Vickie Maldonado on Building Relational Equity with Your Team

Vickie · 0:00

Hi, this is Vickie Maldonado, and you are on The Leader Assistant Podcast. Today's quote is from my dad. When you serve someone, serve them as if you're serving Jesus, then it'll be easy to flow from a place of love and care.

Speaker 3 · 0:21

The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing leader assistants.

Jeremy · 0:36

Everyone is talking about Nova Chief of Staff, and it's no surprise when graduates walk away with huge benefits, like greater confidence and the validation that they can do the role. There are over 300 students in the Nova Chief of Staff Certification Course, many of which are growth-minded executive assistants like you. Many of the Leader Assistants taking the course aren't necessarily looking for a promotion, they simply want to become more effective, strategic, and game-changing assistants. Over 18 countries around the globe are represented by students in Nova's course, so I highly recommend you join the club. Visit leaderassistant.com/nova to learn more about this amazing professional development resource. Hey friends, welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast. It's your host Jeremy Burrows and this is episode 274. You can check out the show notes for this episode at leaderassistant.com/274. Today I'm very excited to have Vickie Maldonado on the show. Vickie is a business ministry chief of staff and she has nearly 20 years of experience as an assistant in the administrative assistant world. So, Vickie, welcome to the show.

Vickie · 2:05

Thanks so much. Excited to be here.

Jeremy · 2:08

Yeah, yeah. And what part of the world are you in?

Vickie · 2:11

I am in Whatula, Florida. Central Florida. Central Florida.

Jeremy · 2:19

Nice.

Vickie · 2:20

It's a sweet, small town.

Jeremy · 2:24

Are you from there?

Vickie · 2:25

I'm originally from California.

Jeremy · 2:28

So you really went to the other side of the country, huh? What part of California are you from?

Vickie · 2:35

San Bernardino.

Jeremy · 2:37

OK, cool.

Vickie · 2:38

It's kind of southern.

Jeremy · 2:39

Awesome. And tell us a little bit about what you like to do when you're not working.

Vickie · 2:46

I am usually working all the time, but on the weekends, I have an event business, so we do a wedding day of coordination and things like that. So that's something that brings me a lot of joy and spending time with my family.

Jeremy · 3:05

So how did you get into the event business side of things?

Vickie · 3:11

That side, I just loved celebrating people and throwing parties. And I started having people ask me like, hey, would you do my party? Would you decorate? Would you coordinate? And so it just became like so often that I thought I could make some side money off of this. And that's how it all started.

Jeremy · 3:32

Yeah, that's actually a really good little side note is, you know, people say, well, I want to I want to I need a side hustle. I need to make a little bit of money on the side. I need a part time gig, kind of supplement my full time gig. And that's one of the first things that people talk about is, you know, when you're trying to figure out what to do for a side hustle, just think about, all right, well, what do people say you're good at? Or what do people ask you to do? What do they ask you to help them with? And a lot of times that can point you in the right direction. So it sounds like that's how it happened for you. That is cool. Well, tell us then a little bit about your career. Let's go back. And how did you end up in the assistant role?

Vickie · 4:21

So I actually started as a volunteer assistant when I was 17 years old. My youth pastor, he loved young people, but he was so disorganized. And that is something that just came naturally to me. So I just noticed things that I thought, you know, I could help you with this if you need help with organizing this event or scheduling meetings. Just, you know, it was very natural to me. So that's how I started. And then he eventually hired me on staff because he said, well, you're already doing the job. Would you like to get paid for it? And I was like, yeah, this doesn't even seem like work to me. So that's how I started and then got promoted into executive assistant role with our CFO. And I've done that for five years. And then the last year I've been the chief of staff at my church. So Bayside Community Church.

Jeremy · 5:19

That's crazy. So how many years is that you've been there?

Vickie · 5:27

Since I started as a volunteer, it'll be 20 years this July.

Jeremy · 5:33

So that's, that's cool. I mean, it's very rare to be at the same organization for that long.

Vickie · 5:41

Yeah. I started as the volunteer with the church and then just, we were adopted by another church. So it kind of just stayed with the same people. But I'm very passionate about God and the church. And so it just kind of oozes out. It's just what I love to do. I get paid to do it. And then I also volunteer in my spare time at the church, which is crazy to assume people, but I genuinely love doing it.

