My Assistant Is Running Me, I’m Not Running My Assistant

One of my client’s exclaimed; “my assistant is running me, I’m not running my assistant”!

What my client meant is that there are certain jobs that are not getting done and this is frustrating my client.

Here is a mini action plan to remedy this.

– Make a list of what your priorities are for the week
– Meet with your assistant
– Ask your assistant what their priorities are for the week
– Let your assistant know what your priorities are for the week
– Let your assistant know, what the revised priorities are for the week based on the overall wellbeing of the business
– e-mail your assistant with a confirmation of the priorities (in essence – this is what you requested in the meeting)
– Check in with your assistant at 12:30pm and or 4:30pm to ensure that your request are being taken care of
– Repeat the meetings with your assistant the next day and each day thereafter
– At the end of the week – Meet with your assistant and advise your assistant on what they are doing well and what they need to improve. Ask your assistant to come up with ideas or for what actions steps that they can take to make the improvements. You may have to give your assistant the weekend to think about it. Ask your assistant to reply in writing via e-mail. The improvements could be; take a course on software or time management, create block time at certain parts of the day so that phone calls are going to voice mail so that they can create some uninterrupted time to complete A priority tasks –
– Discuss your assistants improvements, add your own recommendations and set completion deadlines
– At the end of the month – repeat the same process for “At the end of the week”.
– At the end of sixty days – reward or reprimand or replace.