How To Use A Personal Assistant

Many managers, particularly those new to direction do not make the most of having a personal assistant. A well organised, reliable banana can provide significant value to a managing director transitioning into a new division or visitor. The practical tips below volition have a new managing director and their assistant performing every bit a well oiled machine in no fourth dimension.

Organize an initial coming together

Schedule a one hour preferably uninterrupted coming together to discuss how you lot will work together. The purpose of this meeting is to clarify the expectations of both parties.

Determine your banana's level of involvement

Exercise you want to exist reminded of pending deadlines and meetings y'all have to attend? Exist advised of an urgent email requiring a response? These are standard practices for a personal assistant. Relying on your assistant to keep y'all on rails will let you lot to focus on the other responsibilities of your new role. Delegation for new managers can sometimes be an issue. A adept identify to start learning effective delegation is with your ain banana.

Clarify day to day responsibilities

To be blunt, you no longer have fourth dimension to reschedule meetings in your agenda. Meetings often alter or get moved. Juggling meetings in a decorated agenda can be time consuming, particularly when meetings with time challenged Senior Management are involved. Leave this action to your assistant.

Your assistant can too ready bated specific blocks of time in your calendar to prepare for regular ongoing deadlines, plan time for you to respond to emails, schedule lunch breaks (which you may or may not really take) and work effectually as many back to back blocks of meetings as possible, though unfortunately sometimes these cannot exist avoided.

Exist clear on your position involving deadlines

While we all similar to think we meet our deadlines, in truth we all know people who are Non good at getting work in on time. If missing deadlines has been an issue in the past, y'all volition demand help from your assistant to ensure deadlines are met. Beingness upfront about your requirements will save you grief later. Your ability to meet deadlines while producing high quality work will be a defining factor in your success as a managing director.

Communicate whether you lot are a detail oriented or "large movie" person

Some people have a highly tuned attention to detail. Many demand this level of attention to perform their jobs successfully. If you lot accept a loftier attending to detail, make this articulate to your assistant. To achieve the best results as a team, your banana volition need to perform on a similar level.

Large flick thinkers may require their assistant and team members to do some of the more than detailed work for them where possible.

Accept a daily morn meeting

"Not another coming together," I hear you lot mumble.

Remember of this more every bit a quick daily take hold of up. A 10 infinitesimal conversation on the day'southward priorities should do the trick. This meeting ensures that your priorities and your assistant's priorities are aligned. If your banana is working for multiple managers, this coming together takes on an even greater importance.

These grab ups can also serve as a time to get paperwork signed or bought to your attention.

Practice regular and open up communication

A situation to avert when you start start working together is a lack of advice.
For example, keep each other up to engagement on meeting changes. Having your banana spend 40 minutes preparing documents for a meeting that yous forgot to mention was canceled is a waste of fourth dimension.

Another mutual trouble to avert is duplication. Lookout that you are non doing the same tasks equally your banana. This can be easy to do if you are used to fending for yourself.

"Underutilizing" your assistant

Within a short corporeality of time working together, an experienced personal banana volition mostly know whether you have worked with an banana in the past. How? They are being underutilized.

Don't assume that you know what your assistant is capable of simply by skimming his or her resume. Your banana may be a whiz with Excel or have experience managing projects. Ask them virtually their previous experience. "Underutilizing" your assistant may result in them yearning to be challenged or feeling they are not calculation value to the partnership.

Overworking your assistant

It goes without saying that most employees have flood to do lists. Lookout man your assistant is not overworked. If the team is working on a large projection where overtime is required to meet the deadline, working extra hours is reasonable.
If no equivalent project exists, nevertheless your assistant is working belatedly every night, coming into the office on weekends and starting to show obvious signs of stress, in that location is most likely a problem brewing.

Sit down and discuss any workload issues. Perhaps some less important tasks can be put on hold or another member of the team who is non every bit decorated could assist in lightening the load.

Limit time spent on personal errands

In a manager/assistant role at that place is often some level of personal work involved. Asking your assistant to grab y'all a bite to eat since you have back to dorsum meetings is ane thing. Having them spend hours shopping for your partner's birthday present would be seen as inappropriate.
It is important to clarify expectations and boundaries early in your working relationship. Piece of work demands constantly change, so maintain an open and honest line of communication and hash out challenges as they arise.

Working well as a squad is the primal to a fulfilling and productive manager/banana relationship.