Beyond the Job Description – Unlocking the Real Work of Administrative Excellence with Adam McNair

Adam McNair · 0:00

Hi, I'm Adam McNair. Today's leadership quote comes from Sir Ken Robinson. The real role of leadership is climate control, creating a climate of possibility.

Jeremy Burrows · 0:31

Hey friends, welcome to the Leader Assistant Podcast. It's your host, Jeremy Burrows, and today's episode is number 399. I'm really excited, almost to number 400, which is a crazy milestone to hit. So yeah, you can check out the show notes for this conversation at leaderassistant.com/399. And I'm really excited to have my friend Adam McNair on today's episode.

Adam McNair · 0:58

Hey Jeremy.

Jeremy Burrows · 0:59

Adam has a long career of executive support and office leadership across government, corporate, financial services, and technology. He's also hired, mentored, and developed administrative professionals. And, uh, yeah, he recently created a training tool for assistants called Elevated Assistant, and we'll hear more about that in a second. But first, Adam, welcome to the show.

Adam McNair · 1:25

Hey, thanks, Jeremy. Great to be here.

Jeremy Burrows · 1:28

And tell us, what part of the world are you in and what do you like to do when you're not working?

Adam McNair · 1:33

I live in Canada. I live in what we would kind of refer to as the Midwest of Canada, farm country. Province is Saskatchewan and the city's called Regina. One of the things I like to do when I'm not working, I spend a lot of family time. Um, we can get to a lake in almost any direction from the center of town in about 45 minutes, and we really like spending our time out on the water.

Jeremy Burrows · 1:57

Awesome, awesome. And tell us, uh, what got you into the assistant profession?

Adam McNair · 2:06

You know, I kind of stumbled into it almost by accident, but if I was to think back on when I first thought about being an assistant, it would be— I was just reflecting on this this morning— I think I was about 13 or 14 years old. And for no good reason, I had been reading all kinds of magazines and newspapers, and it came to me one day what I thought I should probably do in my life. And I said to my parents, I think I'm going to be a lifestyle manager. They said, you're going to be a what? And I said, I don't think it's a job, but I think people need help doing stuff. And so I think I want to help people do that. And over the years as an assistant now, I've reflected on that original sort of aha moment that I had and realized that that in large part is what I do, but inside of a corporate environment. So my first opportunity to do it came when I was, I don't know, probably about 19 years old or so, and maybe 20, and I started working for the government and supporting senior leader in the local government here, the provincial government, essentially the same as your state government in the United States. And ever since then, I've just kind of focused on figuring out how I can help people.

Jeremy Burrows · 3:27

That's amazing. I love it. Super cool. I actually, I have kind of an interesting sort of similar story where like my original Well, back when I was like 12 in summer camp at youth group, I remember asking my youth pastor, well, really asking his wife, because I knew he didn't know what was going on, but asking the youth pastor's wife, hey, what are we doing next? Where are we going? What's on the agenda? And then fast forward 16 years later, I was actually their assistant. I'm, they're asking me, they're coming to me saying, hey, where are we going next? What's on the agenda?

Adam McNair · 4:13

Yeah. Full circle moment.

Jeremy Burrows · 4:15

Right. So that's kind of the, that was kind of the first interesting like connection with that. But then the other thing that your story made me think of was I remember I was still supporting my prior executive and I was in a, in a group and networking thing and listening to my now current executive talk about his challenges and he had this really successful business and was going through all these different changes and trying to figure out what they wanted to do. And I just remember thinking, man, I would love to help this dude someday. It was just kind of one of those surreal, thinking back to it, moments where I'm just like, I'd really love to help this guy. He needs some help. Not like he, you know, not like that, but you know what I mean? Like he needs support. Yeah.

Adam McNair · 5:04

Yeah.

Jeremy Burrows · 5:04

Yeah. And so fast forward, I'm trying to remember what year that was, but fast forward probably 3, 4, or 5 years later, I'm now his assistant and I've been his assistant for 9 and a half years trying to help him. Yeah.

Adam McNair · 5:18

Yeah. Fantastic. That's a great partnership.

Jeremy Burrows · 5:21

Yeah. So I love, I love how that started with your desire too, of just, just helping, helping people. Awesome. So then as you got into the official assistant role, realized that was, that was more of the type, that was that lifestyle manager you were called to. What, what was your favorite part as you got in and really got your hands dirty with the role? What was your favorite part over the years about being an assistant and, and what has been your least favorite part?

