OK… I’m about to take the plunge. Next month, if God wills, I hope to have an assistant. (If you immediately notice Brigadas arriving in a much more timely fashion after that, will you make a note to try to be a “true fan” of Brigada come November? :-) ) The question is: how did you help your assistant become GREAT? Did you have a book or distance learning curriculum that you asked him or her to tackle? Was there a particular strategy or approach you used? Was there a “magic bullet” that made your first month more successful? Are things still going okay? If you can shed any helps, hopes, instruction, testimonies, case studies, or words of wisdom, I’d greatly appreciate it. Maybe a few other Brigada participants can learn too? You know the drill: just find the online version of this item by using the link below, then click “Comment” and share your case study. And… thanks in advance for your help!!!
-helping your assistant catch the inspiring vision of the organization or ministry they will serving by letting them attend key events, meetings.
-introduce them personally to those they will be regularly communicating.
-Start with smaller tasks, follow up immediately and give appropriate feedback. Slowly build on those tasks as proficiency is demonstrated.
-If you are not satisfied with performance on a particular task, communicate that in a gracious constructive way right from the start
-set specific hours, or expectations, stick to them until a set evaluation time and then renegotiate if change is needed.
Popular blogger Michael Hyatt has written on using virtual assistants. Your assistant may not be virtual, but his ideas may help you.
The challenge is sometimes seeing your assistant’s highest potential in his/her gifts and to communicate, lead, correct, empower, and provoke that potential continually. Be a strong, honest leader that invests trust and is trustworthy. And I agree, communicate the vision of where you want to go and your standards/goals so the assistant has a clear view of what to aim at. This sight works better than just checklists because it empowers people facing lots of variables that a checklist can’t possibly cover. As graciously as possible, redirect and evaluate how results met/didn’t meet goals, why, how to improve, etc.
My current boss of 12 years trained me with the sink-or-swim method. She hired me and then went on vacation for 3 weeks, leaving me to do her job and mine. Eventually, I swam! Sometimes the best training is to collapse and cry out, “help me, Lord!” We call it digging down deep and pulling up a little bit of Jesus.