Efficient Check-in Meetings With Your Virtual Assistant
It happened! You finally hired a Virtual Assistant. You feel more in control of your business, your priorities are clear and your time has been freed up to focus on the core of your business. Now you need to figure out how to make the most of your time. You will be meeting with your Virtual Assistant to take tasks and projects off of your plate and hand them over. How can you make the most of your meetings together?
Weekly Check-In Meetings - Benefits
Make it a goal to meet with your virtual assistant at least once a week to help your VA understand what is expected of them. How will they know what your priorities are for your business if they aren’t in the loop? When a VA is aware of your priorities, they can help push your goals forward for your business. There’s also a great benefit for you during these meetings. From the big to the small tasks, your VA will keep you up to date so you can trust that everything is being taken care of. Regular communication also keeps you both on the same page!
Feel like you need to check in more than once a week? Try having a longer check-in meeting on Mondays via video call and a shorter weekly review on Thursdays via phone call.
Weekly Check-Ins - What to have prepared
Now you have a date and time booked to meet with your virtual assistant. What should you have prepared? Ideally, your virtual assistant has an agenda and can lead this meeting quickly and efficiently. Allowing them to lead first can also easily address questions or concerns that you were planning to ask about. You should simply be prepared with whatever new tasks you need their support on and any comments or feedback you have from previous tasks. If you and your VA have discussed your goals, then they may be able to assign accurate priority levels to new tasks. Though, it’s a good idea to confirm priorities and expected completion dates during your check-in meeting so that expectations are clear. Remember, your assistant wants your business to succeed and for you to accomplish their goals and your communication about these is critical to that success. VA’s that are unsure about priorities can easily feel overwhelmed and may be underperforming from your perspective.
Here’s a tip to set priority levels: simply state the 3 WWW’s - Why is this task important? What specifically needs to be done? When does it need to be done?
Check-Ins - Where
When it comes to where or how to have your Check-in meeting the options are limitless. Usually, a phone call is not enough if you want to screen share and be able to share files, social media content, etc. Zoom or Google Meet may be a better platform for these detailed check-ins. Even if time is limited, try to avoid just emailing. Email communication is not always as clear as speaking over the phone or face-to-face video chats which ultimately makes it a less efficient option for check-ins.
Remember, the most important thing is that you and your VA are able to creatively collaborate when it comes to the success of your business! Maintain a regular check-in and clearly communicate tasks and priorities to keep your check-ins efficient and helpful.