Does this sound familiar? You hire a virtual assistant, you work with them for a bit, they don’t seem to work out, so you hire someone else again.
It’s like a cycle where you just go through assistants and end up doing it yourself anyway.
Well in the last couple of years, I’ve worked with remote assistants and employees and have made A LOT of mistakes along the way.
I’ve also seen our students make mistakes too, and walked them through it.
In this article I outline the top mistakes you might be doing when working with a Virtual Assistant:
- Delegating the wrong tasks This is the top mistake I've seen for sure – I've seen entrepreneurs have a list of tasks that they just want to stop doing, so they're just giving it to the assistant. Similar to the first mistake when Hiring Virtual Assistants, where employers expect their assistants to be unicorns. When there is a mismatch on what an assistant can do, the lack of clarity can only spell “doom” for the work relationship. Quick fix: Notice and assess the tasks getting done in your business. Organize them into four categories:
- Your tasks – Tasks only you can do because you are the expert.
- Your assistant’s tasks – Tasks that the assistant can do as they take up your time so you can focus on your tasks.
- For automation – Tasks that take up your time and can be done by a new tool or software that makes it easier for your assistant to get done.
- Assess/Delete – These are tasks that aren’t really important in your business and they are either tasks you didn’t realize you were still doing or you haven’t assessed if they’re worth doing moving forward.
- Delegation by abdication
How one gives their assistant a task is almost as important as knowing what task to give them.
A mistake that I see entrepreneurs make is simply expecting for their assistant to figure things out on their own as they get started.
Quick fix: Give your assistant a sample of what you want when giving them a task. A quick YouTube video or a screen recording would go a long way when delegating a task.
- No clarity on the end goal
Often as entrepreneurs we see so far ahead on what are the things coming up for the business, and forget to share that with the employees.
When your assistant only sees the next short goal, that’s the only thing they can focus on, which makes them less invested in the whole outcome.
Quick fix: Share your vision with your assistant, and how having them on your team is helping the company go closer to that goal. This will give them purpose to start taking initiative and give you ideas that they might have about your business.
- No training
Once you’ve hired someone, they should know what to already do, correct?
This is a common assumption to make: just because you hired an expert does not mean that they don’t need your training.
The truth is, you’re probably doing things differently than your assistant’s previous employer, so your assistant might already know the basics, but they’ll need to learn what it would be to work with you.
Quick fix: Give a bit of your time to train your assistant in the first few weeks on ][what your expectations are. As a bonus tip, give them the resources such as courses and books that they can constantly sharpen their skills and mindset.
- No clear routine
If all you’re doing is throwing tasks at your assistant without rhyme or reason, nothing will every get done without you.
Every day will feel like a never ending mess putting out fires, and things are efficient but not effective.
Quick fix: Create a daily, weekly, and monthly routine with your virtual assistant on what are the different things that need to get done to continue running the business.
- Not asking for feedback
Feedback can make the difference between having a work relationship that grows, or one that constantly has miscommunications.
As the employer, giving your assistant feedback isn’t enough – there will also be a need to learn how to better work with them as well.
Quick fix: have regular monthly check-ins where you ask your assistant for feedback on what else can be done better with your work relationship. Within 2xYou, we’ve developed a scorecard where the assistant rates themselves and their client to see what else can be developed.
- Lack of documentation of tasks and projects
This one is crucial and can hurt you and your business because if one employee leaves without having proper documentation, it will feel like you’re starting from scratch.
Without putting a system to make sure things are documented, how things get done in your business is in someone else’s brain, and not shared with everyone else.
Quick fix: set up a template on how to document tasks and projects, as well as a way to make sure they’re up to date. Simply ask your employees regularly if all of their tasks have documentation, and as a bonus, as them to record themselves while doing a task so it’s easy to make that documentation.
In the end, how you define your relationship and the growth of your virtual assistant is up to you, the employer. You should never expect your assistant to take the lead as they will look up to you to see how things are done.
Have some mistakes you’ve made? Comment them below or share this so others can skip them too!
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