What you should and should not delegate to an Executive Virtual Assistant? 

“More hours in a day.”

If you asked the CEO of almost any company what they would wish for, they’d answer with “more time.” Why? Time is valuable, and as any busy CEO knows, it seems to get more and more scarce as the work stacks up. Employees and managers demand attention that also must be shared with board members and stakeholders. Some days, it just feels like working overtime doesn’t even make a dent in the amount of work you need to finish.

That’s where the art of delegation becomes crucial to business owners’ success. Harvard Business Review spent three years studying how workers can be more productive. The answer? Through eliminating or delegating unimportant tasks and replacing them with value-added ones.

“Our research indicated that knowledge workers spend a great deal of time — an average of 41 percent — on discretionary activities that offer little personal satisfaction and could be handled competently by others,” the researchers noted.

However, we all know that work doesn’t just disappear into thin air and that delegating tasks is much easier said than done. Instinctively, we gravitate toward tasks that make us feel busy and important, which might not always be the most productive work.

That’s where hiring an executive virtual assistant can make you a 10-times-more-productive person.

Tasks for Virtual Assistant | Executive Assistant Services

A good way to decide whether you can benefit from hiring an executive virtual assistant is to sit down and make a list of your most time-consuming tasks. Is it answering your email? Trying to find your files on your hard drive, Dropbox or Google Drive? Responding to all your social media mentions?

Hiring an executive virtual assistant to do all these tasks for you makes a huge, immediate impact in the number of tasks you are able to accomplish during the day as a business owner. And VAs aren’t just for high-level executives anymore; for many startups and small business owners, VAs offer the benefit of functioning as a full-time employee during the period of growth when your small business may not be able to afford to hire one.

Tasks you should delegate to an executive virtual assistant include:

• Business email tracking and response 

• Keeping and updating your business schedule 

• Making business travel plans, including airfare, hotels, and transportation

• Viewing and responding to all messages, likes, and follows on social media 

• Keeping your social media constant and up-to-date 

• Invoicing clients and keeping track of payment 

• Online research for new product development and keeping track of what your competition is up to 

• Content creation, distribution and management Landing page and site optimization 

But there are also some things you still have to do yourself.

Before you commit to hiring an Executive Virtual Assistant, you should have a pretty good idea of what you want your virtual assistant to do. Because anything outside of an Executive Virtual Assistant’s expertise there will be a learning curve, so patience is required.

Here are two tasks you should never ask your Executive Virtual Assistant to do.

Manage your employees.

A virtual executive assistant works with you and for you; not your other employees. While an executive virtual assistant should not be relied upon to help you manage your company, they can help you make business decisions by researching new product demand or market expansion.

Virtual Assistant Agency

When you hire a virtual office assistant, you need to take a hard look at the specific tasks that the agency offers. If you are one of those business owners who expects their employees to go above and beyond their responsibilities, realize that the scope of those responsibilities for a virtual assistant is much more narrow.

A virtual assistant-employer relationship works best when both employee and employer understand the terms and conditions of the arrangement. By understanding what tasks you should and should not delegate to an executive virtual assistant, you will have a richer and fulfilling VA experience. For more information about what our virtual executive assistants check out our virtual assistant blog or simply contact us today.