Your First 6 Months as an Executive Assistant: A Practical Guide to Starting Strong

There’s the organisation itself, the people, the politics, the priorities and the way things actually get done, then there’s your executive…

How do they like to work?
What takes up their time?
What frustrates them?
What do they expect you to own?
Where do they need the most support?

The same applies if you’re an established EA who has started working with a new executive. You may know the organisation inside out, yet the partnership itself starts from day one. In Australia, probation periods commonly run for three to six months. Six months also happens to be a useful timeframe for thinking about how an EA role develops. You don’t need to have everything figured out in your first few weeks. Over six months, the goal is to move from learning how things work to understanding where you can add the most value.

Here’s one way to approach it.

Month 1: Learn before you change

Your first month is about context.
Pay attention to how your executive works, how the organisation operates and who influences what.

Learn your executive’s priorities, understand what they are accountable for and where their time currently goes. Find out which meetings matter, which relationships matter and what is coming up over the next three, six and twelve months. This is also the time to learn their working preferences:

How do they like to receive information?
When do they want you to make a decision yourself?
What needs to be escalated?
How much preparation do they want before a meeting?
What makes a good briefing for them?

There will probably be processes you could improve immediately. Give yourself enough time to understand why they exist first.

Questions to ask during your first month:

What are my executive’s three biggest priorities?
What are they ultimately accountable for?
Which relationships are most important to them?
Where does their time currently go?
What do they want me to own?
What decisions can I make independently?
What does a great EA partnership look like to them?

You’re building context that will make your judgement stronger later.

Month 2: Build trust and establish your rhythm

By the second month, patterns should start becoming clearer, you’ll begin to understand which requests really are urgent, who needs a quick response, which meetings require preparation and where your executive needs you most. Now you can start building a working rhythm together – that might include a regular EA and executive catch-up, a weekly priorities review, a better system for briefing papers, clearer calendar rules or an agreed way to manage incoming requests.

Trust usually grows through consistency…
When you say something will happen, it happens.
When you need clarification, you ask.
When you spot something important, you raise it.

This is also a good time to ask your executive what is working well and what they would like to adjust.

Month 3: Start taking ownership

Three months in, you should have enough context to begin moving beyond individual tasks, look for areas you can genuinely own. Instead of simply scheduling a leadership meeting, perhaps you manage the rhythm around it. You make sure papers arrive on time, attendees are prepared, actions are captured and follow-ups happen.

Instead of waiting for every calendar decision to be approved, you use agreed priorities to make those decisions yourself.
Instead of forwarding information, you start thinking about what your executive actually needs to know.

This is an important shift in an EA role – ownership means understanding the outcome and using your judgement to help achieve it.

Month 4: Understand the bigger picture

By now, you’ve probably learned how your executive works, the next question is: how well do you understand the business they are leading? This is where business acumen becomes increasingly important. Learn how the organisation makes money or delivers value. Understand its strategy. Pay attention to the measures leadership talks about. Learn the language used by finance, operations, sales, marketing, people and other relevant functions.

You don’t need to become an expert in every area, you need enough context to understand why something matters. That context changes the way you support an executive because you can prioritise more effectively, prepare better information and recognise when something deserves attention.

Month 5: Look for ways to increase your contribution

Once you understand the role, the executive and the organisation, you can start asking a different question:

Where could I make things work better?
Perhaps there’s a process that creates unnecessary work every month.
Perhaps your executive spends hours in meetings that could be handled differently.
Perhaps information arrives too late for them to make a good decision.
Perhaps there’s a stakeholder relationship that needs more attention.
Perhaps AI could remove some of the manual work involved in meeting preparation, research, reporting or administration.

At this point, proactivity becomes much easier because you have context, you’re starting to see around corners.

Month 6: Review where you are and where you want to go

Six months is a useful point to take stock, think back to your first few weeks. You probably understand far more about the organisation, your executive and your role now. Use that knowledge to look honestly at your own capability.

Ask yourself:

Where have I become more confident?
What do I now own?
Where am I still waiting for direction?
Which situations test my judgement?
How confident am I dealing with senior stakeholders?
Do I understand the commercial context behind my executive’s decisions?
Am I comfortable contributing ideas and challenging appropriately?
Am I using AI effectively in my role?
What would help me operate at the next level?

Your answers give you the beginnings of a professional development plan.

What should an Executive Assistant be able to do after six months?

Every role is different, so there isn’t a universal six-month checklist, a useful goal is to have moved significantly beyond learning the mechanics of the role. You should have a strong understanding of your executive’s priorities and working style, know the important stakeholders, understand how decisions are made and have clear areas that you own. You should also have a much better idea of the capabilities you want to develop next. That last part matters.

Experience teaches you an enormous amount. A clear professional framework can help you make sense of that experience, identify gaps and deliberately build the capabilities required as your role grows.

Turning your first six months into your next stage of development

The Executive Assistant role can cover everything from complex diary and meeting management to stakeholder influence, business operations, projects, governance, communication, decision support and AI. It can be difficult to know what you should develop next when the role itself is so broad.

That’s one of the reasons The EA Institute developed the Executive Assistant Professional Certification (EAPC).

EAPC provides a professional framework for developing and recognising the capabilities used by modern Executive Assistants. It combines two live Core learning days with elective subjects covering areas including EA fundamentals, business acumen, risk and governance, alongside ongoing AI learning. The aim is to help you understand your capability, develop it deliberately and apply it consistently in your role.

If you’re approaching the end of your first six months, starting with a new executive or simply thinking about what comes next in your EA career, it can be a useful time to explore your next stage of professional development. Explore the Executive Assistant Professional Certification and download the EAPC brochure to see what’s covered.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to settle into a new Executive Assistant role?
There’s no set timeframe. The first three to six months are usually an important period for learning your executive’s working style, understanding the organisation, building stakeholder relationships and establishing how you will work together.

What should an Executive Assistant do in their first 30 days?
Focus on learning. Understand your executive’s priorities, key stakeholders, working preferences, calendar, responsibilities and expectations. Learn how the organisation operates before making major changes to existing systems.

How can an EA build trust with a new executive?
Consistency, communication and good judgement are key. Agree on expectations early, follow through on commitments, learn when to act independently and create regular opportunities to check how the partnership is working.

How do you become a more strategic Executive Assistant?
Start by developing a deeper understanding of your executive’s priorities and the organisation itself. Business acumen, stakeholder awareness, judgement, communication and the ability to anticipate what is needed all help an EA contribute beyond individual tasks.

What professional development should an Executive Assistant consider?
The right development depends on your role and career goals. Areas may include business acumen, communication, stakeholder management, project delivery, governance, leadership, strategic thinking and AI. A structured Executive Assistant certification can help identify and develop these capabilities.