As Vince Lombardi famously stated, “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.” PAs rarely receive praise or feedback, so how do we know we’re doing a good job and keep ourselves motivated? asks Abigail Jones
- Does your boss regularly thank you for your hard work?
- Have you recently been offered a pay rise or bonus?
- How do you know your employer values you?
Great news if you can answer positively to any of the above questions. Realistically, for the majority of PAs, the answers to these are probably ‘no’ and ‘don’t know’. So if you are not verbally or financially rewarded for your work, how do you know you are valued and appreciated? Who is driving your confidence in the work place? Does it come from you, or are you relying on someone else to recognise just how great you are?
Assuming you, like most PAs, do not tend to get an appraisal and salary adjustment annually (although you may get the odd ‘thank you’ or box of chocolates at Christmas), evaluating your own performance and deriving a feeling of self-worth from your role may land squarely on your own shoulders. If you do have to take part in a performance review, you may find yourself in the odd position of having to write your own appraisal on behalf of your boss to sign, as invariably they will be too busy to do it themselves. Evaluating yourself objectively is not easy, particularly when PAs tend to undervalue their usefulness and professionalism.
So how do you keep up your confidence levels with minimal feedback? How do you know you are ‘worth’ a pay rise when your work isn’t evaluated? And crucially, how do you derive satisfaction from your performance? In the PA role, you may wish to increase your confidence and self-esteem from the success of your day-to-day tasks – the big event you managed, the impossible to organise meeting that finally took place, catering for your boss’s more unusual requests, or managing the private life of the family or household during frenetic shooting or party season.
Confidence, referring to your ability to perform your role and undertake complex tasks, has to come from you. Others might recognise your excellent dining choice for the company dinner, or the beautifully executed PowerPoint presentation, but ultimately pride in your work has to come from you. If you pick holes in your work, you are encouraging others to do the same. By all means, learn from mistakes and acknowledge that humans are infallible, but take a moment to savour how well you performed. PAs tend to move so quickly from task to task that we rarely take the time to congratulate ourselves, but we should – otherwise, who else will? We watch whilst others are promoted, celebrated and rewarded, but rarely have the courage and confidence to ask for the same recognition.
Your self-esteem needs regularly topping up – the same mentality that allows you to apply for a new job, put your name down to run a triathlon, or decide to travel to a country by yourself. Benchmarking your abilities and earning potential can be very useful – network with other PAs and ask where they work, what they are up to and what their career goals are. Keep an eye on the job boards and see what salaries are at the moment; are you undervaluing your skills? If you recognise a gap in an area of your knowledge – be it your business, or a piece of software utilisation, why not ask for training? Ask yourself: do you really enjoy what you do? Is this what you want to do for the next five, 10, or 15 years? If not, how are you going to get where you want to be? Your career is your responsibility; look upon it as a project that needs management. And who best to project manage your own career than you – the best PA with the most in-depth knowledge?
If you prefer something more concrete, why not ask your boss or colleagues to tell you one thing they think you do really well, or ask for feedback on the next project you are working on? Encourage yourself to develop and learn, motivate yourself onwards and upwards. You might have many jobs and roles in your life, but you only have this life to take pride in.
Abigail Jones is a career executive assistant with two decades of experience. With three degrees in the arts, she started her career working at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Christies and Sotheby’s auction houses and private art dealers before moving into Healthcare, Charity, Fashion and Luxury Retail. She is currently working for American Express Global Business Travel as EA to the Managing Director of Europe.
