Statistics can sometimes overwhelm. The figures pile up, and we lose sight of what the numbers mean. Take, for instance, the statistics around mental health in Australia:
These statistics detail how common mental health issues are in our country. These numbers take on a human dimension when we think about how mental health issues have affected us all in some way, whether personally or through family and friends. Indeed, The CEO Circle has been touched by depression, anxiety and unfortunately suicide, as have almost all Australians.
The prevalence of mental health issues prompted me to think about how we could change the conversation around mental health for our CEO Circle members, in their workplaces, and in our workplace too.
The CEO of Beyond Blue, Georgie Harman, is an esteemed member of the Circle, and she and the beyondblue team have been an invaluable source of information and inspiration in helping us to share the message with our members in the hope they too can positively influence their workplaces. Online resources like Heads Up have been especially useful in giving leaders and organisations the tools to implement better mental health strategies, policies and programs in the workplace.
Recently, The CEO Circle and beyondblue teamed up to hold two very special breakfast panel discussions, held in Melbourne on August 22 and Sydney on September 7, on the issue of mentally healthy workplaces.
The three panel speakers at the Melbourne event were the former Prime Minister of Australia and the Chair of the Board of Directors at beyondblue, The Hon. Julia Gillard AC; the CEO of beyondblue, Ms. Georgie Harman; and beyondblue ambassador and the founder and Executive Chairman of the John Hopkins Group, Mr. John Hopkins. At the Sydney event, Ms. Gillard and Ms. Harman were joined by Mr. Paul Howes, Partner KPMG Australia and Director beyondblue.
The discussions provided valuable insights into the importance of mental health in the workplace and how leaders can make their workplaces mentally healthy. The panel speakers also talked at times poignantly about their experiences with mental health in the workplace and beyond.
John Hopkins talked with great candour about his lifelong battle. He took us deep into his lived experience of depression.
"I don't feel like a victim. I've had a wonderful life. A great life. But I'd say to you, hopefully without anyone thinking I'm being sorry for myself, that I've had great sadness for about 70% of my life. And it really is a deep sadness. Another word I could use, and if you could please accept I'm not exaggerating, is a dread that sits with me," he told the audience.
Paul Howes also spoke, at times with wry humour, about his anxiety and depression. He also spoke soberingly about one of his tasks during his time as the National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union — signing bereavement cheques for members who had died before retirement age.
"On a regular basis, you'd look at these death certificates and see the cause of death, increasing numbers over a period, death by asphyxiation, death by self-inflicted gunshot wounds, car accidents and so on. It was very clear we were having a major issue with members, mainly men in their mid-40s in economically depressed areas, taking their lives," he told the audience.
Julia Gillard made an observation that resonated with many in the audience: leadership models are changing. It was a positive development away from the ‘hero' model, exemplified by the corporate warrior mentality, to one that valued ‘enabling' leaders, those who used their intelligence and humanity to better themselves and their teams.
“What does the leader do that models good behaviours? What does the leader do that brings the best out in the team and helps them be the most productive and engaged they can be? And I think this mental health agenda fits so well with that new model of leadership,” she said.
It was a reminder that leaders can change their environments. Leaders play a significant role in shaping the culture of a workplace and have the power to create mentally healthy workplaces. Positive change starts with one person. Be that person.
If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, please seek help from your GP, or from Beyond Blue by calling 1300 224 636 to speak to a trained mental health professional. For suicide and crisis support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Leadership and management are closely entwined, but there is a fundamental difference between them. Understandably the lines get blurred because great leaders are often also very good managers — but not always.
Being a great manager does not automatically make you a great leader. Leadership is about the progressive endeavour to renew and create, whereas good management can simply be about the preservation of what works. This can be a source of conflict in many organisations because great leaders are visionaries, whereas managers are most often firstly concerned with the task of maintaining optimal operations. The gap between these two goals can be wide and treacherous.
Business academic and author Clayton Christensen delineates this distinction perfectly in his landmark book The Innovator’s Dilemma, by exploring the often conflicting demands between a future punctuated by disruptive innovation and a present marked by the dictates of solid management principles.
Writing in 1997 against the backdrop of major changes in the computer industry, Christensen’s research delves into the paradox of why industry-leading companies fail:
It shows that in the cases of well-managed firms ... good management was the most powerful reason they failed to stay atop their industries. Precisely because these firms listened to their customers, invested aggressively in new technologies that would provide their customers more and better products of the sort they wanted, and because they carefully studied market trends and systematically allocated investment capital to innovations that promised the best returns, they lost their positions of leadership.
