Showing Your Value - Ensuring Your Teams Know The Value You Add!

It’s funny how Executive Assistants and Executive Support do so much, but oftentimes are acknowledged for so little. In this role, there can be too much humility, where your teams don’t actually understand how much they rely on you.

A high-functioning EA/Executive pairing is a powerhouse team! However, you need to show your value as a powerhouse EA as not all Executives or teams understand that value at first and need to be educated.

Let me give you an example. (Details slightly changed to protect anonymity)

A few years ago, one of the EAs on my team was an absolute rockstar. I have worked with many Executive Assistants/COS, etc. over the years, and this one, in particular, was top-notch.

When their Executive was on the way out, the remaining downstream team members were asked if they needed to retain the EA to support the team. They responded that they loved this person, but couldn’t articulate what it was they actually did and couldn’t justify the cost to their team/department. Unfortunately, because the company didn’t understand the value and contributions of this person to the company and the team, they decided to lay off this EA.

What happened next? Five months later, they realized how much work the EA had contributed, how seamless that EA had made the work of everyone on the team, and how much they had relied on them (albeit unknowingly). The company then had to search for a new EA to replace them (They did not find someone quickly, nor nearly as good or capable).

This is only one example of many where I have worked with EAs who were let go because their Executives/Teams did not understand the value of an Assistant or how much their professional lives were impacted by the work the EA does/did.

So many EAs don’t know how to show their worth while still being humble, and so many Executives don’t know what their support actually does.

To help mitigate this, here are some tips to “toot your own horn” and receive the recognition you deserve, without being perceived as a whiner or a blowhard.

Know your value and make sure your Exec knows it too!

Financial value/ROI:

According to HBR, on average, an Executive assistant needs to save only 8% of that executive’s time to recoup their assistants’ salary cost. (Based on a $1M OTE for an executive and $80K for the assistant) *HBR LINK HERE. This is valuable information to have in your back pocket if you ever need to justify your salary or potentially negotiate an increase! (resources on negotiation here in the professional development section)

Multiplying Effect:

If an Assistant saves their Executive/teams only 2 hours per day, over the course of a year, that support would have saved 13 work weeks, or one whole quarter of time per year - multiply that over the entirety of your organization and the investment in Executive Support for the Executive or team is a no-brainer.

Social Capital:

Assistants are the eyes and ears of the company. They can identify issues before they get out of hand, alert Executives to issues before they become urgent, work to save time and resources within the company, build social capital for their Executives, and more. 

What Can You Do to Show Your Value?

Tracking your contributions:

Keep Track of your “wins” and review quarterly or when you have your review cycle with your Executives/Teams

So many EAs have these wins over the year and when it comes time to validate what you do, explain your role with specificity, etc., they can blank out. The trick to this is to do a daily or weekly recap for yourself. Email your week overview with what you accomplished, any “wins”, and what you were able to save in terms of time, percentages, process improvements, etc. Then you can review these with your bosses and educate them.

Don’t do your work in a vacuum:

It’s so important that your Executives, teams, and co-workers understand the value you bring to the table every day. I had one instance where I had to educate a very “old-school” member of the company when he asked what the “secretaries do and why they even work here?” Keep in mind that this was actually during a company-wide conference he was attending that my team had put on and pulled off in less than 90 days. There are some people, you may not be able to reach - but generally, with enough touch points, even the most stubborn will come to realize the value if it is shown to them enough (or you save their butt one day)

Touchbases/1:1s:

These should be occurring regularly with your Executives and Teams. I recommend once per day - even if it’s only 10 min. Those meetings will prep your office for the day, allow you to pivot for urgencies, keep your Executive in the know about what you’re working on, and keep you both in sync.  I have found that when the 1:1s drop off, that’s when things go wrong. 

Briefings:

 I have found that when dealing with those who don’t understand the work or the value, giving a quick summary of the project, trip, etc., can help.  For example, if you are planning a corporate trip or off-site (for non-executive individuals, this should be automated on an app) make sure that you set aside time to give a quick briefing of this project to your Executive. It shows that you have complete ownership of the project and that they can rely on you if anything goes amiss. 

Ask for help:

When you’re working on a large project for your Executive/Teams, ask people to contribute or help (ie: for an offsite, Customer Advisory Board, Revenue Kickoff, Conference, etc., creating SWAG bags)  If you’re asking for feedback or working with other EAs it’s important that you ensure that both you and your work are visible. You always want to have a couple of allies in the company to vouch for your work and how much you contribute!

Final thought

While there is no surefire way to ensure you will never get cut, every little bit can help. The tips above are just some prompts to get you started.

If you have some tips to share, we would love to hear them!