EntreLeadership - The 5 Reasons You Need an Assistant with Tricia Sciortino

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

Join us as our host, George Kamel, talks to Tricia Sciortino. She’s the CEO and a board member of BELAY—one of the nation's leading virtual assistant companies as well as a sponsor of this podcast. Tricia is a cohost of the One Next Step podcast and the author of Rise Up & Lead Well. In this episode, she shares five reasons it might be time to hire an assistant. Later on, George chats with Daniel Ramsey, the executive vice president of EntreLeadership, and Morgan Davidson, Daniel’s executive assistant. They share the top three mistakes leaders make when working with their assistants and how you can avoid them.   You’ll learn: •      The best way to delegate to your assistant •      How leaders become more productive •      Why leaders need to be future-focused •      The top three mistakes leaders make with their assistant   Sign up for The EntreLeadership Podcast takeaways—a weekly email where you’ll get three tangible takeaways and a tactical action step related to each episode: https://bit.ly/podcast-takeaways   Support our sponsors: •      Hite Digital: https://bit.ly/HiteDigital •      Kyro Digital: https://bit.ly/KyroDigital •      NetSuite: https://bit.ly/NetSuiteEntre •      Trainual: https://bit.ly/TrainualEntre   Links mentioned in the episode: •      The EntreLeadership Podcast: https://bit.ly/TheEntreLeadershipPodcast •      BELAY’s website: https://bit.ly/3mRIqQt •      One Next Step podcast: https://apple.co/3BScyiP •      Boundaries for Leaders by Dr. Henry Cloud: https://amzn.to/3U3F5MH •      Our previous episode with Tricia Sciortino: https://apple.co/3LeIVyI •      Get your Master Series livestream ticket: https://entreleadership.com/livestream   Learn more about EntreLeadership Events: •      EntreLeadership Master Series: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipMasterSeries •      EntreLeadership Summit: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipSummit   Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching: •      Elite: https://bit.ly/3tI2fN8 •      Advisory Groups: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipAdvisoryGroups •      Executive Coaching: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipExecutiveCoaching •      Workshops: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipWorkshops   Listen to all the Ramsey Network podcasts anytime, anywhere in our app. Download the Ramsey Network app: https://apple.co/3eN8jNq Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, does every leader need an assistant? We're going to go through five reasons why it might be time to make that higher. Then we're going to cover the top mistakes leaders make when working with their assistant. Welcome to the Entree Leadership Podcast from the Ramsey Network, where we help you learn the proven principles for winning as a business leader. I'm your host, George Camel, and each week here on the podcast, I sit down with some of the best leadership minds out there to help you grow yourself, your team, and your profits.

My guest today is Trisha Shortino. She's the CEO and a board member at Belay, which is one of the nation's leading virtual assistant companies, as well as a sponsor of this podcast. She's also got a podcast of her own called One Next Step, and she's the author of Rise Up and Lead Well. Now, here at Entree Leadership, great leaders build strong relationships. So how do you do that with your assistant, and why do you need one in the first place? That's why we're having Trisha on today to share five reasons why it might be time to hire an assistant. Let's jump in. Here's our conversation. Tricia, welcome back to the Entree Leadership Podcast. How you been?

I've been great. It's great to be here. Well, you've been leading the team at Belay, and we love what you guys do, helping business owners like the ones listening to this podcast, find the help that they need, find the margin that they need, delegating, getting virtual help in so many areas. So we appreciate what you guys do. Yes, and we love every minute of it. Well, today's episode is focused on assistance. And I have a, this is a soft spot for me because my wife is an executive assistant here at Ramsey. We met here. We're now married. We found the loophole in the system. So it's been great. And I have such a deep appreciation for assistance. And the ones at Ramsey, they're like built different. They're just

on another level. They basically secretly run the company and not so secretly. And I know you feel the same way about assistance, having been on both sides. Now CEO, having started as an executive assistant. And you've shared that journey here on the podcast. Yeah, I mean, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, the secret is your assistant should be running the business behind you. That's the secret. So I thought it'll be fun to share maybe your favorite assistant in a TV or movie. I have my favorite that just, you know, warm as my heart.

