What is in a name? Recently there was an article on LinkedIn as to whether the name Secretary or Personal Assistant or Executive Assistant mattered. Respondents, as usual, fell into different categories. A very generalized assessment of the responses seemed to indicate that it did not matter what name was used provided there was respect, recognition and suitable remuneration.
We would advocate that there is a lot in the name used. In discussing it with several Executives they suddenly had a very different understanding when they were asked whether the person on their team was an Assistant or a Partner. Partners bring different things to the party and being a Partner adds a whole different dimension to the relationship. Just for starters they have a common culture and share in the achievement of the Vision and the goals.
Without an effective partnership the Executive Office can still exist and/or achieve but will most probably not be in the high performing category.
By the way, if you need to know if a Powerful Partnership is in place in an Executive Office there is a simple evaluation test that requires a simple one-sentence answer.
