5 Executive Assistant Performance Review Examples Done Right

Picture this: you’ve found the perfect executive assistant and onboarded them, communicating your expectations and preferences. 

But how do you monitor their performance and provide feedback? Unfortunately, here’s where most principals drop the ball.

Using the wrong performance review method or providing incomplete feedback means you shouldn’t expect any improvements in EA support.

The best principals conduct a 30,000-foot review of their EAs’ performance to find ways to strengthen the partnership.

In this article, we provide a detailed guide for evaluating your EA’s performance and highlight some review examples to inspire you.

What Is An Executive Assistant Performance Review?

An executive assistant performance review means providing feedback to your EA, highlighting what they did well and where they can improve. Realistically, many principals do not like reviewing their EAs, considering it an unnecessary burden on their already hectic schedules.

However, performance reviews are an opportunity to provide your EA with context on how they can better support you. Remember, your EA supports your five performance multipliers: business partner, project manager, chief of staff, personal assistant, and scheduler. 

You can review your EA based on how well they fulfilled these roles, including how they helped you reclaim your time. 

Components of Effective Executive Assistant Reviews

Now that we’ve defined what an executive assistant performance review is, we can outline its core components. A well-thought-out executive assistant review need not follow a rigid checklist. The focus is on you, the principal, informing your EA on where they performed exemplarily and where they might have missed your expectations. 

As such, the goal of an EA performance review should never be to mortify your executive assistant; it should be conducted with empathy, recognizing that they can never be perfect.

Still, the EA review should cover some fundamental performance indicators:

• Focus on the Partnership: Have an honest conversation about your relationship with your EA, identifying areas you can strengthen. Encourage a two-way discussion so your executive assistant can share their perspective on how they can better support you.
• Executive Bible: A practical tip when onboarding an executive assistant is to share the executive Bible, which helps the EA learn your support needs and preferences. As such, part of the performance review should be to assess how well it supports your EA when undertaking their tasks.
• Key Accomplishments: An essential aspect of an EA performance review is recognizing any milestones achieved in relation to the executive assistant’s SMART goals set during onboarding or at the beginning of the review cycle. Remember, the EA role feels like a marathon, so celebrating feel-good wins helps keep your EA motivated.
• EA Well-Being: Conduct pulse checks with your EA to assess their engagement and overall job satisfaction, as these factors influence performance drivers such as motivation, innovation, and self-initiative.

Depending on how detailed you want the EA review to be, you could cover additional areas relating to executive assistant tasks:

• Administrative Tasks: How well your EA managed your calendar and email inbox.
• Problem-Solving Skills: How often did your EA take the initiative to put out fires, especially when you weren’t reachable?
• Interpersonal Skills: Your EA’s communication and empathy when interacting with employees and key stakeholders.
• Confidentiality and Discretion: How well your EA handled sensitive information.

How to Structure Reviews That Elevate Executive Support

The components highlighted in the previous section do not exist in isolation, but are interdependent and influence how well you review your EA’s performance.

Remember, the goal of an EA performance review is to strengthen the executive-assistant partnership. With this in mind, the executive should structure the review around how they envision the EA can improve to help the principal undertake their core functions more effectively.

A good way to conduct an EA performance review would be as follows:

• Start with Role Expectations: Go over the EA’s roles and responsibilities with your executive assistant, highlighting your expectations and preferences as outlined in the executive Bible. Alternatively, you could update your EA on your preferences going forward.
• Build Trust: Use the performance review to reinforce the executive-assistant partnership and empower your EA to function as your extension more effectively. For example, help your EA understand the pressures you are under or why certain tasks matter more than others, so they can better leverage their executive assistant superpowers to anticipate your needs.
• Highlight Improvement Areas: Outline recurring issues that may be undermining the support you receive, and provide actionable solutions for how your executive assistant can do better. Also, ask your EA about any challenges, such as skill or technology gaps, that might be hindering their ability to provide the expected support level.
• Acknowledge Personal Shortcomings: This is where exceptional principals separate themselves from the rest because they are willing to model the vulnerability they would want from their EAs. For example, you could admit that you might not be easy to support because of unclear instructions or late communication, and commit to working on these shortcomings to make your EA’s work easier.
• Set Goals for the Next Cycle: End the reviews by setting goals for the principal and the executive assistant to strengthen the partnership and help the EA support you more effectively. A goal for the principal would be to respond to the EA’s messages within one hour to reduce scheduling bottlenecks. On the other hand, you could challenge your EA to confirm all flight and hotel bookings at least 24 hours before the travel date, unless for emergency meetings.

