Executive:

“Regarding that conference in Miami next week, I changed my mind and decided to go after all.  I want to stay in that fabulous hotel everyone talks about.  I know I’m booking that hotel at the last minute and I know the hotel is completely sold out and has been for weeks, but I need you to get me a suite there with a king-sized bed, with an ocean view and make sure it’s far from the elevators and above the seventh floor.”

Executive Assistant (60 minutes later):

“You’re all booked.  Room 1050.  Refrigerator will be stocked with all your favorites. And I let them know you’ll be checking in late and to hold the room no matter what.”

My article today is a tribute to my heroes in the corporate world: Administrative Professionals, also known as Administrative Assistants and, at the higher levels, Executive Assistants.  It’s especially appropriate today, because today is Administrative Professionals Day.

I first started working with Administrative Professionals 30 years ago.  I was delivering communication workshops in a large oil company in Houston and I noticed that one group of students was unusually upbeat.  I watched the group dynamics for a little while and I traced it to a woman who seemed to be bringing everyone into a super positive frame of mind.  I found out she was the Executive Assistant to the CEO.

She was also in charge of hundreds of other Administrative Assistants from all over the company.  She loved the workshop and started sending other Admins to the class.  As they started to show up in my classes, I noticed that the presence of one Admin significantly raised the tone of the whole group.  These groups were more cheerful, they laughed more, they were more engaged, they were unusually supportive of each other, and they seemed to learn even more than my other groups.

Then I had a group of 20 students that had 6 Admins in it.  That group was so upbeat, I thought they were going to levitate.

The other Trainers in my organization noticed the same thing.  Very quickly it happened that, when we had an upcoming class with Administrative Professionals, my Trainers would jump to volunteer to teach that class and would brag, “I have 4 Admins in my upcoming workshop!” to other jealous Trainers.  Even if they had a busy schedule and didn’t think they had time to take an upcoming session, if I said, “It has Admins in the group” they would jump to take it.  Still do!

I decided to find out more about the individuals in this profession.  I thought it was fascinating, the positive effect they have on the people around them. 

It didn’t take long before Administrative Professionals were inviting me to deliver workshops to their professional associations.  I’ve met and worked with hundreds of them.  For many years, I’ve worked with a very elite group of Executive Assistants to the top CEO’s of Silicon Valley. 

I’ve learned A LOT about them and, since I work directly coaching many executives and senior executives, I’ve learned how to work WITH the Admins to make life smooth.

And I am not kidding when I say they are the unsung heroes of any organization.  What they do and how they do it defies the job description of any mere mortal.  The complexities of communications they have to handle, and the delicate finesse with which they have to handle them, would leave a seasoned diplomat gasping in admiration.

If you ever saw their incoming communication, it could look like this (all real situations):

• “I just landed in Korea and my luggage is lost, they think it’s in Japan.  I’m flying out again tomorrow for Singapore.  I need you to make sure my luggage is in Singapore when I arrive.”

• “I have 15 emails from VP Engineering wanting to meet about the new product release. He seems quite heated.  We’ve already met and I’m tired of explaining it to him. Please let him know we don’t need to meet anymore. We just need to go ahead with our plan.”

• “I’ve been invited to speak at the San Mateo Poodle Association Convention.  Please let them know I won’t be available and do it really nicely, I really like those people and the Association President is my next door neighbor. He was really counting on me. Make sure he’s not disappointed.”

• “I’ve decided to go fishing in the Baja. Leaving tomorrow.  Please reschedule all of the meetings I have scheduled for next week for the following week.  Squeeze them in somehow.”

• “I looked at the agenda for the meeting coming up next month with the Prime Minister of ________ (major country). Get with his people and tell them we need to add these 3 items to the agenda. He’s not going to like it, so you’ll have to persuade his people to get him to do it.”

• “Sorry to be calling you at 2 AM (Note:  Many Admins sleep with their phones by their beds), but it’s morning here in Europe and I’m up.  Trip is going well, I just realized I need to meet with Frank this afternoon.  You should get on that right away. Not sure he’s in town so you might have to track him down.”

