The Strategic EA is a bit of a misnomer...

When you are fighting a disease, which I was all through August and half of September, it did give me some time in my delirious state to really think about this profession in ernest.

What is a professional social media fad/trend vs reality?

Because in this profession we seem to be in a feeding frenzy of trends and misnomers, which don't marry up to what is really going on out there.

Many will despise me for saying this but I do think the concept of the 'Strategic EA' is a bit of a misnomer for some.

When I launched EPAA I said one of the unusual problems we have as a profession is that the majority percentage are not in this for a career.

Indeed, I quoted 70% of non-career vs 30% career-orientated EAs for the UK. I still stand by these figures now.

I was clearly in that 30% and pushed my role to great heights. I have no issue with non-career folk, but I always refused to be benchmarked against those people when it came to salaries and bonuses. My value add was far greater. There is no arrogance there, I just speak to facts.

Just before the pandemic, an EA said to me at one of our events in the Q and A section that she felt the strategic EA concept had been missold.

No matter how much she tried, her bosses at respective firms did not want her to operate strategically. Her comment attracted an almost full room of nodding heads in agreement.

She continued that I and other trainers and speakers had sold a concept of the role, which wasn’t actually reality for so many.

I’ve heard this many times since then and often pondered on it...

I’ve noticed a number of EAs now put their job titles on LinkedIn as ‘Strategic EA’ rather than just EA, and actually this is no bad thing, as it tells bosses that this is a career EA.

However, let’s get down to the facts and bare basics - most British bosses do not see the role of the EA strategically. I can't speak to the rest of the world, and don't anymore. Always happy to trade stories and share best practice, but my research and thinking is very much based around the UK.

When this was being promoted en-masse in our industry as the way forward, we saw countless presentations on how to operate more strategically but we failed to bring the bosses and HR department on that journey with us in a majority way.

It’s simply pot luck as to whether you get a boss and/or firm that supports this role really getting involved.

Ask youself this - do the job advertisements this year scream strategic EA to you? Take a look at the job boards now and take a look for yourselves.

Do you really understand what being a strategic EA means? or are you getting information about this from the trends and echo chamber blogs?

To quote EA trainer Anel Martin "It is a component but not the whole picture".

It certainly should be how the role is performed by the majority and I think we will get there eventually with changing bosses minds on this but…

I would say probably 10% of our profession is operating strategically and many more want to. It’s not for want of trying on their part. It has been a tiring game for many trying to explain this to British executives.

To all the EAs who have successfully managed to educate your employers about the true EA role, my absolute hat off to you and I salute you in every which way!

The Adam Fidler Academy runs a two-day course on The Strategic EA for anyone wanting some robust professional development on this - https://adamfidler.academy/2-day-courses

I’m not trying to downbeat about the profession here, but I do think we need to tackle these sorts of things head on now… we need to marry up what is reality vs what needs to change and happen.

We are running an EPAA Fireside discussion in a matter of weeks, which about 'Mythbusting the EA profession' and will talk about all these fads and misnomers. Look out for the booking link shortly, but it is sure to be a super lively discussion, and will likely offend some too!