Executive Admin Isms
Tips & insights from me to my EA friends
On my last day at Dropbox, where I was an EA for 7 years and helped the admin team grow from 2 to 50, I sent out an email with my Janet-isms to all the admins. They were words and phrases and concepts I shared with many of them over the course of the years, and things that I would repeat on a regular basis.
I recently came across them when I was searching for something else and realized that 5 years later, they still resonate, even though I work at a different company now, and the role I do, though still an EA, is slightly different.
I still feel like these could be relatable and could resonate, whether one is an admin or not. Mainly, I hope my kids read them one day and understand why I operated the way I did or worked the way I did or repeated things (aka nagged?) as much as I did :)
I present to you, in no particular order, the Janet-isms:
Be proud of being an admin (or any other job that you have, really) — if you can’t be proud of what you do, then don’t do it. also, some of you say it’s hard because people don’t know what you do. and to that i say, who cares if people don’t know what you do. do you know what everyone else at the company does and how much behind the scenes work goes into their work? nah probably not. so it’s ok if people don’t get what you do.
Care — care so much that your heart hurts. care about the job you have, the people you support, the teams you are on, the company. not just at dropbox, but anywhere you go. care about people’s happiness, their lives, and their well-being. care about helping people and supporting people. care, and it will get you far. care, and it will make you happy. care, and you will love doing what you do and become better at it. care.
Build relationships — you don’t have to become everyone’s best friend, but be good to people and get to know them. you never know when you will need someone’s help or when knowing someone will come in handy. so go and build those relationships.
Your job as an admin is to help make your lead/exec productive — think about your day to day. what are you doing for them that’s helping them be better managers and leaders in this company? what are you doing for them that’s making them productive?
You are a reflection of your lead(s) — as an admin, you are supposed to be a partner to the people you support. what you do, what you say, how you portray yourself, how you act, etc. will affect how people view your lead whether you like it or not.
Trust is not given, it is earned — how do you earn the trust of your lead? by doing a fantastic job, keeping your mouth shut when they vent to you, being strategic about how you manage their time, making them look good to others, etc. think about the people you trust and why you trust them. what qualities do they have that make you trust them?
Be the eyes and the ears for your lead — build relationships cross functionally and with people on their team so that you can gain people’s trust. if you become a trusted confidante for your lead’s team, you can become a huge asset to them (and to the team). i’m not saying turn your 1:1 with your lead into a gossip sesh by divulging all these secrets to them, but you can help them be better managers if you guide them in the right direction with the knowledge and information that you have.
Work hard, become invaluable, and become difficult to replace — everyone is replaceable but not everyone is valuable, so what makes YOU valuable? what do YOU do for your boss(es) or for their teams or for the admin team that makes them say “wow what would we do without him/her?” if your answer is “i’m not sure”, then maybe you’re not doing enough. if your answer is endless because you do so much for them that you think is valuable, then slow your roll and do more.
Learn to adapt — people are so very different from each other. are you able to handle multiple leads and connect with them differently? or do you get upset because one lead doesn’t do this for you, another lead doesn’t care, or yet another lead doesn’t ask you how your day was? don’t blame them (though also don’t feel bad giving them this feedback). learn to adapt to them and while you’re at it, help them to understand you and how you operate :). figure out the right way to connect to them.
Along the same lines, everyone has different personalities — accept it. many of us support multiple leads. they’re not all going to be the same. turn it into a challenge for yourself. learn how to work with different personalities. i promise you this will help you in your future inside and outside of dropbox.
Don’t be entitled — you need to earn your respect, reputation, money, title, level, and your right to be an asshole when it’s deemed necessary. you don’t just come waltzing into dropbox on day one making demands, right? be thankful for what you have. this place is fucking amazing.
Figure out what separates you from the rest — and work hard to perfect it. even if it’s your ability to memorize people’s names or set up the best birthdays or put together the perfect cluster of balloons. or maybe it’s your personality or your positive attitude towards everything. whatever it is, own it and be the best at it.
Remember that all emails can and probably will get forwarded, so be careful how you write and what you write — “please don’t cc or forward to anyone” doesn’t mean anything. neither does “don’t tell anyone but…” and “seriously, like this is just between you and me, don’t say anything”. if it’s a super secret, then it’s best to just keep it to yourself.
Add the Gmail Labs 30-second delay feature on your emails so you don’t accidentally send something you don’t mean to… eek!
Stop whining and complaining — like literally. stop. and if you find yourself complaining a lot about every situation you’re in, then i promise you, there’s a very high chance that you are the problem, not everyone else.
Watch your attitude and tone of voice — especially over email and chat. people misinterpret things ALL THE TIME. and if you do misinterpret it (no matter how much you think you heard right), ask that person to explain. call them out. if you’re afraid to call someone out on what they said, then you don’t have the right to go gossip with others about how you’ve interpreted what they’ve said. this is how you ruin relationships on the admin team (or any team). stay united. support each other.
Go to events and network or just take in the surroundings — go to happy hours or recruiting events or team dinners because those are all opportunities where you can get to know team members or learn about the venue space or experience what went well and what did not so you can become better at planning future events, etc.
Learn how to take constructive criticism and feedback well — don’t get upset if someone gives you negative feedback, be thankful. and if you think you’re the best at what you do and you believe this because no one gives you any negative feedback, then think again homie. they’re probably just not telling you. we all have something we can work on. find out what it is and try to be better at it.
