The trajectory for high-performing executives is towards overwork.
Busyness and overwork can feel like productivity… for a while. But it’s the path to what The Mayo Clinic calls “job burnout,” robbing you and your team of something much better.
Busy executives are busy because they are highly skilled and naturally take on everything. It’s likely how you got to a high level in the first place. But eventually, despite the best intentions, that leads to unhappy employees and clients.
Top-notch support staff can reduce that burden, reducing stress and changing the culture of the office.
They can make busy executives and leaders like yourself truly productive, giving you a bigger return on your work with less energy and time required. And they can jump-start the productivity of your whole team by removing administrative bottlenecks.
We’ll show you why support staff are the must-have of the 21st century, and how to go about choosing the staff that’s right for you.
How Can Executive Assistants Help?
Understanding what an executive assistant does is mission-critical before diving into how they can really help.
An executive assistant is a pro who helps executives stay organized and on top of things. They manage calendars, coordinate travel plans, oversee projects, and handle communication with key people, basically making sure everything runs smoothly.
Executive assistants today go beyond typical admin duties. They act like strategic partners, often serving as the executive’s right hand in managing complex workflows and keeping the organization moving forward.
Why Support Staff Are No Longer Optional
There’s a growing trend in the C-Suite toward hiring dedicated support staff, especially executive assistants who can handle the complicated demands of modern leadership.
The executive assistant position can be tailored to best represent the needs of the executive. In general, however, an EA is a position that’s all about streamlining information, communication, decision processes, and, ultimately, time.
Read more: Why Executive Support Remains Irreplaceable
A lot of executives overlook executive assistants because they aren’t thinking about support staff at all. Even if hiring a full-time EA isn’t the best fit, great support staff can boost productivity and improve results in lots of measurable ways.
But “support staff” isn’t a one-size-fits-all role. Before assuming you need a full-time EA, it’s worth understanding the range of support professionals out there—and how they differ.
Here’s a quick breakdown of common support staff roles:
Types of Support Staff (and how they differ from EAs):
- Administrative Assistants – Focused on routine tasks like scheduling, data entry, and document handling. More reactive and task-based than strategic.
- Operations Coordinators/Office Managers – Keep internal systems running like facilities, vendors, onboarding but generally serve the team, not one leader.
- Project Coordinators/Program Assistants – Help track and execute specific projects but they’re less about managing an exec’s day-to-day and more about team or project-specific logistics.
- Personal Assistants – Handle private-life logistics like travel, errands, household matters. Not typically involved in business decisions.
- Chiefs of Staff – While these aren’t typically support staff, they do act as high-level strategic partners to executives and can be confused for a support role. Read more: Chief Of Staff vs. Executive Assistant: Who’s Your Next Hire?
Among all the roles above, executive assistants stand apart.
They combine tactical execution with strategic partnership, helping executives not just stay on track—but stay effective. They’re proactive, high-trust allies who can streamline decision-making, handle complex coordination, and anticipate what’s needed before it’s asked.
Consider how much money and opportunity you’re losing because of a lack of support staff. If you’re busy, it’s likely that there’s no “white space” on your calendar to give you time to be forward-thinking.
If you’re feeling like reacting is the default mode, you’re not alone.
The Rise of Remote Executive Assistants
Today’s workplace opens up new possibilities, like hiring a remote executive assistant who can offer high-level support without sitting in your office.
Remote EAs offer unique benefits, as they:
- Often have experience across different industries
- Provide cost savings since you don’t need office space or full-time benefits
- Can work in different time zones to stretch your productive hours.
The trick to making remote support work is having clear communication, setting expectations upfront, and using the right tech to collaborate smoothly.
Let’s not forget that you’re making your life more difficult when you try to do everything yourself. You may be passing that burden on to your team and compounding the problem.