It’s a conclusion that hardly makes sense on the face of it, but is at the heart of the innovator’s dilemma: “...how executives can simultaneously do what is right for the near-term health of their established businesses, while focusing adequate resources on the disruptive technologies that ultimately could lead to their downfall.”
Twenty-one years later and the disruptive technologies Christensen was talking about in his book have only accelerated to become an even bigger X-factor for businesses. It could be argued that imaginative, visionary leadership is even more crucial in 2018 than it was in 1997, with almost every industry confronted by a tsunami of change in the shape of technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.
Organisations are made up of enablers and disablers; people who pursue the new and people who seek to maintain the old; those who see things as they are and those who see things as they could be. Both play their part. Great leaders understand the need to synthesize these two positions. To encourage the diverse and open exchange of views and ideas. To weigh, balance and test. To be challenged by the intelligence, knowledge and creativity of the team around them.
As Christensen pointed out more than two decades ago, it takes more than just good management for companies to be successful in the face of disruption. It also requires visionary leadership and the courage to walk with others on the journey to fulfil that vision.
Who do you trust? Trust is one of the most significant issues of our time. To varying degrees, many people today are distrustful of institutions such as politics, business, religion, science, and the media.
What’s at stake when we lose trust? Trust is the great invisible force that binds us as a society. When trust is absent, much of what we take for granted begins to crumble. It is a path that leads to suspicion, cynicism, and negativity.
When we talk about losing trust in an organisation or institution, it’s easy to forget we are talking about people. No organisation, no institution, exists without people. People drive culture. For an organisation to function well, to be trustworthy, people have to be working in alignment with a shared purpose.
Leaders play a significant role in this process by setting standards and upholding those standards by their conduct. Leaders build, display, and communicate trust. Trust comes to embody and characterise every interaction inside and outside an organisation.
When trust becomes a problem, people very often reach first for rules and regulations as a remedy, especially so in the world of business, where we often see more regulations enacted in the hope of fixing such issues. Speaking recently to one of our esteemed CEO Circle group chairmen, Mr John Churchill, he wisely said to me that “when you govern by rules, people lose integrity and values.”
“The rule book approach can have a completely adverse impact upon the creation of values and culture. Rather than rely upon enforcement, you should be relying upon basic inbred values and judgments. It is all too convenient to raise as an excuse ‘I was only following the rules’ rather than asking and answering the question ‘Is this right?’ Leaders must give people purpose, and that has very little to do with rules,” he said.
Without doubt, many areas of business and life require rules and regulations. Rules encourage compliance. But we should not mistake rules-based compliance for trust. Rules can be twisted, bent, and broken. We can follow the letter of the law while disregarding its spirit.
Leaders should do more than follow the rules. They should be open, honest, and transparent in what they say. Their actions and decision-making should be thoughtful and considered. Their behaviour should always uphold the highest values. Above all, they should know and communicate their organisation’s purpose and help employees understand that purpose.
Without purpose, people lose direction. They lose their bearings. When people understand their mission, they gain direction and meaning. They begin to understand reciprocity and responsibility as the grounds for ethical behaviour, as the basis for values, as the foundation for trust and their greater success.
If you think trust is an airy concept that sounds nice but has no real world consequence, think again. Stephen Covey highlights the very real effect trust has on our business relationships with this formulation: low trust = low speed and high costs; high trust = high speed and low costs. Trust is one of the most valuable and powerful assets any business can possess.
Trust is hard earned but quickly lost. As Warren Buffett says, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Who should you trust? As a leader, the first person you should trust is yourself. Hold yourself to the standards you expect each and every day. Honour your integrity. Give others someone they can believe.
Make your organisation one that does more than follows the rules; place trust at the heart of all it does, as the driving force to its purpose. Know your purpose and lead with trust.
Are you a humble leader? We don’t often associate the word “humble” with leadership. Humility is a rare commodity in a culture that celebrates vanity and arrogance. But these qualities don't unlock hearts and minds; humility does.
The most successful people in life are those that show humility. They are the people that never forget where they came from and reflect on what they endured to reach greater heights. It is those people who yearn to continue to give without remembering, regardless of how successful they are, and receive without forgetting and are forever grateful.
