1. How to Manage Your
Executive Assistant
Selecting & Hiring the Right Executive Assistant
Trust, Confidentiality, and Authority
Assignment of
Personal Tasks
Effective Delegation
Prioritization
Systematization
10 Steps to Delegating Tasks and Authority More Effectively
Questions to Ask When Delegating
Questions to Ask When Prioritizing
Contacts
Office
Travel
Scheduale +
Calendar
Meals
E-mails
Billings + Book
Phone Calls
Customer
Relations
Management
Home + Personal
Schedule a Prioritization Meeting
Provide a Self-Inventory
As a leader, your Executive Assistant (EA) can assist you or, in
effect, execute you.This how-to guide will help you select a
compatible and capable EA, create time-saving processes,
manage expectations, avoid confusion/duplication of effort,
and work together as a coordinated team.
You don’t need another you. You need someone who complements you well. Look to hire an
executive assistant who possesses the skills and expertise that you don’t have. If you aren’t terribly
social, hire an assistant with great social skills who can anticipate your needs. This assistant can:
If you’re not detail-oriented, hire someone who is. If you’re a
workaholic, name it and let the EA know what this will mean
for them. If you’re a perfectionist, likewise, explain how it will
impact the EA’s work.
Be prepared to give an unabashed assessment of yourself to prospective EA. Don’t be implicit
about who you are, and don’t hold back on self-critical analysis. This is the person in your life with
whom you are not going to pretend you’re something you are not. That is because they are
going to be the person who has your back at all times.
TRUST & CONFIDENTIALITY
As a leader, you must trust your executive
assistant (EA) absolutely and without question.
If you don’t have this trust, you do not have
the correct EA. Executive assistants must un-
derstand that if they breach this trust even the
smallest bit, operating in the grey, they have
crossed the line and should give their
resignation or you will need to let them
go immediately.
Executive assistants cannot participate at all
in gossip or be an avenue for you to get inside
information
(triangulation) — otherwise they will lose the
trust of others in the organization. It is your re-
sponsibility, in turn, not to ask them for gossip
they may have heard.
This level of trust & confidentiality is crucial
because your executive assistant does not
have the privileges of the executive team and
yet he/she has perhaps even more information
than even your number two in the organiza-
tion. If your EA doesn’t maintain a certain dis-
tance from all other employees within the or-
ganization, a lot of harm may come to you
and others.
Managing your executive assistant is different
from managing any other direct report. This
person is an extension of you. Their role is to
unburden you from anything and everything
they possibly can.As a leader, your role is to
work on high leverage issues and put your
expertise and skills to their best use. Your EA
should be able to complement you and deliv-
er exactly what you need and when. In order
to do that, though, you need to know how
you work best, what work you prefer to do
yourself, and what work you would like to del-
egate to others. Some leaders don’t feel com-
fortable delegating personal tasks to their ex-
ecutive assistant. Other leaders aren’t sure if
they should ask. And some delegate these
tasks without hesitation.
Is it appropriate for leaders to assign personal
tasks (like picking up dry cleaning or going to
get coffee) to their EA, and, if so, under what
circumstances?
The Cost/Benefit Equation
As a leader, your time is considerably more
valuable in dollar terms to the company than
your assistant’s.
No one human life is more valuable than an-
other, of course, but the company can and
should try to increase your
productivity. Personal tasks take up a great
deal of time away from work, as well as time
away from your family and friends.
Personal tasks can not only be inconvenient
and distracting, but also aggravating if they
involve multiple phone calls, time spent on
hold, or misunderstandings. These aggravations
can seep into the leader’s work, focus, and
attitude. These aggravations and distractions
can cost the company considerable money
over time.So as long as the EA is well compen-
sated for doing these tasks (and understands it
is part of their job responsibilities), they ought
to be open to ways save you time and reduce
your personal to-do list. Your EA may be able to
arrange for someone to open your cabin for
you up north, for instance, or start the lawn
mowing service, open the pool, and put the
boat into the water.
Setting Expectations
Be clear up front about whether or not you
expect your EA to perform personal tasks for
you. Some EA applicants may feel like doing
your errands is beneath them, and they have
a right to know what you expect from the
outset. If you try to assign personal tasks to
executive assistants after months of working
only on work-related tasks, you’ll likely meet
resistance and/or create hard feelings.
