Some 3 months out from our next Diploma intake commences, or our next round of Short Courses are held, one might think it would be quiet here with bookings and registrations, but you would be very wrong.

We already have 43 people registered to attend short courses in October, 10 of these being registered to attend the Sydney Event Planning & Masterclass event.

In addition, we already have 23 registrations for our next Diploma intakes.

Now given that we typically get 50% of registrations in the last 6 weeks before an event date, we are extremely optimistic that doing this well so far out should lead to some more great classes for EAs and PAs.

In the past few weeks, due to our marketing activities, we have had an increased number of enquiries from organisations wanting to talk with us about what we can do to help increase EA and Executive partnership productivity – in essence the efficiency and effectiveness of the executive office and the EA and Executive working together.

Not surprisingly, however, much of the discussions with these organisations has first focussed on identifying areas where things can be improved. But as the adage goes, ‘people don’t know what they don’t know’, and when it comes to EA and Executive partnerships, when speaking to the executives, this is certainly often the case.

However, this isn’t unusual, nor should it be considered such. Rather, our experience is that this is the norm which is why we have been focussing on topics around EA productivity and performance and an understanding of this for the past couple of years.

Our focus on remedying this is simple, and it starts with probative questions, independently, around executive and EA understating of scope, potential and opportunity in the role and also aligning expectations and objectives.

Whilst many people focus on skills and knowledge, our experience is that these are rarely the panacea people believe them to be, if first and foremost, there is no alignment in the partnership or, even worse, the partnership is less a partnership, and more a directed boss / employee style of arrangement.

In this case, it is essential that the Executive and EA can have fully aligned visons and objectives and fully aligned understanding of how they can best work together. Not until this happens can you really look at where best to focus on developing the EA’s technical skills and knowledge, or even social / interpersonal skills, to meet the needs of the partnership. Of course, acquiring knowledge and skills is never bad, but where it is targeted at understanding of a gap and to meet a specific purpose, it is always more effective.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss with us to see how we can work with your EA and executive partnerships to ensure greater alignment and more focus on unified objectives and goals, as well as where best to channel your development for your EAs and PAs, then please contact us at Support@ExecutiveAssistant.com