Humility is not weakness. On the contrary, it is the highest expression of an individual’s strength. It is the humble acceptance that you are who you are; with all of your flaws and imperfections, and all of your wonderful gifts and talents.
The leaders I respect and admire the most are those that show humility. They talk about how they can improve and be better people. They find ways to connect, share and develop, for their greater success. They are the leaders that know they are not perfect but are instead on this infinite journey of discovery; learning and growing along the way.
One of these leaders is the Dalai Lama, who says something very profound about humility:
“I never consider myself as something special. If I consider myself something different from you, like I am Buddhist, or even more, I am His Holiness The Dalai Lama, or even if I consider I am a Nobel Laureate, then actually you create yourself as a prisoner.”
A prisoner. Our pretence to being something more than anyone else is what ultimately isolates us from our fellow human beings. You can’t lead from a position of isolation. As a leader, you need to engage hearts and minds. You must be free to see and appreciate other viewpoints; to understand and empathise. This is at the heart of knowledge and vision.
Everyone is different. We are all made differently. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Don’t compare. Don’t be envious and don’t let this drive you to compromise everything you stand for to merely win – don’t judge and, above all, don’t gloat. Come from a position of humility and engage humbly with those around you. They have much to teach. You have much to learn.
Humility is the highest virtue and ensures greater success. Don’t be afraid to be a humble leader.
You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. But it helps to be highly intelligent. You don't have to be the most charismatic person. But you need to be able to command respect and attention. You don't have to be ruthless. But you do need to be able to make unpopular decisions.
Great CEOs come in all shapes and sizes. From the flamboyant like Richard Branson through to the quietly spoken like Google's Sundar Pichai. Some are extroverts, others introverts. Some excel at working on the granular details that keep an organisation running smoothly; while others do their best work from up on high, formulating strategy or dreaming big about brilliant products. Others still are just great all-rounders.
However, when you sit in a boardroom, you should instantly know who the CEO is. They have that je ne sai quoi, an undeniable quality that exerts leadership. There's an unquestionable sense that this person is taking care of business, getting things done, making it happen. When they speak, the word gravitas comes to mind.
But breaking down the qualities of a great CEO is complicated. There is a whole matrix of traits and skills that piece together to differentiate a great CEO from other senior executives. These include:
A great CEO is able to bring all these five qualities to the table, and a little more. That little more is often the personal ‘superhero’ power they also possess. It may be an intricate understanding of the technical details of their business; it could be a flair for sales and marketing that adds sparkle to their company’s brand; or it could be the vast and deep connections and networks they have developed.
Ultimately, a CEO’s success will always be measured by their ability to motivate those around them and achieve results. There is no one-size-fits-all formula for being a great CEO, but having the five qualities listed above is a solid starting point.
Disruption is one of the biggest buzzwords of our time, especially in business. We read about it everyday in the context of ideas like “disruptive innovation” and when it is used to describe the rise of companies like Uber.
However, while we create strategies for our companies to deal with disruption, we don’t always think about how we as business leaders, as individuals, deal with this kind of upheaval. What strategies do we have in place? How do we think about our journey when we confront disruption both in our personal and professional lives?
At its core, disruption is about a radical break with past patterns that sees new patterns emerge. What once was is remade anew. For some people, this can be a disconcerting step into the unknown. But for others it can be a liberating opportunity to rethink and reimagine our lives.
This point was brilliantly illustrated to me recently when I had the opportunity to hear world renowned neuroscientist Dr Joe Dispenza speak.
Dr Dispenza is a leading thinker on how we can retrain our minds to reshape our personalities and our realities. In essence, he says that we can go from “thinking to doing to being”, what he calls “the science of changing your mind”.
Dispenza’s ideas are based on the complex science behind the workings of the brain and how it interacts with its environment. It goes to the very heart of the difference between really living, being a conscious and full participant in life, and just merely existing, plodding through each day on autopilot.
When we begin to understand the power of the mind, and that we have control over this incredible tool, we come to the realisation that our past is not necessarily our future. It’s a point where you surrender your thoughts, memories, emotions, your addictions, your habits, the baggage in your life and start living. Living a new life replacing old habits with new habits.
What has this got to do with disruption?