Is there one that stands out to you? Yeah, you know, it's funny. There are two that come to mind. I'm going to say Robert De Niro in The Intern with the movie That's an amazing choice. Yes. Him, he was the best assistant. The first one that comes to mind.

But there is this little thing inside of me that wants to say the devil wears Prada. Wow. Also Anne Hathaway. Also Anne Hathaway. Absolutely. Well, I'll tell you mine has got to be Pam Beasley from the office. Oh, of course. One of the all-time great characters.

Yes. So obviously they're portrayed in movies and TV very differently. and, you know, real life. And today we're talking about really answering the question, does every leader need an assistant? And what are the reasons it might be time to make that higher? And this is something that you've grappled with and you've got some great answers for our listeners today. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is the real big question that people ask all the time is when is the right time? When do I need an assistant? And my answer's always been the same immediately now, yesterday probably. As soon as you got the job, you need the assistant. Yeah, and they really do clear the

path in so many ways to help leaders focus on what only that leader can do. And so you do have the five reasons every leader needs an assistant. So list them off real quickly and then we're going to unpack them. Okay, number one, get your time back, the time that only you can focus on, accomplish more. I mean, don't we all want to get more done? Protect your priorities. Don't do the things you shouldn't be doing. Become future focused. Because if you're the leader, you need to be looking ahead. And peace of mind.

Always peace of mind. Those are the five. That's strong. So let's jump in with Get Your Time Back. This is something we're passionate about. We try to be very efficient here at Entree leadership. How do you avoid your assistant constantly asking, well, how do you want me to handle this and just taking up more of your time? What do you mean by getting your time back?

Yeah. Yeah, so I think like anything, there's a lot that needs to go into training and onboarding upfront. So a good assistant will come with all of the core skill sets they should come with, right? They will come with, they know how to manage a calendar, they've probably done it before, they come with email management experience. The thing is, they don't know it your way, they don't know your preferences, they don't know the way you would want things. So I say spends the first 30 days and train them on your way. It's not that maybe they never managed a calendar before, but I'm sure your preferences are way different than other people's preferences.

So if you train and really invest in those first 30 days and run through your preferences and honestly document them, put it all on paper so they have something to look back on so they can answer their own questions, then you really mitigate them constantly coming back to you, how do you want this? When did you want this? What is the priority? Because you've already taken care of that already. And if you have it documented, then they can use that as a resource to go look at. They might not remember everything, but they can certainly go back to that document and say, okay, let me go look at what were their preferences for this thing? And they have a resource. And you know what? That resource doubles as. It doubles as training for your next assistant. Oh, that's good. Yeah, a lot of the frustration comes from the assistant does something one way or doesn't do something a certain way and the leader's frustrated, but it kind of points back to bad leadership because they didn't onboard and train well. They didn't communicate clearly. It's just jumbling around in the leader's brain and they expect the assistant to have some kind of telepathic powers. They do. Leaders think assistants should be mind readers. I mean, truly, truly think they should be mind readers while they come with this skill set. It would go for any, other role. Like if you hired a new salesperson, you would expect them, you know, maybe they

sold widgets and you would expect them to understand what a sales funnel is and what quotas are and how to sell. But does that mean they know how to sell your product? Does that mean they know how to do it your way and use your systems and sell in the timeframes that you would expect them to? No. So it's like any other role, training and onboarding is super important. So what does it look like to get that time back? You've onboarded, you've trained. What kind of things are we handing off in order to get time back in our day to focus on the right things. Oh, gosh, a variety of things, right? Every administrative task you can think of. Things I've kind of just tossed out there already is really just, you know, calendar management is a big one, meeting notes and action items,

follow up from meetings, email management, travel booking, CRM, data entry, returning phone calls on your behalf. So I think the list of administrative tasks are immeasurable. It really boils down to what is your time look like. What are you doing administratively that you should stop doing? So I say, sit down, make a list of what it is you're doing in your days and slash that list in half and give that other half to your assistant. Yeah, I feel like that almost takes the assistant, you know, taking a day, following them around going, I can do that. You know, you know, You don't need to be – they kind of the best assistants are proactive in seeing those blind spots the leader might not see and going, oh, you're right. Okay, I can show you how to do this and I don't have to do that and I can focus on these things.

