Key Takeaways
- Include the executive assistant in strategy meetings
- Keep the assistant informed about important business issues
- Use the assistant as a sounding board
When David Pottruck was chief executive of Charles Schwab and it came
time to set the budget for his executive office, he barely talked with
anyone from the finance department. Instead, a vice president and a
manager of finance met monthly with Pottruck’s executive assistant,
Colleen Bagan-McGill, to exchange information on past budgets, the CEO’s
wish list and corporate estimates. Only when it got to the tough
negotiating did Pottruck step in. “Instead of David’s having a 45-minute
meeting, he just had a 10-minute meeting,” Bagan-McGill says.
Adds Pottruck, “She has the business acumen and the judgment. She would make most of the requests on my time go away.”
(Pottruck was fired from Schwab in July 2004 after revenues and the
stock price fell. He now runs a small, San Francisco-based private
equity firm called Red Eagle Ventures, with Bagan-McGill as chief
administrative officer.)
Theoretically, CEOs know that the traditional secretary of the “Mad
Men” era is as obsolete as the Dictaphone and the three-martini lunch.
Chief executives today don’t need to dictate letters because they write
their own e-mail. They’ve renamed their secretaries “executive
assistants” and armed them with computers.
As innovative CEOs like Pottruck have discovered, EAs can do much
more to help them perform effectively, beyond simply digitizing what
used to be paper tasks. Modern EAs are conducting corporate research,
providing advice on community outreach and even subbing for their bosses
at meetings. “Executives need to see them not just as support, but as
real business partners,” says Ana Dutra, CEO of Korn/Ferry Leadership
and Talent Consulting, the subsidiary of executive recruiter Korn/Ferry
that handles corporate governance and management and is a $93 million
business on its own.
A Spy at Meetings
One of the most dramatic changes is that EAs are starting to attend
important corporate meetings. For instance, Dutra has brought her EA,
Linda Dziubala, with her to the firm’s annual, two-day global leadership
meeting for the past three years, joining the chief financial officer,
the chief operating officer, the four regional heads and eight other
managers. Both women say that these sessions, along with Dutra’s
explanations of her priorities and strategy, help Dziubala in juggling
the CEO’s schedule.
“If I know we’re trying to work more closely with [the Korn/Ferry
search division],” Dziubala says, “those are appointments I would book
without checking with Ana.” Dutra estimates that her assistant’s
independence and knowledge reduce the time she has to spend on
back-and-forth checking by about one-fifth.
Executive assistants might even do a little corporate espionage
around the table. “If I’m engaged in the meeting, and I’m thinking about
what I’m talking about,” Pottruck says, “she’s watching everyone’s
behavior. She can see who’s really bought into the ideas and who is just
checking their BlackBerry?”
The Public Face
For less-crucial meetings, particularly community events, the CEO may
not need to show up at all. When neither the director of a particular
library project at the Carnegie Corporation nor Carnegie president
Vartan Gregorian could attend a two-day meeting of a library consortium
in Washington, D.C. two years ago, Dr. Gregorian sent Jeanne D’Onofrio,
his recently promoted EA. (More proof of the EA’s increased importance:
Gregorian urged D’Onofrio to get a master’s degree in public
administration and then promoted her to chief of staff and operations.)
Bagan-McGill gave tours of the Schwab offices and attended monthly
meetings with a San Francisco public school volunteer partnership that
the company sponsored. For about 10 years, she says, she sat at the
corporate table for the group’s annual lunch, along with executive
vice-presidents and senior vice-presidents from Schwab. That’s probably
two hours per luncheon freed up from Pottruck’s schedule, she points
out.
“A [traditional] secretary doesn’t maybe have the social graces to be
in a large corporate situation, or they can’t speak broadly about the
company,” adds Bagan-McGill, who was promoted twice in light of her
added responsibilities.
Research and Advice
If old-fashioned CEOs used to ask their secretaries for advice on
birthday gifts, today the assistants give advice on business issues.
Dziubala doesn’t just attend the Korn/Ferry leadership meetings;
sometimes she speaks up. Because her EA used to work on the search side
of the company, Dutra says, “A couple of times she actually brought to
the table the viewpoint of the other line of business, and that was
invaluable, helping us to understand how our search partners look at the
information we put in the shared system.”
Gregorian, at Carnegie, appointed D’Onofrio to the six-member search
committee—along with four vice-presidents and the IT director—to hire a
new HR director four years ago, while she was still his EA. “I expected
that she would use her deep knowledge of the corporation and its needs
and culture to identify candidates,” Gregorian says. During the process,
he and his EA conferred regularly.
Whenever a new member joins one of Genentech CEO Ian T. Clark’s
outside boards, his EA, Aggie Pagnillo, researches that person’s
background online. Bagan-McGill found a speechwriter for Pottruck and
also pointed out the importance of buying a corporate box when the San
Francisco Giants built their new ballpark in 2000.
