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Executive Assistant

Executive Assistant Interview Questions That Provide Real Insight

By Corporate Culture, Executive Assistant

Interviewing a candidate for a job is one of the most crucial steps in finding the right fit for your team or company. While you can’t find out everything about a candidate in an hour interview, there are certain questions that can give you a better insight into what the candidate is all about.

If you are a high-level official (C-suite) looking for an executive assistant to join your team, you know how important it is for the candidate to be the right fit.

We have compiled some interview questions that can help you better assess and filter your candidate so you can make an informed decision.

Technical Questions

Describe your computer skills. What software do you use to organize your tasks and improve productivity?

Skilled executive assistants can organize data in spreadsheets, schedule calendar meetings, and create well-written emails. Apart from Microsoft Office and Google WorkSpace, executive assistants are well-versed in many other softwares.

What process do you follow to book domestic and international travel?

As a CEO or a leader, traveling is an essential part of your business. The executive assistant you hire must be familiar with everything that travel entails, including keeping note of delays, cancellations, layovers, car booking, and more.

Describe a great executive assistant in 3 words.

Summarizing a whole role in 3 words can be tricky but the words they will choose can give you an insight into what they perceive the role to be.

Behavioral Questions

Tell me about a time you worked on projects with similar deadlines. How did you handle it?

This question is a good judge of how your candidate prioritizes tasks and handles pressure. As a CEO, schedules change pretty quickly and your ideal candidate is someone who can refocus and readjust according to the changing needs.

Give me an example of a time you had to solve a complex issue for an executive. Did you get any help?

While executive assistants are great at handling tasks on their own, they also need to collaborate with people on other teams to complete tasks. Therefore, people’s skills and team-building skills are also crucial to this role.

How do you handle conflict?

No workplace is free of problems. When dealing with different people in different departments, your executive assistant can come across difficult people or scenarios. A cool, calm, and, collected person knows how to handle conflict and avoid drama in the workspace.

Are you looking for a top executive assistant to manage your day-to-day tasks efficiently? We can help you find dynamic and well-rounded individuals for your team.

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Executive Assistant

How to Make Travel Plans for Your Boss

By Corporate Culture, Executive Assistant

Business travel is crucial to a business’s long-term success. Business travel brings in clients, opportunities, and helps a company expand its foothold. As an executive assistant, when your boss is traveling, the responsibility of taking care of all the travel-related logistics falls on your shoulders. From booking flights to reserving hotels— there are a lot of things that go into planning a streamlined travel itinerary for your boss.

In this article, we will cover some useful insight on how to effectively make travel plans for your boss.

Find out the budget

Every company has an allocated travel budget. Make sure you know how much can be spent on the trip. Businesses sometimes have partnerships with companies that offer travel at discounted prices— check if there is a better deal available.

Check travel requirements

Every country has specific requirements for visitors who are traveling for business or pleasure. Depending on which country your boss is traveling to, there may be certain travel requirements that he will have to consider. For example, does your boss need a visa to travel to that specific country? Does he need certain vaccinations? Keep such contingencies in mind and begin planning a few weeks in advance to cater to these requirements. Also, make sure your boss’ passport is on a date and has empty pages in case a visa is required.

Know your boss’ preference

Some bosses are particular about certain aspects of travel. For example, they may prefer an aisle seat over a window or want a digital boarding pass rather than a printed copy. Ask your boss what their preferences are and plan the trip accordingly.

Create an itinerary

Before travel, sit down with your boss and create a travel itinerary for the travel days. What will his schedule look like on day one? Who will he meet and at what time? Details such as getting into the shuttle and getting to the airport, to meeting an executive for lunch—everything should be listed down in the itinerary. This will give your boss a clear idea of what’s next and remove any confusion or miscommunication between you both.

Research the culture

With international travel, you need to keep certain things in mind. Every culture has norms, e.g. way of greeting, eating, or even tipping. Briefly update your boss on these details.