So that's a great reminder. That does take – it's a little bit of a dance at first. Yeah, and I think that most people don't realize how much time they spend on administrative work. And so what we do here at Belay is usually twice a year. We will sit through and we will put ourselves as leaders through a time study, if you will. I actually just did one last month. We'll sit there for a week and I will log what it is I'm doing every hour of the day I'm working. And at the end of the week, you'll be shocked how much time.

And I have an assistant. I think I'm a pretty good delegator. And I still find myself doing administrative things that I should be delegating to my assistant. And I always walk away from that exercise going, okay, I've got work to do. I think it's a process. But really doing an evaluation to get you started is probably a great place to go. Yeah. And some of this may stem from the leader having some control issues.

It's hard to let go and go, well, I feel like I know how to do this the best way. And no one can do it like me. And then you let it go and you go, wow, this is way better than I could ever do it. And so that's a hard place to get to. But when you do, it's amazing how much time you can get back. Right, exactly. Definitely control issues is a top one. I am a recovering control freak myself.

Semi-recovering. Thank you for your vulnerability. Thanks for going first, Trisha. Many leaders agree. I mean, I like things the way I like my things. But here's the thing. You teach them. You show them the way you like the thing done, and they do the thing the way you like it.

And it's beautiful. That's a great partnership right there. Yeah. So number two, you say accomplish more. Does this come down to productivity? Yes. Yes. I mean, it comes down to productivity, but it also comes down to accomplishing more of the things you should be doing as the leader.

So, you know, there are things we should be doing as a leader. You should be doing things like vision casting or goal setting, or you might be launching a new initiative, or you might be doing something that really affects, you know, the top line or bottom line of your business. You might be investing in teams. You might be training. You might be recruiting. All the things that are high payoff, high ticket items, those are the things you should be doing more of. And we can never do more of those things.

So accomplishing more, it comes down to doing more of the things that really affect the growth of your business and doing less of the things that are administrative they get in the way of you spending that time on those important things. So you, in turn, by delegating to have an assistant, you get more time on those important things while those same administrative things are also getting done by somebody else. So you're too Xing yourself, if you will. Yeah, a lot of leaders probably feel like, well, Trish, I'm accomplishing a lot. The day was packed. I was so busy. I checked a lot off the list. But you're saying there's a difference between being busy and being productive on the right things.

That's right. I mean, we could all be busy all day long. But are you spending your time on the right things. And the right things are the things that positively impact the business. And it's not your email. We could all spend probably eight hours a day in our email. That's not what leadership is. Leadership is not having an empty inbox.

That's so good. You should tweet that. That's a good tweet. Noted. I made a note. I'm tweeting it. You talk about protecting your priorities. And it feels like there's a theme here as we go down the list of we got our time back.

Now we're accomplishing more. Now we can protect our priorities. What do you mean by protecting priorities? Yeah. I mean, this is really where you're, your assistant can come in and really be a great accountability, a partner to you. It's very easy to kind of slide into old habits or find yourself spending time on the things you like to do that come maybe naturally to you, but those aren't the things we just talked about,

the things you should be doing, the things you should be spending more time on. Things creep in, and a great assistant will help protect your priorities and say no on your behalf, or challenge you on your behalf. Or if somebody's trying to get on your calendar and say, hey, I need her for 30 minutes. You know, they can be the person that really can say, but is that really necessary? And so that's the first part, is really using them as the gatekeeper of your time and helping you protect what gets on your calendar. And the second thing is helping you as a whole person keep yourself and your priorities right. And so I say that when it comes to me as a person.

So using them as the gatekeeper of your time and helping you protect what gets on your calendar. And the second thing is helping you as a whole person keep yourself and your priorities right. And so I say that when it comes to me as a person. So I have priorities like, you know, I have school-aged children. And so it's important for me to be available late afternoon in case they need help with homework. I have priorities that working out in the morning is what works best for me. So my first meeting can't be until nine. I have priorities on.

