One of the biggest misconceptions executive assistants have is that your work will speak for itself. Bec Sands, award-winning PR consultant and visibility mentor, explains more.
Yes, doing good work matters. But it’s often not the deciding factor in whether you’re trusted with more than ‘just the calendar’ in your organisation.
A strong personal brand and reputation:
- Positions you as a go-to expert
- Builds trust across leaders and teams beyond your own
- Marks you out as a reliable professional with a safe pair of hands.
That’s what sets you up for retention, promotion, pay rises and future opportunities, both in your company and the broader industry.
The thing that tends to hold EAs back from building that reputation is the fear of being seen as self-promoting.
It makes sense. You’re there to support and enable your executive, not look like a show-off with a ‘look how great I am’ mindset. But that fear is a misconception that keeps great EAs smaller than they need to be.
The fix is building your reputation on service, not self-promotion. Your work and expertise help others in your organisation and you’re often the person people come to with tricky questions. Staying invisible just limits how many people benefit from that.
Sharing information purely about yourself can feel self-promotional. But talking to others about how you can make their work life better, easier or more enjoyable is a different thing entirely. That’s where it actually works.
Shift the question from “what will people think of me?” to “who can I help by sharing this?” and visibility starts to feel very different.
Here are three ways to build that visibility without the self-promotion:
- Share others’ wins and successes publicly
When your team wins, you win. Volunteer to write a monthly newsletter showcasing the admin team’s activities for the board or other stakeholders.
Include the events run nationally that year, the people who organised them, the behind-the-scenes work that doesn’t usually get credited. Becoming a channel for good news reflects well on you as much as on the people you’re highlighting.
- Bring your whole self to the job
‘Authentic’ is overused in personal branding but it essentially means being yourself; sharing a bit of your personality and working on projects that genuinely matter to you. You’ll start attracting the conversations, people and opportunities that align with your values.
Volunteering to organise a non-profit initiative that matters to you, for example, and being open about why it’s important, helps people see you as someone with more to offer than administrative skills alone – and builds relationships that carry your career further.
- Play the long game
Treat your personal brand as a long-term project rather than an urgent one. No one else is chasing you to do this, which is exactly why it’s easy to let it slide behind other priorities.
A simple one-page visibility strategy helps. Outline what you want your career to look like, the actions you’ll take to get there, a rough timeline and who your important stakeholders are (beyond your boss or immediate team). Having a plan keeps you from chasing every shiny object and makes the work easier to fit around a busy schedule.
Building a reputation as an EA who’s more than a calendar manager can support you throughout your career, wherever you go next. You don’t need to know everything or be perfect before you start – confidence grows as you take action.
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