Account for the unexpected

Unexpected changes can happen during travel. Maybe your boss’ flight gets delayed. What should you do in that situation? If it’s an overnight delay, you would have to book a hotel for him. In another situation, their flight may reach earlier than expected, and you now have to coordinate the new time with the pickup service and the hotel staff. Always be prepared for the unexpected!

Working as an executive assistant can be challenging yet rewarding. If you are planning to further your career as an executive assistant, consider working with executive search firms that can place you at some of the top companies.

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Executive Assistant Recruiter

The Best Executive Assistants Have These Things in Common

By Corporate Culture, Executive Assistant

Executive assistants are the force majeure on every successful executive’s team. The EA serves in multiple roles, such as scheduler, gatekeeper, coordinator, strategic liaison, advisor, manager, and problem solver – all before lunch!

In addition to running the office, the great executive assistants support the busy executive with their days’ professional and social demands. The scheduling doesn’t stop there. They will make sure there’s also time for family obligations. Assistants are successful only when their executives meet their goals and responsibilities.

Suppose you’re an executive in today’s dynamic business world. You need an expert executive assistant to help you meet the demands of your role in the company while still maintaining a work-life balance.

What every outstanding executive assistant has in common

Are you ready to look for your EA? You may already have a checklist of characteristics and skills in mind. They could include anything from being bilingual to understanding zoning regulations for commercial buildings.

However, recruiters who screen candidates for EA roles have identified the traits required of top assistants. The best executive assistants are a combination of several characteristics.

When it’s time to hire an assistant for your executive office, look for:

  • Superb communication skills in speaking, writing, and listening. This includes posting on social media as appropriate, listening to team member concerns, and reporting potentially volatile situations.
  • Tech-forward thinking that includes a willingness to recommend and use new technologies.
  • Vast networking capabilities because an EA won’t know everything, but they always know someone who does. It’s one of their secrets in getting so much accomplished.
  • A sense of professionalism that mirrors your corporate culture. Your EA will be ready to meet and greet stakeholders, lead a meeting, or conduct an interview at a moment’s notice.
  • An ability to handle stress in any situation. Meeting tight deadlines, coordinating travel itineraries and making sure you’ve signed your kids’ field trip permission slips are all part of a day’s work.
  • The person who will best represent and sell your brand. You can count on your EA to represent you and your company the way you do.
  • Collaborative skills include involving a variety of stakeholders in tasks. Great EAs rely on teams to make their magic happen, and the person in this position knows how to delegate for maximum efficiency.
  • Someone with sharp anticipation skills. Every EA’s superpower is its ability to anticipate your needs before you even articulate them.

Finally, confidentiality is critical when hiring for the role that will support your work. Executive assistants keep delicate information a secret. Your EA will be loyal and discreet, much the way we recruit candidates for your executive assistant position.

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Woman Assistant

Tasks You Should Be Delegating to an Assistant

By Corporate Culture, Leadership

A study by Harvard Business Review shares that senior managers and executives work in excess of 60 hours per week. The study also suggests that most executives spend large portions of their weekends and vacation time working as well. Admittedly, senior executives have a lot to do—investor meetings, managing teams, planning, crisis management, project tracking, email triaging, etc.

With increasingly fewer hours to spend on personal development and with family, time can often feel scarce. Putting in long hours can feel like the solution, but it isn’t. Throughout the day or week, executives spend time on tasks that do not require their specialized skill set and eat into their productivity. These can be accomplished by an assistant instead.

Let’s look at the tasks an assistant can execute on your behalf, so you can prioritize the things that truly matter.

What Tasks Should You Delegate To Your Assistant?

Here are some of which you could delegate to your assistant.

Managing Emails

Do you regularly check your emails to ‘stay on top of things?’ While it may seem like the least time-consuming activity, a study conducted by McKinsey Global Institute suggests that an average of 13 hours a week are spent checking emails!

A large percentage of emails clogging your inbox is just promotional or spam, and having an assistant to sort through them allows you to focus on important tasks that require your active attention.

