Mike Russell

Are “assistants” no longer needed?

It all depends on the assistant role.

A Wall Street Journal article “Executives Lose a Coveted Status Symbol—Their Assistants” suggests that the age of assistant might be over.

If the role is merely a status symbol or “perk,” and that’s how the person in the role if viewed, well, then the business need was never there in the beginning. Other than maybe recruiting. And calling a person a status symbol or perk says a lot about the culture of the company.

And if the role is viewed as just a cost, there was also a problem in the first place.

If the role is substantive and meaningful, there is still a need.

From my experience, a good assistant provides enough value to justify both the assistant position and magnify my value to the company … a 1 + 1 = 3 type of thing. Ideally, the assistant has strengths in areas where I am not strong. The assistant takes care of things that need to be done, that don’t require me in particular, and allow me to be of higher value.

Also, assistants are also typically regarded as only for executives or other top leaders.

Not so!

An economic argument can be made for other roles to have assistants as well.

For instance, assume the company has a top-level programmer that is paid $200K/year (not unusual and not even counting benefits, and could be way higher). Would I want that person to do tasks easily done by say, a $50K/year person? No way. First, the $200K person should be doing $200K-level tasks. Doing $50K tasks means getting less return on that pay investment. Second, the more $50K tasks the $200K person does, the less focus/flow on $200K tasks. This further reduces the return of the $200K person investment.

Assistants aren’t “old school” or relics of the past … thinking of them in terms of status and just “overhead” is of the past.

• If the titles are getting in the way, change them.
• If you have an assistant and haven’t established their economic value to the company (and you), do it NOW.
• If you are an assistant and don’t know your economic value to the company, work on it now. Make sure it is reflected in your job description, any performance management measures, etc.

If you can show a positive ROI then eliminating the assistant role actually worsens the company financial position. The opposite of perception.

Don’t disregard the economic realities in order to cater to wrong perceptions … and reduce your own value in the process.

What are the things you should be doing as a leader or manager that are specific to your role?

That is your highest value work in that role.

If you are a leader, then it’s normally leading. If a manager, then managing.

Make sure that work is taken care of every day.

Doing work others should be doing reduces your value if

1. That work crowds out leading and managing …
2. You shouldn’t be doing that work in the first place …

Make sure every day you also aren’t doing the wrong work.

Sometimes it helps to have another perspective to help frame value vs. non or low value work … a good coach can help with that, and also providing some “safe” accountability if needed for making changes.

Getting coaching isn’t a business failure … failure to get coaching when needed is a business failure.

What is the first priority of leaders/managers?

Leading and managing, not other “work” …

Surprisingly, some research indicates about half of all those leaders/managers with “people responsibilities” do not want to “manage” other people! Think about that and the implications for a moment …

For those who do, leading/managing seems to often fall into the “important but not urgent” category … meaning it usually gets pushed off continually until something bad happens or corrective instruction is needed.

Some of the remedy is to think “small increments” and frequently rather than “all at once” and infrequently. The latter typically becomes a once-a-year (or maybe twice) performance review that’s both revelation (of evaluator thoughts) and evaluation.

Small increments and frequently also doesn’t need super complex or difficult frameworks … reducing further the hurdle to “getting it done.”

What is a small, simple thing you can do right away to get started on improvement?

Helping others in their “people management”?

We have a simple framework you can use … contact us if you’d like it.

Small business doesn’t mean the owner by themselves … businesses with up to 249 employees make up almost 90% of the U.S. businesses.

Here’s the thing:

The need for “leadership” (or “management” if you prefer*) begins with employee number 1 … or employee 2 if number 1 is the founder :-).

Whether someone is actually leading or managing is another thing.

Growth in sales, number of employees, and other factors can only be supported so long by a weak leadership base.

One way to think about it is business functions as the limbs of the business org chart “tree” and leadership as the trunk. Weak trunk and lots of growth off the trunk = trunk cracks and tree falls over.

Strong employees and appropriate autonomy are great and can facilitate faster growth; however, there still needs to be some level of leadership even in a “flat” company.

As you grow, don’t neglect leadership development and coaching. This is an area that is truly worth an “ounce of prevention instead of a pound of cure.” And one that most founders and small business CEOs overlook or deprioritize until the pain is unbearable.

One thing that helps is including leadership development and coaching in your plans/budgets just like anything else.

 

* don’t want to get into the leadership vs. management definition battle at the moment!

Are you unknowingly contributing to social media echo chambers?

Find out how ChatGPT is making it easier than ever to spread biased content!

Important note!
? The above headline and summary below of my ChatGPT posts (and others’ comments) this week are courtesy of ChatGPT without edits ?

There has been a trend of ignoring foundational research and principles in social media echo chambers.

ChatGPT is a blender that produces content “smoothies” of unknown origin, making it difficult to identify biases. As people continue to flock to the tool for content and comments, echos will likely only get louder.

Suggestions include learning how to use ChatGPT to your advantage, using it to others’ disadvantage, knowing principles, being yourself, and using more video.

However, it’s important to remember the potential ethical issues surrounding the use of ChatGPT.

The 114-year-old story, The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, serves as a warning about becoming too dependent on non-sentient AI.

Finally, it’s crucial to consider privacy concerns when using AI tools.