Leah Warwick: Hi, everyone. I’m Leah Warwick, and you’re listening to “The Admin Edge.” Our in-person training event, EA Ignite, is built for partnering and leading executive administrators, including EAs who manage other EAs. We could not think of a better duo to talk about this subject than Lisa Olsen, a long-time EA manager and trainer, and Mia Lane, an EA manager and ASAP Advisory Board member. Let’s listen in to their conversation at EA Ignite.

Mia Lane: Hello, I’m Mia Lane, Manager of Executive and Administration at UKG and Board Chair of EA Ignite. I am so excited to be joined today by Lisa Olsen, Professional Development Specialist at Lisa Olsen Professional Development, and one of the dynamic trainers leading sessions here at EA Ignite. Welcome to the podcast, Lisa.

00:01:03

Lisa Olsen: Thank you, Mia.

Mia Lane: It is so great to have you here, and I’m going to just jump right in. What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned early on, when you first started managing a team of EAs?

Lisa Olsen: Wow, that’s a great question, and I think if we had about four hours, I would definitely be able to dive into all the specifics.

Mia Lane: I would love to talk to you for four hours, because every time I attend one of your sessions at APC or EA Ignite, you just drop nuggets and gems all throughout the session.

Lisa Olsen: Thank you.

Mia Lane: But let me let you get back to your answer.

Lisa Olsen: Oh, well, it comes with a lot of time spent in the field.

Mia Lane: In the space, okay.

00:01:41

Lisa Olsen: I have been a full-time C-suite EA for many, many, many years, and learned a lot from the mistakes I’ve made. But when it comes to being an EA manager, I was in that role for about eight years and had a team of eight that directly reported to me.

When I first stepped into that role — you sort of step into a role like that thinking, oh, how hard can this be, right? But I learned very quickly that earning their respect and their trust was the foundation for anything else that I was going to do. So that was probably the most important lesson for me, stepping into that role, and that it wasn’t about me. It was about them.

There was just this huge wave of kind of humility that came over me when I got into that head space of recognizing that my job and my role was to help them be better at their job, for them to recognize their potential so that we all got better, yeah.

00:02:50

Mia Lane: Awesome. So what do you think is the biggest mindset shift that an EA needs to make when stepping into a leadership or manager role?

Lisa Olsen: Well, the biggest challenge is when they come from being a peer and then they get a promotion into being an EA team lead or an EA manager, right?

There are a lot of challenges that go along with that, but I think the most important thing is to recognize that there is a line, right, and to do that self-assessment, self-awareness of what their strengths and skills are, and then know what each of the individual strengths and skills are of your team members, so that you can tap into that and utilize your team and motivate your team in a way that’s going to help everybody do their work better.

00:03:43

So if someone is looking to step into that role, first they really have to do like a self-SWAT analysis, right? What are their strengths? What are their gaps? What are the obstacles to stepping into that role? To make sure it’s something that they really want to do, because it’s not just a super-easy thing to step into. As you know, you’re doing it. You’re living it, too.

Mia Lane: Yes.

Lisa Olsen: You really want to know for sure if it’s a good fit. It’s okay if it’s not for you, if it’s not right for you.

Mia Lane: Yes, that’s true.

Lisa Olsen: But there are a lot of different reasons why people want to step into it. It might be because you are a nurturer. It might be because you really care. You want the promotion. You want a little more money. You’ve got to know what your why is, right, of why you want to step into that type of role.

Mia Lane: Yes. And I actually experienced that myself being promoted and going from a peer relationship to a manager relationship.

Lisa Olsen: What were some of the challenges you faced? [laughter]

00:04:53

Mia Lane: Some of the challenges that I faced was I had a person who didn’t really think that I was capable of dividing the two. That was a challenge. But what I did was I said how I was going to operate as a manager, and then I walked the talk. I led by example. I don’t like to be micromanaged, so I’m not going to micromanage people that are under me. That’s very important because, as a manager, you want everybody to succeed, but there are times where we have to let people fail because the only way that they can learn from the way they failed is for them to fail. And then it’s our responsibility to step in and coach them and mentor them in those areas to become better.

00:05:48

Lisa Olsen: Yeah, help them recognize: How could they have done that differently? How could they have stepped into that situation or do that task a little differently so that the outcome would’ve been more positive, right? That’s the role of a good EA manager.

Mia Lane: Right. And I am grateful for — I manage a team of four, and I’m grateful for the relationship that we have because we all learn from each other. I said, “I may be the manager, but we are all in this together.”

