Part-Time Executive Assistant  –  June 2014

Do you enjoy creating orderly, efficient systems to correspondWoman computer handshake
with clients in ways that convey warmth, care and support?

Have you always wanted to organize a small business from the ground up?

Then this opportunity is for you!

Executive Assistant to “Coach Glenda”

I am a solopreneur in business for 12 years who offers training, coaching and mediation services to help managers, teams, and professionals to resolve and prevent conflict at work and in their personal lives.

My mission is to help create workplaces where people can do their best work, feel respected and appreciated, and collaborate smoothly and effectively with their colleagues at all levels and in all divisions, to produce useful and meaningful results that contribute positively to the world and their communities.

I have a Master’s Degree in Organizational Psychology,
who worked for 15 years as a project manager in the computer industry.
I’m an internationally certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication,
and a certified life coach (CPCC)
who has also studied and values Focusing.

To see more about what I do and who I serve, see my other website:
http://www.connectinghonesty.com

Job Summary

Your role will be to support me to focus on the things that only I can do:

  • delivering coaching and training to our clients
  • developing additional courses and training materials to assist clients to get the results they want even more quickly and easily
  • networking and other marketing activities to let people know what we offer.

Your responsibilities will include:

  1. Managing correspondence with clients – primarily done via email, including:
    – Drafting standardized responses to typical queries and questions we receive
    – Recognizing queries on which we should collaborate – either because of the nature
    of the query, or the potential significance of the opportunity
    – Drafting responses to non-standard questions for my review
    – Following up to ensure that all correspondence gets handled in a timely fashion
    .
  2. Assist in scheduling and rescheduling appointments
    I use an online tool that gives people access to my calendar, and the ability to book themselves onto it at a time that works for them. And sometimes people need assistance with it, or we might need to look together at my calendar to find an unusual time for a particular appointment in order to meet a client’s needs.
    .
  3. Add clients to our client databases – which are used to send invoices and receipts, and training-related correspondence.
    .
  4. Set up and managing a LinkedIn account for me
    Manage my FaceBook and Twitter accounts and link my blog to them
    .
  5. Other business and communication tasks as needed, in areas such as
    – Performing in-person errands
    – Researching topics online
    – Assisting with setup and cleanup of the few in-person group training events I offer
    each year
    – This list will grow as you help me transfer more aspects of what I do into your
    organized and capable hands.

Commitment:

After an initial training period, you will do most of your work at your home office on your own computer (preferably a laptop, so it can be brought to our in-person meetings),

  • checking in with me by phone every day or two, and
    .
  • coming in to my office once or twice a week for a joint planning / working session. (Note: if necessary, this can be replaced by an electronic “face-to-face” meeting. If you would like this option, please indicate the software you would recommend we use for 1) seeing each other and 2) screen-sharing)My office is located in the south-east end of Toronto (Dundas and Pape area – easily accessible by both public transit from either subway line, and by car).

I anticipate that, after an initial training period of 3- to 4-hour days, you will start out working a consistent 2 hours per day, 5 days per week, plus keeping an eye out over the weekend for any time-sensitive correspondence that needs to be handled promptly.

I expect these hours to increase over time to at least 4 hours per day, 5 days per week.

I am looking for someone who is interested in having this be a long-term mutually supportive working relationship.

The skills and qualities that will make us a good fit:

  1. You are extremely well-organized and detail-oriented
  2. You value excellence and have a high sense of ownership for the work that you do
    .
  3. You love developing organized processes & systems for handling all aspects of work
  4. And you are willing to keep reminding me of my role in supporting those systems – over and over again, until I get with the program 🙂
    .
  5. You are comfortable learning and using a variety of technical systems that I’ve adopted to automate as many aspects of the work as possible (see technology list under “qualifications” below).
    .
  6. You are a caring and compassionate person, who finds it easy to convey that to others.
  7. You also demonstrate care and compassion for my limits as a person, and are willing to say “no” to client requests that would stretch me too thin.
    .
  8. You are capable of reliably and consistently performing a set of regular tasks we’ve agreed upon – and letting me know if other tasks are interfering with that.
    .
  9. You are willing to take direction about what projects to work on when, and exactly what tasks I need done in what order. Sometimes this might mean starting a project and then having to pause it in order to work on a different urgent project that has just come in.
    .
  10. You are skilled at keeping track of all the projects that have been started but not completed, so that we can collaborate to complete them in an orderly fashion.
    .
  11. You are able to stay calm, clear and focused during high-pressure situations.
    .
  12. You are willing and interested to use every experience as an opportunity to learn and grow together – how we can work more effectively together, and how we can serve our clients better.

Qualifications:

  1. Skilled at using Microsoft Office, especially Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
  2. Excellent spoken and written English skills – including grammar and spelling
  3. Skilled and speedy typist
  4. Able to be consistently and reliably available for agreed-upon working hours – which is important to ensure that customer queries are responded to promptly and consistently

Preference will be given to candidates with:

  1. Experience in working with Mac / Apple products, including MacBook Pro computers, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, and/or iMovie
  2. Experience working as an Executive Assistant or Office Manager
  3. Demonstrated knowledge of Nonviolent Communication, and skill in applying it to create compassionate connection with others
  4. Technology list: Experience with any of the following software programs: Google docs, Infusionsoft, youcanbook.me, WebinarJam.

Compensation:

This is a contract position. You will be paid for your hours of work and you will be responsible to pay all related taxes.

There will be an initial training period (anticipated to be 6 to 12 weeks depending on your experience), when you are

  • being trained in my existing systems,
  • starting to identify additional processes and systems that are needed
  • demonstrating your skill at developing systems and documenting processes, and training me in their use

Training period payment for this position will be $15 per hour (plus HST if you are registered).

Payment will increase after this initial training period.
Please include in your application what you would like your hourly compensation to be for the first year following the training period.

To Apply:

The deadline to apply is: Mon July 14, 2014
Anticipated start date is: Mon July 28, 2014

Successful applicants will undergo background and reference checks.

Please answer the following questions in the body of an email and send it to hiring@connectinghonesty.com

Please provide your answers in a numbered list like below.
Please do *not* send Word document attachments or your resume.
Subject line of your application should read: Executive Assistant – your full name

In the beginning of the email, please include your full name, your complete mailing address, your phone number and email address.

  1. Why this position appeals to you
  2. Why you think you’d be great for this position
  3. What your long-term career goals are
    .
  4. Qualifications – information about how your background training and experience fulfills the items in this section above.
  5. Good Fit? Information on how your personal qualities fit with the 12 items listed there. Include brief outlines of at least 3 episodes that illustrate some of these items.
    .
  6. What additional software applications (in addition to those outlined in 4 above) do you have experience with? Briefly outline the key tasks that you are comfortable performing with each.
  7. What additional skills do you have that would be a benefit to our work together (e.g. client services skills, project management skills, money management skills, etc.)?
    .
  8. Please list 2 relevant job positions you held that make you qualified for this position.
    For each position, please list:
    1 – Job title and top 5 responsibilities
    2 – Name of company you worked for
    3 – Dates of employment
    4 – Salary earned
    5 – Name of the supervisor, plus their phone number and email address
    6 – Your reason for leaving
    .
  9. Anything else you’d like me to take into account in considering you for this position..
  10. What you would like your hourly compensation to be for the first year following the training period.

I will review submissions on the morning of July 15, 2014 and contact applicants selected for interviews, with an intention to schedule initial phone interviews for July 16-July 20.

I appreciate your time and your response, and I’ll be in touch with you shortly if there is a match!

Warmly,
🙂
Glenda