PODCAST EPISODE № 22

Transferable Military Skills for Executive Support Positions

by Anita Charlot

Listen to Transferable Military Skills for Executive Support Positions:

At your level, you require an efficient and effective support system. Anyone can look nice on paper, present, and speak well during an interview, but it is the potential that they have to truly serve as your right hand that you want to identify before actually hiring them.

In the last episode, I posed several introspective questions to help you identify whether you were really ready for an exceptional executive assistant. I’m using the term executive assistant, but these requirements are helpful for any support staff member regardless of their title.

If you haven’t listened to that episode, click here to listen now. It will save you a lot of headaches in your search and provide you with questions that will help you identify on your own what you need to do as an executive to prepare and what you need to look for in your executive assistant. The connection you have with the person who will support you should be looked at in the same light, as if you were looking for a serious relationship. You should be clear on your needs and wants and have a good idea of what that person looks, sounds and feels like, energetically of course.

This episode will share how I helped heal the relationship between a CTO client and her executive assistant. While each person, industry, and position may be different, the relationship between you and your support system is still the same that have a serious relationship.

See you inside the episode.

Have you taken my free video training, “Can He Handle Your Grind?” Girl, what are you waiting for? It is not just for single women; it’s also for women already in a relationship or married. Click here to access the training. Once inside, you will understand why you can’t seem to attract the right one, how you woke up one day and realized you married the wrong one and what you can do about it.

What You Learn:

How to identify what YOU really need in an assistant
What a bad hire will cost you financially, mentally, etc.
Skills that we teach in army training that are desirable qualities in support roles
How to get a clear understanding before seeking to hire or possibly firing an EA

Featured on the Show:

The Cost of a Bad Hire : Northwestern’s study into why it’s so important to hire correctly on your first try
Take the free video training Can He Handle Your Grind? and learn more about your relationship habits than you thought possible in an hour!
Learn more about how you can work directly with Anita
Love the show? Leave a review of the show in Apple Podcasts (click the link to find out how).
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Episode Transcript

In case you’re wondering why I chose this topic for the past several episodes, it is because I have recently been reminded of how important it is to hire slow and fire fast. After hiring and releasing several individuals, it has become easier for me to do. This doesn’t mean that I enjoy letting people go, but more so than I am learning through experience that you should hire slow and fire fast. 
    
It’s not personal, it’s business. 
    
What if this is the first time you are genuinely taking a look at your support system? What if you never took the time to look deeper into this and have left it up to your hiring manager to select the best candidate for you? Maybe after listening to the last episode, this will be the first time you will take an honest look under the hood to identify the way you run your business, and now you are not sure what to do. No worries! That’s why you’re here. 
    
Unfortunately, I have yet to find someone that has the same drive, hunger, or as multi-talented across business, military and metaphysical experiences crafted over 30 years just like me, but there are specific traits that one must have to meet the baseline requirements. 
    
One of them is you must be just as excited about the work I do as I am to do it. It doesn’t mean you need to know how to do my job, but you have to have the inherent desire to learn as much about my company, offerings, skills and experiences to be able to support me effectively. 
    
Part of the challenge for me is that I have supported some amazing leaders during my career. As a business owner, understanding how to identify what my executives need comes naturally to me. I bring a whole host of experiences that feed into my success and the executives, both male and female, that I have to work for and the woman I have coached and mentored. Some of them have been Executive Women and others and other support positions to their executives. 
    
When I thought more about where to source my next Assistant, I’ve decided to take a deeper look at the skills that I honed in the military. The 14 years I spent in the United States Army were some of the most challenging. Yet, I have found that these skills have stayed with me years after my discharge. Maybe I should source my next Assistant from discharged or retired veterans.
    
Hm… Now, that’s a thought! 
    
Pulling from my experience in the military, here are several of the skills that I bring with me to all areas of my life:
Leadership
Self sufficiency
Effective communication
Integrity
Technology skills
Hands on skills
Teamwork
Ability to perform under pressure
Quick to adapt
Problem solving
Critical thinking
Conflict resolution
Work ethic
Dependability
Research
    
While my staff members, W-2 or 1099, don’t have to be prior military, they need to have most of these skills organically. Those they do not have, if the work ethic is there can be cultivated. As a door opener, I do not have time to hold the hand of my team members, or speak with flowery words at all times. I’m a woman on a mission to get things done in corporate and in my business, and I need someone on my team that can do the same. 
So do you! 
    
