#26 Why You Need To Control Your EA Destiny - Interview With Adam Fidler (Part 1)

02/27/17 • 40 min

In my interview with Adam we discuss his belief that Executive Assistants must take charge of their professional destiny because if they fail to do so, they risk others stepping in to influence it that do not understand the role and the true value that Executive Assistants can offer organisations and individual leaders.

The overarching theme of Adam’s work is about encouraging and enabling EA’s to align their behaviours with what is expected of a mid level manager and the sorts of EQ skills that are focused on in leadership development. He has a higher vision for the role which he articulates in his EA manifesto but rather than this vision being some sort of airy fairy, non-specific ideal he advocates for it being based on a proven foundation of skills development.

I’m already calling out that I’m going to have Adam back on the podcast for us to debate the word ‘indispensable’ as you will hear that he’s not a fan of it. I actually think he and I are in agreement and that it’s about not striving for something you can never achieve, because as we’ve discussed, we’re all dispensable. Anyway... Top takeaways from interview with Adam

Credibility is achieved through getting the job done, being professional and being qualified - therefore EA’s need to choose high calibre events to attend that will reflect well on them and be seen as an effective use of their time.
Focus on what you need to do to be seen as more ‘managerial’, more professional in your role. That means looking closely at what activities and tasks you are spending your time on and look at identifying how you can develop into more red box activities.
Aligned with this is spending time in ‘boss mode’ as opposed to ‘pa mode’. Thinking proactively, using initiative, having a growth mindset and asking less for permission and more for confirmation or correction. Boss Mode is about understanding your leaders’ objectives and priorities as well as the organisations and thinking strategically about how you can advance those without being given explicit instruction.
This is where Adam’s metaphor of moving up from the dancefloor is so powerful... I love this metaphor, I keep humming Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s song “Murder on the Dancefloor” (link to Youtube clip in the Shownotes for those of you that don’t know it)
Finally Adam acknowledges that there will always be a place for black box activities, he says these are the bread and butter tasks of EA’s but the reality is that no one ever got promoted for being great with Excel or Powerpoint. You may need to help your boss see your value in doing ‘red box’ activities but once they’ve experienced the benefits they will be converts. Saving your boss time makes you a huge asset but it requires you to act and work independently.

PA Life Interview

Connect with Adam Fidler on LinkedIn

Adam Fidler Academy website

Sophie Ellis-Bextor “Murder On The Dancefloor”

Adam Fidler’s “What I am” EA manifesto

Credibility is achieved through getting the job done, being professional and being qualified - therefore EA’s need to choose high calibre events to attend that will reflect well on them and be seen as an effective use of their time.
Focus on what you need to do to be seen as more ‘managerial’, more professional in your role. That means looking closely at what activities and tasks you are spending your time on and look at identifying how you can develop into more red box activities.
Aligned with this is spending time in ‘boss mode’ as opposed to ‘pa mode’. Thinking proactively, using initiative, having a growth mindset and asking less for permission and more for confirmation or correction. Boss Mode is about understanding your leaders’ objectives and priorities as well as the organisations and thinking strategically about how you can advance those without being given explicit instruction.
This is where Adam’s metaphor of moving up from the dancefloor is so powerful... I love this metaphor, I keep humming Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s song “Murder on the Dancefloor” (link to Youtube clip in the Shownotes for those of you that don’t know it)
Finally Adam acknowledges that there will always be a place for black box activities, he says these are the bread and butter tasks of EA’s but the reality is that no one ever got promoted for being great with Excel or Powerpoint. You may need to help your boss see your value in doing ‘red box’ activities but once they’ve experienced the benefits they will be converts. Saving your boss time makes you a huge asset but it requires you to act and work independently.

PA Life Interview

Connect with Adam Fidler on LinkedIn

Adam Fidler Academy website

Sophie Ellis-Bextor “Murder On The Dancefloor”

Adam Fidler’s “What I am” EA manifesto

Previous Episode

#25 Get Started On Your Personal Skills Audit

Liz has developed a 5 step process to identifying the skills, values and behaviours that will make you an indispensable Assistant to your business leader.

Step 1 is to conduct a personal skills audit. In this episode, the first in a five part series to be released over coming weeks, Liz outlines two different approaches to conduct a personal skills audit. Liz also discusses how the results of this exercise will form the basis for Step 3 which is to identify what indispensable looks like to your business leader and how Adam Fidler’s Executive Assistant ‘manifesto’ which he formulated through his coaching and training work with EA’s may serve as a useful conversation starter.

Resources discussed in this episode

'5 Steps To Being Indispensable' Factsheet - download on the website www.beingindispensable.com

Adam Fidler Executive Assistant role description

Vickie Evan’s Tech Savvy Assistant diagrams

Tools like MBTI, Strengthfinder and the DISC profile are also valuable to helping you ‘flesh’ out the total picture of what you bring to your role. Learn more about these tools via the links:

Myers Briggs Online

Strengthfinder 2.0

DISC Profile

Next Episode

#27 Why You Need To Control Your EA Destiny - Interview With Adam Fidler (Part 2)

In Part 2 of my interview Liz shares some initial results from her Survey of C-Suite Executives where she has been investigating how elements of Adam's EA Manifesto resonate with executives and their experience working with EA's. The results to do date reinforce that assistant's currently are not generally viewed as behaving strategically and operating with the 'managerial mindset' that Adam encourages. However, the results of the survey clearly show that executives want their EA's to demonstrate leadership traits.

Adam also shares a simple mindset hack to remind EA's to think as a manager and he also discusses how it is up to EA's to help their boss see them in a different light, as more 'Red Box' than 'Black box'.

Links to Connect with Adam and read about his thinking around the EA role:

PA Life Interview

Connect with Adam Fidler on LinkedIn

Adam Fidler Academy website

Adam Fidler’s “What I am” EA manifesto

A clip of Sophie Ellis-Bextor “Murder On The Dancefloor” is also included in this episode because it's fun and as discussed Liz loves Adam's dance floor metaphor for encouraging EA's to get out of the weeds!