Posted by Marla Garner
I often hear other EA's lamenting for more input in their organization or that they don't feel appreciated or involved. Here is a suggestion if you are feeling left out of the conversation or the strategic planning of your organization: try superordinate framing. This new concept of how you think of tasks is provided from an article of the Harvard Business Review. (You can read more about it here ). Instead of thinking that you only answer the phone and that does not provide any meaning or impact towards your organization's goals or strategic plans, think that answering the phone coupled with answering a client's question is aiding in moving your company forward by making sure clients are happy and getting what they need.
I spend a great deal of time doing HR work for my organization and it gets repetitive and for the most part it is a thankless task. Honestly, there are times when tracking a particular individual's vacation for the fifth time makes me want to pull my hair out. However, it is a needed task. Without my labor, no one would have their benefits package on time, they would go over their limit of paid time off, they wouldn't update their new married or divorced name.
Are these things moving our strategic plan forward? Yes, if part of our plan is to provide more internal customer service to our staff. Happy staff = retained staff. Retained staff = a better functioning team which equals higher quality work.
My point is that the work that we do is valuable, needed and appreciated even if we don't always hear it or think so. Executive Assistants are important and maybe just reframing our thoughts will help us realize that we are involved and that those small tasks that we do help to move everything forward.
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