Goal setting is a powerful process that helps you think about your future and where you want to go in life. Companies use them to set clear priorities for everyone involved in the organization. Individuals use them to guide their focus and sustain momentum. However, goal setting for executive assistants has been less defined.
EAs often find themselves with reactive roles, wearing many hats and juggling tasks as new things get thrown their way. Being proactive and prioritizing growth can feel overwhelming, if not impossible.
Here’s the great news: while you’re fielding emails, tracking projects, and managing calendars, you have the ability to impact your company in a real, lasting way.
Your executive is responsible for a handful of goals within the business. And, as you know, they are managing a lot (that’s why they need you, right?). On any given day, they could be fielding hundreds of messages, problems, or distractions.
As an EA, you are in a powerful position to go beyond managing their schedule and become a true support system; keeping your executive focused on the goals they are responsible for, getting involved in those strategies, and amplifying their output.
Here is how to start taking an active role in that process, so you can tangibly measure your value and tie your work to the success of the company.
How to Set Goals with Your Executive
Goal setting sounds great, but how do you make sure your exec is on board? Do not open with a request for their time to discuss your career. Open with their goals.
- Find out what your executive is measured on this quarter. Ask directly, or read the board deck, the company OKRs, or whatever their own manager sees.
- Pick the one or two of those goals where your work already touches the outcome. Calendar discipline maps to hiring velocity. Inbox triage maps to customer response time.
- Book thirty minutes and bring a draft, not a blank page. Two or three proposed goals of your own, each one visibly hanging off one of theirs.
- Ask one question at the end: which of these would you most want me to own? Their answer tells you where they actually feel the pain.
Run each candidate goal through a quick analysis before you commit to it. Does it change something your executive can feel? Can you measure it without asking anyone for permission? Can you finish it inside a quarter? If the answer to any of those is no, it is a project, not a goal.
Examples of Goals for Executive Assistants
Not sure what goals you should set for yourself? These are outcome-based, which is the point. Each one ends in a number or a state, not an activity.
- Cut recurring internal meetings on your executive’s calendar by 20% this quarter without anyone escalating.
- Get every travel booking confirmed at least seven days ahead for two consecutive quarters.
- Document the top ten recurring processes you own, so someone else could cover for you without a handover call.
- Reduce the number of interruptions your executive gets from you by batching decisions into one daily list.
- Take ownership of one recurring meeting end to end, agenda through follow-up, by the end of the quarter.
- Build a reporting habit your executive reads, measured by whether they reference it back to you unprompted.
For more, see our Executive Assistant SMART goal examples and our guide to EA OKRs and goal setting.
The Process for Checking in on Goal Progress
Equally important as setting goals is making sure you keep up with them. The most reliable method we have seen is also the least dramatic: a short written update on a fixed schedule, rather than a standing meeting.
- Once a week, write three lines per goal: where it stands, what moved, what you need from them.
- Send it at the same time every week. Predictability is what makes it get read.
- Once a quarter, put the twelve updates side by side. That is your review, already written, in your own words.
- Kill goals that stopped mattering rather than carrying them forward. A dead goal on the list makes the whole list easier to ignore.
This gets you what you need without being overlooked by, or overwhelming, your executive.
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