Are you treating your Strategic Assistant® like a task-taker or as a true support partner? In this episode, Shannon Waller shares seven practical ways to build a stronger working relationship so you can save time, reduce friction, and create more ease in your day-to-day business.

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Show Notes:

• Your Strategic Assistant is not there simply to take orders but to help manage the moving parts of your business and life.
• The best support relationships start with knowing each other’s strengths, needs, and natural working styles.
• Profiles like Kolbe, PRINT®, CliftonStrengths®, and Working Genius® can help you understand your own style and your assistant’s strengths.
• The Communication Builder is a great tool that helps you understand how each of you prefers to give and receive information, especially under stress.
• This is a relationship, not a transaction, so commitment and mutual respect are non-negotiable.
• Frequent communication creates better support, fewer misses, and a much smoother day-to-day rhythm.
• Daily huddles, project check-ins, and regular strategic meetings keep both of you aligned.
• Your Strategic Assistant should have enough context and clarity to help manage the details that keep you moving forward.
• Be willing to be managed because support partners often see the timing, structure, and follow-through more clearly than you do.
• Your Strategic Assistant is an essential “Who” on your team, often helping with the work that makes everything recur smoothly.
• Great partnerships are built on humor, grace, and a willingness to learn when things don’t go perfectly.
• The goal isn’t a short-term arrangement, but a long-term relationship that grows with you and strengthens your productivity and impact over time.

Resources:

Kolbe A™ Index

Working Genius

CliftonStrengths

DISC

PRINT

Unique Ability®

The Communication Builder

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy