Being the Person Behind THE Person

It takes a lot of characteristics to be the person behind THE person. Those characteristics range from a type of personality, to type of work ethic, and all the way down to knowledge of industry. I’ve been a store manager, an Associate Financial Rep directly for the Managing Director of a financial firm, and the Associate to the CEO of a home services business. These are in no particular order; here are five things I have found over the years that are paramount in your success to be the “right-hand man.” 

1.  Be Organized – You will be asked to take on a lot of tasks and projects to help take things off the plate of the person at the top. Without organization you’ll be doing the opposite of helping. 

2. Be Available – In my experience, especially in the SMB world, those business owners are always working and thinking, and as the person they rely on closely, sometimes taking a phone call “after hours” is important for planning and/or setting the owner at ease with ongoing problems and solutions. You are doing yourself, your career, and their perception of you a disservice by only being available from 9:00am-5:00pm. 

3. Be Self-sufficient – If you constantly need direction or help, you actually aren’t helping at all, or taking on the tasks you were hired to, so the person you are helping can continue moving the business forward from their chair. 

4. Be An Implementor – You will be given projects, ideas, and new ways of things the person at the top wants done. You need to be able to take all of the information and training you’ve been given and pass that all around to those it will affect and that need to learn it, and put it into action within the business just like the vision of the CEO. 

5. Be Adaptable – Things in the business world are forever changing, and a lot of people hate change. However, if the change that is being handed down can be for the better and you are an adaptable person by nature, you can again help with implementation of the change, and being adaptable shows through during change and can a lot of times instill confidence in your supervisor that you’ll be able to handle it positively, and pass it along to others with a great attitude putting even more people at ease on the change making a more smooth transition.