Let your EA know which personal tasks you’d
like to delegate completely, which ones you
might like your EA to do on occasion, and
which ones you’d like to do yourself.
Be sure to provide your EA with everything he
or she needs to know about what you’d like
done, how, and when.
Leaders usually love the idea of delegating, but when it comes time to passing out tasks, they
sometimes get cold feet. It might be more work, they realize, to explain how to do the task appro-
priately than to just do it themselves. Or they may balk at trusting their EA because of variables they
haven’t considered or addressed.
When leaders delegate halfway—by re-taking responsibility midway through or by micromanaging
throughout—no one is served. It tends to irritate everyone and lead to poor work quality.
For delegation to work effectively, the delegator and delegatee should communicate well from
the outset.
1. Make sure this is, in fact, a task you want someone else to do. Leaders often have tasks
that feel sacred to them—either because they like doing the task, they feel it’s too important
to be given to someone else, or they’ve done it for so long that it feels necessary to contin-
ue. If you won’t be happy with how someone else does the task, don’t delegate it—unless
and until you come to terms with the fact that the task is not sacred.
2. Make sure this is, in fact, a task that someone else can and ought to do. Leaders shouldn’t
assign the work they themselves are obligated to do—such as determining compensation,
engaging in strategic planning, making personnel decisions, and handling performance re-
views.
3. Verify that the delegatee has adequate time to meet your timeline without compromising
other organizational priorities—especially higher priorities. Ask what they’re working on cur-
rently and to specify the rank order of their other projects. You should feel free to change the
order of these priorities and make clear where your task falls in that order.
4. If the delegatee needs your authority to accomplish the task, give it (preferably in writing,
so that it’s on record) and communicate it to those who need to know. Send out a note to
those that he/she will need to interact with to communicate they are working under your au-
thority. In this way your EA will be treated with the level of urgency that your VPs would re-
5. Indicate how the task connects to broader organizational goals, so that the delegatee is
motivated to succeed.
6. Explain what the task or objective is in detail, then ask the delegatee to explain it back to
you, so that there’s no chance of miscommunication. Saying it aloud also promotes owner-
7. Set expectations about what the delegatee is responsible for and what your involvement
will be (if any). People tend to be more motivated when they can choose how they can best
accomplish a task, but if you want it done your way, say so at the outset, so that there’s no
second guessing (on your part) or misunderstanding (on theirs).
8. Ask for specific feedback at specific times and/or certain milestones, so that you’re not
spending time worrying and they’re not feeling hounded by follow-up questions.
9. Agree on resources. There is nothing more frustrating than being delegated a task and
given direction, but not having the necessary resources to accomplish the task.
10. Put as much of this communication in writing as possible. If you’re very particular about
how the task should be done, you may find it easier to write it out yourself (and save the in-
structions for future use). Or have the delegatee take copious notes and provide you a copy
of those notes within 24 hours.
Your EA may not be able to read your mind, but over time he or she will come to know not only how
you like work done, but also in what order. Every morning you should schedule a 30 minute meeting
with your EA to set priorities.
This meeting will become shorter over time as you get into rhythm.
Start the meeting by asking what they’re working on currently and what they see as their priorities.
Since their priorities are, in effect, your priorities, you should alter them as needed. But first you
should gather more information about how much time each task might take, when projects are
due, and ways the task might impact the business—directly and indirectly—based upon how it’s
completed and when.
To the degree possible, try to help your EA both with both prioritization and systematization. The
form above is one way to do so. For the most part, though, it is the EA’s role to take what ap-
pears to be non-routine and find ways to systematize the work–to make it manageable and er-
ror-free. It is the best way to stay ahead and anticipate your needs. This will be done using soft-
ware and by building templates, checklists, daily routines, and useful tools. Your EA should docu-
ment them all and keep them current. They should work under the assumption that they will be
promoted or one day move on; both you and a new EA should be able to pick up on a mo-
ment’s notice exactly where your
current EA left off.
What follows are some systemization tools and protocols that you and your EA might find particu-
larly helpful.