Jeremy · 6:07

That's awesome. So what's been your favorite part about being an assistant or what, or what, you know, now you're the chief of staff, right?

Speaker 2 · 6:20

Right.

Jeremy · 6:20

So what was, what was your favorite part about being an assistant? And then we'll talk about your chief of staff role.

Vickie · 6:27

I would say the relationships that I was able to build with my team and also, you know, beyond that, they are friends of mine. They've been close friends for a long time now. And I just can't imagine my life without them. It's like big brothers and sisters, you know, kind of feeling. So I just really enjoy the family that we've created.

Jeremy · 6:51

Awesome. And then is there, do you want to share anything about like challenging times or, you know, because there can be seasons where you're working with people, your friends within, they're your family, they're your church community. That's all great when things are going well, but when things are not going so well, it can be a little awkward. I'm speaking from my own experience, for sure. But how has there been any sort of challenges throughout that time and how have you navigated that?

Vickie · 7:29

Definitely. I think in the beginning, I try to put my superhero cape on and say yes to everybody for everything at all times. And they laugh at me now because I say, I was meant to be a layer of cake, not a crepe. So I don't want to be spread so thin that I'm barely hanging on and holding things together. And I want my interactions with people to be pleasant and enjoyable, you know, to be sweet and satisfying. So in the beginning, I would go to work before the sun was out, go home after the sun was down. So there was a long period of time that I didn't even see the daylight. And I realized, I would say after I started like locking my keys in my car. And I think I did that five times in a month, which was insane. Thank you, Geico for coming to my rescue all the time. But just, I think, overextending myself out of either fear or I think I did have pride in the beginning because I liked that I could do all those things later on realizing it was, you know, I was like becoming a self-martyr, I think, by just neglecting, I think, especially in the church world, because we're so gracious and like loving, it can get kind of gray. But when I learned what my role was, what my responsibilities were, it was easier to just drive in my lane than kind of wondering if I was doing what I was supposed to be doing.

Jeremy · 9:07

So how then have you, over the years, kind of set boundaries and kept all of the things going on, you know, kept the plates spinning without being exhausted and burning out or maybe you do burn out to an extent, and then you have rest periods? What, how have you kind of balanced that whole world? And, you know, like, like you said, like everything's kind of in the same, same bucket, your, your community, your job and everything. And so it can be difficult to shut it off and take care of yourself. So have you resisted burnout and, you know, fought against exhaustion, but also kept, kept the plate spinning?

Vickie · 10:02

Yeah, I think one thing for me is when I barely, when I first started, my schedule revolved around my executive. I almost felt like a puppy chasing him all the time. Like wherever he was, I was his shadow. And later on, realizing that I needed to use my own calendar too, and just take a step back and see, okay, what are my highest contributions to the organization? When am I my best? When can I give my best? And so I created a block schedule where I basically have a template every day where I have prep time in the morning, project time, lunchtime, and then meetings. So whatever fits in those blocks, it has established a really good rhythm for me. So that's definitely one thing. And the other thing I would say is training and empowering my team, because in our umbrella, in the business division, we only hire leaders. And so I realized I was doing things for them that they could do on their own, and I was really babying them. And so just letting them step into the full responsibility of what they were interested with really helped them step up to say, you know, I never have to remind them about a meeting that they have with my executive anymore. I never have to remind them to provide an agenda. They lead that time. Even after their meeting, they will follow up with me and say, okay, Vickie, I have these action items. I'm going to get them to you by dot, dot, dot. And so before I was always the one, hey, remember you have a meeting. It's in this conference room. This is the agenda and it was very, I think the roles were reversed at the time. So I think now that they have settled into, which it's taken time, it's not something that happened overnight, but I think after training them, I was able to let go to now not being, being the one that they rely on for those things that they can do on their own.

Jeremy · 12:17

Yeah, kind of letting go of that desire to control and the micromanaging and, you know, the control freak part of like what, at least that's how I am. I'm a control freak, so I can relate.

Vickie · 12:30

Yes.

Jeremy · 12:31

So how many assistants are on your team?

Vickie · 12:34

Gosh. So I don't, I don't supervise our assistants, but we have 22.

