Goals for executive assistants don’t work like goals in other jobs. Why? Because EAs exist to help their bosses succeed. Their main job is to make sure they don’t drop any balls (not screw up!).
An executive assistant works for the executive – it’s that simple. Their goals become the principal’s goals, and the principal’s goals become theirs.
The ultimate aim? Give executives more time to focus on what matters!
So whether you’re an assistant trying to improve or a principal wanting to help your EA grow, remember this: good EA goals start with understanding what the executive needs to achieve.
TL;DR – Goals for an Executive Assistant
Executive assistants need clear goals that balance immediate responsibilities with long-term career development.
Here’s a quick reference guide:
| Short-Term Goals | Long-Term Goals |
| Nail scheduling with no mix-ups | Become your executive’s go-to partner |
| Get faster at replying to emails | Take on bigger projects or strategic tasks |
| Build solid ties with the team and clients | Grow into a leadership role such as chief of staff (or even CEO) |
| Handle last-minute changes like a pro | Mentor newer assistants |
| Cut down on little mistakes in daily tasks | Boost your skills to earn more responsibility |
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Key Responsibilities of an Executive Assistant
Before we dig into goals, let’s get a clear picture of what your full-time or fractional executive assistant (EA) actually does for you.
From a 30,000-foot view, their main gig is to give you, the principal, time back. Zoom in to a 300-foot view, and it’s all about making sure your day runs like clockwork!
Think of your EA as your right-hand person—the one who keeps the chaos at bay so you can focus on the big stuff.
Here’s what they’re typically juggling:
- Scheduling: They’re your calendar wizard. They lock in meetings when they need to happen and carve out space for your strategic work.
- Communication: They’re the go-between, chatting with your team, clients, and anyone else who needs your attention.
- Task Management: From booking flights to tracking expenses, they handle the little things so you don’t have to. Curious about what else they can take off your plate? Check out this list of tasks to delegate to an executive assistant.
- Confidentiality: They deal with sensitive info, keeping it under wraps with total trust.
- Event Planning: Organizing everything from team meetings to major conferences.
- Personal Support: Sometimes, it’s picking up dry cleaning or booking a family appointment—stuff that keeps you sharp for the big wins.
In The 29-Hour Work Day, Ethan and Stephanie Bull break it down even further.
They say modern EAs are your operational backbone, and they nail it with five key performance multipliers that turn a good EA into a great one:
- Business Partner: They’re your sounding board, sorting info and speaking for you when it counts.
- Chief of Staff: They’re your single point of contact, managing the flow between you and your team.
- Project Manager: Think events, office moves, or travel arrangements—they run it all.
- Assistant/Scheduler: They keep your calendar tight and your time optimized.
- Personal Assistant: As a personal executive assistant, they weave your work and life together, handling personal tasks that boost your focus.
The goal? Time arbitrage—a fancy way of saying they give you more hours in your day while cutting your stress.
Why Goal-Setting is Essential for Executive Assistants
Setting goals for your executive assistant can feel counterintuitive. After all, their main purpose is to support your objectives, not pursue their own career ladder.
Their success is measured by how well they help you succeed.
But establishing clear goals for your EA remains crucial, and here’s why:
- Performance Clarity: Goals give you a framework to evaluate how effectively your EA is supporting your needs.
- Skill Development: When you set targeted objectives, your assistant develops capabilities that directly benefit your work.
- Value Assessment: Clear goals help you identify and measure the strategic contributions your EA makes beyond routine tasks.
- Return on Investment: Goal-setting ensures you’re maximizing the potential of this significant professional investment.
- Retention: EAs with well-defined objectives tend to stay engaged longer, reducing costly turnover and retraining.
As Melba J. Duncan, the president of The Duncan Group and the author of The New Executive Assistant, states in the HBR article “The Case for Executive Assistants,” strong assistants save their bosses much more than just time—they “ensure that meetings begin on time with prep material delivered in advance. They optimize travel schedules and enable remote decision making, keeping projects on track.“
Short-Term Goals for Executive Assistants
As an executive, you need your EA to jump in and make your day-to-day life easier from the get-go.
