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How to arrange travel for an executive

In the modern business world, travelling to meet with prospective partners, attend industry conferences and visit satellite offices of one's organisation around the globe is a key responsibility of executives across numerous industries. In connection to this, one of your major responsibilities as an Executive Assistant is to handle all of the booking needs of the company leader whom you aid. Everything you do for your boss must meet their high standards, and travel bookings are no different. Let's go over some of the key concerns you'll need to address to arrange travel for executive staff:

How to arrange travel for an executive

1. Understand the importance of timelines

You should start the process of travel planning for your boss by knowing the exact dates on which they'll be taking their trip. This may seem obvious, but if you get a date wrong by just a day - or make a typo while booking a flight or hotel - it can lead to catastrophic consequences. Additionally, it will be helpful to see if other staff will be travelling alongside your boss. For example, if enough people from the company are travelling to the same event, it may be enough for you to get a group rate on lodging and save the firm some money.

How to arrange travel for an executive Smartly made travel bookings for your boss are an essential responsibility of an Executive Assistant.
2. Know your boss's preferences

You undoubtedly know a great deal about your boss's personality by serving as their Executive Assistant. Ideally, this means you have their travel preferences somewhere in your memory banks - and if not, it's best you ask sooner rather than later. Find out the answers to questions like these:

Are there any specific airlines and hotel chains that they prefer to patronize?
Do they opt for particular areas of the plane (front or back, window or aisle seats and so on)?
Do any dietary restrictions or other medical conditions factor into their travel experience?
Should you be looking for specific features at hotels (gyms, pools, free high-speed Wi-Fi, etc.)?
3. Create a detailed itinerary

The trip your boss will be embarking upon will, of course, have a very specific purpose - an objective that's important, in one way or another, to the company's overall success. As an Executive Assistant making travel plans for your supervisor, a major part of your goal is helping them achieve theirs, and your creation of a detailed trip itinerary will help you do exactly that.

Determine the precise chronology of their trip and be certain to carefully mark travel times and information regarding flights, vehicle rentals, hotel check-ins and other key events. Then, you can plot out the business-pertinent events of each day they're away as specific blocks of time. Around those periods, include some free time for meals - and leave the evenings unstructured unless you know your boss is attending a specific nighttime event, such as a charity fete or business awards ceremony.

4. Be mindful of costs

You should pay close attention to all aspects of cost when planning and booking your boss's flights and hotels - never simply assume that these things don't matter because the firm's business credit will cover the bill. That said, your bosses themselves may not be aware of certain cost issues and tell you to book a certain airline when your firm has amassed reward points with another, and using the latter carrier could ultimately cut costs. If so, this is one of the rare situations in which you can do something without your supervisor's express approval, as they'll likely be grateful later.

To immediately book a place at this event, contact us at [email protected] or +263 719 587 425

Executive Assistant Summit in Victoria Falls Cresta Sprayview Hotel

4 tips for improving verbal communication

Executive Assistants rely on effective verbal communication. It's essential for improving how you interact with your Executive, or having productive conversations with individuals at every level of your organisation. Here are four tips to help you develop strong communication skills.

1. Ask good questions

Communication is a two-way street. It's important that you understand what the other party is trying to say as well as getting your own points across - asking questions supports you in doing that.

There are two types of questions that you can use in a conversation: open or closed.

Open - Open queries require more than a yes or no answer. Use these questions to develop a discussion, and allow the other party to better express themselves.
Closed - Most people discourage the use of closed questions, which require only a yes or no answer. However, in the right context the directness of the query is useful. Try using them to help focus a conversation, or to get clear, concise information out of the other party. For example, you can use closed questions to confirm that you understand what your Executive is asking you to do.
Showing that you're actively listening to someone encourages trust and open communication. Showing that you're actively listening to someone encourages trust and open communication.

2. Actively listen

Pay attention when someone is speaking. Try to actively listen to what they're saying, and avoid getting distracted by considering what you'll say next.

By being attentive and showing interest in what the other person is saying, you're encouraging them to communicate with you and building trust. A great way to show that you heard them is by paraphrasing their message and repeating it back to them so they can confirm whether you've understood them correctly.

3. Think, breath, speak

You don't always have to jump into a response. Practice taking a moment before you reply to consider what you want to say, especially if they're asking you something particularly tricky.