In order for EAs to speak as your representative, they must understand not only know you--your
preferences, skills, and weaknesses—but also be aware of all the people in your immediate uni-
verse.
To get your EA up to speed quickly,
provide your contacts in a format that’s
compact, helpful, and easily accessible.
Family
Friends
List all Clubs, Associations,
Committees, and Boards
knowledge of basic office
info with all your passwords.
Indicate any software that EA should be using
on a daily basis
Payment info (credit card, PayPal, etc.
Preferred method of communication
Is there any office filing system and mainte-
nance that needs to be done
Marketing Materials Contact Info and Budget
and Payment Method)
Handling Mail
Meetings/Events
If you’re considering delegating a task, here are four
questions to ask the potential delegatee that will give
you a quick sense of whether it’s advisable:
What other projects are you working on?
How much time will you have to devote to this project?
What opportunities does this project provide to help you
advance in the company?
What resources can I help you obtain that will free up
time for you to work on this project?
*If you follow these ten steps you will be delegating tasks effectively, and these tasks will most
YOUR BRAND
Your EA needs to be comfortable with feel-
ing like a bouncing ball between you and
others. Sometimes they will need to interpret
your tone and language and make it consis-
tent with how you want to be represented
(even if, and sometimes especially if, you
spoke quickly or frankly with your EA about a
sensitive matter). The better you communi-
cate your brand to the EA, the more consis-
tent they will be with it. If you trust them with
your brand, they may show up to meetings
as your representative and report back to
you on what they have learned or be told to
deliver a specific message.
AUTHORITY
Because EAs act on behalf of leaders, they
must truly show up as the leader’s most
professional side never wholly as themselves.
This can get confusing not only for the EA,
but also for those with greater hierarchical
positions who have less actual authority.
Be as clear as possible to both your EA and
your staff about which things—and to what
degree—they have
authority to act on your behalf. The
boundaries may get fuzzy and may have to
be worked on with many unintentional cross-
overs. Try to anticipate and be sensitive to
this ambiguity and potential conflicts.
How does this task relate to larger organizational
goals or actions?
To do this task successfully, what do you need in the
way of resources and cooperation from others?
What might prevent you from finishing this task on
time?
What are the repercussions of a missed deadline—
for this particular project and other related projects?
Should part or all of this task be delegated to some-
one else?
$
Travel Preparation Checklist
General Travel Information
Travel to Airport
Flights
Hotel
Car Rental
What Tools?
Scheduling Based on Specific
Criteria/Priorities
Establishing Standard Length of
Time for Frequent Events
Location Preferences
Setting up Meetings
Lunch In
The Usual Suspects Lunch List
Dinner
Access
Labels or Folders
Acounting
Bills + Statements
Payments
2016
1. Remind you of
someone’s birthday and
even send a gift from you.
2. Schedule a lunch with
someone that he/she may
know needs to connect
with you.
3. See that you need a
haircut and make the
appointment for you.
2.
3.
4.
1.
What is it like to be
Where do you strug-
What have others said
who report to you?
What are the five
things that will drive
you crazy
What are five things
if always done will
delight you?
?

2. CONTACTS: PERSONAL + PROFESSIONAL
OFFICE/ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT
TRAVEL
In order for EAs to speak as your reprsentative, they
must understand not only know you--your preferences,
skills, and weaknesses—but also be aware of all the
people in your immediate universe. To get your EA up to
speed quickly, provide your contacts in a format that’s
compact, helpful, and easily accessible.
Start by giving a brief run-down of family and friends
the Executive Assistant should know:
FAMILY
Name Relationship How do you feel about this
person/relationship?
FRIENDS
Name Connection Level of Closeness
List all Clubs, Associations, Committees, and Boards
where you are an active member (and your role).
Provide your full and complete résumé and go thru it
with your assistant, so that he/she better understands
your career trajectory.