Funny story, I once shared an annual review conversation from a former executive with my husband. Her comment was, you are so well organized and on top of everything! It was hard for him to connect the dots since the very organizational traits that are practiced at the office do not translate at home. 
    
A male executive of mine once provided a referral to me for his plumber. He had already warned the plumber about the type of person he knew me to be from the office, but couldn’t believe it when the plumber reported back that the person my boss described me to be was not the person he encountered in my home. Disingenuous? Not at all, but certainly a topic for another episode. 
    
When left to my own devices, I am a force to be reckoned with. Lucky for you, I teach the same skill to my clients. When it comes to business conversations, keep them short, brief, and to the point. If I need more detail, I will ask, but I’m not wired to sit through 20 minutes of backstory to finally get to the end and have to ask, So what do you need from me? Or how does this apply? Or what is your point? 
    
A good assistant, a true partnership will tell me the purpose of our conversation upfront, the business case for it, and what my options are. I will then ask additional questions if I need clarity, but their job is to have taken out all of the guesswork before bringing the topic to my attention. This is my work style. You have to be clear on what your work style is. 
    
In the military, we are all about the KISS system. Let’s be nice and call it the Keep It Simple System. We said Keep It Simple, Stupid when I was in the military, but now that would not be politically correct or nice. So let’s stick with the Keep It Simple System. If you have ever hired contractors whose first language is not English, you learn quickly how to simplify processes. Keep directions clear, easy to understand and even easier to execute. This has served me well even with native English speaking business connections. Managing a business while working full time, raising kids, managing an aging mother’s affairs, being a wife, mother, friend, mentor, fur-mom, and setting aside me-time has taught me the value of less is more. Less unnecessary chatter, clicks, steps in a process, follow up questions that need to come to me to figure things out for you, are some of the ways that I’ve managed to be a happy executive woman even while navigating home work in my love life. 
    
The transferable traits I learned in the military are a bonus to any executive that I have supported. I can work fully autonomously checking in when I have a problem, or I need them to run interference, but I do not require hand holding or constant directions. 
    
These traits have been a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing working for executives who allowed me to fully step into my superpower and thus move both of our careers forward, and a curse to an executive that utilized all they could but held on tight to the purse strings, the promotions and the title changes. Needless to say, I left at the first opportunity. 
    
So you see, I have experience on both sides of the spectrum.
    
I can help the executive get clearer, understand what it is they need, ask the deeper questions to help clarify the type of person that they need on their team, and I can also help those that are in support positions identify better ways to help their executives succeed and thus help move their careers forward as well. 
    
Now, on the flip side, God forbid, I find myself under the supervision of a micromanager that goes against my grain, truly makes my bottom itch, and gets in the way of accomplishing the mission. It’s a total time waster and does absolutely nothing for employee morale. 
    
Why am I sharing all of this with you? To show you how clear I am on the level of support that I need and the level of support that I can give, and how clear you should be too. Not being clear will land you in a position just like one of my former clients. She was a CTO that reached out to me to share her frustrations with her executive assistant. The issue was that the EA was a charming woman who appeared to be qualified, but the CTO kept missing deadlines, meetings, and was highly frustrated. She wasn’t sure how things would turn out, but she hired me to see if I could fix the relationship to keep from hiring a new assistant. 
    
I began to share with her how important it was to understand the personality traits of her EA, and then the need to be 100% honest with herself about her own qualities, habits and work ethic. I spent time with both the CTO and her admin, learning more about them, what made them tick, their pet peeves, preferences, work styles, backgrounds, and the like. I utilize my metaphysical skills to tap into the spirit of both of them, to get them to open up about their deepest feelings, allowing me the ability to get to know them better, and then magically make each of their roles much more effortless. 
    
