Suppose you've just hired your first virtual assistant and are still at the edge of choosing one. If you've had one for a while, building that trust and confidence in a virtual assistant can be challenging, especially if you've never done this before, or it might have been a little bit of just the newness of it.
You may have had an assistant before, but they didn't work out, and now you're going into a new one. How do you build that trust and confidence with them? I will now walk you guys through what that would look like for you and your assistant.
TAKE RISKS
First, you must not be afraid to take a risk in choosing one. You can take all the time you want or need in choosing your virtual assistant, but the reality is that you need to choose one because they might have other options, and it's also unfair for them to wait for you to choose them. So go ahead and take the risk!
After you've gone through an interview process, filtered out their skills, and checked what they could do. For other things like this, make sure that you've already gone through all of this assessment. Let the assistant take a little time to find out if they're going to be hired or not because, again, it's just going to be unfair for them to any other opportunities they might have. It's also a way for them to build confidence, like, hey, they chose me! They picked me within a time, and they could see other candidates, and they chose me, so that's for you on your end—you are confident with your decision. I've chosen this person for these different reasons, and I will move forward.
SET GOALS
As you're bringing on a new assistant, it's essential to let them know what the goals are for your company—and what their role is in getting those goals accomplished.
This will give them context about what your business is about and help you start thinking about what they can do to help get closer to your goals. You'll also be able to set some key performance indicators (KPIs) and see how they're doing against those.
The best way to do this is by having a meeting where you let them know what you're hoping they'll accomplish within the next 30-60-90 days. This will give them context and an idea of what's expected of them while also building trust and confidence that they can do what they're supposed to!
DELEGATE TASKS
If you're not used to delegating tasks and responsibilities, it can feel uncomfortable at first.
But the more you do it, the more comfortable you'll become, and soon enough, your assistant will be doing things for you that you never thought possible.
It starts with giving them a few little tasks off of your plate, like answering emails or scheduling meetings.
Then as they get more comfortable with what they're doing, you can start giving them more complex projects to complete. It doesn't matter if they're new or experienced—they'll learn on the job and grow in their role at your company.
You have to give them time to train and get up to speed before they can take on big projects. But once they've proven reliable and capable of completing tasks independently (and without supervision), they'll be able to take on even more significant challenges without needing further guidance from above!
EMBRACE FAILURE
It's something that people usually struggle with at this point in their business, but it's so important to keep a positive mindset and realize that failures are learning experiences. You can't expect your assistant to be perfect immediately—they will make mistakes. As long as they're not repeating the same mistakes repeatedly (and they're making progress!), that's okay!
Give them room to take the initiative, explore new things, and do what they think is best for the business (even if it isn't what you've instructed). You'll find that your assistants become more confident in their abilities and more willing to take ownership of their work.
I've also seen a lot happen when an entrepreneur or one of our clients assigns a task to their assistant because it's so easy. It's like unconscious competence—you already know the steps without looking at them.
But then you miss a couple of things, and you know there has to be a b and c, but you have a shortcut that can get you from a to d. You have to make sure that you have that patience for them to understand that, hey, they don't have the whole context of my business just yet, and they will make mistakes because, for me, I've learned all of these shortcuts, and I understand all this stuff; they don't at least not yet.
RECOGNIZE GROWTH
It's essential to recognize the growth they make and celebrate their wins. This is a great way to reaffirm to yourself that they're on the right path and the right person for you because they were able to follow through on this task.
It also helps build that bond and loyalty because they will feel seen. They will feel like you know what they've done and understand what they were able to do, so when you do this, have that recognition, celebrate that win, however big or small it is. It builds confidence between the two of you. This confidence in them and trusting them to do this task again builds confidence in you that "Hey, I can now successfully delegate this task to them."
START GIVING MORE
As time goes on, you can see what your assistant is capable of. When you start giving them more responsibilities, they will come up to a point where a task that usually took them four hours now takes them two or one because they've automated it and made it better.
My best example is always video editing. Your assistant could take eight hours when they started, but now they know the nuances. They know minor things—when to cut and clean things up. Now it takes them four hours, or if they have templates… even shorter than that! Giving them new responsibilities will help build that confidence again because they're taking on more things, challenging them in different ways and better ways to grow themselves.
GIVE THEM ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL LIFE
One of the ways you can build your virtual assistant's confidence and trust is by giving them access to your personal life. This may sound scary, but it will help them manage events like birthdays and family gatherings and create invitations for you. Whatever this can look like for you will help build that other layer of: "Hey! They can do this for me. It's not just going to work because they're my assistant."
It will help build the context your assistant needs about you in different parts of your life. The more context they get about you, the easier for them to piece together other things and prioritize projects without even having to ask you. Eventually, their goal will be able to complete tasks without needing your input as long as they know what to do because they are confident in their abilities and trust that they won't mess up.
HAVE THEM CREATE DOCUMENTATION
One of the biggest things you can do to build your confidence and trust in your virtual assistant is to have them create documentation for your business. This is the ultimate test to see if they understand fully what the tasks and responsibilities are that they're doing. This can include standard procedures for cleaning up your emails or responding to clients and templates they create themselves.
This way, you can check that they understand what you mean when you give them instructions—and if not, it's not just about fixing or following what you want them to do but creating things from scratch.
Building trust and confidence with a virtual assistant can take time, and it'll take time to get used to each other's rhythm and style, and sometimes it feels like things are a struggle. But if you go through the process, I mentioned above and are also aware of green and red flags. Then it'll be easier to build that loyalty by having them become your second brain.
Take the 2xYou Scale You Scorecard now to see which part of your business needs a boost: 2xyou.com/scorecard.
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