And we just have a great connection, because each person on my team has a strength in something, and we all tap into each other as we need to. It’s great when you have that.

Lisa Olsen: You have it figured out. That is awesome.

Mia Lane: Well, I’m trying.

Lisa Olsen: They are lucky to have you. You’re like the posterchild for being a great EA manager.

Mia Lane: Okay, no, you’re going a little bit too far. We’re going to have to bleep that one out, okay? [laughter]

00:06:45

So, for EAs aspiring to lead, why is discovering their why not just helpful, but essential to becoming an authentic and effective leader?

Lisa Olsen: Well, I think the answer is right there in your question. If you don’t know your why, or you don’t know the reason why you want to step into it, you’re not going to be authentic. You’re going to be kind of faking your way through it or pretending, or you’ll be micromanaging or something, right? So you do really need to have that authenticity, and that’s what you bring into the role.

I think, in my experience, that’s what my team appreciated the most was the fact that I wasn’t trying to be somebody or something that I wasn’t. If I had a question or I wasn’t 100% confident, I let them know that. I said, “Hey, you know what? I’m not 100% sure about that, but let’s talk it through. Let me do some research. Let me go talk to HR. Let me figure it out.”

00:07:44

Instead of giving them an answer that they know isn’t really in your wheelhouse, but really being candid and open and honest. That’s what helped me to build a good, strong, mutually respective relationship with my team members, because they knew two things: A) I always have their back. If they came and asked me a question, even as simple as, “Hey, when was the last time HR approved an increase for our range?” or something like that, I wouldn’t just make something up. I would say, “You know what? Let me check on that and get back to you.”

They appreciated that follow through. I think follow through and integrity. If you say you’re going to do something, you’re going to do it. It’s so important.

Mia Lane: It’s really important to allow your team to have a voice. As managers, I ask for feedback from my team, and they ask for feedback from me, because it is a two-way street. Just because sometimes you get feedback that may not be the feedback that you want to hear, but feedback is someone’s opinion. What happens when you receive feedback and you act on it is growth.

00:09:05

There have been so many times where I’ve seen where people get feedback and it may be not what they want, and so they don’t want to [take] it.

Lisa Olsen: Well, we hear the word “feedback” and there’s this connotation about it that’s negative. So when I was working with my team and needing to give them feedback, I usually changed the word. I share this in my workshops. I gave them “feed forward.” In other words, I tried to help them understand that, “Okay, this was the outcome of this particular situation. I’ve got to make some comments on it, but I want to make sure that you understand and recognize how we could do it differently and work together,” so that they leave the room feeling not dejected because they’ve been criticized or there’s been a comment made about something.

00:09:53

But, instead, they leave feeling like, “Oh, my gosh. I didn’t see that and now I do, and now I know how to approach that task or that situation or that person differently moving forward.” So I love that concept of feed forward because they’re not as scared of that. We think of feedback as ugh-oh. It makes us cringe, right?

Mia Lane: I’m going to bring that up in my next team meeting. I like that.

Lisa Olsen: Yeah, and it works.

Mia Lane: One thing that I kind of incorporated in my team initially, when I started managing, was once a quarter have a meeting with your executive, not to go over normal calendaring or travel and all this stuff, but to just talk about you. Ask your executive, “What am I doing well?” Ask your executive, “Where can I improve?” At first, they were like, “I’m not warm and fuzzy on that.” And I said, “But just go with me,” because when you get in a regular cadence of having that conversation with your executive, they’re not going to wait for that quarterly check-in. Whenever they see something, they’re going to be like, “Hey, Gina, by the way, can you do this, this way?” Or, “I liked when you did that.” And it’s going to build your partnership. And once they incorporated that and they started seeing that —

00:11:12

Mia Lane: Did they notice a difference?

Lisa Olsen: They noticed a difference. And so now they have no problem asking. And not only asking their executives for their feedback, but giving the executive feedback from their perspective. So it’s good.

Mia Lane: Exactly. So let’s see. If an EA listening today could take just one action this week to start leading with more confidence, what would you recommend?

Lisa Olsen: I would say having a second-mile mindset, just kind of getting into that headspace of going the extra mile, doing whatever you can do to shine, just being visible, being an ambassador for the role. It’s how we walk and talk the role.

00:12:06

If you’re aspiring to be a manager, that’s so important to be walking and talking it in how you approach the role, how you do your work, how you feel about the work that you’re doing. And then also being visible. So many assistants want to just kind of shy away, and they want to be a manager, but yet they don’t understand what they can do now to be ready for that.

