In my decade plus of experience as an executive assistant, I’ve come up with several tricks to a good system for setting up meetings that help me be efficient, helpful to others, and ultimately take control of my executive’s calendar.

episode 20 leader assistant podcast

In this episode, I take a break from interviews (don’t worry, the next few episodes are some great interviews with great people!) to share the following three tips to help you schedule meetings more easily.

  1. Add meeting blocks to your executive’s calendar (More in depth post on Ideal Week Templates here).
  2. Don’t let your executive schedule meetings.
  3. Don’t ask the other party to send options.
RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE
LEADERSHIP QUOTE

You manage things; You lead people.

– Grace Murray Hopper

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00.500 –> 00:00:04.860
JEREMY: Today’s leadership quote comes from Grace Murray Hopper.

00:00:05.580 –> 00:00:08.740
JEREMY: You manage things, you lead people.

00:00:09.700 –> 00:00:11.480
JEREMY: Welcome to Episode 20.

00:00:14.140 –> 00:00:21.840
<v SPEAKER_2>The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistance to become irreplaceable, game-changing leader assistants.

00:00:24.480 –> 00:00:26.200
JEREMY: Please review on iTunes.

00:00:26.820 –> 00:00:30.880
JEREMY: Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to Episode 20 of The Leader Assistant Podcast.

00:00:31.520 –> 00:00:45.560
JEREMY: I’ve had a run of about eight straight interview episodes, so I thought I would take a break and do a quick practical episode on a few tips to make scheduling meetings easy.

00:00:45.980 –> 00:00:58.660
JEREMY: Before I jump in, just a reminder to join the Facebook group at facebook.leaderassistant.com, as well as check out the 30-day Assistant Challenge at assistantchallenge.com.

00:00:58.680 –> 00:00:59.920
JEREMY: We’d love to have you join us.

00:01:00.280 –> 00:01:06.760
JEREMY: And lastly, today’s show notes can be found at leaderassistant.com forward slash 20.

00:01:07.740 –> 00:01:22.320
JEREMY: So in my years as an executive assistant, I’ve come up with three tricks to a good system for setting up meetings that allow you to be efficient, helpful, and ultimately take control of your executive’s calendar.

00:01:23.120 –> 00:01:29.800
JEREMY: So in this episode, I’m going to walk through three tips to help you schedule meetings more easily.

00:01:30.200 –> 00:01:34.540
JEREMY: The first one is to add meeting blocks to your executive’s calendar.

00:01:34.980 –> 00:01:38.520
JEREMY: The second one is to not let your executive schedule meetings.

00:01:39.020 –> 00:01:44.680
JEREMY: And the third one, don’t ask the other party to send date options.

00:01:45.240 –> 00:01:51.600
JEREMY: So before I jump into number one, have you ever thought about how you set up meetings or do you just wing it?

00:01:52.160 –> 00:01:59.540
JEREMY: The whole big picture for this episode is to encourage you to think about the system that you use for scheduling meetings.

00:01:59.840 –> 00:02:03.760
JEREMY: And if you don’t have a system, you need to get one if you want to be a leader assistant.

00:02:04.300 –> 00:02:09.440
JEREMY: So trick number one, add meeting blocks to your executive’s calendar.

00:02:09.980 –> 00:02:13.240
JEREMY: So I talk about an ideal week calendar a lot.

00:02:13.760 –> 00:02:23.500
JEREMY: It’s pretty simple concept, but I think every executive, business owner, leader, pastor, any sort, needs to know what their ideal week would look like.

00:02:24.440 –> 00:02:36.360
JEREMY: One of the biggest challenges to creating an ideal week, if you’re the assistant, is to sit your executive down and get them to tell you what they want.

00:02:36.840 –> 00:02:46.400
JEREMY: So get them to tell you, hey, I don’t want to meet on Monday mornings, or I don’t want to meet on Fridays, or I only want to do phone calls on Thursday afternoons.

00:02:46.940 –> 00:02:53.160
JEREMY: Whatever it is, one of the biggest challenges is to actually get your executive to tell you what they want.

00:02:53.200 –> 00:03:01.860
JEREMY: So what a good assistant will do is tie their executive down to a chair and ask them these questions and get answers from them.

