Dynamic Duos: Empowered Executives and Aligned Assistants with Adam Hergenrother and Hallie Warner

Despite the challenges for entrepreneurs created by the pandemic, many businesses have experienced explosive growth in the past few years. When organizations rapidly expand, it can be easy for leaders and team members to lose cohesive vision. Successful leaders recognize and utilize their own strengths and empower team members to do the same. Another important role for an executive is making meaningful decisions every day that push the company toward clearly communicated goals. Sometimes that means onboarding an executive assistant or chief of staff to share the responsibilities of leadership. An executive assistant maximizes efficiencies by allowing everyone to work within their strengths, including the founder. In this way, the force multiplier aids the executive in offering descriptive and prescriptive points of action so that everyone is operating at maximum potential.

One of the best parts about adding an executive assistant to the leadership team is that it creates accountability to prevent burnout. Adam and Hallie work diligently to be proactive against corporate burnout by building mindfulness and wellness into their daily routine. Leading by example, they encourage team leaders to create a schedule that includes regular check-ins and one-on-one time so that they have a pulse on the community. Another way they prevent burnout is through intentional hiring and onboarding processes. As thriving business leaders, their goal is to find team members who are aligned with the organization’s vision. By working in tandem, they are living examples of how partnership at the top level creates a powerhouse organization that produces high-impact products and services.

Main Topics

Three values of a successful founder and how an executive assistant can leverage those values (03:40)
A chief of staff delivers the prescriptive vision and translates that vision across the organization (08:05)
A breakdown of the roles of virtual assistant, executive assistant, and chief of staff (09:12)
Creating a schedule that allows you to be proactive against burnout (16:17)
Importance of emotional intelligence in self and others to prevent burnout (20:30)
Practical tools from Adam and Hallie’s book about how founders and force multipliers can work together to grow a business exponentially (24:00)

Episode Links