost time spent procrastinating and agonising over what to say and how to say it.

You’re in the right place if you’ve ever wished you knew the best practices, tips and tricks that would elevate your written materials and communications and take away the frustration and the guess work.

Here’s the thing: business writing is part art and part science.

A few little tweaks here and there and adjusting your thinking brings less stress, more ease, faster replies and more polish.

Here’s 5 tips to get you started with confidently writing on behalf of others.

Performance reviews can often be the source of frustration and disappointment for many administration professionals.

It can feel difficult to quantify or measure the impact of the work an assistant performs when for the most part, it isn't like a project with a start, end and directly obvious outcomes. The work can feel invisible and therefore overlooked or misunderstood.

This can be disheartening for a profession whose function exists to support the success of others.

There's an art to guiding a conversation and helping an executive see beyond core responsibilities and through to the strategic and impactful work that is very often under the radar. Entering into an executive mindset is the key to a positive review season, and here are some tips to help.

Being the right hand to a CEO is an incredible experience.

So much visibility, learning opportunities and variety, but life at the top has some unique challenges that nobody really prepares you for.

If you have aspirations of becoming a CEO’s assistant (or even chief of staff), here are 5 things you should be prepared for.

Support ratios (EA : executive) have blown out to the highest I've seen in a LONG time.

With so much uncertainty in the world, difficulty finding affordable talent and the pressure to cut overheads, it's no surprise organisations are choosing not to replace EAs when they move on and instead increase the support ratio of existing EAs to compensate.

Increasing support ratios seems to be logical but it's really bad news for both EAs and organisations.

This is a tricky question because we’re in a digital era where the access lines have been blurred by the convenience of technology AND we’re still navigating an unsettling time where the only constant is change.

At the same time we know we have to take care of ourselves and nurture our wellbeing because being constantly ‘on’ is terrible for our health and wellbeing.

I’m often asked whether being available outside hours is expected, how much is reasonable and how to handle people who continually overstep.

Here’s what helped me in my career.

As an EA self belief can take a pretty big battering.

You come in, work your heart out. You spend day after day focused solely on what your executive needs, wants and will want to ensure their success and the organisation’s.

You know it’s appreciated, but the moments that REALLY matter are MIA.

Performance reviews merely scratch the surface of what you do.

Development conversations feel more like a courtesy than the meaningful support other professions receive.

Being skipped over for updates in meeting check-ins.

Not being included in important initiatives/meetings where the power of your influence and ability to galvanise the doers and cut through bureaucracy has been overlooked.

Irritation at your wanting to understand the deeper meaning behind work - the why not the how (“you don’t need to know that, you just need to do…”).

EAs know what they're getting into when they sign up for this work. The clues are in every job ad and interview "manage competing demands and priorities" and "composure under pressure" or "resilience in a rapidly changing landscape" and "ability to cope in a fast paced environment".

EAs know they're the safety nets, the last stop - whatever mistakes they make or don't catch can have a huge impact.

As an EA it can feel there isn't the same permission to be as human as everyone else.

If EAs find themselves not coping even for a moment it feels like a failure. And someone will always notice.

THIS is why the executive assistant community are stressed, exhausted and burned out.

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.