[This article was originally posted at Executive Secretary Magazine.]

There is no greater relationship in the workplace than that of an executive and an Assistant. I can honestly say that because of my experience in the administrative profession for 20 years in a variety of organizations. During my administrative career, I was fortunate to work with three outstanding executives who truly saw me as their strategic partner.

I had other relationships that weren’t so rewarding and I did not stay very long at those jobs. Then there were other situations where the executive was nice and we got along, but there wasn’t real synergy.

As founder and CEO of Office Dynamics International, I have been on the “other side of the desk” for 25 years. I have had some good Assistants and one bad Assistant. I’ve been fortunate to have Jasmine Freeman as my Chief Executive Assistant for seven years. Jasmine was promoted to Vice President about two years ago.

A third dimension I can add to the validation of a good partnership is that I have personally coached more than 150 administrative/executive teams – both one-on-one and in groups. So what I am about to share with you is based on more than 42 years of experience in building executive/Assistant partnerships.

The world is a much different place today [Read more…]