00:03:02.440 –> 00:03:08.000
JEREMY: Maybe not that literally, but you do need to take initiative and get these answers from them.

00:03:08.460 –> 00:03:16.820
JEREMY: But you can also gauge what they like and what their rhythm should be if you’ve worked with them for a while.

00:03:17.180 –> 00:03:22.320
JEREMY: So I would encourage you to initiate that conversation and talk through their preferences.

00:03:23.060 –> 00:03:34.020
JEREMY: One of the biggest benefits to creating and sticking with an ideal week calendar is that you get to decide when you want to have meetings or when you want to schedule meetings and when you don’t.

00:03:34.240 –> 00:03:43.340
JEREMY: And so your executive can tell you, hey, these are the times I want my meetings to be scheduled, so schedule them then.

00:03:43.420 –> 00:03:50.420
JEREMY: So when you get an incoming request, you don’t have to just kind of throw it in wherever.

00:03:50.900 –> 00:03:55.180
JEREMY: You have these predetermined slots to place those meetings in.

00:03:55.700 –> 00:03:59.360
JEREMY: So I wrote more about this process on my blog.

00:03:59.700 –> 00:04:06.340
JEREMY: You can check out the show notes at leaderassistant.com/20 for a link to that.

00:04:06.860 –> 00:04:14.760
JEREMY: And you can also download my free ideal week calendar template at gobrows.com forward slash ideal week.

00:04:15.240 –> 00:04:16.460
<v SPEAKER_2>Crank the volume up.

00:04:16.480 –> 00:04:19.360
<v SPEAKER_2>You’re going to want to hear the next part.

00:04:19.940 –> 00:04:21.780
JEREMY: At least that’s what my dad says.

00:04:22.460 –> 00:04:26.880
JEREMY: The next trick is to never let your executive schedule meetings.

00:04:27.300 –> 00:04:30.780
JEREMY: As assistants, we know the schedule like the back of our hand.

00:04:30.980 –> 00:04:37.960
JEREMY: I would just strongly encourage and challenge your executive not to schedule meetings on their own.

00:04:38.440 –> 00:04:48.480
JEREMY: So if someone contacts them directly asking for a meeting, they can simply reply, copy you, and they can say something like, Hi, John, I look forward to connecting.

00:04:49.380 –> 00:04:53.280
JEREMY: Here’s my assistant, copied on this email to schedule a phone call next week.

00:04:54.240 –> 00:05:07.000
JEREMY: If the meeting isn’t urgent, then you can have your executive kind of use some code to communicate to you what type of meeting or how urgent this meeting is.

00:05:08.220 –> 00:05:23.740
JEREMY: So you could say something like, Copying my assistant to set up a meeting next month, or copying my assistant to set up a meeting ASAP, or copying my assistant to set up a phone call when I get back from my travels.

00:05:23.880 –> 00:05:34.380
JEREMY: So what this does is it gives you, the assistant, a clear picture of when and how urgent and even what type of meeting this should be.

00:05:34.860 –> 00:05:42.460
JEREMY: So they don’t have to ask you a follow-up clarifying questions, and they can just act on it and get the meeting scheduled.

00:05:42.480 –> 00:05:47.440
JEREMY: So I love using this code to save the trouble of having to clarify at a later date.

00:05:48.280 –> 00:05:55.960
JEREMY: So if you’re an executive listening to this, do everyone a favor, including yourself, and let your assistant schedule your meetings.

00:05:56.840 –> 00:06:01.700
JEREMY: All right, trick number three, don’t ask the other party to send options.

00:06:02.500 –> 00:06:12.920
JEREMY: So when you make first contact with someone to set up a meeting, I always try to include three to five dates and times, as well as the time zone, of course.

00:06:13.580 –> 00:06:21.580
JEREMY: And these should be easy to find if you have an ideal week calendar set up, so you don’t have to search the calendar for a few options.

00:06:21.740 –> 00:06:26.880
JEREMY: You should be able to pull up a list of the predetermined slots, like we talked about earlier.

00:06:27.560 –> 00:06:31.040
JEREMY: You can also suggest a location in the initial email.