Bookings and Reservations

If you travel frequently and spend hours searching for accommodations, the best deals on flight reservations, refunds, car rentals, etc., then perhaps it’s time to consider delegating these tasks to an assistant. An assistant can make all your reservations ensure that your travel and food-related preferences are met, and your itinerary is optimized so that you can focus on your meetings and relax in your downtime.

Organizing Appointments and Scheduling Meetings

Organizing appointments and scheduling meetings is another task that requires more attention than necessary. Constantly updating your calendar, searching for openings to schedule meetings, re-scheduling previously set appointments—these are tedious tasks that genuinely don’t require your attention and can easily be handled by an assistant.

Research and Reports

Most senior executives spend an unnecessary portion of their time collating data and making reports and presentations. An assistant can take the burden of research off you, irrespective of whether you want information on the background of a particular client or if you wish to gather data for a meeting. Yes, assistants are trained to be adept at research, and you can make informed decisions without spending hours sifting through data based on their findings.

Personal Errands and Support

Your assistant can handle multiple personal errands for you—from booking doctor’s appointments to scheduling children’s birthdays, shopping for presents for important occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, house warming parties. Assistants can also help you stay ahead of overdue communication, check on aspects such as car repairs, manage your social media, and more.

Managing everything alone is a Herculean task, but it doesn’t have to be. An assistant’s support can be crucial to taking small-but-significant things off your plate, ensuring your day goes smoothly. Work with us today—we make finding the proper support for you easier.

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Woman Executive

How Top Leaders Manage Their Time and Increase Impact

By Corporate Culture, Leadership

According to Allan C Stam, the Dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, leadership is the art of getting things done. And while many leaders are adept at resource management (people, money, etc.), they struggle to find time to get things done.

Experts suggest that a time audit, time management measures, focus on sustainable productivity, along with a reduction of phantom workload can help people get things done efficiently and eliminate workplace stress.

While there’s no universal formula, here’s a list of five strategies to help leaders manage their time well and increase their impact.

How Leaders Manage Their Time Efficiently

Senior executives will agree that leadership is a mix of clarity, purpose, knowledge, and fortitude.

Here are some ways you can maximize your impact.

Plan Realistically

You can’t plan every second of every day. Things are bound to go wrong, and plans will change. This is normal. This is life.

And while we can’t control everything, we can create efficient schedules to increase our productivity, set deadlines to remain focused, and deal with procrastination-triggering stress wisely. Other strategies to consider include goal setting and downtime—starting early and frequent breaks—which can help increase productivity levels.

Prioritize Purposefully

Do you feel like you don’t have enough hours in the day to complete everything on your list? Then maybe it’s time to revisit how you prioritize.

Ask yourself these questions so you can be more purposeful when prioritizing:

  • Is it important or urgent?
  • How long will it take?
  • How much effort will it take?
  • Can you delegate it to someone else?
  • Is this expected of you, or do you want to do this?
  • Would someone in your team perform a task more effectively than you?

If you can assign tasks that do not require your active attention to someone else, you can focus your time and energy on being more productive.

Delegate

A “can do” attitude is a valuable attribute, but a “can do it alone” attitude is not. Leaders have teams for a reason—each team member has a strength or skill that makes them valuable, and leveraging these strengths helps leaders better manage their time. Should executive-level help be required, hiring an executive assistant is prudent.

Assistants can be gatekeepers, email organizers, calendar setters, stand-ins for meetings, researchers and more. Simply getting the right kind of help and delegating tasks that don’t require your expertise and time can bringa degree of efficiency to your day.

Find Your Rhythm

By “find your rhythm,” we mean pay attention to how your individual productivity works:

  • What motivates you?
  • What hours of the day are you most energized?
  • What environment helps you focus better?

Once you understand the optimum conditions that boost your productivity, you can maintain these conditions. This way, you can remain consistent in your work.

This also expands to discipline. Motivation comes and goes, but a disciplined schedule will keep you on track for success.

