What’s the chief characteristic of being a great Administrative or Executive Assistant? It’s knowing everything, or at least seeming like you do. The best assistants are those that can aptly handle managing the boss’s calendar, sorting his mail and screening her calls without having to always stop and ask for information or permissions. But how do you get to that miraculous place where you know all?
Daily meetings between the boss and the assistant are absolutely required. Well, maybe not every day. When the boss is home sick or on vacation, you can let him be if it isn’t an emergency. But most days vitally need at least five minutes of face to face time with the boss (phone time if she’s traveling).
You can’t be the person in the know, the person who saves your boss so much time and effort, if you don’t know what’s going on and what’s important. Without that vital information, your boss may as well have a robot sitting at the desk doing things by rote. The heart of an administrative assistant is her intelligence and discretion, and mostly of all, her knowledge.
At first, you may think there’s not enough to discuss for daily meetings. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll have trouble squeezing everything into those few minutes. Here’s a list of basics to discuss:
As you and your boss become more comfortable with the daily face-to-face meetings, you’ll both start thinking of more to be discussed. One boss I worked for was the Director of Human Resources for a university. Part of my duties for him was to review industry magazines and websites for pertinent information (especially legal decisions) he needed to know. That was part of our daily discussions. What you discuss every day will depend on your industry, your boss’s position, and your boss’s personality and work style.
Do you have daily meetings with your boss? If not, how often do you meet? What do you discuss in your meetings? Leave a comment and share with all of us, so we can all learn from each other.
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I am an assistant to a busy workman’s comp attorney. Instead of meetings, we communicate through email all day long even if he is just in the other office. I have easy access for questions and to update him on all new appointments or remind him of pending appointments. I update his paper calendar every morning when I arrive and I send him emails about phone calls or correspondence which i need approval on. Even when he is not in the office, thanks to a great cell phone, we keep in touch. I feel like the office runs very smooth this way and we are always on the same page(so to speak).
Thanks for the comment, Jeannine. It sounds like you and your boss have a solid communication plan in place. That’s the way to really keep things running smoothly. Congratulations!
I just stumbled upon your blog, and am enjoying it immensely so far, I have to say.
My (somewhat) new boss – I’ve been here for roughly 8 months, and am nearing wits’ end. While we get along well on a personal level, I have to say he is the most disorganized person I’ve ever worked for. I never know when he’s going to be in the office, or when he’s decided to work from home, or when he’s scheduled meetings without a word to anyone else. He keeps his own calendar, which I’ve never dealt with before. His schedule seems to be so up in the air that even meetings between he and I that we’ve set happen maybe 50% of the time.
I’m largely having to be self-sufficient, which is fine, but the lack of availability on his part makes me wonder if I’m completely on the wrong track. Whenever I ask, he assures me I’m doing fine, but I can’t help but think there’s more I could be doing, if he would just let me in on what it is HE’S doing.
Hi, Lily. Thanks for commenting. Is your boss using Outlook for his appointment? It would be a lot easier if he’d use something you can access to, just so you know when and where he’s supposed to be. If he isn’t, maybe that is something to suggest to him. It would make his life easier as well, since it will be easier for you to assist him if you know what’s on his plate.