Functions of an Assistant Manager. Normative - legal framework for the preparation of job descriptions

What should be a professional executive assistant?

Portrait of a manager's assistant. What it should be.

Director's assistant is an indispensable employee for the leader. He performs so many functions and has such great powers that in fact he becomes the second person in the company. It is almost impossible to formulate fully his job responsibilities. A personal assistant is a separate subspecies in the hierarchy of administrative specialties. Each employer has his own ideal of an assistant, but there is a constant - everyone needs a reliable, dedicated and responsible assistant who is able to take on all organizational and informational tasks, free the manager from wasting time and skillfully solve standard and non-standard problems.

Before identifying the differences, let's define the types of administrative positions. It is important to understand what kind of administrative professional we are talking about and what functions are assigned to him.

Business Assistant (BA)(personal assistant (PA), personal assistant) - is necessary for the head or owner of large companies. Reports only to his leader.

Person "close to the emperor", right hand, confidant, "deputy boss". Plans a work plan and schedule, a business calendar, a "link" with the outside world. Can be a guide, translator, nanny, home manager, weather forecaster, search engine, travel agent, able to make decisions independently.

Assistant Secretary- Required for a manager with a company staff of up to 50 people. Submits to the leader. Combining the functions of a secretary with partial functions of an assistant to the head. Carries out simple instructions of the head.

Office Manager– is necessary for medium-sized companies with a staff of 30 or more people. Reports to both the manager and top managers. Responsible for the logistics of the office, maintains primary documentation, can perform the functions of a secretary (meeting guests, calls, document flow).

Receptionist- necessary for companies with a staff of 50 people, with a large number of visitors. Reports to the administrative director, assistant manager, office manager, management team. Performs technical tasks: meeting guests, tea / coffee, calls, interaction with couriers / drivers.

In the description of administrative positions, despite the similarity of duties, there is a main difference: the main task of the secretary is to manage the information flow, and the main task of the personal assistant is to manage the performance of the manager.

WHAT SHOULD A PERSONAL ASSISTANT KNOW?

In order to correspond to the highest level of a leader as much as possible, PAs must have certain skills, qualities and abilities, a type of character and, perhaps most importantly, a special personality type. So what should the “man-orchestra”, this “universal soldier” and “multifunctional gadget” be able to do?

Professional skills:

• records management;
• time management;
• organization of work events;
• work as a deputy (functions of a second person);
• financial literacy;
• secretariat management;
• maintaining business contacts;
• travel support;
• work as a translator;
• management of the personal affairs of the head (personal accompaniment)

Let's consider them in more detail.

Records management:

• work with documents is the compilation of business letters, papers, statements, contracts, orders, various reports, etc., competent from all points of view;
• if necessary, editing letters and papers drawn up by the boss, issuing orders, preparing presentations and draft documents;
• work with mail: sorting the boss's mail by importance and urgency, knowing where to forward letters, to whom to answer what, from whom to ask gracefully and from whom to strictly demand.

Time management:

• scheduling and planning, prioritizing tasks, tracking schedules;
• fixing tasks and reminding the manager about them, informing about deadlines, meetings, trips and other business events;
• optimal organization of the working day of the head;
• planning your own working time.

Organization of working events:

• preparation of meetings, negotiations, meetings, presentations requiring the participation of the head;
• keeping minutes, sending notifications and invitation letters to event participants, providing information on the results of meetings;
• organization of business trips.

Work as a deputy (functions of the second person):

• to be fluent not only in basic professional knowledge and skills, but also to have certain knowledge in various fields;
• the ability to manage: organize employees (including the first persons of the company), influence the heads of departments and control the execution of tasks;
• supervise individual business projects;
• independently resolve some business issues (for example, about holding certain meetings);
• be a representative of the head at business events, express his position and answer questions;
• speak on behalf of the boss, be able to negotiate and bargain correctly;
• act decisively, do not be afraid to take responsibility.

