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Posted by Debra Coleman and Trisha Wiggins
Dear Executives, your mission, should you choose to accept it:
Find that elusive Unicorn EA. The one who hits the ground running, is the best team player, partner and organizer, the one who is continually keeping everyone and everything in line and runs the office as smooth as silk. But wait!
They should also possess the soft skills necessary to be the right “fit”, someone who will be a true team player, who will bring value to the department and organization as a whole. Is it possible? Is it fair to even look? Where does one even begin searching?
In all seriousness, finding an assistant who is a good fit is important and should be taken into account during the interview process, from resume to actual meet and greet. If your office is more buttoned up and on the serious side, hiring a candidate who comes to the interview in neon day glo colors and who exhibits a larger than life personality and mannerisms, admittedly, may not be the best fit for your office suite.
Aside from the impressions a candidate presents during the interview process, there really is no clear way to tell if someone will be a good fit overall until they are in the role, have spent some time shaping it, making it their own, and given a fair amount of time to build rapport with other team members, then and only then can you really tell if someone is a “good fit”.
Regarding the interview and screening process, please keep an open mind and don’t immediately pass on a candidate, claim they are everything you’re looking for and then decide to disregard because they might not be a good fit, simply because you allowed your unproven concerns and fears to outweigh all the wonderful attributes the candidate may bring to the team.
As for finding that Unicorn EA, the good news is that they do exist, possibly more so than Executives realize. In some cases that Unicorn EA is a diamond in the rough, someone you will come to realize is the perfect assistant for the team. It may even be someone currently in your organization who may be looking to promote up, to exercise the skills they have sharpened and refined along the way or it may be the candidate you were considering passing on due to “fit” concerns.
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Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
So go ahead, take that chance! It may take time for them to get settled in and to make the job their own, but once they do and are up to speed, look out! There will be no stopping them and no telling what they will bring to the table. Have faith that you hired well, and give your EA room to show what they’re made of, let them shine and show you exactly why you made the right choice and trust that they will become that unicorn you were searching for after all.