Adam McNair · 5:56

Oh, that's a good question. Uh, there's a couple things that I think of as my favorite part. The first is this job is different every day, and anybody who thrives in this role will tell you that they thrive in an environment of change, and they have a high tolerance for ambiguity, and they find that part of the job exciting, not exhausting. Even when you're tired, it's still something that's kind of thrilling to be part of because it does change every day. Um, even the way you solve the problems that are maybe scheduling this meeting or handling this particular email or approaching this part of the strategy, even the way you handle them will change each day. And I just find that really exciting to be part of. The other thing that I find really exciting and really rewarding, and I always try at the very beginning of any presentation that I give or conversation like this, is to really acknowledge that I get to work with exceedingly intelligent people in this role across the breadth of industries that I've worked in. Assistants are very smart. People who thrive in this role have a natural desire and curiosity to, to be stimulated and, and to grow and to move forward in their jobs. And I find it incredibly rewarding to work with those people. They just have a personality type that I really vibe with. And in my head, before each session that I teach or conversation like this that I have, I kind of articulate their names to myself. I remind myself, and I mean, it's 98% women. I remind myself of these incredible women and I say their names in my head and I think to myself, I learned this from that woman. And I learned this from her. And I watched these 2 solve that problem in a way that their executive didn't even have to be involved. And so I just think it— I always take a moment to just acknowledge that. The other thing that you asked is, what do I not like about this job?

Jeremy Burrows · 8:06

Oh man.

Adam McNair · 8:07

It's sometimes, well, maybe what I just alluded to. We solve problems that other people don't see. We know that's a huge part of the job, and that's maybe even what the job is supposed to be, but it sometimes really goes unrecognized. So you have to be willing to be an unsung hero to do this work and find great satisfaction in the work itself sometimes. That can be challenging.

Jeremy Burrows · 8:36

Yeah. Yeah, well said. Thanks for sharing. So, okay. So then where, where are you now? Like what, what has your professional journey come to? You've got this, you founded this Elevated Assistant Resource. Why, why Elevated Assistant? Why now? Kind of tell us where you're at.

Adam McNair · 9:00

Yeah. So the first of all is because I'm ready. You know, I spent a lot of years doing the job and working with these remarkable people, executives, leaders, other assistants, people like you, right? Who really started to really codify the work. They started naming it, right?

Jeremy Burrows · 9:23

Mm-hmm.

Adam McNair · 9:24

They revealed what it actually is, not just to others outside the role and the function, but within it. And I took the time myself to Reflect on what I've learned in this and how I would distill that down into something that I could explain so that others could learn it. Because when I started this job, it was— there was just learn on the job, you know?

Jeremy Burrows · 9:51

Right.

Adam McNair · 9:51

And hopefully you get an executive who gives you good feedback and is used to working with assistants and knows what they want from you and can help train you in at least how they want things done. And then that should start helping you understand how problem solving works in an office environment, how work actually gets done. Because let's be clear, the job description doesn't really describe that most of the time. It says you'll manage a calendar, and then you think, okay, so what does that mean? Because to each executive, honestly, that can mean a completely different thing. So I really have worked now to distill and codify what the vocabulary and the explanations for what the work actually is. So if we think beyond the job description, that's what the first session is from Elevated Assistant. If you think beyond the job description, how do we actually name the work that we're doing? And I find it really exciting to work with people and unlock those descriptions in ways that they can then take it back into their office and go, oh, I'm looking at the work beneath the job description now. How do I make that work happen? And it's always, it's almost always a how question. Well, how do I do it? How does that happen? How come that happened? And so we gotta answer that how question. That's why I built Elevated Assistant. And that's what I want to give back is my insight into the how. So that people who go into this work, or even people who have been in this work for sometimes a long time, can be equipped with the language to really then move forward with answering that question of, how did I do that? Then it becomes repeatable, then it becomes reliable, then you earn your credibility. And oftentimes that can help advance your career and your growth.

Jeremy Burrows · 11:45

Great. So about the The job description portion, can you walk us through maybe a straightforward task and explain, you know, what you notice or what you consider before acting, that beyond the job description point?

Adam McNair · 12:04

Yeah, that is— let's start back at sort of the way I conceive of it, which is the job description names the task, right? But it rarely teaches the work. that's actually required. So the whole notion of this is, what does administration actually do? It's about the function of administration inside of a business environment is moving materials and ideas and time inside the business environment to support the organization's goals. That's the highest level, right?

Jeremy Burrows · 12:37

Mm-hmm.

