From the EAN Partnership Model Program to Diplomas and Short Courses, there is always a lot going on in the world of training and education at the Executive Assistant Academy. Read below to see news on some great in-house developments as well as some new public offerings currently in development, and of course our latest intake in our Diploma qualifications.

Aligning EAs and Their Executives – the EAN Partnership Model Program

Achieving a successful working partnership between EA and Executive is a must if the output of both, what they achieve as the embodiment of the executive office, is to be as productive as it can be.

In any discussions around effectiveness, efficiency and delivery, issues of capabilities, skills and knowledge are always going to be essential, but so to is ensuring that the very relationship at the core of the partnership is functioning effectively.

In developing our one day program, the EAN Partnership Model Program, designed to be run either just with a group of EAs or jointly with their executives, the issue of alignment is one that comes up continually.

Alignment on objectives of the role. Alignments on objectives of the partnership. Alignment around expectations of delivery and performance. Alignment of vision. Alignment of values. Alignment of role parameters. Alignment of brand. Most of these are easy to address, so long as you create a simple framework for doing so. And this is where our partnership model comes in. In a simple 5 stage process it enables you to look at creating the framework and foundations for your partnership to ensure success.

Trust is the other core element in the foundations of building a strong working partnership and the model also addresses this key element. Essentially short-circuiting months of trial and error, trust is fundamental to the foundation elements of our model and achieving this expediently. As you would all know, sometimes the trust in a partnership can take many months to evolve naturally, and as a result the partnership languishes in an uneasy state whilst people allow it to run its natural course. The result of this is a partnership that is not working as effectively as it might otherwise do.

We don’t believe this is efficient as it impacts on productivity. So our model enables organisations to get their EA and Executive partnerships firing sooner so that they can then start focusing on fine-tuning all the other elements of performance and delivery that are vital to business success.

If getting the foundations and building blocks for better working partnerships between EAs and executives in your organisation sounds like something you need to do, please contact us to discuss how we can deliver this to your organisation.

Managing Executive Energy, Focus, Mindset and Priorities – Manager of the Executive Office Program

As mentioned above, once the issue of partnership and getting the foundations right have been dealt with, the partnership can then turn to the issue of delivery. But again, with this, you need to have a vision for what the role can be beyond the simple issue of tasks and projects that EAs can work on.

Our training takes a broader more holistic look at the role of the EA and focusses on how you need to change your mind-set in terms of what you are delivering. Moving away from the directed and responsive style of working to a new proactive and managing approach, we want EAs and PAs today to focus on managing executive energy, focus, minds-set and priorities.

To complement the Partnership Model Program above, we are also creating a further one day workshop for EAs and Executives to allow them to focus on the next stage, that of delivery, but moving away from the old fashioned traditional view and embracing a new more effective vision for the role.

This course will also be available for delivery as an in-house solution, but ultimately we want both to be available as public courses so that EAs and Executives from any organisation, irrespective of their size and the depth of their training budgets can participate.

We will keep you abreast of both developments in the next couple of months and how they are being rolled out. But for now, we can deliver the Partnership Model program as required, so please let us know if your organisation wants to discuss this further.

EAN Diplomas – giving EAs the skills, knowledge and capabilities to deliver

The above two one day programs are designed to help EAs and Executives better align their vision and the way in which they actually work together. Beyond that, our Diploma and short course programs are all about you and your skills and knowledge and then having the capabilities within your specific role to do what is required.

We don’t believe there has ever been such an exciting period to be an EA. The role is evolving so quickly, bringing exciting new opportunities and challenges with it. But to make the most of these you do need to have expanded skills and knowledge. Our Diplomas are designed to help ensure that all assistants, irrespective of the stage in their career can have a mapped out career path and know what they need to do to be successful at each level.

If you haven’t looked at our Diplomas do so by clicking here. Already close to 100 EAs and PAs across Australia have been added to our Alumni Page having received one of the Executive Assistant Academy qualifications. With another 100 or so still in the pipeline and more registering every day, these are becoming a very widely recognised qualification with unique relevance to the role of EA and PA. So don’t miss out on the opportunity to register today.