I recently surveyed Leader Assistants of the world to ask them a few questions about their careers and experiences with executives.
In this episode, I share the first batch of responses received – some good, some bad, some ugly. I hope listening to what these executives said to their assistants reminds you that life is too short to work in a toxic environment – and that working for amazing executives and teams is something to be grateful for.
Here are the questions covered in this episode:
- What’s the WORST thing an executive (or colleague) has said to you?
- What’s the NICEST thing an executive (or colleague) has said to you?
Here’s the link to the survey if you’d like to anonymously share your experience for a future episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast.
SPECIAL GUEST NOTE
A huge thank you to my good friend Kernal Jay (on the left in the picture below) for helping out with this episode. His talented reading of the submissions from assistants stirred up a lot of different emotions for me, and I know it will be powerful for you as well. Not to mention, it was a lot of fun to produce and felt good to mix things up on the podcast. 🙂
THE LEADER ASSISTANT PODCAST IS PRESENTED BY GOODY
A special thanks to my sponsor, Goody!
If you send business gifts to employees, clients or sales prospects, Goody is a game changer. You can send one gift or hundreds at the same time, without ever worrying about shipping details. With Goody, your gift recipients provide all their shipping info, and they can even swap out your gift for another option if they prefer. It’s free to start gifting and you get a $20 credit when you sign up. Oh and if you mention you heard about Goody on The Leader Assistant Podcast, Goody will add an extra $10 credit to your account.
Go here to start gifting today!
THE LEADER ASSISTANT PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP
To learn more about how you can join the now 200+ growth-minded Leader Assistants, check out our Leader Assistant Premium Membership for ongoing training, coaching, and community.
THE LEADER ASSISTANT BOOK
Download the first 3 chapters of The Leader Assistant: Four Pillars of Game-Changing Assistant for FREE here or buy it on Amazon or Audible.
LEADER ASSISTANT LIVE EVENTS
Check out our constantly updated schedule of events for admins and assistants at LeaderAssistantLive.com. Including our all-day, online leadership workshop at leaderassistantlive.com/workshop.
JOIN THE FREE COMMUNITY
Join the Leader Assistant Global Community here, or the Facebook Group here for bonus content and to network with other assistants who are committed to becoming leaders!
SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to The Leader Assistant Podcast so you don’t miss new episodes!
You can find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora, and Stitcher.
Join my email list here if you want to get an email when a new episode goes live.
LEAVE A REVIEW
If you’re enjoying the podcast, please take 2 minutes to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Each review helps me stay motivated to keep the show going!
—
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1 0:00
You’re listening to The Leader Assistant Podcast with your host. Here’s your host Jeremy Burrows.
Podcast Intro 0:12
The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident game changing leader assistants.
Jeremy Burrows 0:22
Hey friends, it’s your host, Jeremy Burrows. And I just wanted to let you know a little bit about today’s sponsor. The Leader Assistant Podcast is brought to you by goody with employee burnout at all time highs it’s so important to make your team feel appreciated and recognized. With goody you can connect your HR system and automatically send gifts for employees birthdays and work anniversaries. Talk about automating before your role is automated. It’s a modern hands free way to show your team members how much you appreciate them. Goody is free to start gifting and you can get a $20 credit when you sign up. Be sure to mention The Leader Assistant Podcast and goody will add an extra $10 credit to your account. Go to leaderassistant.com/goody to give goody a try. Hey friends, thanks for tuning into The Leader Assistant Podcast. To start off today’s unique episode, I thought I would share a couple of Amazon reviews of my book The leader assistant, four pillars of a confident game changing assistant. And if you don’t have a copy, you can grab yours at Amazon.leaderassistant.com. And if you already have a copy, or you’ve listened to the audiobook, read the digital ebook or the paperback, hardcover all the different versions, and you’ve enjoyed it, I would really appreciate leaving a review on Amazon and a rating on Amazon. I’ve got a quick shortcut URL to get you to the page to leave a review for the book. So if you go to review.leaderassistant.com That’s review.leaderassistant.com. It’ll take you straight to the page on Amazon, you just sign into your Amazon account and leave a rating and a review for the book. I’d really really appreciate it. Oh, and if you leave a review, who knows I might read it on the podcast someday. You’ll notice a new voice in this episode. It’s my good friend Kernal Jay. We have been friends for a long time. And we had a blast recording this episode. And I’m going to feature him in a few different episodes coming up. But I decided to have a little bit of fun with the reviews and reading of them. Kernal has some different voices that he’s going to use to mix it up. And yeah, it’s gonna be entertaining. So I hope you enjoy it. The first review is five out of five stars. And it’s from Demi. Thanks for the review, Demi.
Speaker 1 2:59
I’m an aide to multiple directors. And let me tell you, you need to read this book. If you’re going to read one book this year, make it this book. This one is five out of five stars from Jennifer. I’ve been an assistant for many years, and I’ve learned so many great things in this book. I will keep it handy as a resource going forward. This one’s from Nicole three out of five stars. He got so windy at the end that it was hard to finish. The next book review of the leader assistant is a two out of five stars and comes from someone named Kindle customer. Hey, Kindle, I hope life is treating you well.
