Maggie Olson is the Founder of Nova Chief of Staff, the premier destination for Chief of Staff education and development.
In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, Maggie walks through business planning and building an effective rhythm of business as a strategic executive assistant and/or a chief of staff.
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ABOUT MAGGIE
Maggie Olson is the Founder of Nova Chief of Staff, the premier destination for Chief of Staff education and development. As the first Chief of Staff to a president at a Fortune 40 company — who led a multibillion-dollar business with 5,000+ employees — Maggie built the president’s Chief of Staff model from the ground up. Maggie has 20 years’ experience leading large teams and has spent her career focused on both customer and employee experience at companies including T-Mobile, Nordstrom, and Starbucks. In addition to operating the Nova Chief of Staff Certification course, Maggie is a fractional Chief of Staff focused on helping mission-driven, for-profit startup founders scale their businesses quickly. In her spare time, Maggie loves spending time outside with her husband, their animals, and their 1-year-old, Max!
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00.000 –> 00:00:10.280
JEREMY: Everyone is talking about Nova Chief of Staff, and it’s no surprise when graduates walk away with huge benefits, like greater confidence and the validation that they can do the role.
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JEREMY: There are over 300 students in the Nova Chief of Staff Certification course, many of which are growth-minded executive assistants like you.
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JEREMY: Many of the Leader Assistants taking the course aren’t necessarily looking for a promotion, they simply want to become more effective, strategic, and game-changing assistants.
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JEREMY: Over 18 countries around the globe are represented by students in Nova’s course, so I highly recommend you join the club.
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JEREMY: Visit leaderassistant.com/nova to learn more about this amazing professional development resource.
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<v SPEAKER_2>Thank you The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing leader assistants.
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JEREMY: Hey friends, welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast.
00:01:09.903 –> 00:01:11.823
JEREMY: It’s episode 267.
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JEREMY: You can check out the show notes for this conversation at leaderassistant.com/267, leaderassistant.com/267.
00:01:22.123 –> 00:01:25.763
JEREMY: And today’s another fun chat with my friend Maggie Olson.
00:01:26.443 –> 00:01:30.763
JEREMY: We’re gonna talk about building an effective rhythm of business today.
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JEREMY: So Maggie, welcome back.
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JEREMY: Thank you.
00:01:35.003 –> 00:01:39.203
JEREMY: And we’ve had a lot of conversations to date and we have a lot more to come.
00:01:39.783 –> 00:01:44.763
JEREMY: I hope you all have enjoyed these topics that we’ve covered.
00:01:44.783 –> 00:01:58.963
JEREMY: We talked about the journey from EA to Chief of Staff in episode 257, the EA and Chief of Staff relationship and working, navigating that relationship and how to work with a Chief of Staff and an EA.
00:01:59.503 –> 00:02:01.203
JEREMY: That’s episode 260.
00:02:01.223 –> 00:02:06.563
JEREMY: And then we talked about the power of networking in episode 262.
00:02:06.703 –> 00:02:10.183
JEREMY: So let’s dive right in.
00:02:10.203 –> 00:02:12.203
JEREMY: And Maggie, why don’t you take it away?
00:02:13.363 –> 00:02:13.863
MAGGIE: Awesome.
00:02:13.883 –> 00:02:14.883
MAGGIE: Well, I’m happy to be back.
00:02:14.903 –> 00:02:19.683
MAGGIE: And this topic is really kind of the backbone of Chief of Staff work.
00:02:19.743 –> 00:02:28.223
MAGGIE: And I say Chief of Staff, Jeremy and I usually kind of preface that with also high level strategic executive assistance.
00:02:28.243 –> 00:02:29.803
MAGGIE: There’s a lot of crossover.
00:02:29.823 –> 00:02:33.643
MAGGIE: There’s a lot of blending of territory and responsibilities.
00:02:33.663 –> 00:02:45.403
MAGGIE: So if you’re somebody that wants to add more value, loves what you do and wants to have a greater impact or think about things differently in new ways, I might be saying the words Chief of Staff, but I’m talking to you too.
00:02:46.863 –> 00:02:49.523
MAGGIE: So just know that.
00:02:49.643 –> 00:02:55.023
MAGGIE: But essentially, so we’re going to talk about business planning and a term called Rhythm of Business.