Always want to learn and grow and be challenged — don’t become complacent
You can learn something from EVERYONE you encounter — someone once told me that everyone is “interesting” and there’s always something you can learn from them. everyone has a story and something to contribute. give people the opportunity to share those things with you.
Be proactive and put yourself in other people’s shoes — one of the biggest assets an EA can have is the ability to think on behalf of their lead. no, you’re not a mind reader, but there are things you can do to help them be productive and better leaders. there are things you can do before they even have to remind you to do it. work smarter!
Be consistent and set expectations — when people (or your leads) can have expectations of you, it makes things easier — what time you come in everyday, where you sit, how you respond to things, your response time, the questions people know you will ask them when they ask for time with your lead(s), etc.
Be responsive — everyone is busy, yeah i get it. and it’s hard to get through all these emails. but sometimes people just want to know that you’re working on something they requested. send updates, give them a heads up. even if it’s just “hey i got your email, and i’m working on it, but give me till end of this week”.
Don’t be bored — if you ever say you’re bored at dropbox, something’s wrong. there is always something to do, someone to support, projects to work on, things to do, and ways to be proactive. think about why you’re bored. if you really can’t figure it out, ask me, and i’ll tell you what you can do to get out of boredom. but #realtalk, if you’re telling people you’re bored, you need to stop. it’s making you look bad. and you need to do something to fix it.
If you make a mistake, own up to it, find a solution, and don’t ever make the same mistake again twice — it’s ok if you make a mistake. we’re all human. we all do it. so don’t blame other people or other scenarios for your mistakes. and don’t dwell on it. most of the time, your lead(s) just wants you to figure out how to fix it and get it done. this is the best thing about making mistakes — you are forced to think quickly and come up with creative solutions.
Take initiative — if you want to grow, ask for things to do and volunteer to take on more. carve your own career path. don’t wait for someone to tell you how to grow. also, the work we do as admins is different with each individual, so just because one admin grows one way, doesn’t mean you need to follow that same path. that’s the great thing about being an admin. it’s such a broad role that you can make it into whatever you want as long as you are amazing at your job.
Be humble — because you can always be better, smarter, nicer, etc.
Don’t power trip — because you’ll trip, and when you do, you want people to help you up and ask if you’re ok, you don’t want people to point fingers at you while they walk by and say “well you deserved it” or “karma’s a bitch”
Get off your high horse — because when you fall, it hurts
Remember when you leave Dropbox, it’s your reputation that goes with you — people don’t remember your entrance, they remember your exit.
On Admin Appreciation Day, recognize all the folks who help make your job easier — sure it’s a day to appreciate admins, but you can’t do what you do all by yourself, you need others — i.e. you need tuckshop, you need events team, you need IT, you need front desk, you need shipping, you need office team, etc. without them, you will not be able to be a great admin. do. not. forget. that.
There are ALWAYS two sides to every story — seek out the other sides before you make your judgments.
Don’t jump to conclusions — you don’t know what’s going on in someone’s life and why they might have reacted a certain way. you don’t know why someone said this one thing. you don’t know what’s going to happen next week. don’t waste your energy on jumping to conclusions.
Don’t let misunderstandings linger — they are poisonous and toxic and unnecessary
Don’t assume that you know someone’s intention — that will get you into trouble
Don’t create scenarios in your head that haven’t even happened yet (and might not even happen) — why are you sitting there stressing yourself out by thinking of all the “what ifs”. what if all your “what ifs” don’t even happen? what a waste of emotional energy!
Birds of a feather flock together — take a look at who you surround yourself with and hang out with the most… do they make you a better person/admin/dropboxer?
Be thankful — life could be way worse. you’ve got it pretty good here.
Figure out what makes you happy — and prioritize it.
Don’t talk shit about other people — we all do it, i get it. but it’s not healthy. also, the people you talk shit about might end up becoming your best friends later and then you end up feeling like an asshole, so… just don’t.
Take care of your personal life — you need something outside of work, no matter how happy you are at work — it could be someone you’re dating, it could be a puppy, it could be books or netflix shows, it could be cooking, it could be volunteering, but whatever it is, you need it. it will help you stay sane and give you something to look forward to outside of work on the days you want to flip a table and roar.
Always put family & friends first — dropbox will survive without you. your leads will be ok without you. your team will be fine without you. you are not the only one who can do what you do. sure, you might be slightly special and perhaps even valuable, but then even more so why you need a distraction free break. the worst thing to see is excellent coworkers burning out all the time because they can never sign off. if your family needs you for whatever reason, put. them. first. i’ve regretted not doing this, so i tell you now how important it is. spending time with family and friends are experiences and memories you can’t get back. you’ll have your family and friends with you forever (typically), but you probably won’t be at dropbox forever.
Remember, most of the time, you are in control — you are in control of your feelings. you are in control of the mindset you choose to be in. you are in control of how much you want to dive into a situation or not. you are in control of how many 1:1s you have on your calendar. if you’re drowning, take control of your time and learn to prioritize it better. if you heard some gossip, how you react to it is in your control. if you heard of a situation that affects you, you are in control of how you want to handle it. don’t blame other people. look within first.
And lastly, at the end of the day, it’s really not that big of a deal — if something annoying happens at work, if a coworker doesn’t follow through with what they say, if someone says something that irks you, if the restaurant you booked forgot to include a course on the pre-fixe menu, if the doughbie (RIP) cookies you ordered are crunchy/crispy and not chewy and you are disappointed, remember… at the end of the day, it’s really not that big of a deal. everything is fine, and you will be ok!!!