Emily Burley is President of Executive Leadership Support (ELS), headquartered in Chicago, IL. ELS puts on amazing events for assistants, and I’m excited to share this episode with you.
Emily talks about why she started ELS and gives us an inside look at the many ways they help assistants around the world. She also shares practical tips on how to ask for professional development or training dollars, and outlines what you should include in your value proposition when asking your executive.
We also chat about what causes burnout, how to prevent it, and how to change the relationship with an executive who doesn’t respect you.
Enjoy our conversation!
P.S. – I’ve had the honor of leading some ELSx webinars, and I’m excited to be a contributor at the ELS Chicago event in January! I’d love to meet you there!
NOTE: Use the promo code ASSISTANTSLEAD to register for any ELS Forum event before Nov 30, you’ll get $150 OFF.
LEADERSHIP QUOTE
If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.
– Unknown
CONNECT WITH EMILY AND ELS
About Emily Burley
Emily Burley is the President of Executive Leadership Support (ELS), a community that provides unique professional development experiences for executive assistants who support the world’s most influential leaders. Emily created ELS with a singular mission: To empower and educate top executive assistants, and support them in achieving greatness in their career. In just three years since launching, ELS has delivered high-value programming to thousands of top-performing admin professionals spanning myriad industries and markets world-wide.
Before breaking out on her own with ELS, Emily spent 10 years honing expertise in professional development and scaling a start-up business at Q1 Productions. As one of the first employees at Q1, Emily played an integral role in building the company into today’s industry-leader in executive education conferences and webinars in the healthcare space.
A purpose-driven and creative entrepreneur at heart, Emily is fueled by exploring new and innovative ways to connect and help people achieve their potential. Problem solving, experimentation and creating exceptional experiences are the cornerstones of both her passion and her success.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Emily Burley 0:00
I’m Emily Burley and today’s leadership quote comes from an unknown author. If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.
Podcast Intro 0:12
The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become irreplaceable, Game Changing leader assistance.
Jeremy Burrows 0:22
You’re listening to Episode 34. Thank you so much for listening. Oh, I’m old, and use your host my dada. Hey, friends, welcome to episode 34. In case you have not joined us on our Facebook group, go to Facebook.leaderassistant.com and say hello and connect with hundreds of other assistants from around the world. I’ve got a great conversation with Emily Burley president of Executive Leadership Support or ELS Today, in just a few years since launching ELS has delivered high value programming to 1000s of top performing Administrative Professionals in a variety of industries and markets worldwide. If you have not heard of ELS, check out their website at ELSforum.com. And I really want to specifically invite you to check out their events at ELSforum.com/events. I am personally going to be participating in an event of theirs coming soon. So check out the show notes at leaderassistant.com/34 for some specifics on the timing and maybe even a discount code for that. But yeah, check out elsforum.com/events. Register for an event in a city near you. It will definitely be worth your time. All right, let’s jump into Episode 34. Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in to The Leader Assistant Podcast. It’s your host, Jeremy Burrows. And today I’m excited to be speaking with the president of Executive Leadership Support or ELS, Emily Burley Emily, how’s it going?
Emily Burley 2:08
It’s going Great. Jeremy, thank you so much for having me.
Jeremy Burrows 2:11
Yeah, I’m excited to dive in and learn more about you. So tell us maybe go back a little ways and tell us about your very first job, what it was, and then maybe what you learned from that job that you still use today.
Emily Burley 2:25
So my first job was when I was 16. And I actually worked at the gap. It was a seasonal position. It was like holiday. And I was hired to just work in the fitting rooms for like maybe two or three months. And it was great. I actually loved it. I’m someone that really enjoys chatting with people and connecting with people. And I also really like clothes and fashion. So it was a perfect job for me even at 16. And what’s interesting, and I didn’t realize that at the time, of course. But I you know, in hindsight, I can see it now is that if you find yourself in a position where you’re doing something that you have passion and purpose in and you’re able to work and find interest in what you’re doing, then it doesn’t feel as much like work it can it still will feel like work some days, right? Not every single day is going to be amazing. But in general, I look back on that time. And I absolutely loved working in the dressing rooms a gap. And so obviously now it’s much different. But I was a lesson learned in the early ages. My first position.
