Hiring an executive assistant is an important and vital step in growing your business – it means that you’ve reached a point where all your appointments and successes are officially too much for one person to keep track of, and it also signals the time where you can finally delegate the admin side of things and really focus on running your business the way you want to.
However, hiring an executive assistant is also something it’s important to get right – both personalities and work ethics need to gel, as well as making sure your new hire really gets where you and your business are coming from.
So what skills should you be looking for when you’re thinking about hiring an executive assistant? As well as finding someone who you get along well with, it’s important to keep their skill set in mind, so we’ve put together this handy list of top skills you should look for in an executive assistant.
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Great organisational skills
This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to get taken in by a great personality or strong educational background without thinking to really dig into their history in these situations. What you need more than anything else in an executive assistant is strong organisational skills.
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Strong Communication skills
One thing you absolutely want to avoid in an executive assistant is poor communication skills, as you need to be able to trust completely that they’ve understood what you’ve said and will be able to meet your needs without problem. If it’s always in the back of your mind that they may have got the wrong end of the stick, or equality, you find that the way they give you information is confusing, then this isn’t a relationship that’s going to last long.
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Ability to take initiative
Part of the role of an executive assistant is to put out fires on your behalf when it comes to logistics – you don’t want someone who ahs to call you to confirm every last detail if there’s a need to reschedule tickets or change a destination. You want someone who can use their common sense to make practical decisions.
One of the best things you can do is to get some help finding the perfect executive assistant, such as using a service like C Suite executive assistant headhunters to help you find the perfect candidate. They have all the experience and expertise to do the job right, and it will save you months of sifting through applications and interviews with the wrong people.
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