5 Executive Assistant Performance Review Examples

Here’s the thing: EA performance reviews and feedback are only effective if they can be acted on to address workflow inefficiencies and improve support quality. This has two significant implications:

• Transitioning from annual reviews to ‘instant’ feedback.
• Dropping the checklist method for more detailed feedback that provides context on the executive’s expectations.

Discover how you can review your EA based on the five performance multipliers:

1. Business Partner

Review your EA on how well they excel in the following areas:

• Strategic Alignment and Business Understanding:
  • Understands company priorities and market dynamics.
  • Connects daily tasks to the company’s larger goals.
• Proactive Problem Solving:
  • Identifies challenges before they become crises.
  • Raises concern when something seems misaligned.
• Stakeholder Relations:
  • Grasps organizational dynamics and power structures.
  • Manages stakeholder relationships strategically, not just transactionally.

2. Chief of Staff

Evaluate how well your EA represents you and functions as your single point of contact:

• Executive Extension:
  • Makes decisions consistent with your judgment and values.
  • Knows when to speak on your behalf and when to schedule meetings.
• Organizational Influence:
  • Leverages their ‘grease’ to solve issues behind the scenes before they impact the principal’s ability to perform optimally.
  • Fosters cross-departmental collaboration.
• Information Flow Filter:
  • Preserves the principal’s focus by blocking out distracting information.
  • Synthesizes information into decision-ready briefs to support the executive.

3. Scheduler

Provide feedback on how well the EA has solved your scheduling bottlenecks to help you reclaim your time:

• Strategic Time Allocation:
  • Leaves space for unexpected meetings and last-minute appointments.
  • Blocks out time so the principal can focus on their core functions.
• Meeting Design:
  • Ensures meetings have clear objectives.
  • Schedule meetings during optimal times based on meeting objectives.
• Task Prioritization:
  • Solves bottlenecks when conflicts arise.
  • Balances short-term urgency with long-term priorities.

4. Project Manager

Evaluate your EA’s ability to plan and oversee crucial events such as stakeholder meetings and board retreats:

• Cross-Functional Coordination:
  • Can keep projects on course without your constant intervention.
  • Coordinates dependencies across teams effectively.
• Event Planning Skills:
  • Can anticipate future needs or challenges and design contingencies.
  • Creates elaborate systems that are easy to understand and follow.
• Time Management:
  • Sets realistic deadlines with reasonable buffers.
  • Escalates delays proactively to reduce the impact on the executive’s schedule.

5. Personal Assistant

Determine how well the EA supports your life outside of work:

• Personal Life Support:
  • Manages your personal emergencies with discretion.
  • Runs your personal errands effectively to help you reclaim more time.
• Family Coordination:
  • Plans and coordinates family events and special occasions.
  • Acts as an interface between the company and the principal’s household staff, vendors, and service providers.
• Privacy Protection:
  • Has good judgment about what information to share and what to protect.
  • Protects the executive’s family from unwanted intrusion.

Stephanie and I discuss these five performance multipliers extensively in our book “The 29-Hour Workday,” including how to reverse-engineer them to help your executive assistant understand your support needs, thereby strengthening your partnership. Additionally, you can schedule a one-on-one call with me, Ethan Bull, to learn how to effectively integrate these performance multipliers into your EA review. Schedule a call today.