Pauses are a natural part of a conversation, and investing thought into your response shows respect for the other party. It also gives you the chance to clarify what you want to say, or figure out how to word your message more effectively.

4. Body language

Body language can make up to 55 per cent of communication, according to Professor Albert Mehrabian. While this varies depending on the situation, it demonstrates how powerful body language is for conveying messages.

Create a habit where you think about your body language at regular intervals. Are you standing in an open and confident manner, or do you look like you're trying to withdraw from the conversation? Being aware of how you appear to other people allows you to modify your body language to suit the situation. Make appropriate eye contact with the other party as well.

If improving your verbal communication is something you'd like to focus on as an EA, take a look at the training courses we offer that are specifically designed for Executive Assistants.

5 tips for writing better professional emails

Professionals spend on average 28 hours a week sending emails, collaborating internally and searching for information, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute. As an Executive Assistant, you simply don't have that much time to waste, so how can you write better, quicker professional emails?

Here are six tips that can make a big difference right now.

1. Cut to the chase

The most important step to writing better professional emails is to cut to the chase. Don't include words, phrases or details that don't need to be in your email and keep it as brief as possible. If you need something from your email's recipient make the request clear, while remaining polite. Don't feel the need to apologise or explain yourself when you need something done.

Streamline your email communications and save time. Streamline your email communications and save time.

2. Make it personal

Being personable and friendly is just as important as keeping your emails brief. Don't hesitate to use your recipient's first name, ask how their week at work's going, or thank them for their time at a recent meeting. These little touches can help solidify your working relationship and might even help elicit a faster response.

3. Always proofread and check

Sending emails to the wrong recipients, full of typos or without the promised attachments creates an unprofessional impression and waste your colleague's time. Avoid these mishaps by simply double-checking everything before sending. Consider enabling 'Undo Send' in your email software's settings so that you can pull messages back quickly when you realise you've made a mistake.

Being personable and friendly is just as important as keeping your emails brief.

4. Schedule an auto send

If you need to send emails at a certain time, such as reminders, nudges or requests, consider completing them all at one time at the end of your working day, then scheduling them to auto send. Using email add-ons like Boomerang, you can prepare an email, then pick a time to send, or send automatic reminders if someone's not getting back to you.

5. Use the compliment sandwich

Most Executive Assistants have to hurry their Executives or colleagues up, or dole out constructive criticism from time to time. Sandwich criticisms or urgent requests in compliments or niceties to soften the blow and avoid coming across the wrong way via email. Simply asking about a colleague's weekend at the start of an email, and wishing them well at the end can make all the difference.

If you need help improving your emails, it helps having a network to reach out to. Find out what works well for other EAs, and learn from those who know the challenges you face.

What’s in a title? - Why it’s as important for your executive to get your title right as it is for you

In many ways, arguing about whether you should be called an EA, a PA, an Executive Secretary or any other such iteration might seem kind of pointless. At the end of the day, does it really matter, as usually what you are called just comes down to organisational history and convention, so what difference does it really make?

Having spent the best part of the last 13 years working with EAs, their executives and broader organisations, I have a few thoughts and opinions I would like to share on this topic.

To an extent I would agree with the above sentiment that a title really shouldn’t be that important. After all, it’s what you do in your role and what you achieve for your executive that really matters. But therein lies the problem. Who actually knows what you really do and where you deliver the best value. This will actually be the subject of a future blog focusing on position descriptions and role structure but, in the meantime, I want to make these few points in regard to title – because in fact, in so much as it needs to indicate seniority and a degree of status and position, it actually really does matter.

Furthermore, in my opinion, it should also matter for your executive, because it impacts on your ability to be truly effective in your role. More on that later.

Personal Assistant

From a totally biased or even prejudiced perspective, I really don’t favour use of the term Personal Assistant. Apart from the fact that to me it is much more suited to the role performed by those PAs who work for celebrities and the extremely wealthy, as opposed to those in corporate or government roles, to me it is the historical context and use of the term that causes me the greatest problems.

Be it Personal Assistant or Personal Secretary, to me, any of those titles with the use of the word Personal, are hangovers from a time in business I think we are all glad have mostly passed, and really don’t need to be revived in any way – the misogynistic days of the ‘Mad Men’ era.

