That’s not to say that I just throw work at him and forget it. It’s a participatory process. I need to pay attention to his questions as they come up, and respond in a timely manner. I appreciate his skills and attention and responsiveness, and I give him the respect of responding quickly to him when he needs feedback from me. He is doing work that is important to me, after all, and it would be both rude and wasteful to make him wait on me for an undue amount of time. The wonderful thing is that there’s a mutual respect that occurs in this dynamic, one that creates a whole other creative level for brainstorming and innovation to occur.

And you know, it’s like this with Administrative Consultants as well. The participatory process that is inherent in the collaborative partnership is why clients are able to accomplish so much more with an Administrative Consultant. The back-and-forth give-and-take creates a synergy that allows you to work together at a higher, more productive level. And the longer you work together and get to know each other, the easier all of that gets.

You can’t get that kind of dynamic working with someone impersonally or only occasionally on a transactional basis. It’s something that only comes by working in close, one-to-one partnership with someone over a period of time. The longer you work together, the more your shared body of knowledge grows and the more cohesively and intuitively you are able to mesh, think and work in sync.

Your value does not depend on you being an “assistant.” Your value is that you are providing an experience and a body of administrative skill and expertise with the big picture goal of helping clients move forward in their businesses–with your specialty being administrative support. You do not have to work with clients in an assistant’s role in order to accomplish that objective, and you can still have a very close and personal one-on-one relationship without working with clients like that.

Providing administrative support does not require you to be an “assistant.” It is a profession, skill and expertise all its own. As an administrative support consultant, your role is not to work with clients as if you were a substitute for an employee or in-house assistant. How and when you work with clients must necessarily be very different. I call this providing strategic support. Even just a little helps them make incredible strides.

“Failing to listen well is rude. I don’t care whether you’re talking to the Queen of England or your intern. It very loudly communicates, Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn. And as a master relationship builder, it’s your job to care.”

As a Virtual Assistant/Administrative Support Consultant, it’s your job to listen well. This includes all forms of listening, not just with your ears. Being attentive to written details and instructions is a form of listening that is absolutely essential to what we do. It’s a critical demonstration of your competence and qualification.

Now, don’t confuse this with asking clarifying questions when you need more information to get an accurate picture and understanding. That’s a sign of an attentive listener who wants to do a great job. But when you can’t follow simple instructions and ask for all kinds of hand-holding, particularly when the answers to your questions are right there in the instructions, you waste people’s time. That’s not only rude, it’s incompetent.

I am ruthless about how my time is expended; I have to be. So do clients. I absolutely will not waste it on people who disrespect my time by abjectly refusing to read and pay attention. No one is going to want or continue to work with you if you have a problem listening–in all its forms.