Jeremy Burrows 3:43
That’s awesome. So what was kind of your next step in career progression to where you are today with running a successful company of an ELS
Emily Burley 3:56
prior to starting ELS. I spent 10 years of my career producing executive education conferences. And during that time, I worked with hundreds I mean, even possibly 1000s of executive assistants. And during that time, I began to wonder what were the professional development opportunities for executive assistants? What’s that landscape look like? Where did they get their training? Where did they go to Network? And what type of communities where they are to support executive assistant because this is a really incredible group of professionals that I was working with hand in hand on their executives attending conferences. And from this idea and from this thought, came executive leadership support now known as ELS.
Jeremy Burrows 4:48
There’s a difference between having the idea and having this thought of Oh, it’s this somebody should do this. What was it that kind of propelled you from the idea to executing in actually You starting the organization?
Emily Burley 5:04
Well, you know, initially, we initially I was put on a project to start managing and producing conferences for executive assistant. And we were running that program, very similar to how we were running conferences for executives. And it was a complete fail. It was very clear that assistance required a completely different experience than executives did. And so what I actually did at the time was pitch the CEO of QM productions, which was the company I was working for, at the time, on this idea for ELS, and with his full support and his funding, essentially, we hit the ground running on ELS. And we were able to break it out into its own organization, and its own unique experience completely separate from that of q1 or another organization.
Jeremy Burrows 6:04
So what was the what are some of the differences between, you know, what executives need or what in those experiences and then what assistants want?
Emily Burley 6:16
Well, so most of the events that I was producing for executives were high level healthcare conferences, so it was very specific to whatever industry that they were in. So say you’re in medical devices, and you were focused on regulatory, they’re interested in hearing from the FDA, they’re interested in hearing from regulators, it is high level, it is extremely focused in it, for lack of better words, words, it’s very dry. And I mean, not for those that are, you know, that’s their profession. And that’s what they’re finding passion and purpose in, but it was a completely different discussion. For assistance, it’s much the conversation is totally different. The entire experience around who needs to be speaking what they need to be speaking about how we need to make the attendees feel, when they’re there, what type of community we need to build for the assistance for executives, when they attend an event. It’s like one of 10, maybe throughout the year, maybe even more, depending on the executive, they’re invited to conferences, every day. assistance, the assistance that we’re seeing that are attending the ELS forum, it’s first time training. For the majority of them, they’ve never been to a conference, they’ve never had training, they’ve never had an opportunity to network with assistants outside of their organizations. So it’s a it’s a totally different experience in every way. Not only that, but most of the assistants are just by the nature of the role. It’s dominated by women. And so that alone is a different experience versus executives that are often dominated by men by men. So it’s all around, it’s a completely different beast, and it’s, for lack of better words. It’s a lot more fun to work with executive assistant, that executives, if I can be completely honest with you,
Jeremy Burrows 8:27
hey, I’m an assistant. I’m okay with that comment. Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about the different kind of mediums that ELS has. So you’ve got ELS forums, which I believe are the in person events, and then the ELS X webinars. Is that right? For the online training?
Emily Burley 8:50
We do? Yes. And we just launched a pilot program, which we’ll be experimenting with for the next four months around ELS inside, and that is an in house training product as well. So we have three different products.
Jeremy Burrows 9:08
Awesome. And then what do you try to what’s kind of a consistent thread throughout those products? And then maybe give an example of the kind of context in each one for some specific like, okay, and the, the forums, we really try to do this and in the ELS x, we really try to do this. Does that make sense?
