A Summary of The CEO's Secret Weapon by Jan Jones

This well-received book originally published in 2013 by Jan Jones focuses on how great leaders and their assistants maximize productivity and effectiveness. To help you gain more insights from this book, you'll notice that most of the concepts highlighted are those that are applicable to XPs like you.

The four main sections of the book will be studied in this module. These sections are:

Part 1: What an exceptional Executive Assistant can do for you

This part explores the relationship between successful leaders and their executive assistants.

Part 2: Crucial Characteristics of an exceptional Executive Assistant and Why they should matter to you

Here, Jones describes the key qualities that every good executive assistant embodies and how they are important not only for everyday life but for the success of an executive.

Part 3: Hiring an exceptional Executive Assistant

This part of the book describes the processes, resources, and skills needed to hire a great executive assistant.

Part 4: How to set things up -- Laying the Groundwork

This part provides a guide to digging deeper into the relationship between leaders and assistants and how to build successful partnerships. Like any other business collaboration, it's a two-way street. To strengthen the partnership, executives must give back.

Your EA is your Secret Weapon and Business Partner

An EA is a Direct Representative and the Ambassador of an executive's personal brand.

The EA that a CEO hires speaks volumes about them. The executive assistant becomes a direct representative, an ambassador of the executive's personal brand, and a reflection of themselves. It’s not enough to have an assistant who simply looks the part. They should show consistency in following through on all levels.

An EA is the executive's invaluable business partner.