Not many of us undertake further study to become EAs, yet from the very first role we do there is an expectation for us to know how to do almost everything. Without the luxury of extended training and grace periods to settle in, most of us just have to learn very quickly on the job, and usually by being chucked in the deep end! Impressions are everything and when you're asked to do something you have no idea about its best to dig into the 'confidence vault' rather than fumbling around like a 'nervous-nellie' looking for the hand-over notes the last EA left you. Now when I refer to the 'confidence vault' I basically mean that persona you must pull out that knows how to do everything and anything, and all with fantastic confidence! Basically you become the successful and confident EA, otherwise known as "the fake it till you make it" EA! A mantra that I have lived by my whole EA career, and even though I have fifteen years of EA experience under my belt, I still continue to live by it to this day. We never stop learning and we never stop being challenged, but just because you're unsure of something doesn't mean you have to act like it. Confidence is everything, especially as an EA. Your colleagues and your boss all need to trust that you are capable of doing your role and the tasks delegated to you, so confidence is essential. They don't need to know whether you actually know how to do certain tasks or not, as after all, you are an EA, which means you'll no doubt just go away and work it out some way or another! But in the meantime confidence must prevail. So I've listed below some of the top tips I've lived by whilst I've been faking it to the top:
1. Identify another: Identify another EA in the business who will be your caretaker and go-to person for everything you're unsure on. Whether it be the EA that trains you, or one that you identify as being more your style, its necessary to have another to bounce things off and check things over with. It's a given that when you start in any role there will be a lot of 'checking' required, so its essential to identify someone and buddy up with them! Additionally its also handy to buddy up with someone who reports to your boss and sits in on the same meetings as you, as its not only the admin side of things we must learn as EAs, we must also be knowledgeable about all things relating to the business or industry too. There is nothing worse when you are new to a company (or even industry) and you have to sit in on team meetings and take minutes on topics you don't understand. When the acronyms used feel like another language to you its good to ensure you have an ally that you feel comfortable with to check over your minutes and actions until you get up to speed.
2. Answer with confidence: Even if you don't know the answer on something you're being asked, just pretend that you do! I can't tell you how many times earlier in my career, where I just blatantly made things up or pointed people in the direction of someone else after convincing them that they would know better than me. Now I'm not talking major adjustments of the truth here, but the odd tweak here and there when you don't know what the answer actually is, doesn't harm anyone. Its all about your conviction, answering confidently like you do know what you are talking about is in your best interests, the last thing you want is others to have a tarnished impression of you. Even if you are nervous day in day out as a new EA, don't ever let that show.
3. Email it to me: Ever started in a new company and had the challenge of trying to remember the name of every single person in your team (or worse still in your whole company!)? The problem is everybody knows who you are because you're the EA. Meanwhile you are completely clueless as to who they are! Can be a rather embarrassing moment when you are asked to do something by someone who seems to know you very very well, yet you have no idea who they are! So my cheat on this one is to just ask them to email you. Legitimately we all have very large to-do lists so its difficult to remember things that people verbally ask us. So when that next random person, whose name escapes you (even though you've been working there long enough and should know it), simply ask them to email you with the request. Not only will you learn their name very quickly, but you'll also be able to manage the task better in your task list.
4. The name game: Similarly, when you do get caught out in conversation with someone whose name escapes you try using endearing terms when greeting them, like 'hun', 'sweetheart' or 'darling'. You may find this gushy, but you'd be surprised how many times you can get yourself out of an awkward situation. Whether this is your style or it isn't, just find some generic terms (perhaps love/mate/buddy/champ etc) that you can use that you feel comfortable with and you won't go wrong.
5. Being prepared: There is nothing worse than getting caught out not knowing the answer to something your boss asks you. When you first start in a role you obviously want to impress your boss and have them feel pleased with their choice in you. But heaven forbid they may call you when you're not in front of your computer and start discussing diary changes only to have no idea which meetings they're talking about. Worse still you might get caught out with them on the phone and not have a pen and paper to take any notes around what they are asking you to do. When I first started as an EA I tried to always be prepared whenever I was away from my computer. I would carry around a pen (attached to the lanyard around my neck) and a small note book with a printed copy of my bosses diary for the day to carry around with me. Now clearly these were the days before I had access to this sort of stuff on my phone, but you get my point, I was always prepared. You only need to get caught out once to vow that you will never get caught out again.
6. Take notes: Often when you start with a new company and a new boss you'll find yourself in the daily situation where your boss is dictating to you tasks for you to complete, only to have no idea what they are talking about! But whether you understand or you don't, just write everything down. The more notes you write the better. Not only can you refer back to them, you can also go and do some investigating in to what things mean to help you complete whatever is being asked of you. Yes faking it till you make it is all about confidence, but don't ever presume that you can remember everything that you're being told - especially when you're in a new role.
It can take years to get to a level where you feel comfortable and confident enough in your role and even in your career. But the time will come, you just need to be patient. In the mean time just keep living by that mantra, it will be your best friend.