Emily Burley 9:32
Yeah, no. So the forum’s are really a professional development course that brings together executive assistants that are really supporting the most influential leaders in a community with the mission to educate and empower them in a two day educational course. So that is the opportunity for For assistants to come in to network with other assistants in person and to get hands on training over the course of two days, ELS X is a completely free webinar series that we host, we host to a month. And we have assistants from all over the world that participate on our ELS x, which is a webinar series. And and then we also post them on our blog for those that aren’t able to attend the timing of the webinar. And then ELS inside. Like I mentioned, Jeremy, it’s just in its pilot program. But it’s essentially an onsite training course. So we were receiving an overwhelming request for in house training, meaning assistance, organizations were reaching out to us and asking, Hey, we have 10 2040 100 EAS in our organization. And we’d like to do some training on site, we’d like to do some team building, we’d like to do some hard skills, soft skills. You name it, they’re interested in having trainers, expert facilitators, expert speakers come in house and deliver the training, tailored specifically to the needs of their organization. And so this is something that we’re we’re testing out over the next four months. And I’m excited to see how it goes.
Jeremy Burrows 11:33
Awesome, that’s exciting. So what’s kind of maybe the one sentence version of what you are all about at ELS?
Emily Burley 11:44
Well, our mission is to educate and empower assistants to achieve greatness in their career. That is our mission.
Jeremy Burrows 11:53
Awesome. So most of the listeners are assistants. And so a lot of them are probably thinking, you know, my company’s never gonna pay for me to go to a training. And because of that, I’m probably never gonna get to go. Because it’s really, you know, some of these trainings, some of these events can be expensive. And, you know, I don’t have the money for that, and my company is not going to pay, how would you kind of encourage and maybe challenge assistants listening who just really feel like that’s impossible to, or hopeless for them to get their executive to pay for them to go to an event like this?
Emily Burley 12:32
Yes, so I love this question, because I am pretty passionate about it. So I’m going to go through a list of things that I would like for all the listeners that are that are feeling the way that you just described to know, the first thing is, is that it is always no until you ask the answer is no. Unless you’ve asked, you have nothing to lose by asking, you cannot get fired for taking initiative, and asking to better yourself and asking for professional development dollars. Think about that. People are afraid to ask to take a course or to attend a conference. I mean, that’s silly. It’s silly, because you’re you’re literally asking to better yourself, you’re taking your career so seriously, that you’re looking to invest in yourself, you should not ever be afraid to ask for professional development dollars. However, there is a way to ask. And I think kind of strolling into your one on one, with your executive and casually asking for X amount of dollars is probably not the approach. So I’d like to go through a few things that I think will really help assistants. Be prepared with a value proposition, you know, here are the things that you need to outline for your executive to really help them understand what the value proposition if you’re attending an event or a training course. So the first thing is is to reference your most recent review or feedback that you’ve recently received. Okay, so think about feedback that you’ve received from your boss, either in your review or just in conversation, tie the learning objectives of the conference, or the course into the areas that you need to improve. So let’s say for example, you receive feedback that you need to improve upon your project management skills, or you need to become quicker and more savvy with technology, leadership skills, communication, time management, whatever it is. might be tied to areas that you’ve already been told you need to improve upon, into the value prop, find a course find a conference, whatever it might be, that will help you with these untighten. The second thing is, is to demonstrate how the Conference of the course is going to help those that you support. So what’s in it for them? What are the executives going to gain by you going to this event? What’s in it for them? Ultimately, how are you going to be able to support them better and make them more successful? Again, look at the learning objectives of the conference or the course, and look for opportunities of Oh, yeah, this is how I’m going to make them more successful. You know, the pain points, you know, the frustrations around the office, you know, what your executives are, you should know what your executives career goals are. What will you gain at this event that’s going to help you help them? The next thing is, is to ask them what the budget looks like. So let’s say they’re like, no, no, this is $2,000. There’s no way. Okay. So what does the budget look like? Like? Is there a budget for training? What will it look like? How much are they willing to spend? So say, the event that you’re looking to go to is $2,000. And your executives like, well, the budget