Secretariat management:

• setting tasks for drivers, couriers, making purchases for events, combining the functions of an office manager;
• execution of agreements with suppliers, contacting the appropriate authority for prompt resolution of issues with the technical support of the work process;
• life support of the manager's office and reception.

Maintaining business contacts:

• be able to manage information flows (know who and when can be connected / skipped to the boss, who can be switched to another responsible person, and almost always make these decisions on their own);
• keep abreast of all events in the company;
• to protect the head from unnecessary contacts without prejudice to the image of the boss and the company;
• solve any issues in the shortest possible time - and always with a positive result;
• congratulate the company's clients, keep in touch with them.

Travel support:

• organization of business and trips of the head (issuance of visas, booking of railway and air tickets, transfers, hotels);
• organization of the most complex logistics of flights, charters in both directions;
• personal acquaintance with the leaders of airlines;
• organization of travel: from purchasing tickets, ordering transfers, dinners to choosing gifts. Each trip is accompanied by a specific program, writing a "scenario" of the trip - from meetings and events to the exact time of dinner in a restaurant according to a specific menu;
• control of contractors and services in other countries;
• careful monitoring of prices for renting luxury cars, yachts, business jets, the ability to negotiate a discount.

Work as a translator:

• translation at business meetings;
• written translation of documents;
• conducting business correspondence in a foreign language.

Management of the personal affairs of the head (personal support). A personal assistant is called “personal” not by chance: its functionality includes solving not only work tasks, but also personal assignments of the manager.

• it is necessary to navigate in different luxury service areas - from restaurants to gifts;
• if the leader has children, control the work of nannies / teachers / tutors, track attendance at circles / sections / classes;
• organization of recreation - from recommendations of countries and places to daily control of food and movement (including the organization of trips on airplanes, business jets, yachts, steamships);
• organization of maintenance of country houses, interaction with service personnel;
• organization of medical events (registration for preventive examinations, organization of operations, research, treatment, control of the timely taking of prescribed medications);
• excellent knowledge of luxury brands and brands of clothing/shoes/accessories - haute couture, ready-to-wear, interaction with famous fashion designers and foreign fashion houses, work with personal measurements;
• knowledge of the best Russian sculptors, artists, antique dealers, since you often have to buy their work as a gift;
• organization of sports hobbies of the boss: equipment to order according to personal measurements, purchase of the latest collections of accessories;
• follow the opening of new restaurants, golf courses, sports car races, hippodrome schedules, key landmark events;
• organization of similar support for the boss's relatives, his parents, friends, partners, etc.

What are the qualities of the best executive assistants?

Absolute devotion- 22%. The most important quality for leaders was loyalty. Loyalty, work for an idea, not for money, the ability to read the thoughts of the first person, determine the boss’s bad mood over the phone, ignore dissatisfaction in one’s address when accumulated irritation splashes out due to the irresponsibility of subordinates, dishonesty of partners, problems with relatives, bad weather, etc.

A distinctive feature of a loyal assistant is a sincere and unfailing willingness to help, even if the solution to this problem is not spelled out in the contract.

Therefore, managers, moving along a career path horizontally or vertically, often take with them a personal assistant with whom they have a special working relationship.

diligence- 20 %. Responsibility, punctuality. What is important here is the precise execution of the task without initiative, initiative and personal opinion. Difficulty: there is only one attempt to hear and understand the task and a minimum of time to clearly do it; no one will repeat twice.

Intelligence- 19 %. This is a proactive position and the ability to keep abreast, keep up a conversation with partners about the current political and economic situation in the country and the world, the ability to figure out how this or that technical innovation works, the ability to multitask, resourcefulness, quick response in atypical situations, ingenuity, ingenuity, analytical mindset.

Ability to store information- 13 %. The degree of trust in a personal assistant, as a rule, is very high: he is trusted with payment cards and pin codes, various confidential information, assistants are involved in solving problems in the manager's personal life. The key to trust is the observance of subordination, the ability to listen, and the observance of confidentiality.

