Executive assistant career growth is all about knowing your worth and communicating your needs. We talk a lot about advocating for yourself because—more times than not—you only get what you ask for!
Are you advocating for yourself? What does your career roadmap look like? What are some things you’d like to achieve in your personal life? These are super important questions to be asking yourself routinely. The more you can ponder and plan out your overall objectives, the easier it will be to progress in a direction that serves you.
A well-thought-out executive assistant personal development plan will allow you to have a clear view of your end-goal and the steps you’ll need to take to get there. Keep reading to learn how to grow your personal and professional brand.
How to Upskill Yourself As an EA
When learning how to upskill yourself as an EA, you have to take a good look at your personal development plan and assess what direction you’d like to take towards bettering yourself. Take a moment to reflect: What are some areas you would like to improve in order to advance both personally and professionally? Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
- Communication: As an executive assistant, communication skills should be at the top of your personal development list. Two-way communication is essential in the business world, and this is especially true in the EA-executive relationship. Agree with your executive on where updates live and how decisions get made, then hold that line.
- Calendar Management: From automations to color coding, there are plenty of calendar management skills for executive assistants worth learning. Getting good at proposing several times at once, and at protecting focus blocks, pays back immediately.
- Time Management: Executive assistant time management is important because it will help you thrive as an assistant rather than just survive. Batch similar work, protect a daily block for the things that need real attention, and audit where your week actually went.
- Event Management: Make events a breeze for both you and your executive by brushing up on your executive assistant event management skills. From meetings to vacations, a clear checklist and a single owner for every detail make preparation effortless.
Thinking Beyond the EA Title
Once you begin upskilling as an EA, you may be wondering—what’s next? Well, you can expect to become the assistant to higher-level executives in larger businesses. Better yet, as you move on to these more prestigious executives and businesses, your pay will also increase.
Personal development for executive assistants involves learning more about the business you serve so you can ultimately move into other roles. If you see a spot in your company you feel like you could fill, don’t be afraid to work towards that in your EA role. Often, an executive assistant becomes a protege to their executive and can be mentored by them. Who better to get job advice from than the person doing the hiring?
If you’re interested in advancing across this career path, make yourself clear from the get-go! You’ll want to know whether the company you’re applying for hires from within or whether it may be possible to move forward within your career there.
To keep your executive assistant career growth on track, make sure to set up regular performance reviews with your executive (we recommend quarterly). This overview will highlight any critiques your executive has with your work product to help you know where and how to improve for the future. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, but an executive assistant review gives you the time to learn and grow from those mistakes.
It’s also helpful to have established goals so you have a benchmark to measure your success. This video shares how you can align your goals to your executive’s goals, making your impact even more invaluable:
This video is also helpful, with leading EA at BlackRock Simone White sharing how to build your career path within your organization:
Grow Your EA Career With Base
Base has spent more than a decade placing and supporting executive assistants. We match founders and executives with vetted, US-based EAs, and we help assistants build careers worth staying in. Don’t wait another moment to start advocating for your growth.
Explore our learning and development programs, browse EA job opportunities, or see how we support assistants through their careers.
Do you want more goal setting, planning, and project management resources? Join our community of over 4,000 assistants, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
