How to Ensure Your Virtual Assistant Loves Working With You
Apr 23, 2024Season 2Episode 5
Karalee Gault
Ever feel stuck in a job that drains your joy? I sure have, in this episode, we explore how to create a workspace that virtual assistants (VAs) will love. We discuss the importance of aligning a VA's tasks with their passions, understanding their preferences, and communicating effectively. By getting real about expectations, providing feedback and reassurance, and creating a culture of open communication and accountability, we can foster a successful partnership where your VA thrives. Join us as we explore actionable strategies to ensure your VA becomes your right-hand person, and share your experiences and strategies with us.
Have a question, want to chat with Karalee? Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!
BONUS, want added to the email list to not miss out on all the goodies, sign up HERE.
Ever feel stuck in a job that drains your joy? I sure have, in this episode, we explore how to create a workspace that virtual assistants (VAs) will love. We discuss the importance of aligning a VA's tasks with their passions, understanding their preferences, and communicating effectively. By getting real about expectations, providing feedback and reassurance, and creating a culture of open communication and accountability, we can foster a successful partnership where your VA thrives. Join us as we explore actionable strategies to ensure your VA becomes your right-hand person, and share your experiences and strategies with us.
Have a question, want to chat with Karalee? Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!
BONUS, want added to the email list to not miss out on all the goodies, sign up HERE.
Hello, welcome back. Today we are diving into part three of the series of how to bring on a virtual assistant effectively, and today's deep dive is how to ensure your VA loves working with you. All right, so if you've had a job that you don't like, you know how sucky that can be. So when you're hiring a virtual assistant, chances are they're a freelancer or they work inside an agency, so the best part about this is usually they are doing the tasks that they enjoy. That's what they're marketing and actively looking for. So how can you ensure that your virtual assistant you hire actually loves working with you? It's a question I've asked myself multiple times over the years, and here's what I've gathered. Ask them what tasks or projects light them up. Ask them how they like to communicate. Ask them if they are comfortable asking questions when they aren't sure how to do something. Ask them about their experience as a virtual assistant with other clients. Is there something that you need in order to do your job effectively? Do you have the capacity to take on what I'm proposing for you to support me with? And if you're intending on keeping this VA long term, ensure you are both in agreeance that that is the goal, and does this VA love what you do as a business owner and feels in alignment with it? Every single bit of this is super important. Now, the key here is to ensure that the tasks and responsibilities are things that your virtual assistant truly loves to do, which means prioritizing becomes easier, showing up each day is simpler and they're more likely to be invested in this partnership. All right, so personally, I've taken jobs because I know how to do it, not because I love it and as a small agency owner now I ensure that the virtual assistants I bring on get to do things that they enjoy. They're on a mission with me and we are openly communicating about what they need and what needs adjustments overall. So very open to feedback and communication.
Karalee:
Right, one of the biggest things I want to ensure you get from this episode is this okay, many VAs know they are good at something, but sometimes need reassurance that they are genuinely supporting you as the CEO. They need to know how you're feeling about the partnership. There's nothing worse than thinking you're doing a great job and finding out you're not, or thinking you're doing an awful job, just to find out that you're doing a spectacular job, all right. So I've been on both sides of this, and it's way better to work with a CEO that is open to feedback, open to adjustments and open to pausing and exploring other options when something isn't going quite right. So, as a CEO and as a leader, I always assume I didn't give proper instructions or I didn't ask the right questions to ensure that the virtual assistant gets the job done to satisfactory.
Karalee:
The caveat here is that the virtual assistant also needs to feel comfortable to ask you questions or ask for accommodations when the need arises. So the key here is to open communication. Ok, open communication is a form of accountability as well, and I'm going to end this episode with this Create an environment where your virtual assistant feels comfortable coming to you when they aren't going to hit deadlines or when they need support. You may not get this right the first time okay, I sure didn't. I've had to make plenty of adjustments. But we all learn, and when we learn and make changes, that's when you get to grow together.
Karalee:
So I'm curious to hear from you what do you think when you're hiring a virtual assistant or maybe you are the virtual assistant and when a CEO hires you?
Karalee:
I kind of want to open the conversation here how do you ensure that you take on jobs as the virtual assistant that you love, and if you're the CEO listening, how do you ensure that you are bringing on a virtual assistant and they get to really love how they work for you?
Karalee:
Okay, I want to hear from you Send me a DM and or you can send me an email, Karalee@theproductivityimpact. com and because I really want to open up this sort of conversation because it's not talked about enough. We have so many jobs that we don't like People are stuck in them. So we want to make sure that when you're a freelancer or that you're a CEO right, you're that virtual assistant, you're that CEO, whatever that looks like that we're doing jobs that we genuinely enjoy, because this also boosts the quality of life and the partnership that you have with each other is going to be amplified as well. So I look forward to hearing from you and all of your insights. If you have any other questions about any of the other episodes in this series as well, go ahead and hit me up. All right, we'll talk soon.