The longer you wait to bring on support staff, the more you’re trending towards trouble. Executive burnout is real, and has been a significant problem that trickles down to everyone. A recent survey found that 77% of respondents had experienced burnout at their job. Whether it’s executives, managers, or other team members, that’s much too high.
Not convinced? Wary of entrusting your important admin work to someone else? Let’s take a look at some signs you could benefit from support staff — signs you might not have noticed yet.
3 Signs You Need Support Staff
There are three easy signs that a busy executive needs support staff yesterday:
- Struggling or frustrated employees, which lead to dissatisfied customers.
- Missed deadlines, poor communication, and work that doesn’t meet your standards.
- Low morale and burnout, including you.
The tricky part of it?
These don’t happen overnight.
They creep up and accumulate until they’re at an emergency level that you finally notice.
It’s when you get behind on your email many days in a row, or miss report deadlines. Forgetting to pass on important information to your team. Being tied to your desk from endless phone calls. Personal tasks that eat up your day. Hours of spending time on your admin to-do list go by before you even get to the growth-oriented work you’re best at.
Seeing these issues develop before they get to a crisis point isn’t easy. It’s hard to understand the war if you’re in the daily battle, but don’t wait for negative results to spur you into action.
How To Find The Best Support Staff
Each executive has unique needs, so what your support staff looks like will differ from someone else’s.
Before you dive in, ask yourself these basic questions:
- What part of your workload do you need help with? This helps you decide if you need a full-time executive assistant, part-time support, or some other kind of specialized staff. Is it admin? High-level project and team management? An assistant you can toss all the details to and let them sort it out? Find the bottlenecks, and they’ll lead you back to where you need help.
- What work do you dislike doing? There’s no set type of work that you have to turn over to support staff. If you’re great at a particular task and think it’s important that you hang onto it, maybe that’s true. But what work do you dread doing? What sets back your whole day? Find support staff who are good at it.
- What do you consider to be must-have foundational abilities? Depending on what kind of support you want or need, the foundational ability your staff must have will be different. It might be strictly project management. It might be organizational skills that can turn chaos into smooth machinery. It might be communication. It might be a personality that can read people. It might be experience with software XYZ.
- Will you be able to delegate work? Executives get to where they’re at because of a strong personality that takes responsibility to make sure things get done. That can make it tough to delegate work. Can you give up the reins and trust your support staff so they can do their job? An experienced executive assistant can be especially helpful if you struggle with delegation. As trust grows, they can gradually take more off your plate.
- What kind of support staff do you want? Decide if you want to hire an in-house executive assistant employee, or use temp staff, a dedicated remote executive assistant, or rely on a staffing agency pool. Consider how much time you want to reclaim, your budget, and how much time you’ll need them. Realize that hiring an employee takes a significant investment in money and time (recruiting, vetting, interviewing, etc.).
Support staff make systems work better, and keep efficiency and productivity front and center. The top qualities to look for in an executive assistant are a mix of soft and hard skills:
- Positive attitude
- Detail oriented
- Good at communication
- Highly organized and responsible
- Flexible and multi-faceted (i.e. skilled in many types of work)
- Quick learner
- Able to spot problems and offer solutions
- Personality fit for both you as an executive and your company culture
- Able to read people and anticipate what they need
- Experienced in various software, systems, and applications
- Strong ethics and trustworthy with confidential information
That’s a long list that’s not always easy to hire for.
One of the easiest ways to bring on a top-notch executive assistant almost right away is to use a subscription service, like Boldly. We’ve taken care of screening and hiring the best of the best so you don’t need to spend the time and money to find great support staff yourself, but can be matched up with your ideal candidate in days.
Read more: 15 essential questions to find your perfect EA
No matter which route you choose, executive assistants aren’t really optional anymore. Hiring an EA can quickly ease your workload and help prevent burnout before it starts.
Productivity means producing at a high level with the minimal amount of time needed to do it. Whatever your budget or need, there’s a support staff option available to help change your trajectory towards true productivity.