I want to make sure that I'm not burning out and sitting in front of the screen for too long. So I like to have 30-minute breaks between Zoom calls. So these priorities are things I've set. And then she's the master to make sure that that actually happens. So she's the one really owning. She has the keys to the kingdom to make sure that I am living my best life and I'm highly productive because she's made sure that all of the priorities are set are actually what is showing up in my day. That's huge.

I keep thinking of examples from seeing my wife here at Ramsey protect her boss's time, her leader's time, as all the arrows of the day come at you and she's got the shield going, nope, that's not a fire we're putting out today. that can wait. And over time, you know, hey, this feels like a fire. It's not. This is just a needy person. We're going to put them off to the side. They really need to focus on this. Or, hey, their day is packed back to back to back. I need to build in a break for them to breathe and have a think for a second. And so that's super important. And over time, as the partnership builds, it's really cool to see that flourish and see the appreciation from the leader going, thank you. Because I can't see the forest from the trees. And you're helping me clear the path here. Yeah. I mean, and it is just unhealthy. I know there always was this, you know, this thing we tell ourselves or something that's sitting on our shoulder as leaders to say our day has to be so full and we're supposed to accomplish so

much. But then, you know, if that's the way your day looks, then you run into burnout, you run into fatigue, you run into how good are the decisions you're making at the end of the day if you just sat in six hours of back-to-back meetings without a break? So the priority setting is huge, you know, just for you to be effective and be clear-minded and rested to make great decisions. So this is really a big one for me. And my assistant knows, and she says all the time, she says, girl, you are great at setting your priorities. Yes.

I want to be well-rounded and I want to be healthy, work in health. Yes. And this is running of a great book by Dr. Henry Cloud, Boundaries for Leaders. And a lot of it does come down to boundaries and drawn the line in the sand. And, you know, a strongly worded email company. We have to meet and you go, sorry, that's going to have to wait. You know, there's a quote out there that is like, your fire doesn't constitute my emergency, something like that, where you can't just be reacting to all the things happening. Great leadership is being proactive, getting ahead of things. And that comes down to prior proper planning, for sure. Absolutely. You nailed it.

So this kind of sets the foundation for what comes next, which is becoming future focused. It's really hard to focus on the future when we can't even manage what's happening right now. So what does future focus look like? Yeah, I mean, our jobs really as leaders are to be the ones that are looking ahead. You know, our team, your frontline employees, your day-to-day team members, ideally, they are working in the day-to-day in the week-to-week of your business. They're the ones operating the day-to-day functions of your organization. But as leaders, our job is to set them up to be able to do those things in the day-to-day the way that's efficient and effective for them and that they do it with satisfaction

and with a great user experience. But truly, somebody has to be looking around the corner. Somebody needs to be looking ahead at not just next week, not even just next month. Somebody needs to be looking ahead at next quarter and honestly next year and the next three years. So that is where this all comes into play. If your calendar is managed and your priorities are set and you have freedom to focus on the things you should be focused on, then you have the opportunity to really be a future focus leader to be able to look ahead at where are we going? Are there speed bumps in the way I need to clear for my team?

How are we achieving the goals we've set out for ourselves? Are there things that I need to be looking ahead and around the corner at? And that to me is where we really start working in our superpowers. zone as leaders is when we have the opportunity to do that. And knowing that the day to day is taken care of from a virtual assistant really allows leaders to do that. It allows me to do that. I'm able, I'm actually, we have already started planning for 2023. We already started annual planning for 2023. And I'm able to actually sit here and think about what 20203 looks like because I have an awesome assistant who is helping me set priorities and putting the right things

on my calendar to make sure that I can be the one that's looking ahead. Yeah, one of our Entree leadership principles around here is that as a leader, you've got to rise above that day to day, and you've got to be able to think through those future objectives, and we do that through strategic planning and desired future dashboards and all kinds of great tools, but to get there, you've got to clear the way, and a great assistant can help you do that. So a great reminder there. That's how we grow and scale. Lastly, this is an interesting one.

