As a CEO or founder, you need a highly skilled and trustworthy person to help you manage your day-to-day operations and scale your business.
But knowing how to find and hire a rock star Executive Assistant (EA) or Engagement Manager (EM) can be daunting …
However, with the right knowledge and resources, you can find the perfect person to save you time, provide a mental lift, and help you take your business to the next level.
Before we start, we’re thrilled to announce the release of our inaugural book, Radical Delegation – now available on Amazon.
Radical Delegation offers a revolutionary approach that reimagines the role of Executive Assistants to boost your productivity and free up 12+ hours every week.
To start freeing up massive hours, focus on high-impact tasks that truly move the needle and dramatically reduce your mental load …
Get your copy of Radical Delegation on Amazon now.
You’ll find lots of pragmatic, step-by-step guidance on how to delegate to an Executive Assistant and streamline your operations for efficient, Superpowered success.
But if you’re simply curious to learn what you need to look for in an Executive Assistant or Engagement Manager, this article is the perfect starting point.
We’ll share the five inherent and hard-skill qualities to look for and how to make the hiring process much easier.
Plus, explore the four myths that can derail you with Mindmaven’s time-tested, proven solutions to hiring a rock-star Executive Assistant.
By the end of this article, you’ll better understand the qualities to look for and the steps to take to find the perfect Executive Assistant for you and your business.
Let’s start with this helpful 2-minute video from Mindmaven’s Head of EM Recruitment, Chalyse, sharing the three top things you can look for in a great Executive Assistant.
The Most Important Search of Your Career?
It’s a new day at your company. The energy is palpable as the cap table excitedly discusses the next hire – something that desperately needs to happen to keep up with your velocity.
Biz dev wants a salesperson …
Your COO wants a talented engineer (she’s already pushing her next ambitious product deadline) …
And both would be incredible assets for your growing business.
But as the founder/CEO, you’re beginning to realize you need to scale your own capabilities just as fast as your company.
And you will need more than just those proposed hires to offer you the Leverage to get more done in less time.
After all, without Leverage, you know you’ll quickly burn out, and the focus and energy you need to take your company to the next level will fade along with the joy you once found in work.
Itching at the back of your mind is the idea of a highly skilled and trustworthy Executive Assistant (EA).
You may dream of someone with the desire, skill, and ability to go beyond the traditional Executive Assistant title to become a sounding board and strategic partner …
We at Mindmaven call this an EM or Engagement Manager, and they really can help you and your business immensely! You can learn more about what separates a Mindmaven-trained EM from a typical EA here:
But how do you find and hire the perfect EA or EM?
And how can you ensure it’s worth the time and money it takes to hire and train them?
This article will show you exactly how …
What Difference Can an Executive Assistant Make?
The benefits of hiring an Executive Assistant go far beyond admin relief.
With the right Executive Assistant skills, an EA provides cognitive lift to the CEO, not just proactively managing but skillfully protecting your calendar.
With our training techniques, such as boosting productivity with dictation, an assistant can help you invest in your most important asset – your relationships – to keep you top of mind for breakthrough opportunities.
Often, the role of an Executive Assistant is seen as a luxury, something a growing business might not be able to justify or afford.
However, because of the power and increased velocity they have the potential to provide (for a relatively affordable price), it’s a position you simply can’t afford to leave open.
Executive Assistant roles and responsibilities may include administrative support, project management, data analysis, meeting coordination, event planning, effective email management, and document management.
At Mindmaven, we take this one step further with our Engagement Managers (EM), a hybrid between an EA and a Chief of Staff.
If you’re comparing an Engagement Manager vs Executive Assistant, it comes down to strategic impact. An EM is someone who can provide a massive lift to the office of the CEO, freeing up 12+ hours every week.
What would you do with an extra day each week to invest in the things that matter most?
While we have spent years developing this process, it is crucial to remember that a great fit can be elusive, no matter how skilled you are in recruiting.
Being intentional in your search, focused in your interviews, and clear on the qualities and skills you are looking for can ensure that you hire the best person for you and your team.