looks like 1000? Well, at least now, you know, looks like $1,000. So you have some options here. Maybe you find a course that is within the budget. Maybe you subsidize the difference? Or maybe you go to a different department, training and development and HR, they have huge budgets? Do they have extra budget to throw at your training? How can how can you find extra dollars to put towards the training? Does your organization have tuition reimbursement programs? What are the policies around that we offer? At our course, and I know a lot of other courses as well, for certificates of attendance, and different certification points, often those qualifies for tuition reimbursement. Another thing to do is to make sure that you’re planning ahead for the, for the next year. So maybe it’s a no, this year, maybe there’s zero budget for you to attend this year, and you just can’t swing it, that’s fine. Find an event or training course, a conference, whatever it is that you want to go to next year, and put it in the budget. Now, another thing, Jeremy that I would encourage all assistants to do is to make sure to negotiate professional development into your employee agreement. If you are looking to take a new role, take on a new job, or a new role within your current organization, whatever your situation might be, negotiate it in to your agreement, if you’re looking to negotiate a raise, this is a great way this is a perfect time to negotiate it. And you could do it one of two ways you could negotiate it, that you have X amount of dollars per year to spend on professional development, or that you can attend one or two different professional development courses. There’s different options. I would say lastly, and I know that you have mentioned this before as well, Jeremy is around investing in yourself. So if you’ve exhausted all of these options, and it’s really not looking like your organization is going to support your professional development. There’s always the option to pay for it yourself. And there are so many different options for training. And they they range in all different price points. Everything from free ELS X webinars and I know many other organizations have free webinars as well register for as many of those as you can, all the way up to investing in a in a in a course or a training and paying for it yourself. I mean, ultimately we see a lot of that and and that’s an option as well.
Jeremy Burrows 19:23
Yeah. Wow. That’s, that’s a lot of amazing wisdom. I feel like we could in the episode now and everybody be happy. But I don’t want to do that because I want to talk to you more. So okay, so another thing I would add is like those are those are amazing tips on just how to negotiate how to ask. But another thing that I would say is, is kind of along the lines of investing in yourself. Let’s say you spend 1500 $2,000 You go to this event in your city for example. And you meet 1520 30 other assistants that are also in your city. You never know what that network is going to turn, turn around and give back to you down the road. So you know, it’s one of those things that it’s not just investing in yourself to get better at your job currently, like, you’re also investing in growing your network. And growing your network can have huge impact on your career down the road, when you’re looking for a new job. And it could be easier to find a job because you know, a lot more people in the town in town and be exposed to opportunities that you may have never been exposed to because you’re running in the circles with other top EAS. So yeah, I think that was all great tips and just encourage anybody listening that’s really wrestled with us go through the steps that Emily outlined. And then yeah, at the end of the day, if if you’ve kind of exhausted all those options, invest in yourself.
Emily Burley 21:03
Yeah, totally agree.
Jeremy Burrows 21:06
So okay, so let’s talk a little bit about what’s the number one struggle, that assistance have that you’ve seen that come to your events and reach out to you all, what’s kind of the number one struggle that they have
Emily Burley 21:22
so many struggles. I mean, it’s an endless amount of struggles. But if I had to pick one, right now, the number one struggle that we’re hearing at ELS is around career planning and progression. So what’s next for EAS? So what do you think about it executive assistant, like, top high level executive assistant, these assistants are team leaders, they’re cross functional collaborators, they’re project managers or culture carriers, their initiative implementers I mean, there they are keeping the pulse on the entire organization. So with this evolution of the rule, titles and compensation packages have not been adjusted accordingly. Okay. And in many organizations, they have not. So where this leaves executive assistant thinking, you know, a, how do I evolve this within my organization? So that I’m actually recognized for what I’m doing? And and be, where do I go from here? What what is the road to chief of staff look like? What is the road to Executive Business Manager, executive business partner? What does that look like? There’s, it’s like a huge gray area for so many assistants, especially those in really large organizations, where it’s very bureaucratic and getting things and policies changed, can be frustrating and difficult. So, you know, what is career planning and progression for EAS today. And I think that’s top of mind for most of most top assistants today.
