By Charlene Macaulay
Gone are the days of getting coffee and ordering the stationery – being an executive assistant now includes so much more.
That’s the word from Point Cook resident Megan Green, who is in the running for the Executive Assistant of the Year award at CEO Magazine’s Executive of the Year Awards.
Ms Green, who is executive assistant to the chief executive of Perfection Farms and joint managing director of the Victor Smorgon Group, has had more than 10 years experience in the industry and was an early adopter of encouraging paperless offices at her workplaces.
“I did it at The Alfred, which is a fantastic achievement, and I’m working my way towards creating that paperless environment here,” she said. “Sometimes you can’t avoid paper, but as much as we can we try to keep things electronic.”
Ms Green said she was surprised to be named a finalist in the awards, and believes being a good executive assistant is all about building a good relationship with the chief executive.
“Your chief executive needs to be able to trust you with anything,” she said.
“Obviously it’s about organisation, but I think it goes further than that. A good EA needs to be able to think a bit more strategically and provide that strategic asset as opposed to just administrative functions.
“We need to be a confidant, we need to be able to sit there and be able to bounce off each other, and we need to put forward our own ideas – definitely taking it further than the old getting the coffees and the stationery.”
The winners will be announced at an event on November 21.
