Behind every leader is a great EA

Making your boss look good is a prerequisite of being an EA par excellence, but what exactly are the essential traits that you need to cultivate in order to seriously impress senior management? Rachel Feintzeig of The Wall Street Journal has profiled a number of EAs who work at leading US companies to figure out what makes them so indispensable.

Over at NBC Universal, President Edward Swindler’s assistant, D’Andra Galarza, works hard to ensure her boss’s needs are met, including stocking his office with his favourite snacks and waking up before dawn to make sure he catches an early flight. She describes herself as being like a “stage mother”.

At Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s former executive assistant Anikka Fragodt attended meetings on his behalf and educated other staff members about his wishes. Fragodt says she could anticipate Zuckerberg’s needs in a single look; just one of the reasons she became his right-hand woman.

Being able to keep confidential information secret is the duty of any high-profile EA and Michelle DiGiacomo, an executive assistant for Pinterest co-founders Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp, is often looped in on such information long before any of her colleagues. For instance, she knew about the company being valued at $3.8 billion before it went public.

Then there’s what you might term “the persuader”. The former CEO of healthcare firm Baxter International developed a more personal relationship with his staff, including writing individual emails, after receiving encouragement to do so from his assistant.

Shadowing your boss’s movements can also pay dividends as Melba Duncan, an EA to Lehman Brothers executive Peter Peterson, found out. When he came to work reading a book, she would immediately buy and read the same one. Now, as president of Duncan Group, a training and recruitment firm for EAs, Melba says bosses are looking for assistants who are educated about global affairs and who can help guide decisions.

Read the original article at tinyurl.com/kf8xgy8