Contacts- eleven %. Connections, base of the right people/organizations. Personal acquaintances with the managers of restaurants, yacht centers and airlines, hotels, funds, VIP clubs are important - this makes it possible to quickly and effectively solve the tasks of the boss.

Sociability- 8 %. Mobility, efficiency, adaptability, the ability to find a common language with people of completely different status. A personal assistant is rightly considered a communication genius. He can win the favor of almost any person, put a rude man in his place, resolve any conflict and at the same time remain a charming and respected person.

workaholism- 5 %. Ability to work actively in a non-standard mode.

Initiative- 2%. Initiative is a stable property of a person with a conscious and determined desire to introduce or transform something. The leaders noted that the assistant’s initiative interferes with the management process, brings discomfort to the boss, because if the assistant can organize his boss, defend his position in communication with him, be convincing and constructive, then it is not clear who is the boss here.

The task of an assistant is not the desire to become a successful business unit with ideas, but the desire to help the manager, clearly following orders and implementing his initiatives.

Appearance. For most managers, appearance is not fundamental - rather, on the contrary: they try to avoid bright, “decorative” assistants who will look comical in a serious business with respectable clients. Mentions of a "presentable" appearance are found in one ad out of ten. Most often, such vacancies come from small companies. In vacancies for personal assistants to owners in large companies, there is no mention of appearance.

The portrait of an assistant, according to the leaders, is a devoted, intelligent performer, moderately sociable, not talkative, hard-working.

What personal qualities should an assistant have:

• the ability to obey, to feel the mood;

They tell a story, they say, in the old days, one boss, before giving an employee a day off, told her to plant seven rose bushes under the windows, wash the floors, weed the beds, grind coffee for seven weeks and much more. Who knows, maybe they are lying. It's something old.

"Competence is the ability to discover and satisfy the personal tastes of superiors" (Laurence Peter).

But with regard to rose bushes, people are still divided into two categories: the first dutifully go to the garden, and the second are trying to figure out what the boss really meant.

Interpreting the instructions of the boss is an art, but it can and should be learned. Any production task should be approached consciously. And this also applies to the sacred directives of the boss: sometimes the best success is achieved by the one who reads between the lines and correctly interprets the instructions of the authorities.

Useful when the question "Why?" ahead of all "How?", "When?" and "What will happen to me for this?", but it is not necessary (and sometimes harmful) to ask this first question to the boss directly. Ideally, the goal is to learn how to work ahead of schedule, discarding obviously unnecessary tasks, but at the same time not harming yourself and your business.

I guess myself

Once I escaped to have lunch with Tanya. We studied together, and then I turned onto the path of journalism, and she confidently walked through life as an assistant to the general director of a large travel agency. They hadn't brought hot food yet, but her mobile already insistently gave a voice from her purse.

Tanya opened the diary with lightning speed and began to write something down, repeating from time to time: "Yes. Good. I'll do everything ... Yes! Absolutely! Absolutely!" After writing two pages, she ended the conversation and asked for another minute to put her notes in order.

For 10 seconds she read intently, and then crossed out a good third of the points, and marked half of the remaining ones with a plus. I was surprised, but Tanya quickly dotted the i's.

When asked how to become an executive assistant, she replied that she was guided by a simple principle: before you begin to complete a task, you should ask yourself why you need it. The answer to it automatically transfers a number of instructions to the list of optional ones.

Let's say if the boss asks for a price analysis among several companies in the region, then he is probably going to renovate the premises, but is not yet ready to tell her about it. Not ready - and not necessary, she guessed.

And she also has a friend in a construction agency who will find the best office at the best price, which means that the analysis is not necessary (the main thing is to formulate your offer correctly later). The result is minus several hours of painstaking work.

How to become an assistant manager: a psychological portrait

Personal assistant to the head - the profession at the moment is quite in demand. First of all, this is due to the development of a market economy, since in conditions of fierce competition, the financial condition of any company depends on correct and timely management decisions.