Create a more comprehensive list of work/family con-
tacts that includes instructions about how to handle
their common requests:
EAs need to have knowledge of basic office info with all your passwords:
Business address
Phone #
Business hours
Your mobile number
Your skype ID
Website URL
Social media links
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google+
Me
Twitter
Instagram
Other
Spouse
Kids
Parents
Professional Contacts
Internal Boss
Internal Peers
Internal Subordinates
Vendors
Customers
Providers
Community Leaders You Work
with & Their Organizations
Consultants
Board
Indicate any software that EA should be using on a daily basis:
Google apps
Evernotes
(your account and
shared connections with them)
Software/programs
Social Media
E-mail
Reporting Excel, smart sheets
(templates)
CRM
Project Management tool
Mind Mapping
PowerPoint
(Templates, Colors, Fonts, Style, Size)
MS Word
(Templates, Colors, Fonts, Style, Size)
Outlook and Schedule
(Standard signature)
Scheduling software
Wordpress
Payment info
(credit card, PayPal, etc.)
Personal Credit Card
Business Credit Card
Yours
Hers/His
PayPal
Amazon
Preferred method of communication
How and when do you like to be contacted?
What tool do you like to use for file-sharing
(e.g., Dropbox or Google docs)?
Is there any office filing system and maintenance that needs to
be done? (including paper files/file cabinets, shared electronic files)
Describe the filing taxonomy used for keeping organized
Example: Subject_Date_Version_Author
Do you use tags for your documents? If so, what is the protocol?
Marketing
Publishing
Do you need EA to proofread your articles/documents before you
post/send?
What is the schedule on turnaround for proofreading?
Brand Standards
Professional Pictures of You
Logo (Size and Use)
Color (HEX, RBG, etc…)
Fonts (Type and size)
Ads or copy
Marketing Materials (Contact Info and Budget and Payment Method)
Where do you purchase premiums (Contact Info)
Does EA need to purchase any marketing material?
Who is your printer for (Contact Info):
Stationary
Business Cards
Brochures
Reprints
Handling Mail
How to sort?
Can it be opened?
Wrong person – redirect?
Promotional Mailings (can they be recycled?)
Urgent
Important and not time sensitive
What can they handle for you?
Scanned and sent to you or other?
If you work remotely, how to handle?
Do you need personnel management (if no HR department)?
Welcome packages
Employee handbook + procedure/policy
manuals preparation, proofing, updates
Recruitment (interview scheduling, review applications, etc.)
Training
Do you need office management tasks like these done?
Operate and maintain a wide variety of office equipment including
copiers, fax machines, scanners, computers, printers, alarms
List equipment and links to manuals
Work with vendors and service providers to keep office systems
functioning smoothly at all times:
List all vendors that they will be working with and contact information.
Or build a system in CRM or Contacts to make easy for anyone to find.
And provide protocols for having them get to this information.
Maintain office furniture and storage layout, suggest improvements,
implement changes as needed or directed
How are things left at the end of the day
Conference room chairs tucked in?
EA’s desk cleared with nothing left out and file cabinets locked?
Your desk to be cleared at end of day or in morning before you arrive
and where each item goes?
When you’re out of the office are your lights on and office open or is the
door closed and/or locked?
Who has access to your office besides you and them?
Manage office consumables including office supplies, postage system,
kitchen supplies, printer and copier supplies, stationary, etc. What
amount of backlog of supplies do you want on hand?
Maintain telephone system (programming, maintenance, repair, training)
Meetings/Events
Do you need personal appointments and events assistance?
Send invitations and take RSVPs?
Arrange venue and other resources
(catering etc.) for your event/meeting?
Design registration forms, take registrations?
Design and print name badges?
Prepare handout material
agendas, minutes, reports, booklets, PowerPoints, etc.?
If so, what should always be included in these?
Do you need a recorder?
Prepare a questionnaire and forward it to your list of participants?
Track responses?
Travel Preparation Checklist:
Public Holidays if International Travel
Travel Advisories
Inoculations
Health Advisories
Passport (Number / Date for Renewal)
Visas
Export License(s)
Health Insurance Coverage (Who do you call in country or city)
Restaurant suggestions near meeting or hotel locations?
Tipping suggestions in region
Airline change number with menu sequence for getting to live agent
Frequency Club Number
General Travel Information
Who are your closest friends in your most frequently travelled destination(s)?
Who or where can your EA find your clients in a particular region to
present options for you to meet with?
