Congratulations! You have a new administrative assistant who will help you keep everything on track and running smoothly. Many new business owners might leave it at that, and expect the admin to immediately start making your business better. But of course, we all know it’s not that easy.
Admin assistants are great, but they’re collaborators helping you run your ship. That makes you the captain, the one who has to give the orders.
Communicating with your admin assistant is actually more complicated than people think. A good admin assistant will know what questions to ask, but there are steps you can take to make sure your admin assistant is prepared to get to work. Here are 2 tips on communicating with your admin assistant.
Set Aside Time for Onboarding
Anytime you bring someone into your business, you should leave some time to onboard them. This is an opportunity to give your admin assistant all the information they need for your business. This would be where you show them the apps your business uses, any key terms or data points they may not understand, information about your clients and where you are with them.
One of the most important pieces of information you can give at this session is information about your clients and the challenges, roadblocks, and risks your business is currently facing. Getting a good understanding of the business gives your admin assistant the background information they need to properly complete tasks to your liking.
Make Sure Assignments Are Actionable Tasks
One of the most common communication mistakes business owners make is that they assign a task, but only talk about the problem. It might seem obvious to you what you want them to do, and you may feel like you’re giving them valuable information, but if you don’t break your down into actionable tasks, then you run the risk of confusing your assistant, and making a process more complicated than it needs to be.
Doing this also helps you make sure that the assistant has all the information they need to complete the assignment. Many times we see business owners simply give an assistant a problem, telling them to fix it, without giving them any of the resources they need to do so. It’s a very easy mistake to make, but if you’re proactive in making yourself clear and getting all the information organized right away, you save time for both of you.
Conclusion
Having an administrative assistant on your team can do wonders for your business. It opens up more time for you to focus on the high level priorities of your business, and with our assistants, you can trust that your business is in good hands.