The success of the director largely depends on the skills, business skills and personal qualities of the trusted person. An assistant manager, whose duties range widely from banal office affairs to operational decisions, will become an indispensable employee, the "right hand" of the boss, and most importantly, the guarantor of the completion of tasks at the scheduled time.

When choosing the “right hand”, the director of the company often pays attention not to education, but to personal human qualities. Most likely, preference will be given to a person with less experience, but with a similar opinion, than a specialist with excellent recommendations, but different life beliefs.

An assistant manager, whose duties are almost impossible to formulate, must have the ability to read minds and at a glance determine the mood of the boss. Perform all tasks, regardless of the specifics - these can be assignments of a personal nature. If you are a sentimental person and always take everything personally, then this is not the job for you.

The assistant manager should not pay attention to the discontent and breakdowns of the boss. An assistant must be dedicated and loyal to his superiors. His work, in addition to monetary reward, is motivated by a single goal - increasing the welfare and competitiveness of the company as a whole.

The assistant to the head, whose duties are negotiating and concluding contracts in the absence of the first person of the company, is to some extent the face of the company. It is by it that competitors judge the state of affairs, and customers and partners make decisions about cooperation.

Video materials on the topic of the article

What Every Leader Should Know:

Personal Assistant Responsibilities:

How the interview goes:

The job description of an assistant manager is created to streamline labor relationships. The document outlines the functional duties, responsibilities, rights of the employee.

The position of "assistant to the head" in different organizations can be called differently: personal assistant to the director, assistant to the head, secretary.

Sample job description for a manager's assistant

I. General provisions

1. An assistant to the head is appointed to the position and dismissed from it by order of the head of the organization.

2. Assistant to the head reports directly to the head of the company.

3. During the absence of the assistant head, his rights and functional duties are transferred to another official, as reported in the order for the organization.

4. A person with a higher education and one year of similar work experience is appointed to the position of assistant manager.

5. The assistant manager is guided in his activities by:

• the legislation of the Russian Federation;
• Internal labor regulations, the Charter and other regulatory acts of the company;
• orders and directives of the management;
• this job description.

6. The assistant manager must know:

• the established procedure for handling documents in the organization;
• rules of business communication and etiquette;
• the procedure for maintaining reporting documentation;
• rules for the use of office equipment, means of communication;
• the basics of working in a text editor, spreadsheets;
• basics of office work;
• organizational structure of the company;
• procedure for concluding and executing contracts.

II. Job Responsibilities of Assistant Manager

The Assistant Manager has the following responsibilities:

1. Planning the working day of the head: development and coordination of the schedule of meetings, visits, calls, receptions and other actions.

2. Personal accompaniment of the head at meetings, receptions, on trips.

3. Technical support for the work of the head: ordering tickets, transport; organization of negotiations, meetings.

4. Keeping minutes and other documents fixing the progress and results of meetings, meetings, negotiations.

5. Bringing to the attention of the employees of the structural divisions of the organization of instructions, orders of the management and control of their execution.

6. Collection of information, preparation and provision of analytical, informational, reference and other reports to the management.

7. Record keeping, receiving correspondence sent to the head.

8. Registration of visitors for a personal appointment with the head, organization of their reception.

9. Acceptance of documents and applications for the signature of the head, their registration, accounting and transfer to the head.

10. Drawing up letters, requests, other documents on behalf of the management.

11. Preparation of meetings, meetings, meetings held by the head. Collection of necessary materials, notification of participants about the time, place of their holding, agenda.

12. Fulfillment of official instructions of the head.

III. Rights

The Assistant Manager has the right to:

1. Receive information in the amount necessary to complete the tasks.

2. Send proposals to management to improve their work and rationalize the company's activities.

3. Send requests to the departments of the organization (on behalf of the head or on a personal initiative) to obtain the documents necessary for the performance of his duties.

4. Require the management of the institution to create the conditions necessary for the performance of its official duties.