Jeremy Burrows 23:07
So kind of on that know, there’s kind of another this is going around, not just in this system world, but this idea of side hustle, multi, multiple streams of income, kind of thinking outside the box and being an entrepreneur, you know, you’ve you’ve got a company with nine or 10 people in office in Chicago, with a nice view, I might add, I saw, I think an Instagram picture is pretty nice view. But like, what would you say to assistants listening, that they want to try something like, you know, starting a event for assistance, or whatever, or they want to start a company or they want to start a blog or a podcast, or I know, that’s kind of the that’s kind of personal, like, you’re the CEO of you type of a thing. It’s not as much a career progression in a company. But I think that that’s kind of an interesting element that’s, that’s in the world right now that I’m excited about the opportunities. I mean, personally, I’m, I’ve got a podcast, I’ve got a blog, I got these different assistant training things I’m doing on top of my full time, you know, EA day job. But what would you say to assistants that are thinking, you know, you know, Emily took the risk and started this business and started this company. And now they’ve, you know, they’re really crushing it what I’ve got aspirations, more than just working my way up the ladder at my company.
Emily Burley 24:42
Go for it. If you can dream it, you can build it. Go for it. There are 5 million Administrative Professionals in the United States. Just under a million high level top executive assistant Since there are so many assistants, and that’s just the United States, think about the rest of the world, there is room in this space for all of us. And everybody has a different point of view. And everybody can bring something to the table, go for it. If your passion is there, if you’re feeling the fire in your heart, then go for it. I mean, it’s bring it
Jeremy Burrows 25:31
what’s maybe one tip on going for it, like the execution part, like what’s, what’s something you’ve learned as you’ve had to execute your idea and turn it into a real business that you might be able to share,
Emily Burley 25:46
you have to be willing to make sacrifices, to have your dreams become a reality. And we’ll go back to the leadership quote, Jeremy, that I mentioned in the beginning, if you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done. And that means sacrificing things. I’m a huge Rachel Hollis fan. She preaches this. And it’s changed my life. It’s it’s all about if you really want to achieve your goals, and if your goal is to start your own business, to be an entrepreneur, to create a blog, whatever it is, go for it. But be prepared to alter your life in ways you’ve never done. You have to make time it’s there’s never going to be more hours in the day. So you have to adjust your life accordingly in order to make time to achieve those goals. But if you want it bad enough, you can you can get it where there’s a will there’s a way you just have to be prepared to make those changes.
Jeremy Burrows 26:54
What’s something that you had to kind of sacrifice or, or change in order to make your dream a reality?
Emily Burley 27:02
Oh, I mean, I would say that. I mean, I wake up at 5am, every single day, every day, even on the weekends. And I have two hours before my daughter gets up to try to get as much as I can done primarily work. During that time, I never got up at 5am ever in my life before. That was something I had to start doing. Because I needed those hours. Every single day. And I you know, I do take breaks from that from time to time. But ultimately, it’s I have to get up before everybody else gets up so that I have that time. You know, and cutting back on social media from time to time is something that I have to do in order to prioritize and get my work done cutting back from social events, saying no to requests to visit with people. I mean, ultimately, sometimes other things have to take a backseat so you can prioritize in your dreams.
Jeremy Burrows 28:04
So have you ever experienced burnout?
Emily Burley 28:09
I have. Yes.
Jeremy Burrows 28:14
Tell us a little bit about that. Like what when did you wake up and say, oh, man, I burned out?