Would you like your EA to fill your schedule with meetings with clients, em-
ployees, and friends for you?
What are the hottest shows, events or unique things to do when you have
down time?
Adventures
Entertainment
Shows
Arts
Movies
Travel to Airport
Driver – Who?
Uber
Taxi
Car to Parking
Flights
Is there a cap on price before approval is needed?
Airline preferences?
Do you fly coach | Economy Plus | Business Class | First Class?
What time of day would you like to depart/arrive?
What time would you like to arrive back home?
Preference on where you sit (Right or Left side and aisle, window, etc.)?
Non-stop or connecting flights?
(What are you willing to spend more to go direct?)
Frequent Flyer numbers?
Do you have status and with which airlines
Do you have a status goal for the year and will you spend money to hit it?
What airline airport clubs do you belong to?
TSA Redress Number
Do you need itineraries printed? Marked on schedule (How)?
Who is responsible for confirming flight, by when?
Passport/Visa info?

3. SCHEDULING/CALENDAR2016
MEALS
E-MAILS
BILLING/BOOKEEPING (WHICH OPTIONS BEST SUIT YOUR NEEDS?)
Respond on-behalf of Boss
Schedule
Update Solve / Gmail Contacts
Status
Done
Today
Waiting for
Rules for each
Aging e-mails
Junk e-mails
Filing historic e-mails
Hotel
Any preference on hotels
(Doubletree, Marriott, etc.)?
Types of hotels (3 or 4 star, king, queen or double, etc.)?
A specific hotel for specific cities?
Does there need to be a gym or pool in the hotel? Or does it need to be
near a fitness club with reciprocity, or a park, or a running trail?
Do you want to stay close to the meeting location so you will not need to
rent a car or simply for convenience?
Proximity to friends?
Rewards number?
Room preferences: bed size, pillow type, size of room, view?
Price guidelines?
Car Rental
Preference for rental company?
What type of car should be rented (midsize, SUV, luxury)?
Car features (GPS, ski rack, hybrid)?
Is there a price cap?
In what cities would you prefer no car but use driver
(do you have a preference for the service) or do you want to use uber?
Do you want to stay close to the meeting location so you will not need to
rent a car?
Member number?
Scheduling Based on Specific Criteria/Priorities
Let’s say you shared the following scheduling-related priorities with
your EA:
Family
School Functions
Client
Prospect
Friend
Internal Organization
Vendor / Partner
Networking
If you have a prospect that wants to meet, and you already have plans with a family
member or client, your AE will know not to change those. If, however, you have a lunch
scheduled with a friend and it is the only time the prospect can meet, your assistant will call
your friend, explain the situation, and ask if they would be willing to accommodate a
change in the schedule. The clearer you can be in how you make these decisions and com-
municate this to your EA the more effective they will be and the fewer disruptions they will
have to make to get your input.
Another way for you to segment your work may be billable vs non-billable hours if you’re in a
service profession and prioritize billable over non-billable time.
Establishing Standard Length of Time for Frequent Events
I work on 1 ½ hour increments for coaching and lunches. Coffees are 1 ¼ hours and phone
calls 30 minutes. Having a standard length of time for each activity allows my EA to make
many scheduling decisions without my input.
Location Preferences
Where you like to meet is an entire category in itself. Few things frustrate me like the back
and forth on where should we meet. If you have a very external life like I do you can solve
this quickly by having a Google map made with all of your favorite go-to places. I used to
keep this on the bottom of my signature on emails; there is an icon that allows anyone and
my EA to see my favorite places to meet. I choose these places because of location, park-
ing, proximity, and certainly quality of the establishment. I separate them by fine dining,
dinner, bar, coffee spot, etc.
Are you typically on time, late, or early?
Do you wrap things up quickly and stay on time?
Do you need extra time to keep on track?
Do you schedule extra time into the meeting or set blank space
between them?
Do you need decompression time after all or specific types of
meetings
How to Handle Meeting Requests
Someone I Know: Book the meeting, inform after
Someone I Don't Know/Sales Oriented: Don't book but inform
Prospect for Organization: Book and inform
Setting up Meetings
What program is used for scheduling
(Outlook, Google calendar, iCalendar, etc.)? Explain what mobile device app you use and
how that takes the information from Outlook, Google Calendar etc… and uses it so they
understanding why you need information in a certain way.