Boundaries Are Important

Even the best planners can feel overwhelmed if boundaries aren’t established and maintained. Overpromising or taking on too much can lead to delivery shortfalls and unintended consequences such as client dissatisfaction. Leaders can exemplify sustainable productivity by being realistic about how much can be achieved, saying “no” when appropriate, and reinforcing boundaries.

Better time management is key to personal growth, goal achievement, and creating a productive work environment.

Being a leader entails shouldering many responsibilities, and we at understand that it isn’t easy. We can help you find an efficient assistant so you can delegate by design and get the maximum out of your time.

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executive assistant recruiter

Are You a Great Boss?

By Corporate Culture, Leadership

Are you a great boss?

Think carefully about your response. Your answer to this question matters significantly, especially when you’re hiring an executive assistant. In our work connecting top executive suite talent, we’ve learned that A-list executive assistants know precisely the type of boss they’re looking for.

We’ve also discovered that the interview is reciprocal. While you’re interviewing for your next assistant, the EA candidates we send out are interviewing you. They’re gauging whether you’re the type of person they want to work for.

And they’ve told us what characteristics they want to see in their next boss.

7 Characteristics of a Great Boss

As much as executives may share similar communication and management styles, each person is uniquely different. Your beliefs, experiences and values can affect how you manage your employees.

During an interview, executive assistant applicants try to identify your strengths and weaknesses as a way to gauge whether their skills fit your leadership style.

Great bosses are known for:

  1. Communicating frequently, honestly and with transparency. They don’t play “gotcha” games, and they state positive or negative facts without blaming or yelling. They provide honest feedback and give specific praise.
  2. Distributing the workload equitably. They don’t overload the employee who never complains about having too much work, and they don’t play favorites by letting others have a lighter workload. They also don’t micromanage.
  3. Putting together exceptional teams. They find and retain the best and brightest employees, which improves the skills of all team members. The camaraderie experienced among team members keeps them together, and they become stronger as a whole.
  4. Avoiding blameTheir approach in righting a wrong is to identify the challenge, correct it and move on. They’ll hold employees accountable, but they don’t look for fault.
  5. Finding greatness in those who work with them. The best bosses recognize and reward employees for work done well. They also make sure their employees have the training and development opportunities to excel and move forward in their careers.
  6. Demonstrating integrity. They are professional and honest – the kind of person employees trust. They also build trust by doing the right thing for the right reason. If they say they’ll do something, they follow through.
  7. Showing compassion for others. They understand that employees have lives outside the workplace. They’re sympathetic when personal needs occasionally infringe on the workday, possibly allowing for remote work options when an employee has to keep a sick child home from school.

Being the type of boss people want to work for comes down to managing your own emotions before you manage anyone else. That means treating your colleagues and employees with respect as well as valuing their opinions and work.

When you create an inclusive and supportive corporate culture, you’ll discover that the best executive assistant will want to work for you!

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C-LEVEL SUPPORT

Tips for Onboarding Top C-Level Support

By Corporate Culture

The fall in the rate of US unemployment tends to give employers headaches regarding recruiting hardworking and talented employees for their business. This is not because of the rigorous exercise of recruiting the best candidate for the job, but the low rate of unemployment which gives job applicants numerous options.

And since workers now have more options in the workforce, it is evident that an effective onboarding process is an essential factor in the recruitment process. Onboarding a Top C level support may look demanding, particularly with the status quo of the workforce.

But an effective onboarding process will help the employers hire a candidate that can uphold the organization’s values and promote the company’s brand. Effective onboarding will also guide employers to hire a high-functioning Top C level to accelerate the business team’s goals and objectives. Overall, we have simplified the tips that can help you onboard Top C level for your company.

Be Clear about the Responsibilities of the Role within Onboarding

Communication and information are two vital tools when onboarding an employee for a role in an organization.

The first duty of an employer is to state clearly the responsibilities or tasks of the job applicant. This will allow them to have better insight into what to expect when they accept your offer.