When we are confronted by disruption, at the professional or personal level, we often resort to the thoughts and behaviours that have served us in the past. We look to our experience in the hope it can reveal the path through disruption. But the familiar is no longer the controlling denominator for our new reality. Our reliance on the same old ideas, tropes, words, behaviours fail us in the face of disruptive new realities. The path is not behind us, it is in front of us.
Einstein is credited with saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Yet so many of us keep butting our heads against the wall when confronted with a new reality.
Instead, we need to step back and realise the controlling denominator is no longer what we have done in the past, but what we can think, do and be in the present. Our mind is the key to facing what we may perceive to be an adversity.
The clarity we get from stilling our mind, from allowing it to rest and contemplate, gives us the chance to know ourselves and better understand our place in a situation. We get the space that allows us to think our way to becoming a new person.
Know your mind and you will know what it is you need to do and who you want to be. And when confronted with the challenge of disruption, you won’t see a threat, but an opportunity.
The role fear plays in our lives depends on the power we give it and how we manage it. Fear can paralyse us into inaction. It can also lead us to make rash and ill-informed decisions. But between these two extremes, fear can be an emotion that leads us to constructive and positive action. We all have the power to turn fear into a positive.
Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” To understand fear, it’s important to acknowledge the role it plays in determining the choices we make in our lives, at work and at home.
Fear alerts us to physical and psychological threats. To live without fear is to be unprepared for the dangers around us. We don’t like feeling fearful, but it’s essential to keeping us safe.
However, we can’t succumb to fear, we should never become prisoners of our fears. When we let that happen, our response is to either shut down and withdraw from action, or dive headlong without thought to what might be causing us to feel fear.
When fear shuts us down, we resort to behaviours like procrastination as a means of avoiding an issue or situation. Sometimes the fear is clearly defined, like when we don’t want to speak in public, or it can be vague, but we still feel a sense of unease that holds us back from acting positively and productively.
The flip side of the coin is when we ignore the signs of fear and thrust ourselves forward, maybe making choices we have not properly thought through, or hastily acting upon a situation because we feel any action is better than none at all.
Go too far one way, where we are cowed by our fears, and we lose out on massive opportunities. Go too far the other way, where we blindly pursue action without thought, and we risk making massive mistakes. Somewhere in between is the path of understanding and mastery, where fear becomes an ally.
By developing our emotional intelligence and self-awareness, we can learn to observe and diagnose fear and find the best way to deal with it. We develop an attitude that treats fear with healthy respect and as an emotion that can guide our actions.
The constant change and turmoil of the business world today brings with it many threats and challenges. Intense competition, technological innovations and an unpredictable global economy all play a part in tapping into the psyche of many employees, making them fearful about their future. CEOs and managers need to temper and channel such fears into positive and purposeful action.
To be able to achieve something we firstly have to believe we can. But sometimes simply believing in ourselves, in our capabilities, is not enough. Fear plays a role. That’s when we have to be surrounded by people who believe in us too. In belief there is power; power to strive, to take action and achieve. If we believe, we see the opportunities and those opportunities become realities.
When we learn to master fear we turn it into a powerful guiding light that illuminates the path before us rather than a blinding one that robs us of the ability to see what lays ahead and navigate the path.
You’re a successful professional, respected by your colleagues and confident about your place in the scheme of things. It’s a great place to be, but it’s important not to get complacent. This is the time for you to start making plans for the next decade of your life; to make the next ten years of your life count.
Whether you are a successful CEO, small business owner, corporate professional, or anything else for that matter, you will have developed a set of practical skills and knowledge alongside personal qualities that have stood you in good stead. Those around you see you for the capable and accomplished person you have become. Many people around you might even see you as a role model for what they want to achieve in their life. If you have not done so yet, it’s time for you to step back and appreciate what you have achieved because this will give you the strength to go on and achieve so much more.
Just as you have applied attention and care to what you have done in your professional life, so too should you apply the same in your personal plan for the future. It’s time to take stock of your life, all you have achieved, and think about where you want to be in the next ten years.
“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.”
― Alvin Toffler
Taking the helicopter view, taking all your surroundings into consideration, is extremely important. You’ve probably worked very hard to get to where you are and maybe haven’t surveyed what’s really before you: do it now. Now’s the time for you to develop the self-awareness to understand where you’ve been, where you are, and where you want to go.
