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The Case for Executive Assistants

Published: 2011-12-08

Why would you pay managers big salaries and then ask them to make their own hotel reservations?

In brief:

  • A good M.A. helps save her manager 5 hours in a 60-hour workweek and makes her manager 8% more productive.
  • Getting the most out of your M.A. by delegating wisely and stretching the limits.
  • The most common missteps an assistant makes are misreading the corporate culture, failing to build bridges with other assistants, failing to ask enough questions about tasks, agreeing to take on too much work, and speaking to external parties without authorization.

Source: Harvard Business Review, May 2011, p 88-91, Author: Melba J. Duncan A contribution by Greet Puttaert, Advisor to the National Committee of EUMA Belgium. More!

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