An Administrative Assistant Can Be A Lifesaver – Literally! – Part 2

Here’s some more advice for working effectively with your assistant. As I said in the previous essay, I don’t claim to be an expert; these are just some things that have kept my pastor and me working together for almost 14 years.

Give her complete control of your calendar. She should be the only person who can put appointments on it. This means you can’t touch it! This may seem very proprietary, and I know it’s scary to give up control of something that important, but you will be grateful once you see how much easier this makes your life. I’m pretty sure if you asked my boss he would say that this is one of the best things he ever did.

Delegate for results. Let her know what you need done and let her figure out how to do it. Make it easy and comfortable for her to ask you questions if she doesn’t understand something. I suppose another way to say this is “don’t micromanage.”

Give her reasonable deadlines. Remember that in most cases it takes a lot longer to implement an idea than it does to come up with it! My very entrepreneurial boss can throw out about 15 great new ideas per minute. As he is talking, my head is spinning, wondering how I’m going to get it all done. Which leads to the next piece of advice...

Make the priorities clear. After a few weeks of starting my job, I was pretty much at my wits’ end. I gathered every piece of paper that was strewn all over my desk, my credenza and the floor into a pile, walked into his office and said, “I need your help.” He immediately cancelled the meeting that he had scheduled and we went through the pile, one piece of paper at a time, and gave everything a priority – A, B or C. From then on, whenever I began to be stressed out, I heard in my head the words he said to me that day: “You can only do what you can do.” This was such a relief to hear! We’ve worked together long enough now that he doesn’t always have to tell me the priorities, but occasionally he’ll give me a project and say, “This is an A [or B, or C] priority.”

Offer training. Training courses in organizational skills, time management and people management might help her fill this challenging role more effectively. Even if she feels she doesn’t need it, the fact that you offer it will let her know that you value the role she plays in your ministry.

Ask for her opinion and listen to her feedback. She might not feel comfortable about freely sharing her opinions and observations with you unless you ask her, but chances are she will have some insights from a different perspective that will be very valuable to you.

Schedule a weekly meeting with just the two of you and make it a priority. Face-to-face, uninterrupted time with you is critical to her. My advice is to have these meetings on the first day of the week so you can go over your calendar together. Make these meetings a priority; unless there’s a crisis, don’t bump them to schedule other meetings in that time slot.

Show her your appreciation for a job well done occasionally. Sounds like a no-brainer, but you are busy and it’s easy to begin to take what she does for you for granted.

Let her be a manager if possible. Give her the authority and responsibility to fulfill a management role, and confirm this responsibility in her job description. This is another way to elevate her role in the eyes of the staff and ministry leaders. At my church, I am the overseer of the worship support ministry usher/greeter, communion, baptism, information, and Connection Center teams.

It is important to remember that assistants can’t read minds. Enough said here.

Don’t loan her out. Your assistant is your assistant. Be careful about offering her services to other people – soon she will not have time for her main responsibilities, or will have a difficult time prioritizing her work. Everyone wants to be a team player. If you need her to do something for someone else, talk to her first; ask her what’s on her plate and whether she feels she has the time to do it.

Allow her some flexibility with her work schedule. Understand that her family comes first and don’t give her a hard time if she needs to be off. Just knowing that I can take time off during the week if I need to without upsetting my boss makes me want to work harder for him.

Submitted by Russ Olmon, President of Ministry Advantage, and Deb Mertin, certified Ministry Advantage coach.