By looking down at your life from the helicopter viewpoint you gain a new perspective. This is an abstract exercise but one well worth doing. Suddenly you’re no longer in the thick of it all, but instead you’re able to see how different elements of your life interact. Connections are made that may not have been easily apparent. The things you had thought of as big issues in your life might not appear quite so important, and other things in your life start to take on a greater dimension.
Looking at your life like this is not unlike looking down upon a chess board, or looking down upon a military strategy board – we can see the pieces that need to be moved and devise strategies for how they are going to be moved.
“On a world built to ordered specification, there was no logical reason for such a mountain to exist. Yet every world should have at least one unclimbable mountain.”
― Larry Niven
It’s an awe-inspiring thing to realise that you are the one driving this vehicle called life, you’re the person in charge of hurtling through space and time. Think about the next ten years and how you’re going to climb the ‘unclimbable’. What is it you really want to achieve? What is it that will make you happiest?
Think about this across your professional and personal lives, physically, intellectually, and emotionally. What are the decisions you will need to make? Down what path will you have to trek?
You have the power to make things happen. Don’t be afraid to make them happen.
“And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far into the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
One of the greatest qualities you can possess is the understanding that tomorrow is a result of what we do today. The decisions we make today lead to our destination. This is why having a plan in place is so important; even though circumstances change, we have a basic plan for where we want to get and how to do it.
Part of your journey is of course shared with the people around you. What you do affects them as well. Being present for those around you, colleagues, family and friends; presence of mind in the decisions and actions we take today; owning what we do as part of who we are and where we are going. Make these things part of your plan for the next ten years.
Enjoy life and integrate all the factors of life together, as best you can (work, family, community, health), while you are on the journey, not only at the end. Because if you sacrifice too much along the way, you may find you don’t have much to share with anyone, or you may have a great deal to share with no one. Then it’s all for nothing.
Making your next ten years count is all about looking at your life objectively and choosing to make the decisions that will put you on the path to what you want to achieve. Think carefully about what that is, and look after yourself and those around you.
There are a handful of countries that consistently rank among the most peaceful and prosperous in which to live from around the globe: Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, and you guessed it, Australia.
Amid the outrage that characterises so much of what passes for debate in our media and on social media, this simple and reassuring fact is sometimes missed.
Along with our Antipodean cousins in New Zealand, Australia is in that top echelon of countries that has a high standard of living, relative equality, and a working and mostly stable political system.
We have a successful, modern economy that survived the GFC reasonably unscathed and we’re working to innovate and meet the challenges of the tech age. We could be doing some things a little better in terms of making things easier for businesses to grow and prosper, but those issues are on the agenda.
We have strong and robust disagreements among politicians, policymakers and economists about the need for reforms across the economy, which is a good thing. It shows that a high level of debate and thought goes into our thinking on economic matters.
We’re still regarded as a great place to do business. Our legal system provides business with the transparency and certainty required for trade and our education system provides us with a mostly high quality labour pool for employment.
It’s worthwhile to take stock of these points and compare Australia’s situation to the turmoil engulfing so many other parts of the world.
Our election was a bit of a mess, and the outcome is probably not ideal in terms of ensuring the ongoing stability of policy and decision-making from our federal government. We might yet see another prime ministerial coup – but that’s far from being the same type of political instability wracking the United Kingdom in the wake of the Brexit vote. And it’s a million miles removed from the chaos of a real coup like the one we recently saw in Turkey.
We also don’t face the massive scale of the ongoing and seemingly unsolvable refugee crisis gripping Europe. The flood of people fleeing places like Syria for the relative security of Europe dwarves what we here in Australia have had to contend with on this issue. It is potentially a social, political and economic rupture which might take European countries a generation from which to recover.
In the USA, we’re seeing a bitter presidential race between Republicans and Democrats, with fractures appearing across the political spectrum. Underlying that political battle is the resurfacing of serious racial divisions as well, tragically illustrated by the shooting of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, and the continued protests of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In the face of all this we can take strength and solace in our situation. Hopefully the election will act as a wake up call for the major parties, with both Labor and the Coalition realising they have to listen more closely to an electorate that’s calling out for stronger engagement. Our system, our democracy, is strong enough to learn such lessons.