These short-term goals are the quick wins that set the foundation for a smooth operation, letting you focus on what matters most.
Here’s what your EA should aim for in the first few weeks or months:
1. Create Strong Relationships with the Internal Team, External Clients, and You
Your EA is your connection point. When they build trust with your team, clients, and you, everything flows better—fewer misunderstandings and faster decisions.
- How to Do It: Get them talking—regular chats with the team, check-ins with clients, and time with you to understand your style.
- Example: Set up weekly catch-ups with your top three contacts (internal or external) in the first month.
2. Handle the Day-to-Day Gyrations Without Making Mistakes
You can’t afford slip-ups in scheduling, to-do lists, or tasks.
An EA who handles these “consistently day in and day out” keeps your world steady.
- How to Do It: They need to master your calendar, track tasks religiously, and double-check everything—zero errors is the goal.
- Example: Go 30 days with no scheduling mix-ups or forgotten responsibilities.
3. Adjust Quickly in Context
Plans change fast, and you need an EA who can “roll with the punches” without missing a beat.
- How to Do It: They should stay ahead of their workload, leaving room to pivot when you throw a curveball.
- Example: Manage three last-minute changes in a week—like a rescheduled meeting or urgent task—without breaking a sweat.
These are your EA’s starting blocks. Nail these, and you’ll feel the difference fast—less stress, more focus.
Long-Term Goals for Executive Assistants
Being an EA is a marathon, not a sprint; you might have them by your side for years—maybe even a decade or more.
These long-term goals ensure your EA stays sharp, grows with you, and builds a foundation to stick around as a trusted partner.
Here’s what to aim for over the next year and beyond:
1. Keep Their Wits About Them in the Marathon
Even when the role feels like they “could do it with their eyes closed,” mistakes can’t creep in.
You need flawless logistics and responsibilities year after year.
- How to Do It: Encourage them to stay vigilant—keep systems tight so nothing “falls through the cracks,” no matter how routine it gets.
- Example: Deliver a full year of perfect task execution, even as the job becomes second nature.
2. Move Up When Opportunity Presents Itself
A great EA can grow from supporting lower-level execs to being your right hand—or even the CEO’s.
That evolution makes them more valuable to you.
- How to Do It: Give them chances to step up—shift them from basic admin to bigger projects or strategic support over time.
- Example: Go from supporting mid-level execs to serving the CEO within two years.
3. Match Their Personal Life with Their Professional Goals
An EA who’s stable and happy can stay with you for the long haul.
If they’re “making more money than they need to live” and managing debt or retirement, they’re less distracted and more focused on you.
- How to Do It: Support them in aligning family goals (if they have a partner) and personal finances with their career so they’re “set up for a long time.”
- Example: Help them plan retirement savings or clear debt within five years, keeping their head in the game.
These goals build an EA who’s not just a helper but a cornerstone of your success. They take time, but the payoff—a reliable, sharp, long-term partner—is huge.
Executive Assistant Goals’ Examples
Let’s see some specific examples of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) that executive assistants and part-time executive assistants can adapt to their roles:
Short-Term SMART Goal Examples:
- Better Calendar Management: “Cut down on meeting changes by half in the next three months by setting up a smarter calendar system with time buffers.”
- Faster Emails: “Speed up boss’s email responses by creating 15 ready-to-use templates for common questions within a month.”
- Smoother Travel: “Make a simple travel info sheet in two weeks with all boss’s preferences, loyalty numbers, and favorite vendors.”
- Meeting Readiness: “Create easy meeting prep sheets within two months that include who’s attending, past notes, and main talking points.”
- Easier Expenses: “Set up a simple digital receipt system within six weeks that makes expense reports 30% faster.”
Long-Term SMART Goal Examples:
- Becoming a Partner: “Within a year, learn enough about our industry to prepare briefings that answer questions before they’re asked.”
- Learning More: “Finish an assistant training program this year and use at least three new tricks to work better.”
- Helping Others: “In the next year and a half, create a simple program to help newer assistants, improving team stability by 25%.”
- Making Things Better: “Over two years, improve our ten most common office tasks to save 20% time on each.”