Men, predominantly, had their ‘Personal’ assistants or secretaries and they wore that status like a badge of honour much in the same way they did their old-school-tie networks, the clubs they belonged to and much more besides. And they often demeaned or even degraded their assistants in ways that I know I never again want to focus on. The word Personal denoted a kind of ownership to the person the assistant worked for and to me it still has that level of connotation, that the PA is their business asset to control and do with as they please.

Today’s EAs are different. The role has been evolving through stages of professionalism that are seeing it shift dramatically from the old Personal Secretary days. Today’s top EAs are true business partners, managing the office of their executive in a way that enables the executive to be their most productive and effective.

So to be honest, the role has progressed and moved on in such a way that I personally just find the use of the term Personal to be demeaning and something I’d simply like to see disappear. It belongs to a time long gone, and where it does remain and has a proper place is with those assistants who are truly personal aides working for famous or wealthy individuals and perform personal support tasks for them.

That said, I know it is still favoured in many organisations so I am not imagining any imminent shift along the line I’m suggesting. However, if their main reason for keeping the Personal designation in any title is purely to differentiate I seniority with PAs being more junior to EAs, then I would still suggest there are better ways to achieve that.

A True Business Partner Needs A Title That Reflects That

Modern EAs are proactive managers, not reactive task performers constantly requiring direction and instruction. They need to know how to assess the competing priorities within the executive office at any time and understand exactly why their executive weighs things, in terms of priorities, the way they do. This is the only way they can be proactive and provide the best service to their executive. In doing so, they have to manage the flow of information and access into and out of the executive office. And this requires them to develop sound and respected relationships with the executive’s direct reports and peers.

These modern EAs are the facilitators of best outcomes – not gatekeepers or blockers. They are the go to people for the whole team and this is how the Executive needs to position them. They must be seen as respected members of their executive’s team.

I will cover this notion of being a facilitator rather than a gatekeeper in a future blog but, in the meantime, it is essential to see how this positioning requires a title that has sufficient gravitas to command the respect it needs. What that title is I’m not sure. We refer to the role of the EA as being the Manager of the Executive Office, indeed that is the term we use in the title of our diplomas, but that is what they do, not what they are. So, what should they be called? Well for now we are going to stick with Executive Assistant, but our main mission as an organisation is to change understanding around the role of the EA and how they manage the office of their executive and help get the best outcomes for everyone working within the sphere of their executive.

New position descriptions, I believe, are probably the single greatest change needed in most organisations. EAs need position descriptions that actually show what they do and how important they are. And I will be covering that in more detail in a future blog.

So, you can see why it is important for your executive. They can’t have you doing the job they need if the people around them don’t believe you are held in high regard and respected. A title is one element of that. It’s all about positioning you and how they do that in the mind of those around them. How the executive positions you and allows you to manage their time, their energy and their focus, as well as their relationship and priorities and the level of access they provide to you and time, all of these are indicative of the relationship established between EA and executive, and all of these require someone who is held in high regard by the executive and their colleagues, peers and reports.

If you want to get much more detail on my thoughts on all these topics, on the models I have created for EAs to help them and their organisations create their own frameworks for how EAs and executives can work together, then please buy a copy of my book, as all this plus an awful lot more is contained within it. It truly is a practical guide not just for EAs but also executives, other senior managers and HR professionals, that details how the role can be so much more and how organisations can establish their roles and structures to get the best possible results from the senior management and executive teams.

How to boost your productivity with a morning ritual

What is one thing that links diverse names like Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama? They all have some kind of morning ritual, something that sets them up to succeed over the day ahead.

The science backs up the anecdotal evidence too - a study from Christoph Randler found that morning people are more proactive than evening types, and another from Joseph Ferrari and colleagues found that procrastinators consistently described themselves as 'evening people'. How can you master the morning and make yourself more productive?

1. Wake up early

Many CEOs and successful people start their day a good few hours earlier than everyone else - Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, reportedly gets up at 3.45 a.m.! While you mightn't need to be up that early, giving yourself enough time in the morning free from distraction can be incredibly useful for fitting in the those things you otherwise wouldn't get to.

Woman with coffee looking out the window in the morning.Waking up nice and early is a great way to start the day.
2. Do the heavy thinking first

The early hours of the morning are prime-time for doing the hard thinking on your projects. No one will be bugging you with questions, there won't be much going on on social media to distract you, and you'll have a mind clear of a day's worth of thoughts and stressors. Then, when you finally get to the office, you won't be concerned as much about getting it done when people start asking for your time.