00:02:55.143 –> 00:03:05.143
MAGGIE: I don’t know if I’ve shared this before, but when I was interviewing for the Chief of Staff role that I was in, in my last corporate role, I had never heard of the word Chief of Staff.
00:03:05.443 –> 00:03:06.443
MAGGIE: I didn’t know what it was.
00:03:06.463 –> 00:03:07.543
MAGGIE: I’d never heard of the term.
00:03:07.563 –> 00:03:10.143
MAGGIE: It was a little too late for me in life.
00:03:10.163 –> 00:03:12.963
MAGGIE: That’s why I created the Nova Chief of Staff Certification course.
00:03:12.983 –> 00:03:16.103
MAGGIE: So people had resources and learned about these things earlier.
00:03:16.103 –> 00:03:18.443
MAGGIE: But I hadn’t heard about it before.
00:03:18.443 –> 00:03:23.123
MAGGIE: And I also hadn’t heard the terms Business Planning or Rhythm of Business.
00:03:23.583 –> 00:03:24.983
MAGGIE: I didn’t understand what those meant.
00:03:25.903 –> 00:03:33.903
MAGGIE: I heard things like team collaboration and driving visibility and making sure people are organized and that we’re meeting at the right time.
00:03:34.163 –> 00:03:35.783
MAGGIE: Things like that captured me.
00:03:35.943 –> 00:03:38.983
MAGGIE: And thankfully, I said yes to the Chief of Staff role.
00:03:38.983 –> 00:03:50.363
MAGGIE: But today, we are going to demystify all that and talk about what is business planning and how do you build and what is an effective rhythm of business.
00:03:51.343 –> 00:03:58.343
MAGGIE: So I believe that the backbone of a business is really its ability to get needed information to the leader.
00:03:58.503 –> 00:04:03.103
MAGGIE: And that truly comes down to when teams are talking about what.
00:04:03.783 –> 00:04:22.183
MAGGIE: Said differently, some advice that I received when I was just starting out at T-Mobile, gosh, many years back from a leader I had, Tracy, she said that the best leaders build systems and processes to get the information that they need without asking.
00:04:22.623 –> 00:04:27.063
MAGGIE: And my little twist and take on that is like, okay, but how do leaders do that?
00:04:27.163 –> 00:04:31.183
MAGGIE: They hire effective chiefs of staff and strategic EAs who figure it out.
00:04:32.023 –> 00:04:39.503
MAGGIE: So that is what the purpose of business planning and rhythm of businesses to feed leaders information without them having to ask for it.
00:04:39.983 –> 00:04:50.183
MAGGIE: And from a chief of staff perspective and a strategic EA perspective, it’s also being able to see things clearly and make strategic recommendations to improve the business.
00:04:50.203 –> 00:04:51.603
MAGGIE: Does that all sound good, Jeremy?
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JEREMY: Sounds like a great plan.
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MAGGIE: Very cool.
00:04:55.503 –> 00:05:00.943
MAGGIE: Well, we’re going to dive into business planning and tools and templates and a few other things.
00:05:00.963 –> 00:05:09.343
MAGGIE: But first, I want to share what I talk about a lot, which is my suggestion to create a walking deck.
00:05:09.363 –> 00:05:16.743
MAGGIE: So with coaching clients, with our Nova students, it’s something that people learn about and do and come back and they say, oh my gosh, thank you.
00:05:16.763 –> 00:05:17.843
MAGGIE: I love this idea.
00:05:17.863 –> 00:05:18.503
MAGGIE: It works great.
00:05:18.843 –> 00:05:21.643
MAGGIE: So I try to talk about it a lot so that you all can do it.
00:05:22.043 –> 00:05:28.743
MAGGIE: Basically, what a walking deck is, is it’s one deck that houses 90 percent of the tools that you need.
00:05:28.803 –> 00:05:38.423
MAGGIE: So tools, templates, resources, anything that you want visibility to easily instead of hunting and pecking through all of your individual folders.
00:05:38.783 –> 00:05:39.783
MAGGIE: Like where does this live?
00:05:39.803 –> 00:05:40.923
MAGGIE: Is it in Notion?
00:05:40.943 –> 00:05:45.123
MAGGIE: Is it in this folder, that folder, an Excel document, this PowerPoint?