What are the hours you will meet with clients
(8-5pm, 7-3pm, not after 12pm on Fridays, etc.)?
Order of priority when scheduling:
(ex. clients, new business, family/friends)
What format should be used when adding events manually to
calendar?
Should any details be added into the description box
(phone number, description of purpose of meeting, etc.)?
Are there any color codes that the EA should be aware of?
Should any of the following items be included when adding events?
Who is initiating a call
Where a meeting is being placed
Who booked the appointment
(if multiple people book things on the calendar)
Who to call if you have to reschedule and/or confirm the appointment
what the call or meeting is about, etc.
Do you need a buffer in between appointments?
(travel time, extra time in case meetings run late, etc.)
Meeting Titles: should they include host, guest, # of participants, and
purpose?
Usual vacation times, holidays, etc. that need to be blocked off
(Family vacation in January, Week of Christmas off, etc.)?
When on vacation who are you willing to schedule a call with (if
anyone) and for what reasons?
Do you need your confirmation/reminder calls placed? When?
Do you need directions for a meeting or appointment sent to you?
If so, when?
What tool are you using: Google, Outlook, Lotus notes, or iCal? How do you want the schedule
filled out? This may depend on the mobile app you use. I use Sunrise App for iPhone. I like my
assistant to put the address in and make an invite to the person I am meeting with. By doing
both of these things it links my schedule to their contact information so that it is easy for me to
connect with them right from the calendar if I am running late or early. Also I never need to
think about how I am getting to the destination from my last meeting because the software
will provide me those directions. Even if I know where I am going (by having it in the GPS), I
can get new directions from Sunrise based on traffic flow.
In the notes section of the schedule, I like to have my executive assistant provide me some
context of the meeting if it is someone I do not usually meet with. In today’s world, with the
volume of people each of us is meeting, it is easy to forget why you had agreed to the
meeting originally.
Some executives will have their assistant create a brief on the person prior to meeting them for
the first time or if it has been a while since the last meeting.
Do you want your appointments color-coded? For example, you can have all internal meet-
ings one color, external another color. Family or kids’ events another color and community ac-
tivities different yet. To some this is more confusing; for others it gives insight to where you are
spending your time.
If you and your EA have to meet every day to discuss where you’d like
to eat (in or out) and what you’d like to order, you’re extending the
lunch hour. You’re wasting valuable time. The more your EA knows
about your food & drink preferences, the more your EA can act in
your stead.
Lunch In
Your EA should know what restaurants and foods that you like and don’t like. Your EA should
have the contact info for your go-to restaurants to order food from and know one or two of
your favorite dishes from each place. If you have special requests, you need to list them.
Your EA should also find out food preferences of your management team if frequently order-
ing in for them as well. The idea is that you simply ask your EA to order lunch for X people,
and he or she will know what to get without any additional information.
The Usual Suspects Lunch List
Busy leaders tend to like open lunch hours–for the quiet and/or the chance to catch up on
work–but they also like to connect with friends and family. When lunch rolls around, and you
find you have no plans, you may regret not having made a lunch date with a close friend.
You may feel like it’s too late, but it’s really not. There is usually a close friend or two that has
lunch-time free, too.
My former business partner Rick Diamond came up with the concept of a Usual Suspects
Lunch List, and I have adopted it. Create a list of those you most enjoy having lunch with,
and whenever there is an opening your executive assistant has permission to simply go next
down on the list to invite that person to lunch so that you will never eat alone (if you don’t
want to). Try it, and you will increase your life energy by spending time with those you enjoy
most.
Dinner
While your EA won’t likely be making many dinner plans for you, don’t ignore this aspect of
scheduling. Help your EA and yourself out. Provide access to your spouse’s schedule and any
information that will help your EA understand the rules of making dinner plans or weekend
activities. What are the rules of your home about how many dinners out per week? Who will
you give an auto yes to if they invite you to dinner?
What are common practices in the organization for EA’s access
to e-mail?