Just finding those ways to be visible. If you’re a remote worker, getting on camera, turning those cameras on, right? Engage. Offering to do the — if your company does experience reflections before a meeting, offer to do the experience reflection. Just find those ways to step into that leadership space whenever you can. I think it’s really important.

00:12:57

Mia Lane: Nice. So how can an EA turn their why into a leadership superpower that inspires and elevates those that they manage and support?

Lisa Olsen: Well, if they know their why, and they’re trying to execute that every day, then that’s half the battle, right? That’s going to be instilled in them as a manager, and they’re going to want to see their team succeed.

If you step into being a manager and you don’t have that mindset, if it’s more about you than it is about the team, you’re in it for the wrong reason, right? It’s always about the team. You have to have that good mix of humility and grit is what I like to call it. Just that essence of humility. Jim Collins, who wrote the book “Good to Great” talks about that Level 5 Leadership formula.

00:13:48

That formula is the will to do the job — in other words, your desire to be a really good, strong EA manager — and having that ounce of humility that prevents you from thinking, “I’m it. I’m everything. Look at me.” No. It’s about “Look at my team, and look at how we’re succeeding and we’re thriving because we’re collaborating and working together.”

It’s not for everybody, but for those that step into the space and, like you said, just really approach it with a very humble and servant-leadership mindset, they’re the ones that are going to be successful. Yeah, for sure.

Mia Lane: That’s good.

Lisa Olsen: It is all about servant leadership, which some people don’t understand because servant leadership is only one style of leadership, but it’s valuable because it doesn’t mean we’re subservient. It means our goal is the other team members. It’s wanting them to be successful, noticing their skills. How can I motivate my team to be successful and to reach their potential?

00:15:00

Mia Lane: That’s good feedback. So we do have a listener question, submitted by one of the community members.

Lisa Olsen: Okay, I’m ready.

Mia Lane: They have written: “How can EAs coach and develop other admins, especially when leading without formal authority or a manager title?”

Lisa Olsen: Well, I was telling the attendees earlier today that in the word “leadership” are those two letters “EA.” So we’re already in there. We’re right smack dab in the middle of leadership, right? EA is right there.

So I think just having a great attitude. I think sometimes we take attitude for granted as EAs. Because we’re so busy and get so wrapped up in all the things that we have to do, we want to be careful that we don’t wear that to-do list as a badge of honor. How assistants can help others is just by being that authentic, recognizing that it’s about the whole, doing your job as best you can, right, having a great attitude, and just recognizing the amazing accomplishments that can be made when we collaborate, when we work together, and not being siloed.

00:16:16

So many assistants have just fallen into that trap of being siloed. Do you see that as well?

Mia Lane: Yeah, I see that, too.

Lisa Olsen: It’s hard. And we don’t want to fall into that. We want to do our part to stay engaged, to help others be motivated.

Mia Lane: Empower and lift each other up.

Lisa Olsen: It’s not rocket science. It really isn’t.

Mia Lane: It’s not.

Lisa Olsen: But when I think about my long career and what’s made me successful, it always — and people ask me that a lot, they’ll say, “What do you think are the top things that have made you successful as a manager and as a high-level EA?”

00:16:51

It comes down to two things: attitude and relationships. That’s it. How I go about my daily work, how I treat other people, and the relationships that I build. You can learn the software. You can learn Excel. You can learn all that stuff. And even in this age of AI, I really do think that we have to get to that place where we remember that we still need to be human, right? We still need to have that human connection. Whether you want to step into being an EA manager or not, the humanness still needs to be there.

Mia Lane: That’s true. Well, you know, I have really enjoyed talking with you today, and I’d like to thank you for joining us here on “The Admin Edge.” But Lisa, where can our listeners find you online?

00:17:40

Lisa Olsen: They can find me on LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn, just Lisa Olsen, or on my website at lisa-olsen.com. So, yeah, reach out. I’m happy to connect with people, love learning, love connecting, so whatever I can do to help further the cause of this amazing career that’s been a chosen career for me.

Mia Lane: Wonderful. Thank you for joining us today.

Lisa Olsen: Thank you. It’s been fun.

[music playing]

Leah Warwick: Thank you for listening to “The Admin Edge,” produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals, original music and audio editing by Warwick Productions, with audio and video production by 5Tool Productions. If you liked this podcast, please leave us a nice review, five stars, and subscribe. If you’d like to submit a listener question, you may do so on our website at ASAPorg.com/podcast.