A company should also be apparent to the candidates about the company’s norms and policies. This is because some employees leave their new jobs after a few months when they find the working conditions of their new jobs unattractive.

Arrange a Meeting with Employees

Aside from discussing the roles and expectations of job candidates, facilitating an interactive session with the employees within the onboard process is also an essential factor. During the meet-and-greet session, the employers and the employees get to know each other.

The meeting also creates an avenue for employers to ask the employees some questions. This is an inquiry method that employers use to know some details about the personality traits of the job candidates. The inquiry also helps you evaluate the employees’ reputation to know if such workers will be committed to your organizational goals. This interactive session marks the beginning of the business partnership between the employees and the company.

Train Employees on How to Administer and Use the Organization’s Tools Responsibly

An effective onboarding process includes training the new team members to use the organization’s tools and resources to facilitate productivity, and how well team members can handle a company’s tools determines their job performance.

Thus, it should be a matter of utmost priority for employers to train their new team members to achieve their objectives. By training the employees how to use the tools and resources, you are helping them be productive and become influential members of the organization.

Assign the Employees a Mentor

The new team member must be assigned a training guide or mentor to navigate them through the complexities of their new job. This method creates an internal networking team between the new team member and the supervisor and helps the new employee have a professional relationship with the mentor.

As an employer, you have a lot of work to do in onboarding top C-level support employees. When you take the right step and make the proper preparation, you will get the best result possible for all parties involved.

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Reputation

How Much Does Your Reputation Matter to Candidates?

By Corporate Culture

A company’s reputation is its image, which determines its position among its competitors. While your company needs to work towards having a good reputation, it is also necessary that you avoid any act that may soil your company’s prestige. This is because potential employees take time out to assess your company’s reputation before writing applications.

Studies have shown that the US unemployment rate has dropped to 5.2 percent in August 2021. This is the lowest rate since March 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic. This rate gives job candidates more options in the workforce than before. Thus, the decrease in the unemployment rate is a signal to employers to work on their company’s reputations to put them among potential employees’ options.

Why does reputation matter?

A good reputation promotes your company’s profile and creates an opportunity to hire influential and talented team members for your businessHuman resources are the central drive of an organization.

In other words, these talented human resources are the wheels that drive the vehicle of your organization’s goals. Therefore, a company must work on these factors during the recruitment process.

  • Make your company appeal to tons of potential employees.
  • Ensure your job applicants find the recruitment process hitch-free and more attractive.
  • Your company features must be attractive to job candidates.
  • Create a safe atmosphere and good working conditions for the employees.

The above factors determine the profile of your company. And if you default in any, the effect will be evident in your company’s reputation. Potential employees may possibly rule out working with your company if they find out that your company has a poor reputation.

A company with a bad reputation will display one, if not all, of the following: poor leadership, poor customer service, ethical problems, and complaints from employees. Meanwhile, the few steps discussed below shall teach how to maintain a good reputation.

Display Professional Integrity

Any harmful act you display can have adverse effects on your company. In the business world, it is unethical for you to express actions that can affect the company’s brand, which will ultimately soil the company’s reputation.

Be Honest, Truthful, and Transparent

During the recruitment process, don’t excite the company’s image for the job candidates. It will be disappointing if an employee later finds out that you lied to them during the recruitment process.

Be truthful about the working conditions you are offering the job applicants. Ensure they have complete information about the benefits of the job and the resources available to them before they accept your offer.

 Online Social Media Presence

This may sound trivial, but it is one of the ways your company can be attractive to potential employers, even your clients. Potential employees strive to work with a company with a vast client base on different social media networks. Favorable reviews of your company on social media will make your company appealing to job seekers.

Essentially, your employees want to work with you if your company has good testimonials from your workers and clients on different social media.

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Woman CEO

Traits of Transformational CEOs

By Corporate Culture, Leadership

In the search for a new CEO or another C-suite executive, many companies want to find a transformational leader. There are certain characteristics of a CEO that help the company move through a transformational process or major change.