Peace of mind is where we end. What does that mean to you? Peace of mind probably means something different to everybody. To me, it means that I've accomplished the things that are important that I'm supposed to accomplish in my day, in my week, in my month. I did so without sacrificing anything that's important to me, whether that be a workout or time with family. or my day ending at a certain time or having the opportunity to have a full lunch break and I'm not burnt out.

But peace of mind is knowing that you've spent the time on the things you should spend the time on, you've handled the right things. Somebody has your back for you and is taking care of you so that at the end of the day, you know, you can kind of close the laptop at 5 o'clock or whatever that looks like and know that I did the things I was supposed to do today

and I can clearly go about the rest of my day now. And to feel that way even on a Friday afternoon, you know, for me, you know, being able to kind of close things down at the end of my week and know that we had a great week, my assistant really helped me accomplish the things that I needed to accomplish, and I can go be mom, I can go be wife,

I can go be volleyball mom coach, I go be, walk the puppy, you know, all the things that I want to do for me. Yeah, there's so many similarities between that and what we teach at Ramsey with financial peace is, you know, you have anxiety. You're worried about the future. And when you have peace of mind, it means you trust you're confident in your decisions that you're making and you trust your assistant. And that's really the pinnacle. That's where we all want to get to as leaders where we're not worried about the day. Our team, you know, Morris Coth and taught, we say around here, so the team sees you flurried

in distress. And so they're matching your pace at that point. When they see a calm, collected leader who's thinking about the future. It makes the team react differently, behave differently, work differently. So this is huge to get this stuff in line. So as we wrap here, Trisha, what are the signs that an assistant has effectively partnered with their leader? What does that partnership look like? I mean, that partnership looks like trust, number one, which you just talked about, that there is a two-way street, is that you've partnered with somebody that you trust. They're handling the things that you know you need them to handle. They're holding you completely accountable. You've empowered them to hold you accountable because it's a little odd to think that you're going to

ask somebody that works for you to hold you accountable to yourself, but that's literally what you're doing. You've empowered them to do that. And you've been able to maximize your potential and your organization's potential because you've truly delegated and offloaded the things that you, you honestly, know you should not do. You have no business doing them. You may be good at them. I can make a great spreadsheet. I love me a spreadsheet. It does not mean I should be making a spreadsheet. So let those things go. Excellent communication. She's got your back. You 100% trust the things that she's doing. And you have literally accomplished more in a week than you ever thought possible. That is hashtag goals right there, Trisha. Well, we are big fans of you and your team at Belay.

and always love having you on to bring our listeners some practical wisdom from the trenches as you lead your own team. So thanks so much for being with us. Thanks for having me, George. Thanks so much, Trisha. Always love having you on the podcast. Make sure you guys check out Belay or take a listen to Trisha's podcast. We've got links to all of that right there in the show notes. All right.

Up next, we're covering the top three mistakes leaders make when working with their assistance and how you can avoid them. It's all happening right after this. All right. Welcome back. I will soon be joined by Daniel Ramsey, our EVP of Entree leadership, as well as his executive assistant, Morgan. And they're going to be sharing the top mistakes leaders make when working with their assistants. And I thought, we've got to have Morgan's side of the story here as well as Daniel. So this is going to be fun. Enjoy this conversation. Daniel, Morgan, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. So good to be here. So this is Morgan's debut. And so we're going to haze her here on the podcast. It's a part of the process. What's your least favorite thing? about Daniel. I'm just kidding. I'm joking. You guys are here because we're talking about partnering

with your leader as an assistant. A lot of leaders do not do this well. And as we've grown at Ramsey, we have army of assistants. Do you know how many assistants we have, Morgan? Between 60 and 70. Oh my goodness. That's incredible. And we have over 200 leaders. And so not every leader has an assistant here at Ramsey with an organization at this scale. You know, executive leadership, VPs have assistance and shared assistance and as needed beyond that. Does that sound right? Yeah, that's accurate. And so as an executive assistant for Daniel, we wanted to talk about the mistakes that leaders tend to make when working with their assistants, frustrations from both sides, which is why we have Morgan here to share her piece. So let's get to it. What is one of the top mistakes leaders make?

