With my last two blogs centred around the significance of great relationships between EA's when managing or being managed by one another, I thought it would be fitting to focus this next blog around one of the important pillars that forms part of the EA structure, essential to keeping the comradery strong. I refer to EA/PA team meetings - a great way to manage the team, build on individual relationships, keep everyone well informed and of course ensure everyone is well supported by one another.
When working in a role such as ours it can be difficult to try and allocate time to things that sit outside of the direct stream of work that is flowing from your manager. And when you have a frequent team meeting set with your EA's it can be challenging to find the time to create a meeting agenda that will be beneficial, informative and valuable to all. Without that carrot on a stick to entice your assistants to come along, you can often find your inbox full of declines at the last minute with accompanying notes saying they're too busy to attend. But whether we're busy or not, we all should make the time to attend these meetings, at the very least to be part of the team. The head EA should be making time though to ensure that there is a substantial agenda that is worth getting together over. However, I'm a strong believer though that if you don't have any items to discuss then the time is better granted back, especially when there are other things that need your attention. In saying that however, this shouldn't be used as an excuse to cancel it each time as all the assistants in the team need to see the bigger picture and understand the benefits of getting together and discussing certain items for the sake of uniting and creating a solid EA unit.
So given all of this I've listed below 8 ideas for creating a worthwhile EA meeting that all your assistants will want to attend. And even if you are not a managing EA who calls these meetings, you may like to consider the below and suggest it to your head EA in an effort to make the meetings more worthwhile and to improve the attendance across the board. Depending on the size of your assistant team, the format of your EA meetings may differ from being very casual with a small group, to very formal, minuted and chaired meetings with a larger group. Either way, the goal of the meetings should be the same, regardless of how it's delivered.
1. Always ask for agenda items in advance
A week prior to the meeting, make an effort to collect agenda items from your assistants as a basis for the meeting. Depending on what items are put forward, you may need to do some prep work before the meeting to ensure you have the right information to deliver to the team. In essence, don't leave asking for agenda items to the last minute. Put a reminder on the meeting invite a week out so that everyone attending gets the reminder and can contemplate their discussion points. Sharing of information between assistants forms an important part of this meeting so always have a standing agenda item for each of your assistants to provide an update from their area on what they're working on and what they have coming up. Additionally its important to discuss and share items that would be valuable to be understood or discussed by the group - this might be for example, upcoming leave for your team; events or off sites that you or your team are involved in (or you may need help with); recent team restructures; EA changes in other teams that need to be understood; or team seating requirements etc etc Even though we work as individuals in our own departments, its important to not shy away from the other assistants that work along side you, especially when as a team you are there to support each other. Sharing in all these sorts of updates also will help you to develop your skill set too, by hearing the advice that other assistants have to offer. Think of it as a group mentoring or a group counselling session!
2. Minute & Action
With all this information being shared, make your team accountable for taking down any actions or outputs from the meeting. Delegate the actions out and make those responsible accountable to provide a follow up at the next meeting. The first agenda item should always be the review of previous actions. If you do have a small team though and you feel this is a little too formal, it's still important to do, but fine to do casually - just as long as everyone knows who is actioning what. If you put structure around your meetings it will entice your assistants to want to attend. When we're all extremely busy, the idea of just sitting around and having a chin wag over coffee can make the best of us a little anxious. So structure the meeting to give it an air of importance to ensure your assistants feel the value in it and feel comfortable in parking what they're working on to stop and attend.
3. Rotate the responsibility
With our ever heavy workloads, you may like to consider rotating the responsibilities for the meeting rather than have it fall to the head EA to bring together the agenda and run the meeting every time. I suggest a rotating roster whereby each EA is allocated a meeting to lead, where they then pull together the agenda and run the meeting. Consider also having them choose a topic for each meeting where they might arrange a speaker to present to the group, or selecting a discussion topic to talk about or process to review. Challenge them to choose an idea that shakes things up a bit, challenges the group or inspires some change. Over all though, whatever it is they bring to the meeting should be inspiring, fun and most importantly worthwhile. Additionally, if you have a large group of assistants, think about also rotating the chair and rotating the minute taker each meeting, so the responsibilities are shared amongst the group.
