Why 4 Famous Executives Rave About Admins as a Crucial Hire
You’re the best. Three little words that when coming from your boss or co-worker, you take with a grain of salt. But when someone outside…
Tag: awesome admin
You’re the best. Three little words that when coming from your boss or co-worker, you take with a grain of salt. But when someone outside…
Ryan, a serial entrepreneur best known for growing Hootsuite into one of social media’s biggest strategy tools (over 11 million users), reflects on how having a rockstar admin was integral to his productivity and success.
After Ryan’s EA of three years left, he realized what he lost—a modern day assistant who brought level-headedness, hustle, emotional intelligence, hyper attention to detail, and a diverse range of skills and life experiences to the table.
If you’re running a company, you're probably busy, stressed and struggling to keep your head above water. On the other hand, if you’re an executive with a great assistant, you’re still busy and stressed—but there’s an island of calm in the midst of your chaos. And trust me, that can make all the difference."
Mark knows a thing or two about team construction. As a two-time entrepreneur and VC with Upfront Ventures—one of the largest venture capital firms in Southern California—Mark shares that hiring an office manager should be the next biggest hire after the first round of funding is acquired. Without one, he reasons, your CEO will be too busy working in the business to work on the business.
Mark’s ideal Ninja is someone who’s humble, goes above and beyond the call of duty, has a great “bedside manner,” and is trustworthy and multifaceted.
Who do you hire after you have a product built and shipped and being used in the market? Who do you hire when you raise that first $2–3 million? My answer will surprise you and I’m sure many will not agree. But I give this advice to nearly every company I work with so at a minimum you’ll know it’s authentic and not intentionally controversial. Your first hire after that first round of capital is an office manager / company-wide assistant."
Joe is yet another advocate of the office admin as first recruit. He's the former President of Madrona Venture Labs, an in-house startup incubator of Madrona Venture Group (which has produced high tech startups including Spare5 and ReplyYes). Joe talks a lot about why hiring an Office Ninja is uber important for anyone who wants to grow their business—and let’s be real here, every entrepreneur wants that.
Joe claims that a stellar Ninja is someone who’s energetic, self-driven, hungry for experience, trustworthy, and not afraid of a challenge. Are you seeing a pattern yet?
One of the best decisions we made at the time was to hire a “Do-It-All Office Admin” (DIAOA) as one of our very first hires. The point was to free up everyone else to focus exclusively on building the business. Basically, we needed someone to tackle all of the “distractions," anything that isn’t a direct action related to a core goal. All important things but also all things that are incredible time sucks and aren’t going to make or break the success of the company at the early stage."
We saved the best for the last. Michael is many things: an author, blogger, founder, and CEO of Intentional Leadership (an online leadership development company). But most importantly, he knows the true value an EA brings to every leader’s life—both business and personal.
Michael sees a great Ninja as a second brain, a priorities master, a need-anticipator, a rockstar communicator with a servant’s heart.
A good executive assistant is like an air-traffic controller for your life. Not just your business—your whole life. They help manage not only the intricacies of the office, but all the treacherous intersections between work, family, social obligations, and more. An executive assistant is an extension of the executive he or she works for. In my case, Suzie and Danielle are thinking and acting on my behalf all day long—things I wouldn’t even think of or do because I just don’t have the bandwidth. And they help coordinate all the needs and demands of my life so there are very few—if any—collisions between the personal and professional."
What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received for being an awesome Office Ninja? Share in a comment below!