This was more than just an intervention, or a coaching program. It was an intervention with a touch of individual and relationship coaching. I not only worked with them on their corporate needs, but assisted with the personal side of their lives that was getting in the way of their ability to communicate, support and delegate to each other effectively. 
I wonder if you caught that. I helped the CTO identify what she really needed in an assistant, and pointed out how she was partly to blame for the inefficiency of her EA. We established new working guidelines, shifts and behaviors, training, and the value of the CTO empowering her EA to make her life easier. 
    
It was a success! 
    
Who wants to go through the hiring process all over again? Trust me, I don’t like it at all. It causes double work for my other team members and me, pushes back deadlines, is expensive, and is a huge time waster. 
    
So here’s a list of the things that you should definitely have a clear understanding about before seeking to hire or determining whether or not to fire your current assistant: 
You need to know what the intangible and tangible character traits are. 
You need to understand what image or presentation and the level of discretion that you want this person to have. 
You need to know the right questions to ask during an interview. 
You need to have the right scenarios to present during your interview to test that person’s ability to support you. 
You need to know how to identify a high performer.
You need to understand the difference between confidence and cockiness.
You need to be able to identify whether this person has critical thinking skills. Oh my goodness, this one is so important! 
What is their decision making ability? 
Identify whether or not to have your assistant or other team members interview the candidate. This will depend on your situation. 
You should have your system set up for maximum effectiveness and productivity so that your people aren’t wasting time on things that could be automated.
And this was a big one for me: You need to understand whether or not they are going to be available before after hours, and even on the weekends if you need them. But I think you see where I’m going with this.

There are ways to determine these things without putting all of your business out there for your HR department or leading the interviewee to answer the questions to your liking versus in an honest manner. Having this knowledge will save you a ton of time and rehires. 
    
According to Northwestern University’s HR department, while not exact, The US Department of Labor’s estimate is simple: the average cost of a bad hiring decision is at least 30% of the individual’s first year expected earnings. If you take an employee with an annual income of $50,000, the cost of the organization can be $15,000. Others argue that the cost is actually greater. Why the debate? Because some expenses are easy to quantify and others are not. And I will have the link to this article in the show notes for you so head on over there if you’d like to see it. 
    
Essentially, there are many factors to consider when hiring a support person that will serve as your right hand. They could have one of the following titles with varying degrees of responsibilities, ranging from administrative assistant to executive assistant to executive personal assistant, Deputy, Chief of Staff or just personal assistant. 
Two crucial things to remember: you must be clear on what you need, and then understand what traits to look for when hiring or deciding whether to fire the person you currently have working for you. Companies have entire HR recruiting departments trained to help you find the right candidate. 
    
However, I have a few questions for you:
Would you feel comfortable telling your HR business rep that you suffer from imposter syndrome and are afraid to share with them for fear of being found out? 
Would you tell them that you don’t sleep at night? That you find yourself locked in the bathroom during vacations trying to get work done so that you don’t miss deadlines?
Would you tell them that you constantly battle with your significant other at home and find it hard to manage your workload and need someone that can help hold things down for you at the office?

I didn’t think so. That’s where I come in. 
I take your fears, insecurities, feelings of inadequacy, and I help you identify the right person to help you navigate all parts of yourself in the office, thus leaving you with the energy needed to build your confidence, rebuild your marriage, or find the courage to walk away from one that no longer serves the woman you are today. 
Why continue to hide and suffer in silence? You don’t have to any longer. I’m here to support you through it all. 
    
If you are a member of the HR department in your organization, how many of your executives could benefit from having this additional level of support? More than you think I promise you. Male and female executives alike need help in these areas. The Me Too movement has made more male executives gun shy about the conversations and interactions with their assistants. They are afraid of crossing a line. What if both sides were supportive so that they both felt heard, valued and supported throughout? How much more productive, happier, and supported would your team members be? 
    
And if you happen to be a person of service, an executive assistant, or otherwise, who lives to make the lives of others more manageable, if you are looking to learn how to make yourself indispensable, I can help you with that too. 
    
No matter what side of the corporate ladder you find yourself on head on over to the contact page on my website, and AnitaCharlot.com, send me an email, and we can set up time to talk specifically about your needs and how I may be able to assist. 
    
Here’s to being happy in both business and in love. See you in the next episode!