How To Be The Best PA

A top PA / Executive Assistant (there are many titles), today is very much a key part of the Senior Management Team of any Company.  You are your boss’s secret weapon!  The essence of management regardless of your title is making things happen and any PA worth their salt makes things happen!. 

Your job is about managing people, up, down and sideways, planning for the unexpected and performing the impossible.  Countless traditional management roles are wrapped up in this title, you are a researcher, a project manager, a sounding board, a diplomat, an event manager, public relations officer, a mentor, the problem solver, the bearer of good and bad news and you do all this with passion, dedication, loyalty, discretion and a big dollop of good humour and resilience.   You are the creator of time and deliver the essentials of what your boss needs to make a decision and move on multitasking at the speed of light, prioritising a daily barrage of emails, making decisions on behalf of your boss with finesse and confidence.

There is nothing more crucial for an effective working relationship in this role than trust.  You are privy to information from major strategic decisions to the most intimate personnel issues which makes trust and discretion an absolute.   A broad business knowledge together with developing powers of clairvoyance are essential because what can go wrong will go wrong and you need to be able to anticipate all the questions and more importantly have the answers. One of my bosses often used to say that I could see round corners.  I am not sure if that is a compliment but if you know your business well enough you can!  Do I love my job, you bet I do, when you care about what you do it makes any job more exciting.  Conflict in this role is unavoidable and you can't please everyone, get used to it!  However the occasional chocolate bribing can sometimes work!.  Am I an angel, NEVER!!   Impatience in my book is a virtue to enable you accomplish as much as you can in as little time as you can although warmth and the human touch also produce good results.

If there is a downside, you have to be prepared to work hard and be extraordinarily good at what you do, forget about a week off at one of the in-house training courses to catch up on the gossip, you don't get to go!   When I mentioned this once to a previous boss of mine he said you don't need to go on that you could teach it!  Was that really a compliment or a nice way to say that he can't do without you!

Jo Fox

Financial PA of the Year

CIT, Dublin