What do you do when you have complete freedom to innovate as an Executive Assistant?
I have been working for Barney Smith our company founder and CEO of Perform Green for the past six months.
The first day and really the first six months of a new role is hard work. It is when you learn the inner workings of your boss’s brain, ascertain boundaries, immerse yourself into the company culture and understand what your company does and how they do it. This is also an opportunity to understand your role beyond the job description and then the real work starts. You then try to improve your environment and your job, this can be a hard-fought battle and, in some companies, can take years to achieve.
So, during my first meeting with Barney, I was taken aback when he said;
‘you’re the expert, if it improves things just do it’.
This was the holy grail for any assistant, complete trust and empowerment and from day 1.
So why don’t more executives take this approach? We, the assistant, are here to enable them and make their lives easier and more successful. Executives should be giving their assistants more power. We are finally now being recognised for our unique skill set and our unique positioning of being both in the executive environment and on the ground. (they even make TV programmes now where an out of touch boss works on the shop floor to find out how their company ticks). Finally, bosses are starting to understand we can only truly help if we are fully informed.
So, when faced with complete freedom, why was I hesitant?
I now understood what it felt like to be a lottery winner who dreams of winning the lottery and then lives in the same house and doesn’t spend any money for fear of not knowing where to start or what to do.
I have spent most of my career as an assistant showing executives how best to ‘use’ me as well as researching, coercing, fighting, approving, banging on glass ceilings, getting through red tape, treading on eggshells, working with clunky systems and waiting, a lot of time is spent waiting. Now, all this had been removed I had a lot of time to ‘just do it’.
I once worked for someone that wouldn’t let me in their email inbox. An extreme case of distrust which made my job much harder than it needed to be. Completely pointless for obvious reasons – this doesn’t protect the executive, it has the opposite effect. By keeping information from us we can damage a company and an executive through our ignorance. Obvious you probably think, but it is surprising how hard it is to ‘break-in’ our bosses when we first start working for them.
Saying they will be open and give you freedom is one thing but doing it is another. This shouldn’t just be a nice idea, this should be championed by your boss and he or she should communicate your authority to his/her peers and staff. This is not a one-time conversation when you first start at your job, this should be an ongoing information exchange and relationship dynamic that needs to happen in your regular catch up sessions. You also need to have a plan and set clear goals and be more deliberate in your approach.
Perform Green is B-Corp accredited and a values-led employer. Employees at my company are engaged, enthusiastic and gasp dare I say it, happy. Do our staff, therefore see the same freedom and opportunity as me? I believe Barney’s approach of openness and empowerment has filtered from the top down, making it part of Perform Green’s culture.
There is one fundamental problem; I can’t go back to the old way of fighting for information and change.
So, I do have the winning lottery ticket.
I shouldn’t be surprised I guess, as I do work for a digital change consultancy and I guess they really do practice what they preach.