Transformational leadership involves the leader working with teams outside of their immediate self-interests. This allows the leader to identify necessary changes and create a vision to guide the transformation with their influence and inspiration. Transformational CEOs will execute this change together with committed members of a group.

Even if your company doesn’t currently have any major changes planned, hiring a transformational CEO allows you to prepare for unexpected changes. It also allows for continuity of leadership. The following are traits of transformational CEOs to look for during the recruiting process.

Honesty

Transformational CEOs should be honest and have integrity. These traits allow them to get others to trust them immediately, encouraging others to follow their lead. This, in turn, means that team members naturally want to follow the CEO’s guidance during the change.

Innovation

Innovation is an essential part of any major change in a company, making this another essential trait for transformational CEOs. These executives also push their team to be innovative. Specifically, they push for smart innovations that focus on offering solutions to customers’ problems.

Curiosity

The innovation that drives transformational CEOs does not have to come purely from their intelligence. It is more important that they are curious than being the smartest person in the room. This curiosity allows them to inspire the greatest minds in the company.

Ability to View Complex Problems at Multiple Levels

Transformational CEOs work to guide the entire company through changes, which require them to view problems at every level. They need to have the ability to view complex problems from various perspectives. For example, they will evaluate an issue from their perspective as well as those of the competition, current and future employees, customers, and the board.

Modesty

The ability to have multiple perspectives is not just in the case of issues. Transformational CEOs can do this regularly. They can listen to customers and gain insights into their needs. This ability gives the company marketing advantages.

Being Go-to Sources

Because of their ability to gather multiple perspectives, transformational CEOs become go-to sources for anyone looking for insights. These include peers, competitors, customers, and even the media.

Having a Model for Success

Transformational CEOs have an established model for success. They have used this model in the past and can explain it in a way that makes it seem simple, even to those who are unfamiliar with it.

Spotting Great Talent

Transformational CEOs also have the ability to spot great talent. They can recognize the passion, talent, and skills in people they come across and know how to put that to use for the company. This reduces the number of new talent companies has to recruit during a transformational period

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Hiring

Improve Profitability by Hiring the Best

By Corporate Culture, Hiring Strategies, Interviews

Recruiting the top talent is an excellent method of increasing profitability. This is particularly true when hiring C-suite executives who can significantly affect company operations. Explore some of the ways that investing in top talent will likely increase your profit margins.

Top Performers Improve Vision and Clarity

With the top talent in your C-suite, you improve their ability to see various details and keep track of the overarching vision while doing so. This allows them to optimize projects better and accurately determine which tasks you should delegate.

Hiring the best support team for the C-suite, from executive assistants to chiefs of staff to other employees, further enhances this. It helps leadership delegate tasks with confidence, allowing them to focus on responsibilities that only they can handle.

Improve Your Brand As an Employer

When you hire a C-level executive who is the top in their field, this reflects well on your company overall and as an employer. It should attract top talent for other roles, whether entry-level, C-level, or somewhere in between. Talent will apply for your other positions because they will see that you prioritize hiring the best and cultivating opportunities. This makes working for you a great career choice, especially if they can expect to receive mentorship from talent in higher positions.

Decrease Your Hiring Time

Improving your brand as an employer not only helps you attract the top talent for other roles, but also reduces your hiring time. That happens for several reasons, including that top talent will apply to your company even when there is no opening. This means that you will have a list of potential recruits that you can contact as soon as there is a vacancy.

More Promotions from the Inside

When a company takes the perspective of hiring the best talent, it becomes easier to support internal promotions and advancements. New talent will feel supported, increasing their confidence and promoting their leadership skills.

Combining this with hiring the top talent for the C-suite takes it a step further. The executives will encourage that talent and potentially groom them as a replacement when they retire or move on.

You can leverage this support for internal advancement to help you recruit top talent in other roles as well. After all, most employees would prefer to work with a company that offers opportunities for advancement. This is just another way that hiring the top C-suite talent makes filling other roles in your company easier.

 

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