What are common practices in the organization for EA’s access
to e-mail?
If yes, how should e-mails be sorted/forwarded?
Are there any symbols, flags, or colors that should be used when
sorting?
At what time(s) should the EA review and, perhaps, respond to your
e-mail?
Do you feel comfortable having the EA respond to some e-mail and, if
so, which ones?
If your EA will be responding (either via your e-mail account or his/her
own), provide some standard replies you would like him/her to use.
Should the EA delete junk e-mail?
Any e-mails “off-limits” to read? If so, set filters or use a second e-mail
address for your private e-mail.
Do you need management of your @admin or @enquiries e-mail ad-
dresses?
How should EA handle any enquiries, sale bookings, etc. on your
behalf?
CCs should be filtered to folder and never read. A message to your
entire company should be sent saying you will never read or respond
to a CC email. If they want you to read something or respond, it should
be sent directly to you. Your volume of mail will drop by a third and you
will increase accountability.
Labels or Folders
For Boss
Needs Reply
Needs Reply: Urgent
PAID
Payment required
Read then Delete
Tickets for Events
Travel Info
For EA
Needs Reply | Delete
Needs Reply | Report
Read, No action needed
Receipts
$
Accounting team/person handles billing
Need EA to pay bills through online billpay, scan/fax/mail bills in to be
paid, accounting software, etc.
Need EA to keep track of accounts payable/receivable
(prepare invoices, reconcile bank statements, etc.)
Need EA to invoice clients (email hours to be billed to each client)
Need EA to handle past due account receivables – by phone and mail
You can pay your own bills, but need monthly bank reconciliation
You will pay your own bills, but need reminders as due dates approach

4. PHONE CALLS
CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGEMENT
HOME & PERSONAL SERVICES
Where do you get your: How Frequently? By Whom? Who else?
Hair done
Nails
Massage
Do you have: When Service Needed? Type of Service? By Whom?
Boats
Dock
Tennis court
Snowmobiles
Motorcycles
Pool
Hot tub
Cabin
Ski Home
Beach Home
Snow Tires
Summer Tires
Special Occasions: Role Who Date Card Gift Type Amount
Marriage
Births
Birthdays
Anniversaries
Marriage
Job
New Job
Job Loss
Divorce
Funeral
Holidays
Transcription Services
Jott
Copytalk
Dictation
Filing
1/12/31 System
In/Out Box System
Red Folder
How do you like calls answered: “(company name | your name), how can I help you?”
Or do you want a branding message)?
Who always gets put through (family only, clients, etc.)?
What specifically do you want the EA to handle on your behalf and how persistent can
they be?
What have you discussed with your spouse regarding using your assistant and have you
shared that with your EA?
Are you and your spouse comfortable working thru EA to get schedule worked out? How
about friends?
Who gets transferred to mobile if you are out of the office?
If you are out and they know you are available, do you want call transferred?
Do you want your calls to roll to EA’s voice mail and have them handle it or send it on to
you?
Who’s voice do you want on your VMail?
Who answers call?
Do you send introductory letters to new contacts?
Is there a follow-up process for potential clients – meetings?
Do you need EA to send client gifts for birthdays, special occasions or just as a 'thank
you'?
Christmas/Holiday cards and gifts to your clients and colleagues?
Do you have an online CRM (system for importing your contacts, customizing your reports
and providing advice on usage)? Do you need any of the following?
Maintenance of your online CRM, including data entry & reviewing content for currency
Phone the contacts in your database and clarify their details are up to date
Enter details from business cards that you've collected into your CRM
'Client Feedback Surveys' and distribute to your clients
-Analysis of responses to your survey and summary reports
Do you have your e-newsletters? If so, do you need any of the following?
Management of mailing lists (including new subscribers, un-subscribes, removing
"bounced" addresses, etc.)
Statistical reports on open rates and click-through rates, etc.
Search for appropriate articles for use in your newsletters and obtain approval from the
authors to use their material.
Social Media: do you need any of the following?
Set up your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and management daily
WordPress Websites & Blogs – Edit, tag, categorize and put your posts up on your blog site
Moderate any comments received
Website tweaks/changes or uploading content
Google Analytics monitoring/setup