What Makes a Successful Assistant?

Are you looking to hire a new assistant? It’s a big task, and the reality is whoever you choose to work as a member of your team will influence your company, its success, and your overall productivity. For that reason, it’s important to hire someone who is a good fit, and who will be a successful part of your team. What makes a successful assistant? There are a few characteristics you’ll want in your assistant, no matter your industry or field. Keep reading to learn more about what makes a great assistant:

1. Uses Their Initiative
You’re going to want someone who’s prepared to pull the trigger and make decisions on their own, because managing someone who needs to be hand held the entire way is exhausting and often feels counter productive. During the hiring process, be sure to ask your potential assistants for examples of ways they’ve used their initiatives in prior working environments. Find someone who can give you an answer that demonstrates independence and an ability to think on their feet, both critical skills that will help ensure you have a confident and productive team member. If you’re using a recruiting agency, such as executive assistant hiring, then it may be worth mentioning to them that this is your top skill you’re looking for.

2. Strong Organization Skills
Most people who look for an assistant are wanting a little more help to buy back some time, and to have their lives feel more organized. For this reason, you’re going to want to hire someone who is organized and who prioritizes keeping things in order. This theme of organization will be in many areas of their work life – such as being able to properly organize emails, office space, and even ideally managing your calendar. I would say this is one of the areas that it’s very important that you and your potential assistant see eye-to-eye as everyone has different definitions of what is organized.

3. Willingness to Learn
As your confidence grows in your new assistant, chances are you’re going to want to give them more responsibilities and have them help out with more in your business. For this reason, I think it’s important that your new hire has a real willingness to learn. That will make them a real asset as your business grows and evolves and their responsibilities change with the growth. It may be hard to directly ask your potential assistant if they’re willing to learn – because everyone will say yes – but ask them what kind of goals they have for the coming years, and if they mention growth, learning opportunities and so on, it’s a very good sign that they’re eager to learn more and to improve their skill set, which will benefit you too.

When looking for a new assistant, be sure to check whether you think they have these skills. Hiring someone who uses their initiative, has strong organizational skills and wants to learn will ensure you have a new team member that’s going to help propel you towards success.