Why Executive Assistants Should Focus on Time

I love the following blog post by Charles Hurley on The Brilliant Blog. It touches on why admins should take factors other than price into consideration when booking travel. It is always important to keep your eye on the bottom line, but when booking travel for senior executives here are some things to think about when weighing the options of a more expensive direct flight over one with layovers:

• If you average what your boss salary to an hourly rate, the loss of productivity during layovers will almost always negate the additional cost of a non-stop flight
• The more layovers the greater the risk of a delay or cancellation
  

In the sessions I conduct on Travel Planning for Administrative Assistants I discuss this and many other topics and tips to make travel planning a breeze and help increase productivity for your executive when traveling. 
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I was tuning in to Office Dynamic's webinar this morning which included guest Brenda Mason CAP-OM, CWCA/CEAP, MESL, Sr. Executive Assistant at Nationwide Insurance. At one point Brenda made the comment that she notices many executive assistants lack proper travel arrangement skills. Of course, these skills develop over years spent learning the business and what your boss prefers. 

I wanted to learn more so I reached out to Brenda and we had a great conversation regarding ways to improve planning and coordinating. I asked her: 

“What’s the number one mistake you see executive assistants make when planning travel arrangements?” The first mistake that came to her mind was scheduling flights based on price and not based on time. We soon started chatting about dozens of other tips which I plan on compiling into an infographic, but I wanted to focus this post on her first response in particular. 

Brenda said time is everything for her boss and he can’t afford to wait an hour for an unnecessary layover. In fact, any CEO values one hour of their time more than saving a few hundred dollars on a plane ticket. He/she would probably tell you that time is their most valuable asset. 

We all get the same 24 hours in a day, so doing everything to help your boss make the most of his/her 24 hours will make you indispensable. Doing so requires taking care of the small details.

Brenda said she:

• Creates a clear one page itinerary 
• Contacts the executive car service before the flight lands (good companies will contact you)
• Creates a short bio of individuals he will meet during the trip

I chose to focus on Brenda’s first response because it confirms our core values at Brilliant Transportation are in line with the needs of our clients. As Brenda said, time is everything and if you can partner with an executive transportation company that helps you accomplish that, then all the better

Blog by Charles Hurley posted to The Brilliant Blog March 10, 2015.