Adam McNair · 12:37

And so let's say we are preparing meeting materials. What is the actual work that we do if we're preparing meeting materials? Sounds banal, sounds like anybody could do it, right? You need to notice the missing context that might not be there. You have to clarify the decision that you're looking for as an outcome of the meeting. You want to make sure that you have the latest information, that somebody hasn't failed to update something, anticipate the question. Your executive is almost always going to ask a question of you, either leading into a meeting or coming out of a meeting. And then that helps make the meeting easier to conduct. So there's a simple example of that's the real work. underneath the visible task of preparing meeting materials. It almost sounds too simple to talk about, but if we don't talk about the real work, if we can't name it accurately, then when your executive says, well, what do you do all day? Because that's a question that some really ask, right? They're like, I don't know what you do, but stuff gets done and it's kind of amazing for me. Then you can say, okay, when you say, hey, I gotta prepare the meeting materials for this, Here's the real work that I do. Here are the 9 points that immediately go through my head. Let me articulate those to you. That's what I'm doing. And that means I reach out to your team, I double-check the emails, I go back into the Google Drive, or I query our internal AI that might have access to all of those things and say, please reconfirm X, Y, and Z, and look for if there are new messages in the messaging system that we use. Maybe it's Teams, maybe it's Slack, whatever. That have advanced the conversation on this, make sure that those are brought into the meeting materials so that when we have the meeting, we have the most up-to-date information. Those are the general things that I do when you say to me, hey, are the meeting materials ready?

Jeremy Burrows · 14:26

Right.

Adam McNair · 14:27

And then they go, oh, oh, okay, now I understand what you do just to do that one thing.

Jeremy Burrows · 14:34

Wow. Yeah, that's awesome. Super helpful. Um, okay, so then What about your experience supporting executives and developing assistants? What did you learn as far as how to train people, right? Like, is there a situation where knowing the procedure was only part of what someone needed? And then how do you, how do you use that or apply what you've learned? On the, you know, teaching someone else to do things to your training program?

Adam McNair · 15:12

Yeah. You just, you used how in those questions multiple times, and that's just the thing that I wanna highlight is that that's like a real-world example, right? Like, how did you do this or how are you doing that? So I started With direct reports, maybe not, maybe 10 years ago, maybe not quite 10 years ago. That was something I very much grew into in both my work and I was actually asked to take it on. It's not something that I particularly pursued. I was working at a startup and we had an administrative team and they asked me to take over the leadership of the administrative team. I also had to build an entire career ladder at the same time for the administrative function. So that was quite an undertaking. But at the start, You do what's asked, you know, like that's, that's part of the job, you know that. So how did I do that? And how do I then impart that information? Again, it comes down sometimes to just, first of all, establishing vocabulary. You got to have a, you know, a standard understanding of the work and a way to describe it effectively. And that is really what I've spent quite a bit of time doing. So that I could teach a course like Beyond the Job Description and explain the work underneath the task, right? And how and what did I learn working with other assistants and supporting them in their growth and development was so often people were applying rightly their judgment. Their grown capacity for discernment to the work that they were doing. Would I do this or would I do that first? That simple judgment is something that is very difficult to replace and is often something that you learn only through trial and error. Well, you said I've been in this job for a long time. I've done a lot of trial and error. So one of the things that I always focus on when I'm mentoring or growing a team or working with an individual is how do they think and is that impacting the way that they're doing their work? And when I say impacting, I mean it can be a positive impact, right?

Jeremy Burrows · 17:47

Yeah.

Adam McNair · 17:47

I often think back to this Vanity Fair magazine.

Jeremy Burrows · 17:52

Mm-hmm.

Adam McNair · 17:53

They had this thing called the Proust Questionnaire. Marcel Proust came up with this series of questions that are meant to reveal things about people, their character, how they think, how they move in the world. Vanity Fair magazine had this back page where they asked celebrities and other sort of people of note to answer the Proust Questionnaire. And many, many years ago, Shirley MacLaine, the famous actor and Broadway star and film star and television star, Answered the Proust questionnaire, and it really struck me because it said, what is the thing that you are most proud of? And she responded, the way I think.

Jeremy Burrows · 18:26

Hmm.

Adam McNair · 18:30

Nurturing and growing people's ability to think about their work means making sure that they can explain it to themselves, understand what they're doing and how they're applying judgment really meaningfully. So often we do it instinctively. My real focus is, okay, well, how did you do that? Oh, well, I thought about it this way.

Jeremy Burrows · 18:56

Aha.

