Walk, Don't Run!

Your Executive Assistant presence matters

Executive Assistants hold a lot of power in their presence.

Understanding this and how it can and should affect the way you work could be the difference in your ability to grow and be a great or mediocre EA.

I have an EA friend, Shelley Trask, who told a story once about how she was helping her executive prepare for their company’s conference. He was scheduled to be demoing their product soon in front of a live audience, but the product went down! She was running up and down the aisles, making phone calls to people who could help bring their product back up. And amidst the chaos, another EA stopped her, and said “Shelley… don’t run”. She reminded her that her running was making people anxious.

I also heard another story from Chynna Clayton at the most recent eaRISE conference I was at. She was the Special Assistant to the First Lady Michelle Obama. She emphasized how important it was to watch, observe, listen, and learn, and also carry yourself with a presence that represents your executive well. She shared several fun stories where things went wrong in the White House, all of them last minute of course, and she had to handle them with grace and composure because she knew everyone around her was watching her.

Even in our day to day life, if you are a parent, and your child falls and gets hurt, typically depending on how you react, that’s how your child will react. Or when you’re on a plane and there’s bad turbulence, as long as the flight attendants seem to be calm and collected, it keeps your omg-I’m-freaking-the-f-out-right-now emotions at bay.

I remember early on in my career (in hospitality, but also as an EA), all I knew how to do was walk extremely fast, be short and quick on email and chat responses, and freak out. Things always went wrong. We were always busy. So the obvious thing for me to do, and let’s be real, the only thing I actually knew how to do in these situations, was panic lol :)

And naturally, because of the executives I supported, people associated my behavior with what was happening with my executive and in the company. They would look at my calendar to search for clues. They would watch how I operated. They would be curious as to why I was frantically walking to and from one place to another. They would pick up on my nervousness.

I eventually even had to cancel all my 1:1s because I didn’t want to get caught revealing any sort of emotion or reaction on my face when people would ask me questions. Sometimes, as EAs, we know things months before the rest of the company finds out. I’d be damned if a slight facial twitch revealed to others that I knew some shit was about to go down.

I remember needing to be careful of how I said things because they could easily be misinterpreted. I also had to be mindful of what I wrote on chat and email, as well, and I had to be conscious of what I put on my calendar.

Our quick-to-react actions and emotions during chaos is a sign of lacking experience - this is not a bad thing, just a tenure thing. This is why someone who has been an EA for one year will react much differently than someone who has been an EA for ten years.

More experienced EAs have already been put through the ringer :) We have more years under our belt, we’ve been there done that, we’ve seen so many things go wrong that nothing phases us anymore, and we can now solve problems with our eyes closed.

We also know that things work out in the end, or it’s not really AS big of a deal as we thought it was, or that sometimes laughing about the situation is better than panicking. And we also know how to take a breather. I should add that we also have resources, a network, and people we know we can go to who can help us (this is why building relationships is so important).

Eventually, knowing how to solve problems, responding and reacting with kindness, and walking gracefully, with class, amongst the chaos and the fires that surround you becomes second nature.

Know the role you play as an Executive Assistant whether you work at a small company or a large one. Know that even when it doesn’t seem like it because you’re just a mere employee in a sea of 3,000+ people, everyone is watching you because of your role and because of who you support.

They see what you do, they watch how you act, they interpret what you write, and they judge you and your executive and the company based on all that.

Represent yourself and your executive well.