All right. I'm going to dive in with this first one and say, I see this across our teams. I see this in other companies, way more so. Our team does a pretty good job at not doing this. But one of the biggest mistakes I see is people mistaking an executive assistant for a personal assistant. What I mean there, the difference is you have an executive assistant to help further you, to help you be in more places at once. Typically, a personal assistant is going to help your personal life. They're going to do your dry cleaning. They're going to fill your car up with gas. They're going to help plan vacations.

That stuff is fine, but it's honestly not a. a gray use of time because it's not furthering the business. It's just helping you take care of your chores. And I would say that's a huge waste of their time and their talent. They have so much more to offer you and so much more help they can give you by being an executive assistant. And so one of the things we say around here a lot is an executive assistant really partners with a leader. And what we mean by that is they can really be an extra set of hands, an extra set of eyes and ears. And so really, that's how Morgan and I work together is Morgan helps me be in more places at work. once. And so, I don't know, Morgan, tell us some examples of, like, how we do that. How do we,

how do we partner together? Yeah, I think, you know, one of the things is you've given me really clear expectations on what personal tasks are on the table and what are not. And we have really healthy and clear boundaries around that. So, you know, there are some things that I do that help you get through the day, you know, usually things that are related to the business, like shipping some mail or getting packages to clients, things like that, that are kind of a mix of business and personal. But the majority of the time I know my role is to be plugged into the business, to be listening in meetings and in conversations with our team, and to be relaying a lot of that information to you. And it gives you an extended amount of time with the team, so you can

be two places at once. So where do you find yourself spending the most time these days? Now that you're at this level of partnership, it's at a healthy place. Where should you be spending most of your time as an executive assistant? Yeah, a lot of it, honestly, George, is critical thinking. You know, I'm planning tasks, I'm planning, scheduling with the knowledge base that I have that I get in meetings. So I spend a lot of time in meetings, and some of that is note-taking. Some of it's just visibility and awareness. And I use that knowledge to, you know, to really look ahead and be proactive about Daniel's needs. Does he need extra time or does he need to be more present in different areas? and that helps spread him across the company.

That's huge, going from reactive to proactive. That is when you're both at a healthy place. For sure. And we have time each day that we sync up, and it is amazing what Morgan. Morgan is so good at discernment. She's so good at seeing what's going on with the team. She's able to give me so much perspective

on what she sees and feels that's going on with the team, whether that's her attending different meetings and seeing just the body language of how people react or just being on the floor and just seeing how team members are reacting in their regular day-to-day. so helpful the information that she gives me and equips me to go have some of the hard or or encouraging conversations that I could have with team members. And you've created an environment

where she feels free to share that kind of feedback and empowered to share that feedback. And that's a huge step in the process. For sure. That connect at the end of the day is probably one of my favorite times during the day because Daniel does a great job of giving me the context I need to give me perspective about my role, to make good decisions and to really frame up a lot of what I've seen throughout the day. And then I'm able to share my perspective with him and just add more information, more details, shed more light on certain situations. And we spend a ton of time doing that at the end of the day. And I really feel like it sets me up for the week. It sets me up for the day. And I hope it does the same for you. Morgan, would you say that's another huge mistake you see people do,

is leaders do not give their assistance the right context they need? Yes, definitely. Yes. And that's just, is that a lack of communication on the leaders part? I think it can be. I think, you know, assistants can be hesitant to ask for the context at time. So I think it's really important for a leader to know the importance of sharing that context with their assistant and lead with that. You know, there have been times where I don't know if something is on the table or if I should be paying attention to it. And when Daniel leads with that topic and shares his thoughts, it not only lets me know how he thinks about it, but it lets me know I need to be attuned to those things too. I need to pay attention to those things. And I have a, I have a seat at the table in that conversation with you where I can share my perspective openly and freely, and it's a safe environment for that. Let me give an example where I didn't do this well recently. Thank you for going first. That's right.

Dale never makes these mistakes. No, I definitely do. So just recently we had a situation that was a sensitive team member situation, and it caused a lot of stress for me, and it really blew up my calendar for a morning. And I was all over the place, running out, you know, running around, putting out fires, and helping to deal with this situation. And ultimately, I did a poor job at giving Morgan context of where I was and why I was missing the meetings I was missing.