00:05:45.303 –> 00:05:46.103
MAGGIE: Where is everything?
00:05:46.823 –> 00:06:12.003
MAGGIE: As a chief of staff or strategic EA and probably a lot of other roles as well, if you have a walking deck where you keep things like for our industry, for our roles, org charts, your calendars, your meeting agendas, your upcoming meeting agendas, maybe a couple past ones, engagement pipelines and planning for what your leader is up to and doing, your project management tracking, maybe even board meeting decks.
00:06:12.123 –> 00:06:21.563
MAGGIE: It’s essentially a one-stop shop where you and your team can reference things as needed instead of having all of these individual things saved different places.
00:06:21.583 –> 00:06:24.283
MAGGIE: So it sounds easy, sounds simple.
00:06:24.703 –> 00:06:36.943
MAGGIE: It’s the best way to start with this is to truly just open up a PowerPoint if PowerPoint is your tool of choice and drag the things in there that are most relevant to your role.
00:06:37.263 –> 00:06:43.203
MAGGIE: So like I said, the agendas, the templates, the planning, the project management, 90% of it lives there.
00:06:43.623 –> 00:06:49.303
MAGGIE: If you have a project that’s gotten really big or separate kind of work streams and things, keep those somewhere else.
00:06:49.303 –> 00:06:49.943
MAGGIE: That’s great.
00:06:50.723 –> 00:06:57.923
MAGGIE: But this enables you to have everything at your fingertips because executives ask often for things and expect them to be delivered very quickly.
00:06:58.623 –> 00:07:05.683
MAGGIE: This is a way that we’ve solved for that, for the folks that have taught me how to do this and that I’ve passed along to others.
00:07:05.703 –> 00:07:06.883
MAGGIE: Jeremy, do you do this?
00:07:07.723 –> 00:07:22.243
JEREMY: Yeah, I don’t know that I necessarily do it in the same form that you do or the same format, but it’s probably a Google Sheet is my base, if you will, for all this kind of stuff.
00:07:22.363 –> 00:07:26.263
JEREMY: And if you’re a Google person, Google Slides can work too, for sure.
00:07:26.703 –> 00:07:29.823
MAGGIE: Yeah, it’s definitely the concept versus the exact application.
00:07:29.843 –> 00:07:31.743
MAGGIE: So create a walking deck.
00:07:31.863 –> 00:07:33.803
MAGGIE: I’m happy to share more resources about that.
00:07:33.823 –> 00:07:43.403
MAGGIE: Really anything that we talk about today, if you’re looking for a little bit more information, you can always reach out to us at hello at novachiefofstaff.com and we can send you what you would like.
00:07:43.423 –> 00:07:45.443
MAGGIE: If you’re like, what’s that one template you were talking about?
00:07:45.523 –> 00:07:46.283
MAGGIE: Just email us.
00:07:46.303 –> 00:07:47.103
MAGGIE: Totally fine.
00:07:47.483 –> 00:07:48.963
MAGGIE: Okay, so business planning.
00:07:49.383 –> 00:07:55.203
MAGGIE: The key functions of business planning are ensuring that your leader is prepared every time.
00:07:55.403 –> 00:08:02.943
MAGGIE: So briefs, prep sheets, decks, speaking notes, summaries, the leadership team and the leader you work for is prepared for all touch points.
00:08:03.883 –> 00:08:08.643
MAGGIE: Next, it’s really the purpose of business planning is to drive business forward.
00:08:09.363 –> 00:08:16.423
MAGGIE: So you’re engaging in key sessions, you’re bringing teams together, you’re providing actionable summaries to driving towards milestones and deadlines.
00:08:17.983 –> 00:08:23.323
MAGGIE: The third pillar for business planning is really consistent visibility of business priorities.
00:08:23.443 –> 00:08:38.043
MAGGIE: So through organized process and consistent communication, the executive and their leadership team can clearly visualize the priorities and the intake pipeline and all the workstreams going on and all the things that you are executing on.
00:08:38.063 –> 00:08:42.703
MAGGIE: And organizing for your leader, even if they’re not your direct responsibility.
00:08:44.463 –> 00:08:50.043
MAGGIE: Fourth here is driving an effective rhythm of business, which we’ll get into a lot more deeply today.
