Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/576097
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP 150 When executives can efficiently do their work, the whole organization benefits. "My most important job is to protect my boss's time," an executive assistant told Tucson Business a few years ago. She calculated that she got 120 cold calls each month, mostly from salespeople. She asks each of them to email her ex- plaining what they wanted, but only about half of them follow through. "Once in a while, one will try to bully me into connecting him or her to my boss. at's not effective," she said. What hap- pens is "I tell them that I'll be happy to, and that I'm the one who listens to [the phone message they leave]," she explained. "Some will ask for my boss' email address, and I tell them the same thing. I'm the one who reads his emails, too, so they might as well send it to me." When callers say they were referred by a board member or important client, she said, she'll ask her boss if he wants to speak to them. If the answer is no, the caller will hear a little fib that we all have heard at one time or another: "He's in a meeting right now. Can I take a message?" On her blog, "CEO's Gatekeeper," Janel Tate-Montgomery recalls that when she was in the Navy, "my job was to serve as an executive assistant to admirals, captains and other high-ranking officers." Since she reported directly to them, "I was delegated the power to speak on their behalf," she writes. "When I spoke to those that outranked me and had been in the military for years, they would assent to my requests because they knew who I rep- resented. When people would come to the office to speak to the 'big guy,' they had to speak to little old me first." One of her duties in the Navy was actually quite literally being the gatekeeper, taking "gate guard duty" on a Navy base overseas — "standing duty during the midnight shi, armed with a 16-gauge and my head on a constant swivel," she writes. Later she le the military to work as an executive assistant in private industry. You'd think anyone who guards the gate to a powerful boss would command universal respect, but every seasoned executive secretary can tell you stories of rude salespeople angrily demand- ing access. "I listen to them in as polite a manner as I can," one executive assistant told me, "and I say my boss is too busy to talk to them now or in the future, and then hang up." Some will call her back to apologize, but many never do. "You wonder how they got their job in the first place as a salesperson," she says. e moral of this column is that good manners count for a lot in business — and indeed in any relationship you have. Good manners seem to have almost disappeared these days. If you want to see a bit of magic, though, try being polite and respectful to an executive assistant. It will open a door now and then — provided the boss has time for you. ese dedicated professionals are not being obstinate or pig- headed. ey are simply helping their bosses get their work done. And as such, they're an invaluable asset to the organization. n BECKER'S 7 th Annual Meeting 2016 April 27-30, 2016 | Hyatt Regency, Chicago Register at http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/conference/