Adam McNair · 18:56

Okay. How do we nurture that kind of thinking in you going forward? Because that is what is going to increase your capacity. It's what's going to help you take on sort of an executive proxy role. You're going to understand how your executive would think in this situation, you're going to be able to apply the same judgment. You're going to be able to provide that kind of insight. Even if you don't have authority, but you have legitimate, credible insight, you can influence— and we talk about that a lot in this career— you can influence the way people act, think, behave on behalf of your executive so that they're continually moving in the right direction, the way your executive themselves would've nurtured that. Does that answer the question? I feel like I might have wandered a bit. It is, it's actually a difficult skill to impart, right?

Jeremy Burrows · 19:55

Right, right. So, okay, so then, no, I think, I think it was super helpful. What, tell us a little bit about the structure of your, your program. Is it online? Is it in person? Is it, you know, Plug and play, choose your own adventure? You know, how are you structuring this training?

Adam McNair · 20:17

It's a bit of some of that and then not some of that. Great question. I'm an in-person person, which is to say my goal has been to provide this experience locally. You know, like I mentioned, we're kind of in the heartland. Like, you kind of think of us as the Midwest. You know, there's a lot of farms around, a lot of ranches around. So we're kind of a long way from everywhere unless you get on an airplane, and there's nobody really offering this kind of opportunity for learning and growth and development in my region, in my area. And I really, really wanted to bring it back here. I started my career here, I love living here, and I wanted to bring it back here after so many years away. And So it's in person. I keep it to a very small group. I think I probably max out about 12 people at a time.

Jeremy Burrows · 21:15

Mm-hmm.

Adam McNair · 21:16

And I want to make it accessible. I want people to walk in, spend 3 or 4 hours on this first session because it's just an afternoon, and walk out with actionable tasks that they can bring into their work immediately and start testing and iterating. So that's the first session, but the whole thing is called the Administration Series, and it's a 4-part series. So it's meant to layer one after the other as people take them, right?

Jeremy Burrows · 21:49

Hmm.

Adam McNair · 21:50

So you start with administration beyond the job description, right? You start with what is the first thing that we do, right? And that is we establish vocabulary and we learn what is the task underneath Like, what's the work underneath the task, I should say? You know, what we do, why it matters, and how do we do it at a higher level? That's kind of the tagline for it. Then we move to a whole day session on workflow and control, which is about building practical systems, bringing more structure, clarity, and control. Then thinking ahead and following through, that's a whole nother day. So that's seeing issues earlier, communicating better, keeping work moving. And then we get to sort of the culmination of this, which is judgment and higher-level support. So that's supporting at a higher level with stronger judgment and context and discretion. So So it's meant to be something that people take progressively over time. It can be a one-and-done, and you can take them in any order. I suggest Beyond the Job Description is helpful first because it establishes, like, the concepts and the vocabulary that I use to really define the work, and then how we build on that in the other full-day sessions. But people are welcome to take it in whatever order they want. I'm not here to define your career journey. I'm here to support it.

Jeremy Burrows · 23:03

Yeah.

Adam McNair · 23:05

And yeah, it's live and it's in person. I'm willing to travel to do it and I'm willing to happily partner with— and I do recommend to people that they take online courses to supplement in addition to this, to continue to broaden and deepen their experience. But this is my particular wheelhouse and this is how I've particularly grown this project.

Jeremy Burrows · 23:33

Awesome. So what do you— would you say this is maybe more helpful for people with a certain amount of years of experience as an assistant or in certain industries, or is it kind of applicable to a variety of use cases?

Adam McNair · 23:55

Yeah, I was— that was one of the things that I had to really debate for myself, you know, was I going to make this thing like really specific? Or was I going to try and turn this into something that could be universally applicable? Right. And so for me, I landed on, let's go, let's make something as universal as possible. Right. Which is why I define administration as something that moves work. Right. And again, it's this sort of a notion of like moving material or ideas or time inside of a business environment to support the organization's goals. Couldn't be more general than that, right? Like, you could apply that anywhere, right? The notion of universality really appealed to me. And as far as level of experience goes, anybody at any level could take any of these and get something out of it. I taught Beyond the Job Description Once this summer to somebody who'd been in the career for, oh gosh, I don't know, I think she was 30 years in the career. And she sat there happily, didn't take notes, just took it all in, enjoyed an afternoon with other colleagues, added a lot of value, and asked questions because she was like, do you know that after 30 years no one's ever described something to me that way? And I said, really? Like, Is that helpful for you? She goes, that's hugely helpful. If I take this one thing away, I'm gonna be enormously— this has benefited me enormously. And I was like, okay, that's a win for me then. That's a huge win. And there were other people who were super new in the career and they were just like, oh my gosh, I feel like I have to write everything down that you're saying. And I said, no, no, I have takeaway materials for you to take home. Don't worry.

