When you decide it’s time to look for an executive assistant, this means you’ve reached an important and vital step in growing your business. You’re finally ready to hand over the more administration and organisational based tasks to an assistant while you get to concentrate on the exciting stuff like meeting new clients and sealing deals. It’s a difficult position to fill though, as there’s an awful lot to consider. With an executive assistant it’s not just an admin person you need – they need to be motivated, efficient, organised, communicative and personable. They also need to be the right fit for you and your business, as you’ll be working closely together and they need to be able to understand exactly what it is your business needs and how it runs.
So with all that in mind, what exactly is it you should look for in an executive assistant? While personality is important as you need to be able to get along as you work together, there are many other skills which will determine whether your new assistant is a great fit or a flop. We’ve put together the top three skills to look for in an executive assistant here.
- Organisation
Obviously, the top skill you will need in an executive assistant is organisation. After all, they’re there to keep track of your calendar, arrange travel and meetings – how will they do that effectively if they have poor organisational skills?
- Confident and decisive
If your executive assistant isn’t able to be confident in their decision making then you will find yourself being constantly asked for input and assurance on the day to day running of things that you were trying to delegate. You need to make sure you find an executive assistant who can happily use their common sense to make sensible decisions and problem solve without needing to defer to you for every minor hiccup.
- Communicative
None of the above will do any good if your executive assistant has poor communication skills. They need to be able to loop you in on changes and upcoming events as well as successfully liaise with your contacts to make sure everything runs smoothly – if their communication is unclear or unfriendly, then the relationship with this executive assistant isn’t going to work out.
Even with all these tips, hunting for an executive assistant is difficult and takes a lot of time which you probably don’t have. Instead of doing it yourself, it’s best to outsource to a service like C Suite executive assistant headhunters to help you find the perfect candidate. They have all the experience and expertise to do the job right, and you will end up with an executive assistant who’s a great fit for your business.