Jeremy · 12:43

What's, what's maybe a tip for working with a team of assistants?

Vickie · 12:51

I would say build relational equity as much as you can and open the door for regular feedback has also been helpful because then it makes times that could be awkward less awkward because you've already welcomed it. You've already established that open door where they can give you feedback and feel comfortable. I think if you don't have a relationship with someone and then all of a sudden, hey, I need to talk to you, then people put their guard up. And so when you have that relational equity of this is someone who cares about me more than what I do for them or at my job, they care for me as a person. Then I think it takes it to a whole other level.

Speaker 2 · 13:43

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Jeremy · 14:20

That's super, super wise. Thank you for sharing. What's maybe a very specific way to build that relation, relational equity?

Vickie · 14:31

When a new assistant starts, I spend, I invite them to lunch. And so we have lunch, I hear their story. They'll share. It's not an interview, because they're already at the job, right? But it's more like an introduction of what they do, what they're good at. How can I empower you to be successful in your role? And so we exchange cell phone numbers and follow up with them throughout the week. So I would say just having that initial introduction and time to get to know them as a person is the first step. I would say.

Jeremy · 15:10

Nice, nice. So what led to the Chief of Staff title and role, really? Was that something that you aspired to throughout your career? Is it something that just kind of happened? Talk to us about that transition from Executive Assistant to Chief of Staff.

Vickie · 15:34

Yeah, so I was an Executive Assistant for five years, and I don't think I even... It wasn't a goal of mine to become a Chief of Staff. We actually never even had that as a job at our church. And so it was a position that was created for me by my Executive because he saw that I was doing more than secretarial work. So he basically said, You're already doing what a Chief of Staff would do with my team. For example, like meeting with his direct reports without him, I would check in with them and have at least like a 15 minute meeting with them once a week to keep them in the loop, keep things going. And so he just said, You've already done those things. The other thing is his daughter was in a really bad car accident, so he was gone for an extended amount of time. And so he basically said, I trust you to keep all the balls rolling and all the plates spinning. And so he was gone, I want to say like six weeks, eight weeks, maybe it was a long time, especially in our world. So that's how that evolved. And he said, This is what I would like, and let me know if you're open to it. And I was just really excited because I didn't realize that it was even an option. Yeah.

Jeremy · 17:00

What would you say is the main difference then between an executive assistant role and a chief of staff role or maybe the top one or two differences that if people ask, you know, what's the difference?

Vickie · 17:13

Yeah, I would say for me, the difference has been changing from assisting my executive to partnering as a co-labor on his team. Does that make sense? So I was more of an equal as his other direct reports. That was probably the biggest thing. And then also me being intentional about that time with them away from their monthly meeting with him.

Jeremy · 17:47

The difference between executive assistant and a chief of staff is the direct support. If you're an assistant, it's that direct support to the executive or the executives that you support. And then the chief of staff is more of, hey, I'm actually partnering as leading this team and supporting the team or the organization overall.

Vickie · 18:17

Exactly.

Jeremy · 18:19

What about the chief of staff role is maybe not for every assistant listening? Because I know a lot of people talk about these days, especially it's like, oh, there's you're an EA. What's the next level? A lot of people say, well, chief of staff is the next level. But I also know assistants who don't want to be a chief of staff, or at least in the near future, they're like, I don't really, it's not really exciting to me. So, yeah, what about that role might turn away an assistant?

Vickie · 18:53

Yeah, I would say if you know that you're called to support, like a peer supportive role, then you would thrive better in an EA seat. Chief of staff role, if you enjoy leading projects and leading teams of people, then you will really enjoy and find, you know, you'll find a lot of fulfillment in the chief of staff role, because I'm basically doing all the EA responsibilities. That's like the base of my role, plus the secondary items of my executive. So there are things that still have to happen, but he doesn't have to necessarily be the person to do them. Either I've assumed them or we've delegated that to someone on our team, but ultimately I would be responsible to make sure that that happens.

Jeremy · 19:43

Cool. Well, what would you want to say to assistants and chiefs of staff, you know, in the world, if you could put a message on a billboard for all the assistants and chiefs of staff, what would you want to say to them?