5. Make independent decisions within their competence.

6. Have access to confidential information, in the event of a business need.

IV. Responsibility

The Assistant Manager is responsible for:

1. Providing employees of the organization with false information.

2. Improper performance of their official duties.

3. Causing material damage to the organization, the state, its counterparties, employees.

4. Violation of the deadlines for the implementation of tasks.

5. Violation of the provisions of the organization's governing documents, decisions, ordinances.

6. Disclosure of commercial secrets, personal data, confidential information.

7. Actions that go beyond his competence.

8. Violation of labor discipline, safety regulations, internal labor regulations, fire protection.

9. Violation of business etiquette, rude treatment of business partners, visitors, employees of the organization.

Every entrepreneur, plunging into a work routine, at least once envied Miranda Priestley from The Devil Wears Prada because of her assistant Andrea. And he will ask for a copy of an unpublished book from the author, and order a ticket in bad weather, and take the documents, and walk the dog. It seems like something fantastic, but by correctly evaluating the value, functionality and requirements for a personal assistant, you can find the right hand, which not only knows how to make coffee, but which you can trust with business during the holidays. Today we’ll talk about personal assistants: why they are necessary, what functions can be delegated to them, and how not to make a mistake in choosing a candidate.

Why we misunderstand the term "assistant"

Liftmarketing works with so many companies on a regular basis - and we've noticed a common mistake with most of them. Asking the business owner the question: “What should an assistant do?”, We often hear a list of secretary functions: “tea / coffee / print / go to the post office”. If your assistant does only that, then you don't have an assistant.

A good executive assistant is an indispensable person who performs a wide range of functions, from secretary to deputy head, trustee and sometimes second person in the company.

The right assistant will help you manage your business more effectively and efficiently. This is a person who will take away part of the owner's functions and free up his time for strategic tasks for the future. We have already written about the correct functions of an entrepreneur.

Every business owner needs an assistant. The ideal option is to hire an assistant already at the startup stage.

Assistants are economically viable.

On average, the salary of an assistant in Ukraine fluctuates between 8,000 and 14,000 hryvnias. And many will find it quite expensive.

But let's calculate the cost of one of your working hours. To do this, divide the total amount of money you earned in the previous month by 160. 160 is the number of hours worked in a month in a company with an 8-hour working day.
Even more interesting statistics: from 20% to 50% of the time every day the owner spends on tasks that, in fact, are not part of his duties (check the quality of the tasks, quarrel with contractors, order a programmer to visit the office, and so on). Surely every business owner is familiar with the situation: “Some kind of problem. I will decide myself so as not to distract the team from work.” For example, an owner who earns $2,000 a month costs $12.50 per hour.

Now count. Provided that the owner from our example performs unnecessary functions 50% of the working time (4 out of 8 hours), then at the cost of a working hour of $12.5, the amount of his loss is $50. For a month, the amount of loss is $ 1,000. And this is 2-3 times more than the salary of an assistant.

Every hour of time you spend on non-core tasks is an hour of time that you have stolen from your business.

By the way: you can unload yourself even more by delegating some of the functions to contractors.

What should an assistant do?

FUNCTION 1. Time management of the head

a) Scheduling

The assistant helps the owner to effectively plan his day. An entrepreneur does not have to constantly open the calendar and look for a window for a meeting. He negotiates with the assistant a common vision (for example, work meetings no later than 7 pm or no more than 3 consultations per week), and then the assistant plans meetings and notifies the owner about this.

b) Reminder + Process Enforcement

If a team meeting is planned, it is the assistant who notifies employees about it in advance and controls that everyone arrives on time. Meeting productivity also increases exponentially.

FUNCTION 2. Organization and provision of work events

a) Preparation of meetings (minutes, technical points)

If a meeting with partners or clients is planned, the assistant prepares this meeting, keeps minutes, organizes all technical aspects, and checks equipment. Minutes are very important after every meeting, otherwise the meetings risk going into a "talk and forget" format. If there is a protocol, the assistant fixes all decisions on paper, and then translates them into a task format in programs like Bitrix. The assistant ensures that the results of the discussion continue to have a course.

b) Organization and control of business trips

The assistant must find you a place to stay on a business trip, choose transport, buy tickets. At the same time, his decisions should be based on the preferences of the owner: for example, do you like morning or evening flights more, which hotels do you prefer.