How To Hire a Rock Star Executive Assistant or Engagement Manager
There is a well-known saying in Silicon Valley about the #1 Leadership Secret that states:
“To scale your business as a successful leader – hire the right people and get out of their way.”
The executives we work with often ask us how to best find and hire an Executive Assistant …
So, in case you’re wondering the same thing, here are the top five qualities to look for in a rock star EA, which you can elevate to become a real game-changing Engagement Manager:
5 Inherent Qualities To Look For In an Executive Assistant
- Attitude and mindset: For an Executive Assistant to have the potential to grow into the role, they need to have a set of inherent and intangible qualities.The most important is the ability to adapt. This sounds simple, but it requires an open mind, a love of learning, and humility that not everyone has.
- Genuine desire to help: A genuine love for helping others. Look for the type of person who smiles when handed a new challenge to solve for the benefit of others.Empathy and the ability to put oneself in other shoes are also imperative in this role.
- Attention to detail: An Executive Assistant needs to be the type of person who enjoys managing the micro. Someone naturally inclined to nitpick and follow up on even the most mundane details!
- Love of learning: A great Executive Assistant will be required to learn a variety of new skills and modalities of operating.Someone who is set in their ways will not thrive in a role like this, especially in a startup environment where the boundaries and limitations of the role will be flexible and often changing.
- Grit and resilience: Anyone looking to grow into the role of an Engagement Manager needs the grit and determination to tackle new challenges while accepting and incorporating lots of feedback and calibration.It’s a process, not an overnight transformation, and you want someone who will stick it out for the long haul!
If you can find someone with the unique combination of skills and inherent traits above, make them your Engagement Manager.
With the proper training and systems, they will become an indispensable member of your team and one of the best hires you could ever make.
The Learned Qualities of Your Executive Assistant/Engagement Manager
Experience and Skill
We’ve found most Executive Assistant skills required to make an exceptional Engagement Manager are super trainable with the right desire and attitude.
But there are a few things that help the process along …
It’s helpful if the candidate has at least two years of experience in a high-velocity company, and we look for someone who has around 2-4 years of direct Executive Assistant experience.
But even without direct experience, other roles can provide some desired baseline skills.
Non-negotiable Engagement Manager skills:
- Working on a team and juggling a complex workload of shifting priorities. EMs are often required to be the voice of the CEO when communicating with other departments.
- A refined ability to communicate using empathy and tact. An EM needs to be able to skillfully navigate complex situations, sometimes involving competing egos and interests.
- Competence with new technologies. They will likely have to learn several new software programs to be successful.
Beyond these, Executive Assistant skills should also include “hard skills” as well. Qualified candidates need to be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of the following tools and skills:
5 Top Hard Skills for an Executive Assistant
- Proficiency in some form of a task or email management system.
- Complex calendar and scheduling management.
- Working knowledge of email programs and how to get a response to an email.
- Ability to go above and beyond just typing quickly and accurately to become a valued partner.
- Demonstrated time management skills.
Are You Looking for the Perfect Executive Assistant + More?
Mindmaven has worked with hundreds of Executive Assistants, recruiting and training them to become highly successful Engagement Managers.
Over the last decade, we’ve refined exactly what it takes to find the best people for the job.
By working with EAs and EMs worldwide, we’ve not only learned the qualities to look for but also the pitfalls and questions that haunt CEOs and founders looking to hire one.
If you’ve decided to take on this search for yourself, we’ll help you avoid the sometimes surprising mistakes execs make when searching in the dark for their first Executive Assistant.
4 Myths That Can Derail You
There are four myths that cause most mistakes, and we’ll share the four simple solutions to overcome these and hire an excellent Executive Assistant.
- The Myth of the “Queen Bee”
When looking for their first Executive Assistant, an exec often looks for someone who has a long, focused career as an EA and already has set ways of doing things.
Unfortunately for them, especially in a startup, these candidates are often less willing to learn new skills and adapt to new ways of doing things. They can also be costly, making them a hard sell for those early stages of funding.
