What's the difference between a personal assistant and an executive
assistant?
What's the difference between an executive assistant and a chief of
staff?
What's, an administrative assistant? Is that different? And what about
virtual assistants? There is some confusion about the titles so I'm
going to break it all down for you.
But please know that there are lots of organizations using titles in
creative and fairly loose ways and that's on them. If you're putting
together a job spec or you're hiring right now
I highly recommend taking a look at the Global Skills Matrix that has
been produced by the World Administrators Alliance.
That is the best document that has been produced to break down these
skills
according to the roles and that is what I use when I need to put
together a job description, I've popped a link to that in the video
description.
So let's start with what a personal assistant is and how that is
different to an executive assistant.
The big hint is in the title itself.
A personal assistant is involved in organizing the personal affairs of
an individual.
This might be a person in a business or a corporate environment, but
it might also be a high net worth individual a high-profile
personality or a business person who requires personal support.
A personal assistant will often look after the needs of a family, in
addition to their boss.
You can expect a PA to be running household, errands organising
dinners, party-planning,
hiring other household staff such as gardeners, booking family travel,
buying gifts, making appointments, looking after the car insurance,
arranging household maintenance.
They're doing things that make the life of their boss easier.
An executive assistant reports to an executive or a group of
Executives in a company, it's a position that assists with the running
of the business. Depending on the level of experience of the EA and
their specific role
an executive assistant will be scheduling meetings, managing their
bosses inbox, managing projects, dealing with vendors and suppliers
compiling briefs, preparing presentations,
taking minutes, booking business travel, maintaining company, documents,
managing administrative teams liaising with stakeholders and more.
The more senior the executive assistant, the more strategic, the role
becomes. A great executive assistant, understands the running of the
business, is a strategic thinker and a resourceful problem solver.
I'm going to talk about career progression for executive assistants in
another video
but I do want to address the title of
Chief of Staff
now.
This is a title that is becoming increasingly popular and as its
popularity increases
so too does its misuse.
A chief of staff is not only a right hand to the CEO but can also step
in on behalf of the CEO. They might represent them in meetings,
takeover projects
the CEO is unable to complete, help complete tasks for the leadership
team.
They research and understand revenue streams, create complex documents
and lead strategic initiatives.
So where does Administrative Assistant fit into all of
this?
An administrative assistant might be a role on its own, but it's also
often combined with being a receptionist or front of house team member.
An administrative assistant will assist with data entry, filing,
looking after meeting rooms, preparing outgoing mail,
organising couriers, ordering office supplies. Things that help the
daily running of an office.
And then we have virtual assistants, the profession that has been
growing for some time now but saw dramatic increase throughout the
early stages of the covid-19 pandemic.
A virtual assistant is usually a freelancer running their own
business and they provide administrative support to a range of
businesses.
Maybe it's a small business that doesn't have a full-time
Administrative Assistant.
Maybe it's a large organisation supplementing their administrative
team.
Some virtual assistants specialise or niche and others, provide a more
general service.
They do everything from bookkeeping and minute taking to social media
content creation, and travel planning.
They perform many of the tasks administrative, personal and executive
assistants do and they run their own business
performing these tasks for multiple people or organisations.
So there you have it.
These are the differences between personal and executive, assistants
as well as administrative assistants, virtual assistants and a little
bit about the chief of staff role. At EA How To
we welcome all assistants at every stage of their career.
Whether you're just starting out or you're a seasoned professional,
join us and become part of the most valuable community of assistants
around the globe.
You'll get access to incredible webinars, resources, small group
coaching sessions,
and the kindest most supportive community of assistants you'll ever
meet. Visit eahoeto.com to find out more.
I'll see you in the next video.
Bye for now.