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.

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…”).