Speaker 4 3:38
I’m afraid I can’t agree with the majority of this book. It seems quite superficial and lacks depth. If you remove all the fluff, it can be a good blog post but not enough for a book.
Jeremy Burrows 3:49
All right, then. Well, I hope you enjoyed the reviews of my book, the leader assistant, read by my friend, Kernal Jay. And I hope you had some fun with that as I did. It’s always good to not take things personally or take yourself too seriously and make fun of yourself. And I enjoyed having my buddy Kernal Jay read those reviews. So this episode is all about what assistants hear from their executives, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. So I had a chance to gather submissions via an anonymous survey to hear what executives say to assistants and ask a bunch of different questions. And so I figured I would spread out the answers for the different questions for a variety of episodes here over the next couple months and give us something to really think about as we hear the awful things that executives say to assistants but also be encouraged as we hear the amazing things that other executives say to assistants so again And my friend, Colonel Jay is going to read these responses as if he is the executives and he’s going to use some different fun voices. And the two questions that I am going to focus on answers from the survey on this episode. Our first, what is the worst thing an executive or colleague has said to you. And the second one is what’s the nicest thing an executive or colleague has said to you. So I’m going to start with the negative, worst bad, ugly stuff first. And then we’ll end on a positive note. And as you’re listening to these really interesting things that and often sad things that executives have said to and terrible things to be, to be frank, that executives had said to assistants who submitted the survey, just remember that life’s too short to work for a toxic executive. Life is too short to work for an environment and culture and company that, that allows the treatment of assistants to be like this. So I just wanted to encourage you if you hear some of these statements, and you think that’s what my executive has said, or that’s what the team that I work with, that’s how they talk to assistants, be encouraged that there are other environments out there and other options for you. And you’ll hear those when you hear the positive things that other executives have said. So I hope you really are stirred emotionally in different ways. And that this is an encouragement and a reminder, to really strive to seek cultures and environments and executives who value and respect the assistant role. Alright, so the first one is, what’s the worst thing an executive has said to you?
Speaker 1 6:53
Did you ever think of going to college, your opinion means nothing to me. You need to lose weight and flirt a bit more with some of the management. If you’re a pig, a bottle of crystals, wait a few in my jet for when maybe I take you to dinner a night in Paris. You don’t deserve the money you make. You’re only in a grow up. Stop doing too much. It makes me look bad.
Unknown Speaker 7:19
You’re just a secretary.
Speaker 1 7:22
I don’t pay you for your opinion. You are a waste of space and salary. Listen, anyone could do your job? Why would they be going to you to ask that they should be going to one of the leaders.
Jeremy Burrows 7:38
Well, that was probably very difficult to listen to, for some of you, either made you angry, like it does make me angry, made you sad because you are in an environment where your executive has said things like that to you recently, maybe even this week. So hang in there. Remember that you are a valuable member of the team. And you know, even more importantly, you’re a valuable human being no matter what your executive says about you, or to you or to others behind your back. None of that matters when it comes to your value as a human being. All right, let’s jump into the positive side of what executives say to assistants. So the next question and the next responses from the anonymous survey, which by the way, I will link to in the show notes so that you can fill it out if you’d like to contribute to a future episode. Those can be found at leader asst.com/ 180. But the next question is what’s the nicest thing and executive or colleague has said to you?
Unknown Speaker 8:50
You saved my business. Thank you. You should be the one sitting in the corner office.
Speaker 4 8:58
I never worry about how you’ll represent me my office or the company.
Speaker 1 9:04
I couldn’t do this without you. You are my right hand person. And I respect and admire you not only for the work you do, but for the person you are
Speaker 4 9:15
really glad you’re here. You are a part of the executive team and you deserve to be treated like it.
Speaker 1 9:23
I didn’t know how much I needed you. You’ve made such a difference in two weeks. Even my wife said I’m more pleasant when I get home. Thank you. We could not do this without your leadership and you are irreplaceable. You’re the one employee I do not have to worry about because you get your job done. And listen, you make everyone and everything around me better because of who you are. You are capable, loved worthy, important kind and strong and I thank you.
Jeremy Burrows 9:56
Okay, that one was really good. Let’s listen to that one again. Take it away kertel
Speaker 1 10:01
You are capable, loved worthy, important, kind and strong. And this place could not run without you. And you are fearless and my rock.
Jeremy Burrows 10:13
Wow, some good stuff there. Thanks again to my friend, Colonel J for reading all of those submissions from assistants all over the world, the anonymous survey if you want to fill it out, and you know it’s all anonymous, and we can read your responses in a future episode, go to the show notes at leader assistant.com/ 180. Leader assistant that comm slash 180 to check out the show notes which include a link to the anonymous survey if you want to contribute for future episodes. So I hope this was encouraging at least the last part, especially to hear that there are lots of executives out there that really respect and value assistance. And some of you are currently working with executives like that. So never take it for granted. And keep leading well. And I hope you enjoyed this episode and we will talk to you next time.
Speaker 4 11:25
If you’re enjoying the show, please leave a review and rating on Apple podcasts.
Unknown Speaker 11:29
Goburrows.com