00:08:50.063 –> 00:08:57.383
MAGGIE: So that means visibility into the rhythm of business, meaning what’s happening when and other key touch points.
00:08:58.343 –> 00:09:01.703
MAGGIE: And making recommendations to drive efficiency whenever possible.
00:09:02.283 –> 00:09:07.843
MAGGIE: And then finally, kind of the last key function or pillar of business planning here is strategic alignment.
00:09:08.223 –> 00:09:13.863
MAGGIE: So ensuring that your messaging, everything that you’re touching and that your leader’s working on is unified.
00:09:13.903 –> 00:09:20.643
MAGGIE: Unified messaging and content development across lines of business, including reviews and deep dives and special projects.
00:09:21.723 –> 00:09:37.983
MAGGIE: So as a chief of staff or strategic EA, if you are working on a lot of different projects, you want to make sure that your leader and the verbiage and the articulation and the story is showing up consistently in the right ways, in the same ways, across all of those different materials.
00:09:38.443 –> 00:09:40.983
MAGGIE: So those are kind of the key pillars of business planning.
00:09:41.003 –> 00:09:44.363
MAGGIE: I’ll pause there, Jeremy, and see if you have anything to add to that.
00:09:49.423 –> 00:09:51.983
MAGGIE: Are you ready to elevate your career in 2024?
00:09:52.923 –> 00:10:00.443
MAGGIE: I’m Maggie Olson, founder of Nova Chief of Staff Certification, the first of its kind online course for aspiring and existing chiefs of staff.
00:10:01.243 –> 00:10:12.723
MAGGIE: With curriculum taken directly from on-the-job responsibilities, Nova’s self-paced learning modules provides you with hands-on experience so you can feel competent and confident moving into a chief of staff style role.
00:10:13.423 –> 00:10:15.863
MAGGIE: It’s the perfect next step for executive assistants.
00:10:16.403 –> 00:10:21.463
MAGGIE: Head to leaderassistant.com/nova to learn more, grab the syllabus and enroll today.
00:10:25.703 –> 00:10:34.583
JEREMY: Yeah, I mean, what is the, maybe it’s a little bit of both but who dictates this?
00:10:34.603 –> 00:10:53.223
JEREMY: Like, in other words, the rhythms and the planning, are they something that the company maybe already has rhythms and, you know, processes in place and then you just kind of organize and synthesize everything and get it templatized and all that?
00:10:54.383 –> 00:11:04.063
JEREMY: Or are you having to essentially come up with those and try it out and see if this rhythm works and this process works?
00:11:04.823 –> 00:11:06.003
JEREMY: I don’t know if that makes sense.
00:11:06.023 –> 00:11:08.523
MAGGIE: Yeah, it’s, that’s, I’m so glad you brought that up.
00:11:08.603 –> 00:11:17.963
MAGGIE: Yeah, it’s, it is a bit of both and generally at the beginning, it’s more about the documenting and the organizing and making sure that everyone’s on the same page.
00:11:19.103 –> 00:11:26.543
MAGGIE: I don’t believe that as a chief of staff, you can walk into an executive’s back office and not get everything documented.
00:11:26.603 –> 00:11:28.523
MAGGIE: It’s too chaotic of an environment.
00:11:28.563 –> 00:11:40.063
MAGGIE: If you can’t, if you don’t have a place for everything, a way to document things and a way to see things clearly, you won’t be able to do what we do best, which is then make strategic recommendations to improve.
00:11:40.243 –> 00:11:48.583
MAGGIE: So as you get further in your role, testing and learning and trying and implementing new and failing fast and moving on is a huge part of the role.
00:11:49.023 –> 00:11:51.903
MAGGIE: At the beginning, it should be documenting current state.
00:11:54.823 –> 00:11:55.583
MAGGIE: Glad you brought that up.
00:11:56.463 –> 00:11:59.603
MAGGIE: Okay, so tools, templates, components of business planning.
00:11:59.623 –> 00:12:00.823
MAGGIE: I’m just going to list some things off.
00:12:01.243 –> 00:12:02.663
MAGGIE: Calendars, short term.
00:12:02.683 –> 00:12:03.483
MAGGIE: None of this is new.
00:12:03.503 –> 00:12:04.943
MAGGIE: These are all familiar things.
