Setting Achievable Executive Assistant Goals For Virtual Workers

 

 

All successful businesses have a clearly defined road map where goals are set to ensure you reach each destination successfully.

Like with any long journey, if you don’t plan your route correctly, you will get lost by taking the wrong turn at some junction.

Business is no different, and your executive assistant has to have clear, achievable goals to ensure the company runs smoothly.

This article explains the importance of setting goals and the best ways to implement those goals.

Setting SMART Goals

It is vital that all companies set SMART goals for their personal and executive assistants to achieve.

So what does SMART stand for when we are talking about goal setting? It is best to go through each letter of the SMART acronym to explain.

Specific

Is the goal understandable for your executive assistant and yourself? Understandably, you will encounter issues if the goal isn’t specific and clear.

Measurable

All the objectives or SMART goals need to be measurable to ensure your executive assistants can be successful. You must know when a goal has been reached and if the level of success is the same for each task.

Achievable

There is little point in setting unachievable goals. So always ensure you have the right software tool and training to allow your workers to achieve your goals and enhance their professional development.

Relevant

All goals of your executive assistant must line up with your overall business goals. If you can’t see a clear link between business goals and where you want your organisation to be in the future, then the goal isn’t relevant enough.

Timescale

All goals you set must have a deadline attached to them and be met promptly. There’s no point in having goals that you postpone indefinitely.

Align You Executive Assistant And Business Goals

To achieve sustainable success in your business, you must maintain advanced knowledge of all your executive assistant objectives.

These objectives and goals must interlink with the company’s long-term business goals.

Executive assistant goal setting can be daunting, but when done correctly, it can enhance employee morale to help them stay motivated and improve company culture.

The executive assistant role can positively or negatively impact other team members, so your administrative assistant must have the right goals that match their organisational skills.

It is important to remember that the assistant must display emotional intelligence to devise new team-building ideas, carry out team-building activities, and deal with general office management duties.

Sample Goals For Virtual Executive Assistants

1 – Learn New Skills

Staff in any business need to learn new skills to achieve complete job satisfaction.

It doesn’t matter if they are the office junior, a personal assistant, or the executive assistant. They all need continuous upskilling to help with career growth.

Look at your executive assistant’s qualifications and see if they can be enhanced to help them and your company.

The new or updated skills could be in the form of an online course in event planning, bookkeeping tasks, or training in management.

It is highly beneficial to both the individual and the company if you take the time to research qualifications that can help enhance their professional growth while achieving personal development.

2 – Improve Task Turnaround Time

Performance goals such as improving task turnaround time should always come under performance reviews.

The only way you can improve the entire organisation is by reviewing each department and assessing each staff member’s personal career goals.

As an administrative professional, your executive assistant should be setting the standard for other staff to follow.

If they can’t hit deadlines, it filters down to your other staff, and the overall running of the business becomes sloppy.

Achieving goals set for multiple tasks will show other employees and administrative assistants that they, too, can improve and set goals to improve on time-bound tasks.

3 – Focused Time Management

A crucial part of goals for an executive assistant should be calendar management skills.

Excellent calendar management will vastly improve your chances of hitting your goals as a business and improve your personal life as well.

Suppose your company is working on essential tasks relating to a new project. In that case, all your administrative assistants must understand their roles and the time constraints within those roles.

If every worker, including remote workers within remote teams, understands how important it is to stay focused within a time frame to complete their part of the project, then the project will be successful.

However, the executive assistant is responsible for ensuring that each part of the project targets is being hit.

4 – Learn To Delegate

As an executive assistant, knowing how to delegate the right tasks to suitable personal assistants and other staff within the company is crucial.

Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each staff member will help you make the correct choice when delegating tasks.

Do not simply assign a task to a worker without fully explaining why you are delegating the task to them. Also, provide the proper instructions and resources, and training if needed.

When a delegated task has been completed, ensure that you check the work and provide constructive feedback on the performance of the job.

Sometimes, delegating responsibility and authority to another administrative assistant is okay. Doing so will often help them achieve their personal objectives and advance their careers.

5 – Take On Management Responsibilities

Like any job, you must create goals when performing essential tasks as part of your long-term growth plan.

Therefore, doing various tasks and setting your own goals, which help push your career development forward, is vital to becoming genuinely successful.

Taking on management responsibilities could be part of your SMART goal, which helps to aid your personal goals.

As long as you set an achievable goal that fits within your skill set, you will soon enhance your confidence in managing your staff in your department.

Other management responsibilities could include evaluating department activities, holding team bonding days that help create a better work environment, running online courses, and implementing staff incentives for hitting monthly targets.

6 – Look For Feedback

Whatever level you are at within a company, getting constructive feedback is always essential if you are going to progress and reach that SMART goal.

Spending time on essential tasks and reaching that achievable goal but not getting feedback from those in charge can leave you feeling deflated.

Always look for feedback when you have finished a particular phase of a project that way, you will know if you are going in the right direction.

Having constructive feedback helps if it is delivered in the right way. The way the input is provided to you can help you not only in the tasks you are performing but in the way you give constructive feedback to staff working below you.

When all staff are happy and motivated, it helps the business run more smoothly. However, this can only be achieved if there are open lines of honest communication at all times.

Contact Us Today For A Free Consultation

Hopefully, you have found this article helpful in understanding why it is essential to set clear SMART goals and objectives when undertaking many tasks, not just the important ones you set for assistants.

If you need help with managing virtual and executive assistants, give us a call today and get a free consultation on how we can help you hire the right virtual assistant.

We can explain how easy it is for us to look after sourcing, hiring, training, and managing your virtual assistants. Just give us a call to discuss your personal expectations and requirements.

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