The Superintendent-Administrative Assistant Team: Enhancing Scope and Quality, or Hindering Progress?

Likely the employee who most significantly impacts the superintendent’s performance is the Executive Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent (superintendent’s secretary).  A good one can broaden the scope and quality of your work, and alternatively a bad one can severely hinder your progress.

Today, let’s discuss four qualities required in an effective administrative assistant, and how we can move individuals toward these ideals.

To begin, it is essential the individual be trustworthy.  Superintendents must have the freedom to speak freely with, and around, their administrative assistant enjoying the strictest levels of confidentiality.  It is not just the sensitivity of the topics which are discussed, but also the physical proximity in which the work occurs.

Do you have trust concerns with your administrative assistant?  If so you need to assess whether the individual requires training, or whether the individual lacks integrity.  The former can be rectified through conversation, training, and the setting of expectations, the latter requires replacement of the individual.  Confidentiality is so vital to a superintendent’s success that this issue cannot be overlooked.

Next, the superintendent’s administrative assistant must exhibit high capacity.  In other words, the superintendent’s ability to expand the scope and quality of his or her work is directly proportional to the capacity of their administrative assistant.  Can the individual draft a letter for you, or create a presentation outline? The absence of this level of support limits what you, as superintendent, are able to achieve on the job.

Movement towards high capacity in the administrative assistant position may be a function of training and expectation, but it is imperative to assess whether the individual has the capacity to do the work which you require.  If not either you accept the limitations the individual’s ability, and take on more of this work yourself, or again, make a change in the position.

A third quality which must be present is that of effective time manager.  Please note that I am not talking about the individual’s time management skills, but rather the way they manage YOUR time as superintendent.  “The best administrative assistants know when and how to place appointments on the superintendent’s calendar, understanding the leader’s work patterns, workload, and personal preferences” (Carlson, 2018:  Accelerated Leadership Wisdom:  50 Practical Insights for Today’s Superintendent).  The absence of this skill can be both frustrating, and detrimental to your effectiveness as superintendent.

I believe in large part this quality can be trained, but it does require administrative assistants to pay attention to detail, and have a desire to meet the needs of the superintendent.  Learning work patterns and preferences goes beyond simple job duty to ownership of one’s performance in the position.

Finally, skilled administrative assistants are effective access managers.  “The superintendent’s time is so valuable because once the district leader is in the office, people, requests, phone calls, questions, emails, texts, and so forth come at him or her from every direction” (Carlson, 2018). 

The difference between being an “effective time manager” and an “effective access manager” is that access relates to keeping items off your plate.  As an example, handling phone calls so that you don’t have to, or directing individuals to someone who can better serve the individual’s need.  Limiting access to only those issues which are vital, and can’t be handled elsewhere, enhances the superintendent’s ability to focus on the goals of the district. 

I believe this is yet another area which requires training, but also involves your administrative assistant developing the savvy to know when to “open the gate and when to keep it closed”. 

I hope this information is of assistance to you as you work to develop a highly effective superintendent-administrative assistant team.  Please share any insights which you believe are important to this vital working relationship, and as always, remember that we will all gain wisdom when we learn from and share with each other.