Executive Assistant Checklist | Starting a new role as an EA

In this video, Alicia Fairclough, Founder of EA How To, talks about using a checklist when your in a new executive assistant role.

If I had a dollar for every time an assistant asks me for a new role checklist, I probably wouldn’t be an EA anymore. I could actually retire off that cash. 

Maybe you’re thinking, “hey Alicia - if you’re being asked for it so often, why don’t you make a checklist? You could sell it for a dollar and retire”. 

I’ve had that thought too. 

And so… I’ve made you a checklist but… It’s free! 

I’ll get to the details about how you get the checklist in a minute. Believe it or not, that’s not the most important thing we’re going to talk about.  

The most important thing I can tell you about starting a new role is this. 

You don’t need to have it all figured out on day one. Or even week one. The first couple of weeks at a new role are about learning. Learning about the company, building a relationship with your exec, getting to know stakeholders, winning hearts and minds. 

The way to do that, isn’t by going in with a checklist and trying to immediately implement loads of ideas. No matter how brilliant they are. That is a disaster waiting to happen.  

The most important things you can do right away are listen, ask questions and listen some more. You need to find the rhythm of the company and get a feel for how your exec or your team like to work. Once you understand the company, the dynamics, the good and the bad, you’ll be in a much better position to enact real change and make a positive impact. 

There are of course, day to day practicalities though that can make a checklist useful. 

So I’ve created a checklist that you can customise depending on your role. This checklist will prompt you to discuss a range of topics with your exec from having a copy of their passport on hand to important information about key stakeholders and loads more.   

The checklist is a Trello board that has been made public so it’s free to copy and the link is in the video description or click here.

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