FUNCTION 3. Maintaining business contacts

a) Phone

The more the business grows, the more in demand its owner becomes. Some entrepreneurs even give their phone to assistants so that they answer phone calls for them.

If you have a lot of email correspondence with assistants, contractors, clients, and so on, you can delegate checking the mailbox to an assistant, just like with the phone. He will study the letters - and give you all the information you need. The longer the assistant is with you, the better he knows your habits and way of thinking. Therefore, over time, the assistant will be able to answer letters instead of you.

FUNCTION 4. Office manager

If your company is small and there is no separate function of an office manager, transfer it to an assistant. But in no case do not buy paper and a photocopier yourself. It's golden time wasted. The office manager makes sure that everything works in the office and that all the necessary materials for work are purchased (starting with the office and ending with detergents).

FUNCTION 5. Deputy Head

When you are not in place, the assistant should take over the function of monitoring the implementation of tasks. An example from the life of Liftmarketing: if Vlad and I are leaving, and upon arrival one of the employees must provide us with a report, the assistant approaches this employee several times a day, is interested in the percentage of completion of the report and reminds us of the meeting. As a result, we always know that we will return - and the necessary report will be ready.

The function of “deputy manager” also includes the ability to find the right information (often on Google), maintaining company standards and, sometimes, making decisions for the manager. Maintaining standards is when an assistant, noticing that someone's task is not completed, is the first to turn on, find out the problem and correct the situation. The business owner is included only in extreme cases.

Remember: a personal assistant will increase your efficiency directly, and then the efficiency of your business. Profit will increase, and you will save time for more important tasks.

Where to get an employee

1) Take ready-made from the market

Liftmarketing has partners - 4SMART Business Academy. Inside it is the Academy of Excellent Smart Assistants. The guys are looking for capable candidates on the market, they teach them everything necessary in the work of an assistant and give them to managers. In order not to waste the time of recruiters and your own, you can contact the 4SMART Business Academy. For those who came on our recommendation, there is even an additional discount.

2) Hire yourself. If you plan to look for an assistant on your own, your path will consist of 6 stages:

• vacancy description;
• posting a job;
• primary selection (look at the experience of working as an assistant);
• interview;
• training (prepare that the employee will not immediately learn your habits);
• work + training (the assistant's skill is always polished).

What to do before the interview

Before looking for an assistant, write down all your tasks that you delegate to him. They will form the basis of the future job description:

• All the routine things that you do;
• All small payments you make;
• All office tasks you do;
• All the "control things" that you do.

The effectiveness of your assistant will directly depend on the effort you put into it. Search a little in the feature article.

Mandatory qualities for an assistant

There is a set of personal qualities that no assistant can do without. If the candidate does not have at least one of them, look further.

3 options for a test task for a candidate for the position of assistant

TASK 1. Travel planning and defense

Come up with an event: for example, a business trip to Odessa. Ask the candidate to plan your trip and defend it. Ideally, if the candidate asks clarifying questions about your preferences. In any case, he must justify his choice for each of the items: transport, time of day, place of residence for the duration of the business trip, and so on.

TASK 2. Meeting report (minutes)

Ask the candidate to describe the minutes of an imaginary meeting on any topic. You will find out what he understands in protocols and whether he knows how to structure thoughts logically, highlight more and less important tasks.

TASK 3. Handwritten text

Ideally, if at least one of the tasks is completed by the potential assistant by hand. So you can appreciate its accuracy.

That's all the advice, remember: the quality of your assistant's work does not depend on the assistant himself, but on you. Follow our advice - and you will not only dream of the perfect assistant, but also work with him.

What psychological qualities should an intelligent assistant manager have? Psychological picture.