Now, we were able to circle up. That was a Friday that happened. So we were able to circle up the next week. And Morgan honestly opened the conversation and kind of told me like, hey, I get that this is a big deal. I get that this is important. I just want you to know, like, this is one that went through my mind. My mind went to worst case scenario that something way worse was probably happening

than was. And she was able to express that to me. And so I was like, man, gosh, I didn't realize that. So going forward, I need to do a better job at just saying maybe the information isn't any of her business. Maybe she doesn't need to know that to do her job well. So sometimes there is context she doesn't need. But the context she did need in that situation was, hey, there's a situation. It's okay. It's not the end of the world. No one's going to die or lose their jobs. But it's going to mess up my calendar for today. I'm going to be off doing my thing. and we can circle back up on it later. Just that level of context would have given her peace of mind

and she would know where I was so that when people came looking for me, she wasn't caught flat-footed. Yeah, that clarity and context can help avoid frustration and wasted time on both sides. That's huge. All right, we covered two mistakes. What's the final one you would say

is the one you see most leaders make? Yeah, I'd put it in the bucket of role clarity. And this I'd probably say most mistakes leaders make with any team member, but specifically with your executive assistant is if you don't provide role clarity of here are what I expect out of you and here's what we expect out of each other, if you aren't clear on that,

then you're both just kind of walking on eggshells, trying to figure it out one step at a time. And so providing that expectation setting of here's how I want you to help, here's where I trust you. And a lot of that changes over time. The more time you work together, Morgan and I've worked together for five years now. And so I trust her immensely, and she's involved in way more than she was when we first started.

And so she's earned a lot more responsibility as we've worked together. And so getting that role clarity of what we expect from each other, what communication should look like. Morgan sets expectations of what she needs for me and wants from me. And when I step out of that, she also holds me accountable to that, like the example we used earlier. And then additionally, one thing that I tell the team, this is Morgan's role on the team. So, hey, guys, you're going to see her in our leadership meetings.

You're also, I expect her to speak up in our leadership meetings and give her perspective because I trust her with that. And so it's not weird when she does tell a leader that they're wrong or tell a leader, have an argument with the leader, or tell a leader, hey, I know Daniel's not going to be happy with this or you're going to want to talk to him about this. And so she's able to have authority because I've told the team what I expect of her and what they should expect to see her doing. Yeah. And I think that's so important to set your assistant up for success. If not, they are starting at the bottom of the hill and they're climbing that hill to try and change the perspective of everyone on the team and what they presuppose that assistant role is. And it gives you a head start as an assistant for your leader to clarify your expectations with the team at large.

And I think that also helps you spend your time on the right things. You know, I was talking to an assistant a week or so ago and a newer team member came and asked her to help him fax something. And I don't know, we're still in like the 80s and we fax things. But that wasn't part of her role. And she knew that. And she still helped him and she taught him how and he can do it from now on if he ever asked to fax again. But the lesson out of that really is that if your assistant doesn't have role clarity and the team doesn't know what to expect of your assistant, then they're going to be spending their time on tasks that, you know, small tasks like that take up a lot of time where they could be spending it on more valuable things to help you extend your reach as a leader. So how do we get to that role clarity? Does it start with a KRA? And what does that process look like for you two?

Starts with pen and paper or using your computer. You have to write it down. You can't just talk about it one time because those things change. But there's something powerful about writing it down. So on other podcasts and one of things, Antre and Ramsey, we take really seriously are key result areas, K areas. And that is a description of what expectations and what you're responsible for. And so we can do a whole other podcast on that. and we have in the past, but it's about writing it down. And so what we do is we're actually in the process of updating Morgan's KRA. And so she's taking a first stab at doing a rough draft of that. And then we're going to talk through it together. And then I'm going to make edits. And we're going to come to agreeance on what that is. Yeah.