Emily Burley 28:21
I don’t know if it was in one day necessarily. It was over time. Yeah. It was over a period of time. Yeah, I definitely experienced burnout. And burnout requires, at least for me, it requires be when it happens, you have to step back. Take a deep breath and assess what is at the heart of this burnout. Because there’s different kinds of burnout, right? Am I just overworked and I need to cut back on my hours and take a vacation and you know, realign my work life balance? Or am I burned out on? Who I’m working for or the projects I’m working on? Like what is really causing the burnout? Am I not getting enough exercise? Am I not getting enough sleep? You know what is at the root cause of the burnout. And it could be different for different people. But it’s the important part is taking a step back and working through what’s actually causing the burnout. And once you’ve identified what’s causing the burnout, then you’re able to address it, then you’re able to say okay, here’s what’s causing it and here’s what I need to do to overcome it and take steps so that hopefully it doesn’t happen again.
Jeremy Burrows 29:49
So when you did burnout, what’s something that or maybe even now just what’s something you do to prevent yourself from burning out?
Emily Burley 29:58
Working out is there A exercise is a key thing for me. So I went through recently, this summer, a period of time where I wasn’t working out, I wasn’t exercising, I love running. And I was probably about a month, maybe six weeks, but had gone by that I was just like, I don’t have time, I don’t have time, I don’t have time to retire, I’m like, I just have too much to do. And I had a complete meltdown. Like I was just burnt out, like I was in a bad mood. I just had a breakdown. And then I realized, you know what I need to do, I need to go running. And I need to start incorporating that I have to make time for that at least three times a week. And it’s only been about two weeks. But so far, I’m in a better place. So for me, you know, it could be something that simple. But it could be much, it could be much bigger. But that’s an example of something where I had to step back and say what’s missing from my life right now. And there was some endorphins, and it was doing something that I really loved to doing.
Jeremy Burrows 31:06
So what what motivates you
Emily Burley 31:10
three things, I would say. The first would be creating a business that is both impactful and profitable. That is extremely motivating. It is incredibly, incredibly rewarding and motivating. When you can create a business that is changing lives, and impacting people’s careers and their lives, but yet also is profitable in a way that is supporting your life as well. And those and that of your team. That is incredibly motivating for me. And the fact that we’ve gotten a little taste of that at ELS only makes me want to do more of it. The second thing that motivates me is that when we launched ELS, I had some people in my previous career tell me that it would never work, that it was a terrible idea that it would never work. That assistance weren’t worth the time. And these are people that worked with very high level fortune 500 executives, and so their opinion of assistants was incorrect. And proving your haters wrong, for lack of better words, is such a motivator. If you ever need a little bit of motivation, think of somebody that told you you couldn’t do something and proving them wrong. At least for me. Hey, it’s pretty motivating.
Jeremy Burrows 32:56
I can relate I had my head one, one random one star review on my podcast and I was like, Alright, I see how it is. Oh, I finally I finally made it, I finally made it.
Emily Burley 33:10
Yeah, that’s like an internet troll just looking to be mean. And the third thing that motivates me honestly, is creating this business. From the ground up and, and being a mother, I think, is probably the biggest motivator. Because, you know, my children are watching and they’re seeing seeing what I’m doing. And hopefully that will leave a positive impact on them. So that I mean without question that is, you know, that is the number one motivator for me.
Jeremy Burrows 33:57
That’s awesome. So where do you see yourself? You know, in 510 years, what’s your what’s your kind of dream for you for you? Not maybe not maybe ELS too but just for you.
Emily Burley 34:10
Oh, Jeremy, I you know. Um, so, yeah, so I mean, honestly, I’m an entrepreneur at heart. And so I’m constantly thinking about ways that we can grow and scale ELS I have, you know, a plethora of ideas and my brain is constantly spinning. So I I would love to see ELS grow and for me to grow along with it, if that makes sense. Going from being a producer at a production company and at a executive education company and leading a team there to go into being an entrepreneur and you know, kind of CO founding a business was a huge jump and I have a lot a lot to learn Learn. And so when I see five year when I look five years down the road, I see myself stepping into even more of a leadership role, not only within ELS, but hopefully some additional business opportunities as well. I hope I’m doing what I’m doing now, but so much better and a little bit bigger.
