This is the first part of a two-part series. In part two, we talk about onboarding an Accounting Professional.
Many joke that if they had the opportunity to have three wishes granted, one of their wishes would be to ask for more. We know, we know—it’s a lame wish.
But what if you wished for an assistant who could read your mind instead? Does it feel far-fetched or impossible? Luckily, they’re not too hard to find.
Even the best of leaders often spend tons of time identifying the best candidate but overlook the responsibility to equip them to be strategic partners instead of just task rabbits.
At BELAY, we help leaders delegate and relinquish control. We often hear from prospective clients that they would love for a VA to read their minds.
We’ll explain how we teach baby steps that can be done in the onboarding process to get to that result faster.
Personalized Training
We’ve said it before, and we’ll continue to shout it from the rooftops: a VA should be your first hire!
With a VA, you’re able to immediately start delegating tasks and scaling your business. We all know when you’re in the weeds of your business, you’re lost in a sea of daily operations which jeopardizes the time you need to focus on growing your business.
The ROI of an effectively onboarded and equipped VA can be seen immediately, and it starts with you.
The success of your VA depends on the access you give them. Being available to answer questions and walk them through your business operations along with best practices, especially in the beginning, must be a priority.
Your first step is a personalized training plan. A good place to start is thinking through what your VA needs to successfully support you:
- How can they learn about your company’s culture? What do they need to know to give them a good idea of it?
- Who are the key players in your organization that your VA should meet?
- Do they understand your company’s values? If not, how can you explain them?
- What are some of your tasks that someone else could do?
- Are all of your logins and passwords in the same place and ready to pass off to your VA?
Clear Expectations
As Brené Brown says, clear is kind. Providing clear guidelines of what you want your partnership to look like is the best thing you can do. If you’d like to delegate complete ownership and decision-making of a project or task to your VA, lay out a plan.
Set clear expectations with your VA on your availability, communication, productivity, meetings and support. Always make sure to explain the why behind the what. If you keep that in mind, you’re bound to have clearer and more effective conversations at the start.
When you delegate something, explain what “done” looks like—that way it's clear. Instead of just delegating how to do something or specifically what to do, delegate the vision of it.
‘Please update X, Y, and Z’ is great. You'll get a deliverable of updating X, Y, and Z. But if you explain the impact of that work, that will equip the VA with a bigger picture of the task at hand and even empower them to make some decisions or come up with better suggestions.
Performance Metrics
Everyone should know what success looks like in their role. The same goes for your Virtual Assistant.
When we provide clarity in the performance metrics for our VA, this will help them stay on track. This starts with establishing performance metrics and setting goals.
If you have a quarterly goal or performance metric, make sure that they know what that is at the beginning of the quarter. And so when things go awry, they can adjust as needed. Or maybe in the next one-on-one meeting, they can ask, ‘Hey, this was the Q1 goal. This was what I was being measured on. Does that need to be adjusted or is this the focus here?’
Allow your VA to have those conversations with you to make sure there is clarity in what they are doing along with setting clear goals with them and explaining what done looks like.
While mind-reading VAs might be science fiction for now, with BELAY, you can create a future where your assistant anticipates your needs.
By investing in personalized training, clear communication of expectations, and measurable goals, you'll empower your VA to become a strategic partner.
Imagine the freedom of having a BELAY VA — proactively tackling tasks and freeing you to focus on high-level strategies. Visit BELAY today and unlock the true potential of having a Virtual Assistant by your side.