3. Nourish your soul

Mindfulness meditation is great way to start a day. Even doing as little as 10 to 20 minutes like the author Tim Ferriss can be enough to feel the practice's calming effects. Taking the time to stop and reflect can supercharge you for the day ahead.

If meditation isn't your thing, you could try adopting the late Steve Jobs' method of reflecting in the morning. He would look into a mirror, deep into his own eyes and ask himself "If today was the last day of my life, would I be happy with what I'm about to do today?" Doing that each and every day forced him to keep perspective on his work, and allowed him not to become lost in a grind he didn't enjoy.

What does stress do to our brains?

As the thinkers of our thoughts, the shakers and movers of our bodies, our brains are one of the most important organs in our bodies. For an EA, their brain is the thing that allows them to do their job well.

But a mentally demanding job and stress are no strange bedfellows - in fact, you might even go so far as to say they're inseparable. So the question becomes "what can you do to protect your brain from stress?"

What does stress do to the brain?

It's important to note right off the bat that not all stress is bad stress. Acute stress, that comes and goes when the situation demands it, can be a good thing. It can sharpen your focus in the moments when you most need it. But chronic stress, that lingers and feels like an ever-present weight on your shoulders, is never beneficial. It can lead to all sorts of health problems, like high blood pressure, weight gain, and sleep disruption.

Nothing good comes of chronic stress.Chronic stress is never beneficial.
It also can do damage to your brain, much of which is due to elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Having this pumping through your brain 24/7 is a recipe for disaster. In effect, elevated cortisol levels deepen the grooves in the brain that negative and stressed thoughts flow through, making those responses even more entrenched. Your brain becomes prone to being stressed, and this becomes its default response. The consequences of this can be wide-ranging, from memory issues to depression.

How can you proactively protect your brain?

1) Take a DHA supplement

DHA is an omega-3 acid necessary for healthy brain function. It's a compound that's thought to work as a buffer against elevated cortisol in the brain, combating the inflation that occurs.

You can get a dose of DHA by taking a supplement like fish oil capsules.

2) Exercise

Getting daily exercise is key to not only bodily health but brain health too. A morning or evening gym routine or run can do wonders to keep you sharp.

3) Practice mindfulness meditation

Part of dealing with stress is responding to it in the right way. Undertaking a 10-minute-daily mindfulness routine can help you confront your thoughts and emotions more constructively.

The nature of an EAs job is that stress is likely to be something you have to deal with rather than eliminate entirely, but it only takes a few pre-emptive steps to make yourself resilient against its corrosive effects.

3 tips for organising your workspace

Organising your workspace doesn't sound like the most valuable use of your time. But it can be, especially if its current state is hampering your work. In a sense, your workspace is like a third arm, an extension of you that needs to be in tune with the person who sits in a chair in its centre. Here are three tips for making your workspace work for you.

Colour code everything

Designing a colour code system for all the documents that come to your inbox is a handy way of segmenting the things in your to-do list. Being able to get a quick visual indication of how much you have to do in each category you create can be helpful for planning your day and choosing what to prioritise.

Colour coding helps you organise your incoming work.Creating a colour code system can help you segment your work into manageable chunks
De-clutter

Just like a desktop is used as a metaphor in computing, so too can it be thought of as a metaphor for your mind. A messy desk with papers and clutter everywhere can be indicative of a mind that's scattered and unfocused. Clearing out the junk from your desk and simplifying can make a world of difference to your mental state.

A clear desk strategy can also help you embrace the one touch rule - if something comes into your inbox, do it immediately or colour code it and add it to your to-do list. Otherwise, you'll find yourself flitting between tasks more than is necessary or efficient.

Create a useable storage and filing system

Key to keeping a desk clear is having a filing and storage system that works. Unfortunately, some EA's filing systems resemble a bottomless pit more than anything, and as such, finding a document that was added months ago involves searching through all the other ones.

The specific filing system you choose will depend on some extent to the industry your Executive works in, but a useful starting point can be organising by category or subject, then sub-organising by date.

Taking this one step further, an arguably superior option is to make your office as paperless as possible. That way, searching for a document becomes much easier, as keywords, phrases or titles can be digitally searched for.

Keeping your work space organised and functional is key to serving your Executive as efficiently and effectively as possible.