Jeremy Burrows 35:24
Yeah, that’s great. What is one thing assistants should do differently?
Emily Burley 35:31
So the most common question that I get from EAS is how can they change their relationship with their executive. So for example, I get comments constantly about oh, my executive won’t give me access to their email, or they won’t let me take on bigger projects, or they treat me disrespectfully or they don’t trust me. I recently had a conversation with a friend who said something to me, that blew my mind. And she said, in your job, you either need to love it, leave it or change it. And that is the biggest piece of advice that I would give assistants. Currently, if you have tried to change your relationship with your executive, and it’s not working, it’s time to leave it. In the United States, the unemployment rate is under 4%. That is the lowest in over 50 years, there are more jobs in the US right now that can be filled. There are plenty of other high level executive assistant jobs, waiting to be filled. Do not waste your time supporting an executive that does not support you, we spend over 1/3 of our life at work. If you are not on the road to a strategic business partner partnership, it is time to leave it in supporting an executive. To me, it’s like being in a relationship. It’s not going to be rainbows and roses all the time. But some days are going to be tougher than others. But if you find yourself in a toxic situation, where you’re unhappy most days at work, you got to get out. You can change your control, you cannot change or control other people. What you see is what you get. So you can only control yourself and your choices. So choose wisely. Because I mean, ultimately life is just too short to be unhappy.
Jeremy Burrows 37:44
That’s great. Yeah, I hear that all the time. Like, well, you know, I’m in a rough spot. And my executive doesn’t respect me and this and this, and I get I get, I want him to get that it’s really hard to leave a job that you know, has you have insurance and you pay your bills and right you have a family and I get that can be a challenge. But as you mentioned, there’s so many opportunities out there. And life’s too short to stay in something that’s just just, you know, draining you day in and day out.
Emily Burley 38:16
It is it isn’t I just get the question all the time. And I don’t think assistants give themselves enough credit, you are in high demand. Don’t stick around for something that is not making you feel happy most days. If you don’t feel like a value at your organization, time to leave. Move on. This is the time to do it when the job market is this, you know, looking this good. This is the time to do it.
Jeremy Burrows 38:50
Well, let’s I really appreciate your time. I want to wrap things up and respect your time. What one last question What makes someone a leader.
Emily Burley 39:01
I think what makes somebody a leader is being able to lead
silently. So bringing out the best of those around you and producing results. In order to be a leader you don’t necessarily need a title. You don’t need to be known as the structured leader of a group.
If you can silently influence those around you and bring out the best of those around you to ultimately achieve a goal to me that’s a leader.
Jeremy Burrows 39:55
Love it. Awesome. Well, Emily, thanks again. so much for sharing your tips and wisdom and your story with everybody. Really excited to see what you all do continue to watch and participate in what you’re doing with ELS. Where can we find you online? And how can we support what you’re up to.
Speaker 1 40:18
So you can find out more about ELS at ELSforum.com. You can also find us on LinkedIn and Instagram, under ELS forum on Instagram and Executive leadership support or ELS on LinkedIn. And so you can also join our group executive support professionals on LinkedIn.
Jeremy Burrows 40:48
Awesome, and I’ll put all those links in the show notes so everybody can find it easily. And reach out and say hi, and sign up for some webinars. Maybe attend one of your events in city coming to city near you.
Emily Burley 41:03
That sounds great. Thank you so much for having me. Jeremy. This was so fun. This was great.
Jeremy Burrows 41:08
Thanks again to Emily for being on the show. And thank you for listening. Check out the show notes at leaderassistant.com/34. And don’t forget to check out the events calendar at ELSforum.com/events. Talk to you next time.
Speaker 2 41:39
Please review on Apple podcasts. Goburrows.com