And that really started with you sharing your KRA with me and what your role looks like, what your expectations of yourself are like, and then a little bit of just verbalizing, what are your expectations of me and how you want me to process. partner with you in those various responsibilities. So that allowed me to sit down and kind of brainstorm, you know, along those lines. What does that look like? And then we'll get back together and we'll kind of talk through, you know, Daniel's always been really good at the vision, the high level, just casting for me what that looks like. And then I dig down in the day to day of, okay, now how does that play out, you know, from one week to the next? So it starts with the leader, once again,

to go, do I know what my role is? Because I can't expect anything of my assistant when I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm just putting out fires all day. So once you have that clarity for the leader, then you know how to partner best with Daniel to make all of that happen. So I love that, and I love that this is a true partnership. Starts with the leader, but then it goes on into great communication, great boundaries. And over time, you start to become the mind reader where Daniel's like, I didn't even see that coming. How did you? And you're like, I'm just that good. I'm just that good. That happens a lot. Morgan's, yeah, constantly does that. And you are now, I mean, so many assistants look up to you and look up to the relationship that you and Daniel have and how you've

partnered together to go, this is the model. We need to all be doing things like this if we want to get to where we want to go, you know, as the entree leadership team, as the company. So any other final encouragement you would give to leaders who are going, all right, I'm getting an assistant for the first time. I have one. It's not a great partnership. How do we get there? What's the first step you would take? You know, I would challenge someone to look for some, if you're looking for an One of the best attributes you can look for is someone who has maturity, perspective, and discernment, really. Someone who can help be, if they're going to be your eyes and ears and an extra set of hands, then they need to be able to have a high degree of maturity and be able to see through things and get above things. And so a lot of that takes time.

You know, it takes time to mature. It takes time to learn the business. It takes time to learn people. but Morgan's Morgan's on a phenomenal job with this and she's always had a huge level of discernment and she's paired that discernment and grown that by learning the business

and gaining business acumen over time and so the business acumen is not nearly as important as just really solid people skills and maturity. I love it. Anything from you, Morgan? Yeah, and I think I'd just add to that, you know, critical thinking. You can have a task taker, you know, and that's kind of what we were talking about, a personal assistant. And when you just hand the things and they get them done

and that's great. Your executive assistant should be able to do that too. But someone who has really strong critical thinking skills is going to be able to apply that business knowledge and that business acumen to the tasks they're doing day in and day out to the point that they should be picking them up before you even think of them, like you said, George. So yeah, I think that's the only other thing I did. Yeah, we didn't start working together this way, but at this stage, five years in, very often I'm bouncing ideas off of Morgan. I'm saying, hey, I'm thinking about handling this situation this way, what is your perspective on it? Or we leave a meeting and something felt weird. And I'm like, hey, what did you see in the meeting? How did you experience that? Tell me your

perspective. And getting just an extra, that extra perspective is incredibly valuable. And Morgan's earned that over time. And it's why she's become so valuable to both me and the whole team and people trust her because she has that. Well, we all know here at Entree leadership that assistants secretly run the company. And so I have a deep appreciation for them. My wife is one of those executive assistants here on our team. Whitney is awesome. And one of our executive leaders. I know Morgan and Whitney. They're basically best. BFFs. I can say that. And so we, it was my idea to have Morgan on because I was just excited to talk to Morgan more than Daniel today. But we appreciate both of you. I had enough of Daniel. Thanks, George. But so great having you both on. Thanks so much for sharing,

peeling back the layer here and showing us what it looks like to partner with your leader. You got it. Awesome. Thanks. Big thanks to Daniel Ann Morgan for joining us, and congrats to Morgan on her Entree Leadership Podcast debut. If you're a regular listener, you heard me last week announce the launch of Entree Leadership Master's Series livestream. And this is your final opportunity to register because the conference is happening next week. And what are you going to get from this conference?

You're going to get the tactical real-world business lessons you need to win from our top Ramsey leaders. And this live stream caters to your schedule. So don't miss this. Go to Entreeleadership.com slash livestream to secure your ticket. and change the trajectory of your business. If you enjoyed today's episode of the show, follow or subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And share this episode with your team, with your friends, or on social media.

You can follow us on social media at Entree Leadership. This episode was produced by Tim Hull, edited by Jacob Harrison, and mixed and mastered by Will Rutter. I'm your host, George Camel, and on behalf of the entire Entree Leadership team, thank you so much for listening. Until next time, keep learning and keep leading.