00:12:04.963 –> 00:12:20.963
MAGGIE: But if we think about them in terms of business planning, tools, templates, components, calendars, short term and long term, different views, agendas for key sessions, week by week views for different things, like your staff meeting, for example, this week and next week, visibility could be helpful.
00:12:22.423 –> 00:12:26.043
MAGGIE: Engagements and engagement planning will dive into rhythm of business.
00:12:26.363 –> 00:12:27.923
MAGGIE: What’s coming down the pipeline?
00:12:27.943 –> 00:12:32.683
MAGGIE: I call those pipeline views, whether that’s strategic initiatives or meetings coming up.
00:12:33.903 –> 00:12:36.143
MAGGIE: Briefs, making sure your leaders prepared every time.
00:12:36.163 –> 00:12:40.463
MAGGIE: I think Jeremy and I will dive into briefs and engagement recommendations the next time we’re together.
00:12:41.663 –> 00:12:48.863
MAGGIE: Meeting planning, so agendas and off-sites and all hands, project management tools and more.
00:12:49.003 –> 00:12:49.963
MAGGIE: Clearly, there’s a lot.
00:12:50.703 –> 00:12:52.363
MAGGIE: My goal here is not to overwhelm you.
00:12:52.383 –> 00:13:00.283
MAGGIE: It’s actually just to give you choice and the freedom to understand that there’s a lot of different ways to do this.
00:13:01.223 –> 00:13:04.303
MAGGIE: I always say, a few things.
00:13:04.303 –> 00:13:05.343
MAGGIE: Don’t reinvent the wheel.
00:13:05.363 –> 00:13:07.343
MAGGIE: There’s probably a template out there that exists.
00:13:07.703 –> 00:13:08.923
MAGGIE: Nova Chief of Staff has many.
00:13:08.943 –> 00:13:09.703
MAGGIE: We’re happy to help.
00:13:10.903 –> 00:13:15.043
MAGGIE: And adapt it for the need that you have.
00:13:15.083 –> 00:13:24.763
MAGGIE: So somebody else’s need as a chief of staff over in the telecom industry is going to be a lot different than your need in, let’s say, the nonprofit sector.
00:13:25.023 –> 00:13:30.703
MAGGIE: But you’re probably doing things for the same core reason, to prepare your leader, to provide visibility.
00:13:31.003 –> 00:13:35.003
MAGGIE: So don’t reinvent the wheel and adapt things to work for you.
00:13:35.023 –> 00:13:36.823
MAGGIE: There’s a lot of options here.
00:13:36.843 –> 00:13:44.243
MAGGIE: Okay, so now we’re going to get into really the meat of building an effective rhythm of business.
00:13:45.243 –> 00:13:54.483
MAGGIE: And I’m going to do my best to describe some template options here so that you can pick and choose and use one of these and try to visualize what these look like.
00:13:54.563 –> 00:14:00.743
MAGGIE: Again, feel free to email us if you want a little more information or a template, we’re happy to provide that for you over at Nova.
00:14:02.323 –> 00:14:03.503
MAGGIE: But let’s dive in.
00:14:03.523 –> 00:14:09.663
MAGGIE: So I’m going to talk through, I think, five different template options for building a rhythm of business.
00:14:10.683 –> 00:14:15.103
MAGGIE: And your rhythm of business to remind is really what is happening when.
00:14:15.363 –> 00:14:21.843
MAGGIE: You’re going to take an audit of all of the meetings that your leader has on their calendar, and you’re going to document them.
00:14:22.403 –> 00:14:28.543
MAGGIE: The next stage, we’ll talk about it in a little bit, is then figuring out what are you seeing and making those strategic recommendations.
00:14:28.563 –> 00:14:35.683
MAGGIE: But first, let’s work on documenting everything, organizing everything, and providing visibility to people who need it.
00:14:37.243 –> 00:14:45.923
MAGGIE: So at T-Mobile, in my last Corporate Chief of Staff role, I used all of these templates for different reasons, all of these views that I’ll describe, but you may only need one.
00:14:46.183 –> 00:14:47.063
MAGGIE: You may need a few.
00:14:47.123 –> 00:14:49.023
MAGGIE: So let me dive in here.
00:14:50.063 –> 00:14:52.623
MAGGIE: Okay, so a Monday through Friday template.