Real-Time Feedback vs. Annual Reviews for Executive Assistants

The best EA performance reviews combine real-time and summative assessments. For example, you should provide feedback immediately if your EA makes a mistake, such as booking a hotel in the wrong suite or on the wrong floor. Additionally, recognize their exceptional performance in real-time to reinforce their self-efficacy. 

Even basic feedback, such as “The emails were so well-written I sent them as they were,” shows the EA that their support is directly elevating your performance. 

Usually, principals do not need to review their EAs annually if they are providing real-time feedback. But if needed, assess your EA’s performance from a “bird’s eye view” of how things are going, rather than speaking about specific tasks. 

For example, it would be counterproductive to revisit a missed hotel booking incident nine months after it happened. However, you could highlight that repeat late flight bookings have cost the business more because of higher ticket prices.

How to Build a Culture of Ongoing Feedback with Your EA

Given the significance of providing real-time feedback, it is in your best interest to create a culture of open communication to strengthen your partnership with your EA. 

Some principals find it challenging to establish a two-way feedback loop with their EAs because the partnership is lopsided. They deem EAs to be their subordinates who should do as they are told. 

However, exceptional principals understand that two-way feedback helps their EAs support them better, helping them reclaim even more time than before.

Create opportunities for ongoing feedback to strengthen your partnership with your EA:

• Seek Feedback: Encourage your EA to share their ideas, thoughts, and opinions on the tasks they are undertaking or projects they are managing.
• Regular Recognition: Applaud your EA for undertaking and completing challenging tasks to reinforce their self-drive.
• Create a Safe Environment: Reassure your EA that they are allowed to provide feedback and point out challenges that hinder their ability to support you more effectively.
• Show the Value of Feedback: Attribute specific workflow improvements to previous feedback to show why it is crucial. For example, mention how the EA’s suggestion on including the client’s name as part of the file name has helped reduce mix-ups when processing orders.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Let’s address some common questions about executive assistant performance reviews:

How Often Should Executive Assistants Be Reviewed?

We recommend using the rolling review technique, in which the principal provides real-time feedback on what they like and don’t like. For example, if you are not happy with how your EA prepared the recent meeting notes, tell them as early as possible, whether it’s after the session or at the end of the day. 

This enables your EA to refine future meeting notes based on the expectations you communicated.

What Are Examples of Instant Feedback for Executive Assistants?

Instant feedback doesn’t necessarily mean it is given immediately after the triggering actions, but rather within a reasonable time frame. Examples of instant feedback would be:

• Positive Feedback: Today, you made the right decision by asking the client to liaise with the sales office, even without my input.
• Constructive Feedback: The cab you booked to pick me up at the airport today arrived 20 minutes late. What happened and what can be done to avoid it?

How Do You Handle a Poor Performance Review for an EA?

The best way to handle a poor performance review for an EA is to first go over the role expectations. Next, identify the role the principal/EA played in causing the poor performance review, such as poor communication, technical gaps, or scheduling bottlenecks. 

Finally, provide action-oriented steps to address the challenges contributing to the poor performance, and provide ongoing feedback.

Should Executive Assistants Help Set Their Own Review Goals?

Yes. Executive assistants should help set their own review goals. However, this is easier said than done due to the power dynamics between the principal and the EA. 

Executives had to take the initiative to create a culture of feedback and encourage their EAs to set goals for the next review cycle based on current feedback.

Conclusion

How you conduct your executive assistant performance review is likely the difference between your current partnership and the one you hope to achieve. Principals who commit to providing a real-time feedback experience improve executive support, which helps them accomplish more while still reclaiming their time.

However, conducting a comprehensive EA performance review is time-intensive, which is why many executives are often against it. 

ProAssisting helps you eliminate this hassle by pairing you with well-vetted executive assistants, as we only hire the top 5% of applicants. Also, we maintain a 3:1 executive-to-assistant ratio, ensuring your EA has enough bandwidth to understand your expectations and preferences.

Additionally, our ProAssistants earn up to 75% of your monthly retainer, helping keep them motivated and committed to your long-term success.

Schedule a personalized call to learn how our pre-screened executive assistants can help reduce your workload.