Jeremy Burrows · 25:44

Right.

Adam McNair · 25:44

I'm not leaving you high and dry. I'm giving— I'm equipping you for the future. That's the goal here. And she said, this was amazing because no one has ever described this to me. And I said, well, nobody described it to me when I did this job at the beginning either. That's why I built this program.

Jeremy Burrows · 25:59

Yeah. Awesome. Well, what's, what's one question or exercise that from your program, whichever module, but that listeners could apply in their own work immediately?

Adam McNair · 26:12

You know, that is I always sort of drill it down to this, and I'm sorry to keep harping on this notion of beyond the job description. You have tasks that you do every day, right? What part of my work is bigger than the visible task? What is the thing? What is the task? What has to be true for it to go well? Who or what does it depend on? And then what is the real work beneath the task? So you've got this task, right? You inherently know, well, in order for that to happen, X and Y and Z have to be true. Meaning, you know, we gotta be ready to have this meeting. Somebody's already finished the presentation that they're gonna give during the meeting. And, you know, the executive or leader of the meeting is prepared to have this meeting, right? And then who or what does it depend on? Well, that's a whole bunch of things. It could be timing, it could be shifts in the market, it could be, um, the corporate strategy. It could be that, you know, if you don't get ahead of this, then you're going to end up altogether behind as an organization. So who or what does it depend on? Sometimes it's timing, sometimes it's focus, um, Sometimes it's, do we have the FTEs that are going to be able to execute on this? So, and I'm not suggesting that the assistant has influence over all those things, but you have to understand the context in which it's all happening, right? So what is the real work beneath the task? It's being able to itemize all of those things in your head or ask really good questions to find them out so that you're providing the best possible support that you can. And you have the context necessary to support your executive or your team or your organization as it grows and competes in the market.

Jeremy Burrows · 28:07

That's great.

Adam McNair · 28:11

So I would suggest people take that away. What's the task? What has to be true for it to go well? Who or what does it depend on? And then what's the real work that I have to do underneath that task in order to make sure that it's successful?

Jeremy Burrows · 28:26

Love it. Super practical. Thank you, Adam. Yeah. Um, okay. So I know we could talk about this all day. Uh, you know, we're both passionate about elevating assistants and helping assistants see themselves as leader assistants, but just to wrap up, where can listeners go to stay connected, um, to follow your thinking? And do you, you know, maybe go through, do you have any private training options? Do you, if people are not in the Midwest of Canada with you, what possibilities are you open to exploring? So yeah, why don't you just give us that rundown?

Adam McNair · 29:08

Sure. Yeah. So elevatedassistant.ca, that's where you can find all of the information about me. I have a LinkedIn that is likewise named elevatedassistant.ca. And I'm personally on LinkedIn, of course, under Adam McNair. So look me up, find me, connect. Let's, let's chat. Let's discuss. I am perfectly happy to discuss options with anybody who might be interested in training. And if there's demand and, you know, I can meaningfully translate this work into an online experience, I'm certainly open to it. Local organizations even here have started talking about, should we have private training for our company, for our organization? Because then we can really customize, you know. I can really drill into how would we do this private training for your company? What is your strategy? How do you kind of— how do you translate it into action for your assistants? Do they understand that? everything we do ladders up to the corporate strategy. So it's starting to fill in those gaps and, and then really strengthen the executive assistant partnership or the organizational and assistant partnership. It doesn't only happen to be executives, right? I'm happy to talk about that kind of private training as well. I'm always looking to expand the business and I'll certainly respond to market demands. Right now, my focus, like I said, is local. And in person and live, but online and live could be an option in the future and certainly for groups that might be looking for it.

Jeremy Burrows · 30:54

Awesome. Well, I will share all of your links in the show notes, of course, at leaderassistant.com/399. And I do encourage everyone listening to check out Adam's website and training and connect with him on LinkedIn. Known you for a few years now and been a part of the leader assistant community for a while. And it's just really good to catch up and finally have you on the show. I was telling Adam before we hit record, I was thinking, you know what, I feel like I've had Adam on the podcast before. Let me look and see what episode it was. And then I realized I have not had you on the show. So glad we were finally able to make it work out. And Yeah, I appreciate your passion for the administrative profession and for educating and training and equipping, and of course, elevating the assistants of the world. So thanks again for being here, Adam. Thanks for the work you're doing. And yeah, we appreciate your time.

Adam McNair · 31:54

Well, thank you, Jeremy, and thank you for everything that you do too. You're really a light for us to follow, and we really sure do appreciate it. Happy to be here.