4. Source a speaker
With all of us now connected on LinkedIn there are many opportunities to dip into our connections and bring in someone of interest to come and talk to the group. It could be an assistant from another company, a motivational coach, or perhaps a sales representatives from a venue or catering company that might be keen to come and share their offering. Between all of you I'm sure you would have quite a selection of options for presenters to come in and speak. Take a vote on what the other assistants would like to hear about. Perhaps they'd like to hear how other EA's manage their Executives from outside companies, or perhaps they'd like to do a tasting of a new catering company that's entered the market. Whatever it might be it offers a different aspect to the meeting that you may not have considered before. Short of that there will always be internal stakeholders in your business that will be keen to present to your EA team - it might be someone from IT, or someone from building services, or if you're lucky you might be able to twist the arm of one of the company Executives to come and speak about how they work with their assistant!
5. Training and skills refresh
Training and education for EAs is always an ongoing requirement, and where there may not be the time or the funds to do it personally, there may be opportunities to arrange training internally for all your assistants. Speak directly to your manager or your HR manager about allocating a small amount of budget to training, allowing an administration professional or EA coach to come in and conduct some short sessions during your team meetings. Speak to your assistants about which of their skills they'd like to sharpen up, and hopefully you can agree and align on an approach for the whole group. If you have trouble trying to get approval for this expense though, try a wider approach of arranging training across the board for all the company assistants (if you work in a large company that is), in an attempt to improve the talent of the assistants across the board. Additionally the training expense will be shared across other departments, making it a cheaper exercise. And you should note too that having a coach come in to your business can often be cheaper than sending all the assistants of to external training or to an EA/PA master class or conference.
6. Create team projects
Although we all get bogged down working on our individual to do lists, it's important to share in projects or events that you can all work on together. Identify processes, procedures, or events that you all can collaborate on and commit to working on as a team, rather than them being delegated to one assistant to deliver. Use your team meetings as a platform to discuss the project or the event and provide updates or showcase what you've done.
7. Go on an adventure and even find a solution!
Every now and again its fun to take your team out of the office and do something fun. To keep the outing relevant and work related though (as let's face it, some assistants get a little stressed when they're flat out and feel like they're not doing things that are productive!) think about arranging a site inspection of some of the venues you have yet to see or may be considering for an upcoming event. Alternatively arrange for the team to go and visit a catering company to do a menu tasting or check out facilities where team building activities are offered (might be a paint balling place, a trampoline studio or a ropes course). If one of you has an event or an off site that needs a venue or activity booked for it, involve all the assistants so they all get to see what's on offer. It can be very inspiring and even solve a few future challenges for you - you may see the perfect place for your team Christmas party and lock it in well in advance leaving you worry free come October when everything starts to book out!
8. Get social
Even though the purpose of EA meetings is to ensure we are all well informed and well supported, we can't forget the important element of strengthening the relationships between each of the assistants, and this is usually best done through social situations. Every now and again convert your team meeting in to a team lunch, or some afternoon drinks or even a team dinner (especially come the end of the year) and do away with the formalities of the meeting and just have a laugh and a good time. Its important for each of your assistants to feel looked after, feel rewarded and receive some thanks, especially when making an effort to be part of the team. Not all assistants will want to be social with their fellow team mates however, and that's fine, just as long as everyone is invited and feels included. I must say though that even if you don't like to stretch friendships beyond the four walls of the office, sometimes its good to participate, even if its just for one drink, just to be part of the team and to not exclude yourself. Some have their reasons for not wanting to participate socially which I very much understand, but as long as no one gets crazy or too loose, a little bit of harmless fun with your team is fine - but it's important for everyone to remember just to 'keep yourself nice', as my mother has always told me before any work party!
So next time your scheduled EA meeting comes around, embrace the above suggestions, consult with your team and get organised. Everyone is busy, so ensure the updates and meeting content is succinct and worthwhile. With this new structure in place the days of the last minute meeting declines will be a thing of the past, and instead you'll have an engaged and active team that will want to attend the meetings always.
Labels: Advice
