Mandy Cowlishaw, 39, is EA to the VP at Keystone Distribution UK
‘I’ve worked for my boss for nearly four years, during which time he’s been promoted. As he got more work, so did I, and eventually it made sense for me to employ a part-time assistant PA. She is like a mini-me. She’ll step into my shoes when I’m not here and is an utter godsend.
‘I look after a second person too – the receptionist. I took it upon myself to do that. I noticed the receptionist felt isolated and unhappy. She was ready to leave because of it. I felt it must be largely because the HR team she reported to sit at the other end of the office. I suggested she report to me and that worked out really well. She left three months ago, but not because she didn’t like her job.
‘I haven’t had any management training, although I do have previous experience. In my last job, I had 11 floating secretaries reporting to me. Mind you, I didn’t have to manage them as such. I simply gave them a spreadsheet of who they were working for each week. With my new role, there’s much more coaching and mentoring involved.
‘That’s the bit I really love – improving their skills and confidence. With the receptionist, I coached her for a year-and-half, teaching her how to prioritise and how to ensure she gained more responsibility. It was lovely to watch her become more fulfilled in her job. My boss said it was a testament to the coaching I gave her, which was nice to hear. I was also a runner-up in Office Angel’s Britain’s Next Top Administrative Professional last year.
‘The juggling is the biggest challenge. My job is very demanding and most days it’s stressful – and that’s before I’ve started on my management role. Then there’s the new receptionist, who has only been here three months so she has a lot of questions. But we have a half-hour weekly meeting, which helps. I do the same with the PA.
‘Attitude issues can be another challenge. The old receptionist used to stomp around if she didn’t want to do something I asked, and she was often late. But I managed to deal with both issues and she respected me for it in the end. My biggest learning curve has been that I have high expectations. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the people who report to me are younger and not as experienced, so their confidence and level of skill is not the same as mine.’
Lorraine Walker, 28, is finance director and PA to the MD at direct mailing specialists Baker Goodchild
‘I have about 15 people reporting to me – that’s over half the company. I love the problem-solving aspect and always make myself available if they have an issue they want to discuss. It also suits the natural organiser in me. There’s so much multi-tasking involved that sometimes it feels like I run the company.
‘Not that I’d ever act like that. My personal rule is to never ask anyone to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself. If your staff see you working hard and getting stuck in rather than constantly delegating, I think they see you as part of the team and you get a lot more out of them. My dad told me that and he was so right. I’m lucky that this company doesn’t have a strong feeling
of hierarchy.
‘I joined this company two years ago as finance admin manager. Then I got promoted to finance manager and in January, I became financial director. In addition, I’m PA to the MD, who I help out with personal affairs through to organising meetings, organising appointments, writing reports and compiling statistics.
‘The people who report to me are in charge of invoicing, credit control, marketing and the warehouse. There are a lot of meetings involved – sitting down to figure out work priorities and to find out if anything isn’t ticking along smoothly. And, like I mentioned, if there’s a shortage of staff to get any particular job done, I roll my sleeves up and join them – on the production machines, for example.
‘Being a people person is key. If you’re not approachable, how can you expect to manage well? It’s also important to know you can cope with the sticky moments. Sometimes people have personal problems and it’s really hard to know if you’re saying the right thing, but looking back each problem I’ve had to deal with has worked itself out, so I must have done something right.
‘I haven’t had any management training, although I did do a degree in business management. I’ve never felt I needed it though.’
Vicky Bloyce, 31, is EA to four members of the senior management team at media company PHD
‘My first job was an admin assistant role in an architectural firm. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in the long term, but after a couple of years I realised how much I enjoyed what I was doing and decided I’d like to take my job up to the next level. So I joined a media agency, where there were more opportunities. In the 10 years I was there, I worked up the ranks and became responsible for looking after more and more of the junior PAs – six in total.
‘I’d do everything from organising appraisals to doing salary reviews. I’d check on their workload, ensure their holidays were covered, work through any issues they had and get involved in recruitment.
‘I loved it so much that when I decided to move companies – because I’d reached the end of the promotion road there – I told the agencies I signed up with that I wanted something more to a job than just being a PA. It could have been looking after someone else, or looking after the office.
‘Here, I have one person reporting to me – the team assistant. At first, I thought I’d miss looking after a larger group, but it’s nice to have the time to dedicate to one person.
‘Watching this woman use her initiative more to progress and get the best out of her role, partly as a result of my work with her, is very rewarding. It’s also nice to help out when there are problems. Being a PA is all about problem solving, after all. Then there are the appraisals. Some bosses think they’re a waste of time, but I think they’re essential to help someone move forward.
‘Sometimes, I feel that I don’t have enough time to dedicate to managing as I’d like. Personality issues can also be difficult. Once, I had to deal with someone who wasn’t happy in her team and tactfully suggested a re-arrangement of that team, but it worked out well in the end.
‘I’ve never had any management training, but since I manage people who do the same role I have, it seems to come naturally.’
Rosalind Williams, 58, is operations manager and PA to the director of operations at the Musicians Benevolent Fund, a charity that helps musicians in crisis
‘There are just 23 of us at this charity, which celebrates its 90th birthday this year. I joined 20 years ago and am now responsible for facilities, IT, health and safety and insurance on the properties we own.
‘I’m also PA to the director of operations. My third role is managing three other people.
‘The hardest thing about my job is how diverse it is. I can be really concentrating on writing, say, terms and conditions, and someone comes to me with an IT problem. I think
that’s far more challenging than the management role.
‘The reason I believe the managem