Vickie · 20:02

I love that image. I would say to everyone listening that you matter as much as your executive matters. Because it took me a long time to realize that I was just as important, because we were meant to be a strategic partner with them. And so I think if we don't see the value that we bring us together as a team, we don't operate as strongly. So yeah, you matter as much as your executive matters.

Jeremy · 20:39

Wow, that's really good. And that's really billboard worthy, too. That's like, you know, you just have to picture big, bold letters and, you know, a strong font on a billboard and easy to quickly read it while you're driving by. So nice job. Nice job. Cool. Well, is there any other, you know, topics you're passionate about or, you know, even questions for me as far as your assistant role over the years and what you are curious about or want to share with the assistance of the world?

Vickie · 21:19

Yes, I would love to ask you some questions.

Jeremy · 21:21

Yeah, sure.

Vickie · 21:24

OK, so I heard when you came to Orlando, to the conference, that you had been like in the nonprofit world. Was it church world? OK, so what made you switch over to like the business world and what do you love about it?

Jeremy · 21:41

That's a great question. So, yeah, for those of you who don't know, I was at a nonprofit church for 12 years and I was an executive assistant for about nine and a half of those years. And I, my executive got fired at the end of that. And so that was kind of the transition period where I was like, OK, well, now what am I going to do? And that really helped me see that I was burned out. My executive had burned out and I was ready for something different. But I also was had done a little bit of research and realized that, you know, I was underpaid being in a nonprofit, which is very common if you are in the nonprofit world, underpaid. And the I think I was ready for a break from the whole confusing circumstance of, oh, my boss is also my pastor and my friends are also my coworkers. And, you know, it was just this whole like muddy thing. And so I kind of wanted a new start in that world, too. And I really wanted to I knew that the executive assistant skills that I had were transferable. But I really wanted to give that a shot to, you know, and but all that to say, I was really came to game down to the point where I was like, you know, I just need to find a job. And if it's in the for profit or the nonprofit sector, you know, let's let's just get a job and figure it out. So I met my CEO and he was an acquaintance and saw that he was starting a new company. And so I was like, let's let's jump on board there. So that's kind of how I made that that jump. And then I think the biggest differences are, you know, there's in some ways being in the for profit world is a lot more defined and clear as far as goals. So, for example, we want to hit a certain revenue target. You know, we need to raise a certain amount of money for to be able to pay our employees and stuff like that. And I enjoy the overall high level goal of let's let's hit this revenue number. And that's our goal. And everything we do is to try to hit that revenue number. And then I also enjoy the pay. I think the pay is better than the nonprofit profit. And it's it's actually helped a lot for me to step outside of that nonprofit world and see that. Hey, you know what, like I was not just underpaid, but I was pretty extremely underpaid in a lot of senses for the amount of work that I put in. So that's been a big difference. And then, you know, the other the other interesting thing, obviously, when you work at a ministry or a church nonprofit, people have the same values as you. They have this. For the most part, they have the same belief system as you, the same faith as you. And so stepping out into the world and being at an organization where not everyone has the same beliefs, not everyone has the same faith, not everyone has the same values. You know, at that level is very has been very freeing for me because I am, you know, a pastor's kid and I grew up in the church and I grew up in that world, just soaked in it. And so to kind of get out of that world and meet people that I would have never met unless I got a job at a for-profit company. So anyway, that's kind of the semi short answer to your great question. Hopefully that answers it.

Vickie · 25:38

Yeah, that's great.

Jeremy · 25:40

Awesome.

Speaker 3 · 25:41

Cool.

Jeremy · 25:42

Well, that's good. I need to get you doing some interviews, Vickie. He has a good question. Awesome. Well, what's the best place for people to reach out if they want to connect and say hi?

Vickie · 25:56

I would say LinkedIn would be great.

Jeremy · 25:58

OK, cool. I'll put your LinkedIn URL in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/twosevenfour leaderassistant.com/twosevenfour. And then, yeah, Vickie, thank you so much for being on the show. Really appreciate it. It was fun having you at the Orlando event last year and getting to meet you and your team. And hopefully we get to do another Florida event in the future.

Vickie · 26:27

Yeah, thank you so much. It was great. Great time. Please review on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 2 · 26:49

goburrows.com.