00:14:53.023 –> 00:15:05.043
MAGGIE: Imagine Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday in columns along the top, and then meeting squares below for each day of the week, with different formatting to dictate weekly, bimonthly or monthly.
00:15:05.063 –> 00:15:06.483
MAGGIE: Okay, that’s an option.
00:15:07.063 –> 00:15:14.803
MAGGIE: Another template option would be categorizing by weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and quarterly, each with their own rows.
00:15:14.883 –> 00:15:26.623
MAGGIE: So down the left side in your rows are weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and quarterly, and across the right in each of their own box are the individual meetings that fit within that meeting cadence.
00:15:27.023 –> 00:15:33.623
MAGGIE: And then to add on to that, you can color coordinate based on what the focus of the meeting is.
00:15:34.663 –> 00:15:39.923
MAGGIE: Is it something that we’re talking about past business, current business or future focus?
00:15:40.303 –> 00:15:47.643
MAGGIE: For example, this template would be really, really good to see how often are we thinking about future strategy.
00:15:47.863 –> 00:15:50.023
MAGGIE: Okay, so I’ve documented all of the…
00:15:50.723 –> 00:15:59.163
MAGGIE: As an example, I’ve documented all of my presidents’ key meetings, all their meetings that they have with their executive team, let’s say.
00:15:59.443 –> 00:16:01.123
MAGGIE: We can exclude the one-on-ones here.
00:16:01.543 –> 00:16:06.683
MAGGIE: And then I’ve color coded them based on, are we looking at past business, current business or future?
00:16:07.003 –> 00:16:16.903
MAGGIE: And I notice that we are only talking about future business once, and it’s only monthly, and it’s only about this future product launch that’s coming up.
00:16:17.823 –> 00:16:21.643
MAGGIE: Or it’s only about long-term planning once a year.
00:16:22.103 –> 00:16:29.883
MAGGIE: This is an opportunity to dive in and make a recommendation that we probably need some more future strategic meetings.
00:16:29.903 –> 00:16:36.423
MAGGIE: Another template option would be something like months as columns across the top and then your monthly meetings below.
00:16:36.443 –> 00:16:46.403
MAGGIE: Two more here, a simple list of all meetings within just each individual rows and in the columns you’re listing the cadence and the meeting details.
00:16:46.423 –> 00:16:47.243
MAGGIE: That’s an easy one.
00:16:47.263 –> 00:16:52.823
MAGGIE: And then finally, this one is kind of an interesting view, basically a heat map option.
00:16:53.063 –> 00:17:01.743
MAGGIE: So this is a good option to give kind of that executive visibility into how often they’re showing up in different areas of their business.
00:17:02.103 –> 00:17:20.383
MAGGIE: So for example, here you can list all of your executive direct reports, all hands meetings in individual rows down the left side of your page and then list your months across the top and then format each cell to show which month your executive is showing up to which all hands.
00:17:20.843 –> 00:17:24.423
MAGGIE: From here, you can say, okay, are there months where they aren’t showing up at all?
00:17:24.443 –> 00:17:28.283
MAGGIE: Are there too many things happening in one executive’s group or in one month?
00:17:29.323 –> 00:17:31.503
MAGGIE: This is the first step.
00:17:31.863 –> 00:17:34.183
MAGGIE: Document your rhythm of business.
00:17:34.703 –> 00:17:44.323
MAGGIE: And then after that, you’re going to really dive in and reflect on what could be missing.
00:17:44.363 –> 00:17:46.723
MAGGIE: What’s repetitive?
00:17:47.563 –> 00:17:51.143
MAGGIE: What’s something coming up in the future that’s not represented that you need to be planful for?
00:17:51.323 –> 00:17:57.023
MAGGIE: This is where being a strategic EA and a Chief of Staff shows their value.
00:17:57.883 –> 00:17:59.503
MAGGIE: You’re making strategic recommendations.
00:17:59.523 –> 00:18:00.603
MAGGIE: You’re finding gaps.
00:18:00.623 –> 00:18:04.103
MAGGIE: You’re solutioning things before they become a problem.
00:18:05.323 –> 00:18:06.823
MAGGIE: So I’m going to pause there, Jeremy.
00:18:06.843 –> 00:18:07.863
MAGGIE: I went through a lot.