- Moving Up: “Within three years, grow from supporting multiple executives to becoming the CEO’s dedicated assistant.”
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Strategies for Achieving Executive Assistant Goals
Setting goals for your EA is just the start—getting them to stick is where the real payoff comes.
As an executive, you want your EA to nail these goals so you’re free to focus on the big wins.
Here’s how to use an executive assistant to make it happen, step by step:
- Focus Them on the Day-to-Day: “The more day-to-day tasks, projects, and responsibilities you can do successfully without disrupting your principal is a good way to start.” Tell your EA to nail the basics—scheduling, emails, travel—without bothering you. When they handle it flawlessly, you’ll feel the load lighten right away. You’d be amazed at what can be accomplished in just one week with an executive assistant.
- Let Trust Open Doors: That solid start builds confidence in them. It “will then open up opportunities for you to make suggestions on where you can add more value or will open up your principal’s brain on how they could even better use you and your support.” Once they’ve got the routine down, nudge them to suggest ways to step up—like tweaking your meeting flow or taking on a small project. It’s how they grow into a real partner.
- Break Goals into Chunks: Big goals can stall out, so split them up for your EA. Want them to handle logistics like pros? Start with perfecting your calendar this month. Small wins keep them moving forward, and you’ll see steady progress.
- Have Them Track Results: Ask your EA to log what’s clicking—maybe in a notebook or app. When they see they’ve aced a week without slip-ups, it keeps them sharp, and you’ll know exactly how they’re helping.
- Give Them Your Feedback: Tell your EA to check in with you—“Is this working for you?” Your take keeps their efforts tied to your priorities, so they’re always adding value where you need it most.
People who write down goals and review them are 33% more likely to succeed. So, tell your EA to grab a pen, start small, and build that trust.
Before you know it, they’ll be adding value you didn’t even see coming!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Let’s address some common questions about executive assistant goals.
How Often Should Goals for an Executive Assistant Be Reviewed?
Check your goals every three months to keep them fresh. Short-term ones might need a monthly, even weekly or daily peek—life moves fast!
What Are the Key Qualifications for Hiring an Executive Assistant?
When hiring an executive assistant, look for:
- Proven experience supporting senior executives
- Exceptional organizational and prioritization skills
- Advanced calendar and email management abilities
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Discretion and judgment with confidential information
- Adaptability and problem-solving capabilities
- Technical proficiency with relevant software
- Emotional intelligence and interpersonal awareness
- Proactive mindset and forward-thinking approach
- Industry knowledge relevant to your business
Look for emotional intelligence that informs soft skills when hiring. Technical skills can be taught, but interpersonal capabilities are foundational.
What Soft Skills Are Essential for an Executive Assistant Candidate?
As an executive, you need an EA whose soft skills make your life easier, not harder.
Emotional intelligence tops the list of executive assistant key skills—it’s the foundation that powers everything else.
An EA with self-awareness and the ability to read situations or pick up on your tone can adjust how they respond to you, your team, or any issue that pops up.
That’s what lets them handle pressure without cracking and anticipate your needs before you say them out loud.
Beyond that, you want support connecting the dots between service and hospitality—not just doing tasks but making you feel good about their work and role.
When they combine emotional intelligence with experience, they start looking around corners and thinking five steps ahead, pulling off moves that seem like magic.
What Are the Key Metrics to Measure an Executive Assistant’s Success?
You’ve got an EA—how do you tell if they’re a win? It’s tough to pin down with hard numbers because it’s more about how they make you feel as the principal.
If you’re sighing, rolling your eyes, or cringing every time you see their email, text, or voicemail, that’s a red flag—they’re dropping the ball.
But when you catch yourself thinking, “Wow, my EA just saved my ass,” that’s the gold standard.
Maybe they caught a double-booked meeting, got you to the airport on time, or tracked down materials you forgot at home halfway across the world—just in time for your big presentation. Those moments show they’re on it.
Success isn’t about a spreadsheet; it’s about trust and relief in the clutch.
Conclusion – Executive Assistant Goals
Your EA’s goals can unlock new levels of focus for you, letting you tackle what truly drives your business.
It’s about more than tasks—it’s about trust and time.
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