Psychological portrait of the assistant manager

What qualities should a manager's assistant have?

"Competence is the ability to discover and satisfy the personal tastes of superiors" (Laurence Peter).

They tell a story, they say, in the old days, one boss, before giving an employee a day off, told her to plant seven rose bushes under the windows, wash the floors, weed the beds, grind coffee for seven weeks and much more. Who knows, maybe they are lying. It's something old. But with regard to rose bushes, people are still divided into two categories: the first dutifully go to the garden, and the second are trying to figure out what the boss really meant.

Interpreting the instructions of the boss is an art, but it can and should be learned. Any production task should be approached consciously. And this also applies to the sacred directives of the boss: sometimes the best success is achieved by the one who reads between the lines and correctly interprets the instructions of the authorities.

Useful when the question "Why?" ahead of all "How?", "When?" and "What will happen to me for this?", but it is not necessary (and sometimes harmful) to ask this first question to the boss directly. Ideally, the goal is to learn how to work ahead of schedule, discarding obviously unnecessary tasks, but at the same time not harming yourself and your business.

The success of the director largely depends on the skills, business skills and personal qualities of the trusted person. The personal assistant of the leader is the right hand, and sometimes both hands of the leader. A good personal assistant is an indispensable employee who is highly valued. An assistant manager, whose duties range widely from banal office affairs to operational decisions, will become an indispensable employee, the "right hand" of the boss, and most importantly, the guarantor of the completion of tasks at the scheduled time.

The executive assistant, whose duties are almost impossible to formulate, must have the ability to read minds and at a glance determine the mood of the boss. Perform all tasks, regardless of the specifics - these can be assignments of a personal nature. The assistant manager should not pay attention to the discontent and breakdowns of the boss. An assistant must be dedicated and loyal to his superiors. His work, in addition to monetary reward, is motivated by a single goal - increasing the welfare and competitiveness of the company as a whole.

Thirteen Qualities an Executive Assistant Should Possess:

1. Loyalty. A great helper is someone who makes the boss look good. Never hire someone who does not demonstrate a willingness or desire to be loyal.

2. Willingness to question. You need a loyal person, not a sycophant. You should not worry about those who disagree with you, but about those who will never say that they do not agree. The assistant should keep you out of trouble by telling you that you are making a mistake.

3. Think differently than you. William Wrigley said: "When two people in business always agree, one of them is superfluous."

4. Self-love. You need a helper who has the courage to contradict you, the ability to accept criticism, the confidence in his orders to subordinates, the willpower to make tough decisions in your absence, the strength of character to admit mistakes, and the fortitude to bring you bad news.

5. Honesty. You cannot expect honesty from a subordinate if you do not show it yourself.

6. Prudence. You must have an assistant with whom you can speak confidentially. When interviewing a candidate for this position, find out how prone they are to blurt out everything about their previous job. If he is too talkative, then look for a more silent candidate.

7. Insist on quality. Your assistant will be a thorn in your side if he doesn't share your commitment to quality.

8. Communication skills. You need an assistant who can speak decisively and to the point, make persuasive reports, write concise letters, listen carefully to you, and be your ears in the organization.

9. Team member. It is your responsibility to make the team friendly. Your direct report should share the spirit of the team with you, and not be on the team just for personal gain.

10. Working with information. The best helpers always have the information. The source of their arguments and proposals is data that is credible. They keep records and documentation so that you don't have to.

11. Interpersonal skills. Your assistant is your spokesperson for many people you only meet occasionally. This person can represent you well if people feel comfortable with him. He must be free in rewards, slow in anger, fair in criticism, lenient in relationships, and must understand protocol.

12. Self-criticism. You won't be able to constantly give feedback to your helper, but you'd like to make sure he doesn't make the same mistake twice. Look for a helper who will quickly correct himself, and not shift the blame on someone else.

13. Maintaining motivation. You will lose time with an assistant who will constantly seek rewards and approval. You need someone who is internally determined to succeed.