00:18:07.983 –> 00:18:15.163
MAGGIE: I hope that it was semi clear to follow along with, but hopefully Rhythm of Business has been made us a little bit clearer for you.
00:18:16.283 –> 00:18:19.603
JEREMY: Oh, yeah, this is super helpful.
00:18:19.703 –> 00:18:26.823
JEREMY: And again, people can reach out if they have questions or they want to see a specific template.
00:18:27.203 –> 00:18:27.963
JEREMY: Yep.
00:18:28.403 –> 00:18:29.283
JEREMY: Reach out to you.
00:18:29.523 –> 00:18:38.503
JEREMY: And I will put obviously your contact info and everything in your links in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/267.
00:18:39.403 –> 00:18:44.063
JEREMY: So you can reach out to Maggie and get a hold of some of these awesome helpful templates.
00:18:45.943 –> 00:18:55.963
JEREMY: Have you experienced any or any of your course students experienced any resistance to, you know, these processes?
00:18:55.983 –> 00:18:59.143
JEREMY: I mean, I know the first part as far as documenting everything.
00:18:59.163 –> 00:19:11.643
JEREMY: I feel like that would be really, you know, rare that anybody would have resistance to you documenting things, because most places don’t have documentation of what they need to have documentation of.
00:19:13.223 –> 00:19:25.303
JEREMY: But I could see resistance of, hey, you know, this is what we’ve done, and this is what we recommend, or I’ve done some research, and we should have this kind of a rhythm where every quarter we do this, every quarter we do that, etc.
00:19:26.863 –> 00:19:30.903
JEREMY: So, yeah, any thoughts on if you experience any resistance?
00:19:32.663 –> 00:19:46.163
MAGGIE: You know, I think there’s always going to be a push-pull between a new process and a new idea and an existing person or school of thought or even an existing way to document things.
00:19:46.403 –> 00:19:48.583
MAGGIE: I think that you have to test and learn a lot.
00:19:49.203 –> 00:19:55.623
MAGGIE: And sometimes we don’t, I say sometimes laughing, but sometimes we don’t have our executives’ time at our disposal.
00:19:55.643 –> 00:20:00.743
MAGGIE: So we don’t necessarily know if we’re on the right track or if this is going well, or if we should test something.
00:20:00.783 –> 00:20:06.243
MAGGIE: And I always believe that we should just do it and then put something in front of our leader.
00:20:07.223 –> 00:20:10.563
MAGGIE: I generally talk about making that assumptive recommendation.
00:20:10.883 –> 00:20:12.363
MAGGIE: I’m going to move forward with this.
00:20:12.383 –> 00:20:13.483
MAGGIE: We’re going to test this out.
00:20:13.583 –> 00:20:15.903
MAGGIE: If you have an issue with it, just let me know.
00:20:16.243 –> 00:20:17.483
MAGGIE: You’re assuming that it’s fine.
00:20:17.503 –> 00:20:18.443
MAGGIE: You’re moving forward.
00:20:18.463 –> 00:20:21.523
MAGGIE: You’re testing something on behalf of the better of their business.
00:20:22.363 –> 00:20:24.563
MAGGIE: I think it’s a good move to propose things that way.
00:20:24.583 –> 00:20:27.143
MAGGIE: But yes, there’s definitely going to be resistance.
00:20:28.023 –> 00:20:35.583
MAGGIE: Something that does come up more specifically a lot is, okay, but why PowerPoint or why Google Slides?
00:20:35.743 –> 00:20:44.543
MAGGIE: And it’s a really good question, especially as there’s more and more software options out there with Monday and Asana and Notion and all of the things.
00:20:45.903 –> 00:20:50.843
MAGGIE: And those tools are really good, and they should probably be used based on what you’re doing in your business.
00:20:51.663 –> 00:21:17.183
MAGGIE: However, the problem is, if you’re in an elevated role working with an executive team who has a certain level of polish and expects things quickly and has to present things to boards or external partners, if we keep everything in software tools, at this point, there’s not a tool out there that I have found that has an executive level summary that’s polished and elevated and ready at the drop of a hat.
00:21:17.623 –> 00:21:37.243
MAGGIE: So I do a lot of those executive level project management components and work in PowerPoint or Google Slides, because it’s customizable very easily and so that it’s executive ready at any time, so that I don’t have to spend two hours pulling it from a software tool to make it ready to distribute to whoever needs it.