An Assistant for the Assistant
The EA job at larger companies has gotten so complex that some EAs
may even have their own assistants for old-style secretarial tasks.
Pagnillo’s assistant at Genentech orders supplies and arranges catering,
freeing up Pagnillo to take on more advanced work like organizing and
editing the PowerPoints for sales presentations. At Schwab, Bagan-McGill
oversaw three lower-level EAs, each of whom worked different shifts in
Pottruck’s nearly 24-hour day. When the CEO travels, the second-tier
assistant will keep the office running while the primary EA flies with
the boss.
“Anything that can be delegated so that the executive assistant can
focus on the CEO’s needs saves the CEO time,” says Sheila W. Wellington,
clinical professor of management and organizations at New York
University’s Stern School of Business.
For all the changes in the assistant’s role, that’s one priority that hasn’t changed.
At Small Companies, Everyone’s a Manager
Everyone does double-duty at small companies, so it’s no surprise
that these executive assistants may have particularly complex
responsibilities. “The person is going to be cross-functionally
talented,” says Leni Miller, president of EASearch, a consulting firm
based in Sausalito, California that specializes in placing top-level
executive assistants. “She has some good bookkeeping skills, some good
tech skills, but she also has a really good overview of how the whole
company needs to work together.”
As executive assistant to Lucinda Lee Katz, head of the Marin Country
Day School in Corte Madera, California, a $19 million educational
business with 560 students, Susan Walker manages her boss’s calendar
while also supervising the receptionist and office/facilities manager,
organizing the annual graduation ceremony and subbing for Katz at
meetings to plan the academic year. When the school undertook a major
expansion, she even chose the furniture.
Before working for CEO Ian T. Clark at Genentech, Aggie Pagnillo was
the executive assistant to the CEO of a small venture capital firm in
Silicon Valley. One minute she was discussing space needs with a rental
agent; the next, she was showing the IT guy what was wrong with the
firm’s computer servers.
Just as some executives work better in a big company where their
responsibilities are siloed, so do some executive assistants, and a CEO
needs to make sure the person matches the job. Pagnillo, for one, says,
“I was grateful when I came to Genentech that I wore just one hat.”
The Skills that CEOs Seek
When Ana Dutra came to Korn/Ferry four years ago and needed an
executive assistant, she knew immediately that Linda Dziubala was the
right person for her. “The first thing Linda did was something I would
have done,” Dutra explains. “She said, ‘Let’s go out and have coffee and
talk about your expectations about the job.’”
Indeed, most CEOs are looking for just that kind of initiative when
they hire EASearch to find an executive assistant, says Leni Miller,
president of the San Francisco-area consulting firm. In her list of the
top 21 traits of senior-level EAs, “proactive focus on support” comes
first.
Former Charles Schwab Corp. CEO David Pottruck lists three key
criteria: “interpersonal skills, efficiency and work ethic,” including a
willingness to be available to him 24/7 the same way he’s available to
clients. For his part, Carnegie Corp. president Vartan Gregorian says:
“Most important is the EA’s ability to understand and anticipate the
needs of the CEO.” Other crucial attributes are organizational ability,
an awareness of world events and “mutual respect.”
EASearch’s list has a mix of specific qualities, such as “exceptional
organizational skills,” the ability to utilize new technology,
“knowledge of cultural differences” around the world and good
communication skills.
Greater Glory: Eight Executive Assistants-Turned-Middle Managers
For ambitious executive assistants, the ultimate role model is
Colleen Barrett, who started as the legal secretary to Herb Kelleher
(then a Texas lawyer), followed him when he co-founded Southwest
Airlines in 1971, and ultimately rose up the corporate ladder on her own
to become the airline’s president until she retired in 2008. While no
other EA has achieved such heights—and not everyone wants to—others have
been promoted to middle management in recent years. Among them:
- Colleen Bagan-McGill, Charles Schwab Corp., director of corporate
administration in the executive offices (managed a staff of 12 including
clerical, reception, kitchen and protective services)
- Brady Colby, Masons of California, director of administration and
board governance (identifying key issues for the service organization’s
board, acting as liaison to the executive staff and following governance
issues)
- Jeanne D’Onofrio, Carnegie Corp., chief of staff and operations (manages office services and the president’s office)
- Jean Francese, Engine Yard, vice president of administrative
services (oversees facilities, office management, IT, and
administration)
- Debbie Gross, Cisco Systems, chief executive assistant and guest
lecturer at the University of California at Santa Cruz extension program
(oversees 1,000 global administrative assistants and teaches an
administrative training program)
- Christina Restivo, Sanders Capital, office administrator (oversees
office operations, negotiates with vendors and assists with client
liaison and HR)
- Loretta Sophocleous, TIAA-CREF, director of executive office
operations (acts as chief of staff, mentors the EAs of all of the CEO’s
direct reports)
- Susan Walker, Marin Country Day School, director of head of school’s
office and board relations (supervises two people, organizes the annual
graduation ceremony and is a member of the nine-person administration
team)
Chief Executive