Not enough Executive Assistants (EAs) connect their day-to-day responsibilities with their company’s wider strategy or goals, but this is often an oversight — especially when one of EA’s key responsibilities is planning in-person meetings.
As a concept, “strategy” can sound intimidating, or something you leave to the leadership team. But as an EA, you’re not only well-positioned to contribute to strategic efforts, but are likely already doing so. Strategy simply means setting specific actions to achieve a goal. If you’re planning meetings, you’re doing just that.
There are always opportunities to hone and improve your strategic skills so that you can efficiently achieve your and your company’s goals. In this blog, we’ll be taking a look at ways to become even more strategic as an EA, in general and especially when organizing meetings.
A strong, well-thought-out meeting objective can be the difference between a great meeting and a waste of time and resources. It sets the tone for the meeting and helps guide the rest of the planning process from who should attend, the agenda, and what meeting venue will work best.
In order to define your meeting objectives effectively, it’s important to have one or two objectives, maximum. While some meetings may have multiple objectives, focusing on too many often leads to confusion. Try to limit the number of objectives and keep the team focused on what is top priority.
Similarly, you’ll want to make your meeting objectives actionable and measurable, so you have definitive indicators of how things are progressing and where you need to improve.
Properly communicating your meeting objectives is also an invaluable part of the process. You can be as strategic as you like, but it only works if your strategy is properly communicated with the right people, and in good time. So, make sure you’re able to clearly communicate what you need from attendees, and what the desired outcomes are.
A surefire way to become more strategic in general is to become more adept at understanding and using data. Data arms you with the insights and information to make better, faster, more accurate decisions. It also provides strength and proof to your decision-making.
When booking meeting logistics, for example, the right data can help you to compare travel and accommodation options in real-time, better estimate budgets, and spot trends. By contrast, a lack of data opens up the doorway for poor planning and mistakes, such as, creating a meeting budget that’s way below what you’ll actually need, or booking flights that are inconvenient or stressful on attendees.
And let’s not forget how data reflects back on you. After all, an EA that is consistently informed with data-driven insights is going to be ahead of EAs who leave things up to chance!
Technology and automation have proven to maximize your efficiency as an EA time and time again. Not only do they significantly help with repetitive and manual tasks on your plate but they also assist in making informed decisions, as we just discussed.
For example, a tool like TROOP, enables you to be more strategic with planning in-person meetings by arming you with key data and automated analyses in minutes, from ideal meeting destinations and travel logistics based on your team’s unique needs, to accurately budgeting, and much more. TROOP uses real-time data in each analysis, meaning the strategic decisions you’re making are as accurate, up-to-date, and efficient as possible.
Similarly, ChatGPT and other large language AI models can help write your meeting agendas, summarize information for you, or draft attendee briefs. Tools like Otter.ai handle real-time transcription of meeting discussions, and Trello is an excellent tool at helping you manage projects by automating to-do list tasks, and generating reminders.