‘Patronising’; ‘embarrassing’; ‘degrading’; these are just a few of the comments we heard recently when discussing the issue of misconceptions about what people say about your role in comparison to what they actually know of what you do and deliver.

Specifically, these comments related to how EAs and PAs sometimes feel when they hear someone say something like, ‘We know who really runs the company’, ‘We know who the real boss is’, or, ‘We know who is the real power behind the throne’.

Often used by your own executives or their colleagues when introducing you or talking to others about you, we even hear them all the time at our conferences. But no one actually believes them to be true, and yet these trite, throw-away statements, are used constantly, sometimes, it seems, because people don’t know what else to say, or at other times because they are trying to curry favour with you and think shallow flattery will somehow do that.

But the biggest problem is that of misunderstanding, misconceptions, and a general lack of effort on behalf of many executives and managers in organisations to really think through the full gamut of all the many benefits you bring to them and their organisation.

So, when we contrast that approach with the executives we speak to who clearly are trying to build a true partnership, a strong working relationship based on mutual respect, trust and loyalty that can achieve amazing things, and where the executive clearly takes time to understand those things beyond a simple list of tasks that might be in most EA and PA Position Descriptions, it really is an amazing contrast.

This changing world of EA and PA role knowledge, understanding, and perceptions is a minefield and one that we have been trying to navigate with you all for years. But we believe, through the research we have done with a lot of EAs and executives, that we now have a suite of exceptionally good knowledge based models and tools that can assist with these difficulties. And this is what we have been building into our training courses and programs as well as into bespoke consultancy projects we have been developing for a number of organisations.

Last year at our conferences we held a session that looked at how you reconcile the notion of EAs being invaluable, as they are often told, with the notion that most people have no true idea exactly where that value lies. This has to change.

Several years ago we watched as a number of organisations started laying off EA and PA staff in their droves, all part of rationalisation programs that were driven by ignorance around what EAs and PAs deliver for their executives and organisations.

Many of those organisations have since turned their backs on their rationalisation programs and have started re-instating more senior support staff. But the truth is, too many other organisations are still in the dark when it comes to developing models and conscripts within their staff PDs or working structures, or assessments that deal with the many less obvious areas where EAs and PAs provide incredible support and benefits within a good working partnership.

Our mission is to help remove that ignorance everywhere and to empower EAs and PAs to take control of their own destinies so that they aren’t subject to the whims and vagrancies of bean counters who push rationalisation with no thought for the potential outcomes.

So, if this sounds like your organisation, but if you think your colleagues and senior management might be open to investigating other options, then please get in touch. Our holistic consulting, analysis and training approach is designed to help organisations ensure their Executive and EA parings can evolve into true working partnerships. So please, don’t let ignorance continue to dominate your world, contact us and let us bring our knowledge, models, tools and programs to your workplace.