00:06:32.060 –> 00:06:42.680
JEREMY: And then give them an option of meeting somewhere else if they prefer, but always send dates and times and time zones in a location suggestion.

00:06:43.400 –> 00:06:48.060
JEREMY: Now you may be thinking, why wouldn’t I want to ask the other person what works for them?

00:06:48.100 –> 00:06:52.080
JEREMY: Wouldn’t that be more generous or less selfish?

00:06:52.760 –> 00:07:07.260
JEREMY: But I actually think taking initiative and giving these predetermined slots will allow you to schedule these meetings when your executive is more energize and excited to meet with people and just overall more productive.

00:07:07.720 –> 00:07:22.360
JEREMY: So wouldn’t you want to schedule meetings for your executive with other people at times where they’re excited to meet and ready to meet and less likely to show up late or have to cancel or have to reschedule?

00:07:23.200 –> 00:07:28.880
JEREMY: So as you can see, it’s not selfish to suggest the times initially.

00:07:29.760 –> 00:07:34.500
JEREMY: But there’s also another reason to be so bold, and I think most people miss this.

00:07:35.020 –> 00:07:47.300
JEREMY: When the other party receives an email with dates, times, and a location already suggested, all they have to do is glance at their calendar, see which works, hit reply, and say this date and time at this location is great.

00:07:47.320 –> 00:07:47.680
JEREMY: Thanks.

00:07:47.700 –> 00:07:48.560
JEREMY: Please send an invite.

00:07:49.360 –> 00:07:54.000
JEREMY: So it keeps the email thread to no more than two, three, maybe four emails.

00:07:54.540 –> 00:08:05.020
JEREMY: On the other hand, if you’re sending an email without dates or location, then the other party is forced to do all the work or reply back and say, please suggest some dates and locations.

00:08:06.120 –> 00:08:09.540
JEREMY: So then they have to figure that out or they push it back to you.

00:08:09.980 –> 00:08:15.740
JEREMY: So long story short, you end up with two, three, maybe four extra emails in the thread.

00:08:16.380 –> 00:08:21.840
JEREMY: And you may end up with a meeting at a time outside of your executive’s ideal meeting blocks.

00:08:23.020 –> 00:08:32.760
JEREMY: So save your executive some headache, save yourself some headache, save the other person some time and energy by doing the work in that first email.

00:08:33.480 –> 00:08:45.600
JEREMY: So to recap, the three tricks that I use to make scheduling meetings more easy is I add meeting blocks to my executive’s calendar with an ideal week calendar.

00:08:46.400 –> 00:08:51.340
JEREMY: I don’t let my executive schedule meetings and I don’t ask the other party to send options.

00:08:51.420 –> 00:08:55.800
JEREMY: I take initiative and send them myself in the first email.

00:08:56.280 –> 00:08:57.500
JEREMY: So those are a few of my tricks.

00:08:57.580 –> 00:09:05.700
JEREMY: I hope they’re helpful, but I would love to hear from you and hear what tricks you have up your sleeve to help others schedule meetings more efficiently.

00:09:05.980 –> 00:09:11.900
JEREMY: So please share your tips on our Facebook community at facebook.leaderassistant.com.

00:09:12.520 –> 00:09:20.820
JEREMY: Tell us how you schedule meetings, tell us what tips or tricks or tools that you use to schedule meetings, and I hope this was helpful.

00:09:21.260 –> 00:09:24.360
JEREMY: The show notes will be at leaderassistant.com/20.

00:09:24.840 –> 00:09:38.280
JEREMY: Again, check out the Assistant Challenge at assistantchallenge.com to join hundreds of assistants from around the world in getting an email every weekday for 30 days to challenge and encourage you to become a better leader assistant.

00:09:38.640 –> 00:09:53.460
JEREMY: Be sure to subscribe to the show so you don’t miss the next few interviews coming up, including one with Melba Duncan from The Duncan Group and Jess Lindgren, Executive Assistant to Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income Podcast.

00:09:54.260 –> 00:09:55.880
JEREMY: Thanks again, and we’ll talk soon.

00:10:05.320 –> 00:10:08.292
<v SPEAKER_3>Help my dad out and leave a review on iTunes.

00:10:11.052 –> 00:10:12.852
<v SPEAKER_3>goburrows.com

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