Get your office right

“Stop Claudine putting things in her calendar,” the flipchart said. My central team had just come back from a planning session and had left the papers from their brainstorm on a desk next to mine. I smiled. I knew my place. They were in charge, thank goodness.??

Getting your central team or office right is critical to your success when you step into a senior executive role. This may seem like a grand name for what might only be 2-3 people, but their importance far outweighs their size. Those few people don’t just help you manage the many competing demands on your time, they help seed the culture you want to build across your department or organisation. Done right, your office can complement your strengths and make up for your blind spots while being the glue that holds everything together.??

In this case I was getting in the way of a well-oiled machine. I had an awesome PA who managed to make everyone feel loved without giving them all the time they wanted in my diary. And I had a talented Head of Office who could tell me in an instant what things I did and didn’t need to read among the 250 emails I received every day. I trusted her handling and judgement implicitly.?

In your organisation the job titles of these different roles might vary – you might have a Diary Manager and a Private Secretary or an Executive Assistant and a Chief of Staff – but the principle of having a close-knit team around you that helps you navigate the demands of your role is the same. When I ask senior leaders – from Permanent Secretaries to CEOs –what they know now they wish they'd known then, ‘get your office right’ is always on the list.?

So what does this mean in practice??

To get your office right:

??Prioritise it: your office protects you, represents you, advances your vision and keeps you sane, so start here and act fast?

??Be clear on roles and be flexible: have named leads for key pieces of planned cross-cutting work and build in the capacity (and attitude) to flex in response to ad hoc commissions or unexpected events. This article has some great questions and a framework for thinking through what kind of support you might need. There's a difference between getting excellent administrative support from your PA / EA and trusted management, leadership and thought partnership from a Chief of Staff or Private Secretary, but both matter

??Allow for a bit of trial and error - including your own inability to cede control of your diary and decisions! Consult others who seem to have cracked it and adapt to your context?

??Champion them: value what they do and explain, celebrate and reward their role visibly across your system and especially with your senior leaders. This sets the standard for how you expect others to treat them. It can help to talk and think about them as the foundation of your department or organisation, not the back-office?

Or getting it wrong… some of the traps:

?Not spending enough time with the team – they need to get to know you and your priorities so they can make judgments on your behalf and mirror your leadership. And if the team is going to help you address your blind spots they need to know what they are (which of course means you do too) so be reflective and open about what you need and keep it under review

??Putting your weakest people there in order to “protect delivery” – these roles matter and need skill and talent. They should be coveted positions that the best people in your organisation or sector want to do and should provide a springboard to other great opportunities

??If you’re part of a bigger organisation, be careful about your office becoming a postbox for corporate commissions. Empower the team to add value: to set up systems that collect data once and use it many times, and to shape how “the centre” operates

The head of your office is a critical post. Here are a few suggestions on what they might do and what skills they need (gathered from people doing the job):?

Responsibilities

• Supporting you to make decisions: helping you sort through what actually needs deciding, making connections across the system and getting you the information, insight and data you need?
• Looking ahead: ensuring that you’re prepared for what’s coming up. Commissioning briefing, input and expertise from the business but also shaping and improving the quality of how you’re supported over time
• Expanding your thinking space: not just by freeing-up time in your diary but also by being a trusted confidant who is not afraid to speak the truth and take on difficult questions with you

Profile

• A great listener: able to make others feel heard on your behalf and to pick up the nuance of what’s really going on in the organisation
• A consummate relationship-builder: because it’s those relationships across the business that really get the job done, especially in an emergency
• A reliable judge: can prioritise through the noise, focus your attention and communicate (and make) decisions on your behalf wherever possible?

Who has made the biggest difference to your office and how???