The challenge for Australia and for business is to not sit and wait, but be courageous. The reality, however, is that generally we have an underlying conservative business culture here in Australia. A short term focus where some executives favour cost-cutting as the pathway to growth. As the pathway to increasing productivity. As we all know, this is not the answer. If business “sits on its hands” this becomes self-fulfilling; that is, the economy slows.
When we continue to blame our political landscape for our productivity woes due to a lack of leadership, lack of vision, indecisiveness, spin – which includes red tape, higher compliance costs, pro-union labour market policies, etc – we shift agency away from ourselves and give it to politicians.
The reality is that it’s not the politicians or our government that is the source of productivity; it’s us – the business community. We need to take the initiative. It’s all about building an innovative workplace, investing in new processes, investing in new systems, markets and products. We have to establish and maintain our competitive advantage, by taking calculated risks and setting ourselves up for the future. This takes courageous leadership.
We’re still very much the lucky country. We should rejoice in that and work together to ensure we maintain our position as one of the most peaceful, prosperous and happy countries in the world.
They are the great unsung heroes of corporate life: the executive assistant. Toiling away behind the scenes, taking care of the details that matter, lending a supportive ear, or having a quiet word, the right EA can make all the difference to the smooth functioning of the executive team.
Once upon a time, the EA was a combination of receptionist and secretary, primarily responsible for basic office administration as well as secretarial duties such as note-taking and drafting correspondence. These days, the role of the EA has expanded to encompass a vast range of tasks and duties that go well beyond managing calendars, correspondence and travel arrangements.
The modern EA is an integral member of the engine room for most organisations. Highly talented and with an irrepressible can-do attitude, the EA makes sure things get done. But the scope of what the EA does now is far greater than it ever was in the past. Now, the EA rolls out strategy, marshals the executive team and other staff, and is usually responsible for the maintenance of an organisation’s administrative infrastructure.
An excellent example of the calibre of the modern EA can be found by looking at the career of Ursula Burns. Born in Panama, Burns moved to the USA as a child and grew up in the housing projects of New York City. Extremely bright and tenacious, she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, and went on to achieve a Masters in the same discipline from Columbia University.
After working in various corporate roles throughout the 1980s, Burns became an executive assistant at Xerox Corporation in 1991. Her time working as an EA would become a valuable learning experience as she progressed into the executive ranks and eventually became the CEO of Xerox, a Fortune 500 tech heavyweight company. Burns knew the company inside out. This is one of the qualities of a great EA: they know how a company ticks and what needs to be done to keep it all running.
A significant factor in the changing role of the EA has been the technological revolution of the past 20 years that has totally transformed our work lives, and how organisations operate. Far from rendering the EA redundant, the new technologies that have taken root across corporate life have meant the role is now far more about strategic thinking and organisation.
The modern EA is across digital technology, often being the person in the office instigating and integrating new ways of doing things. They know what software can be used to improve such things as internal communications, project planning, and anything else that falls within the ambit of making things more efficient and productive for the executive team. They’re managing work flows across the office and between teams, coordinating between managers and leaders across the entire organisation.
Of course there is another element to the EA which is perhaps less tangible, but just as important. A good EA has the right personality for the job. As well as being highly organised, diligent and reliable, they will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and will bring a sense of calm and positivity to what they do. They will be able to read a room and gauge who and what is important. It’s this emotional intelligence that really sets apart the very best executive assistants from their lesser peers.
An EA’s personal qualities matter greatly because of the close relationship formed between an EA and an executive can be intense. The professional and personal pressures carried by executives can be a heavy burden. In many respects, it is the EA who is expected to alleviate and manage much of this burden by streamlining as much as possible the executive’s day-to-day tasks and duties. The EA becomes professional confidant and sounding board, helping their leader to stay on top of things.
Unfortunately, executive assistants are not always as appreciated as they should be. They can often be taken for granted, overlooked for progression, and forgotten when it comes to training and education. This is not only doing a disservice to them but also to the organisation because an effective EA is a valuable asset. They should be looked upon as such and treated with the same professional respect and care as anyone else in the organisation. Maybe it is because so much of what an EA does seems to go unnoticed, performing magic in the margins, that we can too easily undervalue their contribution.
It’s often said that it’s lonely at the top for CEOs: the same can very much be said for executive assistants. They are loyal, dedicated, committed, determined and highly talented individuals who need support and an opportunity to connect. It’s time we started singing the praises of executive assistants, the great unsung heroes of corporate life, and looking after them a little better.