00:21:38.043 –> 00:21:43.303
MAGGIE: So that’s definitely some questions I get pretty often, but it’s not necessary for everything.
00:21:44.503 –> 00:21:46.103
MAGGIE: Jeremy and I, we both run companies.
00:21:46.143 –> 00:21:49.263
MAGGIE: My team is not executive level polishing things for me.
00:21:49.283 –> 00:21:50.383
MAGGIE: We don’t have time for that, right?
00:21:50.743 –> 00:21:51.643
MAGGIE: I don’t expect that.
00:21:51.663 –> 00:21:59.303
MAGGIE: But depending on your industry, you probably do have situations where you need that polish and elevation and things to look really good.
00:22:00.103 –> 00:22:04.763
MAGGIE: And so that’s why I use slides often for executive project management work kind of like this.
00:22:05.423 –> 00:22:05.743
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:22:06.703 –> 00:22:07.043
JEREMY: Nice.
00:22:08.463 –> 00:22:21.223
JEREMY: Well, again, people can reach out if they have any questions or want to learn more about the templates and obviously explore more about the Nova course as well.
00:22:21.383 –> 00:22:23.183
JEREMY: Any final thoughts you have to share?
00:22:24.463 –> 00:22:25.043
MAGGIE: You know what?
00:22:25.063 –> 00:22:27.043
MAGGIE: If you haven’t done this yet, just start.
00:22:27.063 –> 00:22:27.783
MAGGIE: Just try it.
00:22:27.883 –> 00:22:29.103
MAGGIE: See how it goes.
00:22:29.123 –> 00:22:32.203
MAGGIE: It’s okay if you’ve been in your role for a year or two and you haven’t done this yet.
00:22:32.223 –> 00:22:34.543
MAGGIE: There’s just nothing too late here.
00:22:35.123 –> 00:22:37.183
MAGGIE: So give it a go and let us know how it goes.
00:22:38.183 –> 00:22:38.523
JEREMY: Awesome.
00:22:38.783 –> 00:22:48.403
JEREMY: And I would encourage everyone listening to give it a shot and be flexible and be adaptable.
00:22:48.423 –> 00:22:55.703
JEREMY: I know we have these audacious goals every year of, hey, this is what our rhythm is going to look like.
00:22:55.723 –> 00:23:00.543
JEREMY: This is when we’re going to do the strategic plan and we’re going to do leadership team retreat and we’re going to do all this stuff.
00:23:01.263 –> 00:23:06.843
JEREMY: And, you know, most years it’s like kind of, well, okay, we didn’t exactly do all that, but let’s figure something out.
00:23:06.863 –> 00:23:13.063
JEREMY: And I work at a smaller company in the software space, so things change a lot.
00:23:13.583 –> 00:23:22.883
JEREMY: So don’t get too discouraged when you miss one of those boxes on your nice, clean business plan or rhythm.
00:23:24.263 –> 00:23:26.023
MAGGIE: Create it knowing that it will change.
00:23:26.263 –> 00:23:39.503
MAGGIE: I created a beautiful rhythm of business when I first started at T-Mobile, and then I think I got my executive excited about this whole rhythm of business thing, and he came through the next quarter and gave me a whole long list of how he wants it to look, so we rebuilt it, and that’s fine.
00:23:39.523 –> 00:23:45.963
MAGGIE: And I’m glad he was engaged, but definitely build it for flexibility and just know that like anything else in the C-suite, it’s probably going to change soon.
00:23:47.543 –> 00:23:48.023
JEREMY: Perfect.
00:23:48.083 –> 00:23:48.503
JEREMY: Perfect.
00:23:48.523 –> 00:23:51.683
JEREMY: Well, thanks again, Maggie, and we’ll look forward to our next conversation.
00:23:52.283 –> 00:23:58.003
JEREMY: And yeah, check out the show notes at leaderassistant.com/267.
00:23:59.343 –> 00:24:01.223
JEREMY: Until next time, we’ll talk to you soon.
00:24:02.123 –> 00:24:02.723
MAGGIE: Thanks, Jeremy.
00:24:02.743 –> 00:24:02.843
MAGGIE: Thanks, Amy.
00:24:13.352 –> 00:24:15.852
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00:24:22.468 –> 00:24:24.248
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