We find that those with similar high-volume experiences (but potentially in other roles, like teachers, for example) are far more open to adopting new ways of working and are better able to keep up with the speed at which things change in a young startup company.
- The Myth of the Black Hole
It’s common for people embarking on this search for the first time to feel like it could be easier. It can feel like a black hole of time and energy – like maybe it’s not worth it.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. For one thing, finding the right Executive Assistant will absolutely be worth it.
This person will provide the mental lift and support you need to operate at the level your growing company demands.
Secondly, there are several ways to make the search easier. Not least is using an experienced service to help you make your hire.
- The Myth of the Unicorn
You may think there is going to be one individual out there who already has the perfect combination of hard skills and inherent qualities and will be able to “do it all.”
The fact is that no matter who you hire, there is going to be a learning curve and some calibration/work required for them to grow into the role.
An Executive Assistant’s position is based on absolute trust with their exec, which takes time and patience to build.
The reality is that there are probably a lot of people who could get to this point. Their success simply relies on your willingness to work with them and understand that no one person is going to have everything you desire at first.
Skills, knowledge, and talents grow and develop with time!
- The Myth of Location
Many execs we’ve worked with began under the assumption that to find a great Executive Assistant, they need to find someone who can work in person, in their office, daily.
Not only does this limit the talent pool you can pull from, but it increases the likelihood that someone – with so many remote options in our modern world – might not stay around as long.
Mindmaven has been completely remote since its inception more than a decade ago, and the last few years have proven what’s possible to get done in a remote work environment.
If you’re willing to cast a wider net, you’ll open yourself up to great talent and likely land a better candidate.
As an executive coaching organization that helps leaders unlock their superpowers and reach their fullest potential, we’re thrilled to release our framework for success …
Our inaugural book, Radical Delegation, is now available on Amazon to help you change how you work with your assistant to free up 12+ hours every week.
Recap: What It Takes to Find and Hire a Rock Star Executive Assistant
Hiring the right Executive Assistant (or Engagement Manager) can dramatically increase your capacity as a leader – but it takes more than just reviewing résumés. It requires a mindset shift and a clear understanding of what truly makes someone exceptional in this role.
Here are key takeaways to guide your search:
- Prioritize traits over titles. Adaptability, empathy, curiosity, and grit matter more than traditional EA experience, especially in fast-paced, ever-changing environments.
- Don’t wait for a unicorn. The best EAs are rarely “ready-made.” They grow into the role through mentorship, feedback, and exposure, which means hiring for potential is just as important as current skill.
- Remote works. Limiting your search to in-office candidates drastically narrows your options. Many top-performing EAs thrive remotely and offer greater flexibility and longevity.
- Be clear on what matters. Look for someone who enjoys the details, thrives on helping others succeed, and is motivated by shared goals, not just task completion.
- Training and systems matter. With the right support, an EA can become your most trusted productivity partner – proactively managing your time, reducing your mental load, and scaling how you lead.
When you find the right person and invest in their growth, your EA won’t just help you get more done, but also help you operate at your highest level of impact.
FAQ for Aspiring Executive Assistants
If you’re considering a career as a high-performing Executive Assistant or Engagement Manager, here are some of the most common questions we hear:
Do I need traditional EA experience to be successful?
Not necessarily. Many of the best EAs we’ve placed came from fast-paced, service-oriented roles like teaching, operations, or customer success. What matters more is adaptability, emotional intelligence, and a genuine desire to help.
What’s the difference between an Executive Assistant and an Engagement Manager?
A Mindmaven-trained Engagement Manager is a hybrid of Executive Assistant and Chief of Staff. They proactively manage calendars, follow-ups, and relationships – but also handle high-leverage communication workflows and enable executives to invest more deeply in their networks and teams.
How do I stand out in an interview for this kind of role?
Emphasize attention to detail, your learning mindset, and any examples of helping others succeed. Show that you’re resilient, resourceful, and ready to grow alongside a driven executive.
Is this role remote-friendly?
Absolutely. Mindmaven has been fully remote for over a decade, and many high-performing EAs and EMs thrive in flexible, virtual environments – especially when paired with the right systems and trust-based communication.