• “I need to meet with Molly next Thursday. I know I’m completely booked, but you’ll have to find an hour.”

• “I’ve decided to have an in-person “All-Hands” for our Leaders at the end of May. Can you find a location in the Wine Country that will be fabulous and arrange it? About 80 people.  Not everyone wants to travel yet, but we need everyone there, so talk to them and make sure everyone attends.”

(NOTE TO THE ADMINS READING THIS – Are you laughing? :))

To the rest of you - Is your head spinning yet? Mine always does when I see what they do.

This is also true of my own Administrative Professionals.  I am in awe when I watch them work, and even when I only catch a glimpse of their own “Daily to do list”. 

Left to our own devices, even the smartest executives and I would never be able to schedule a meeting on our own (I’ve made the mistake of trying, she writes, laughing!). I sometimes go unconscious looking at my own schedule.  I don’t know how my own Executive Assistant confronts it. When I see the precision scheduling they accomplish every day, I know I am looking at someone with the Olympic skill of an Air Traffic Controller who keeps a multitude of planes from colliding as they coordinate the precise schedules that keep them landing on the exact right runways right on time.

Their ability to negotiate difficult, sensitive communications astounds me.

Good Administrative Professionals keep their executives sweet-tempered.  Without them, you would see a level of grouchy and cranky that would make you want to run from the building.

Admins are the masters of smoothing ruffled feathers and making it look like there was nothing ever out of place.

And most importantly, they are true business partners.

Feeling low? Go talk to an Admin.  Need to get something done? Go talk to an Admin.  Can’t figure something out? Go talk to an Admin. Need someone to make you smile?  Go talk to an Admin. 

And you know what else is really cool about them?  For all that they are able to do, they are always eager to learn.  They are always the most open, the most eager, the most enthusiastic students in the world.  Just goes to show – the truly able beings in the world are the ones who never stop learning.

Yesterday I gave a talk on Causative Communication to 150 Administrative Professionals in Silicon Valley.  It was a joy to feel all their positive energy and experience their professionalism and intelligence.

There are so many Administrative Professionals I could individually acknowledge.  As I’ve been writing this, their faces have been flashing in front of me.  One I want to call out particularly is an international super star.  Her name is Debbie Gross.  I met Debbie over 20 years ago and have had a front row seat to her rocket-ride career trajectory.  After decades as a Chief Executive Assistant in Silicon Valley, Debbie now has a very successful business.  She’s training, mentoring and coaching Administrative Professionals from every industry who are eager to learn how to be rock stars themselves.  Debbie’s ability to teach is unparalleled.  It is her picture you see above, and that is the cover of her best-selling book.  This book is a fascinating read just for the great stories alone. I highly recommend it no matter what you do.

MY HAT IS OFF TO ALL THE ADMINS I’VE MET AND WORKED WITH!  You have enriched my life and the lives of so many countless others in ways that defy and transcend “normal”.  THANK YOU for being the heart and soul of every major corporation I’ve ever worked with.  THANK YOU for confronting the impossible and making it go right.  THANK YOU for bringing an extraordinary intelligence into every situation.  THANK YOU for being the MOST reliable person in the room.  THANK YOU for always remembering the thousand details that go into a successful workshop or meeting. THANK YOU for being telepathic and reading from my face what I’m thinking and what I need.  THANK YOU for quietly getting it for me.  And THANK YOU for turning the heat up in the really freezing rooms they always put me to speak in, so I can talk without my teeth chattering.  You seem to be the only person in the company who is able to get that done, plus a million other things no one else can figure out.

If you work with any Administrative Professionals, today is the day to really thank them!

There are many lessons for anyone to learn from Debbie and other truly great Administrative Professionals.  One is that they know that being causative is a decision that you make, and that, whether you are aware of it or not, this decision is one you face every single minute of every single day. 

If you want to win, then follow their lead. The stars are there so you can reach for them.  Decide to be a rock star and then DO IT.

Be the cause!