The Leader Assistant Podcast with Jeremy Burrows

#368: Executive Support in Microsoft Germany's CEO Office

• Jeremy Burrows • Episode 368

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Diana Brandl is a longtime C-Suite assistant, and host of the Executive Office Insights podcast.

In this spotlight episode, Diana speaks with the executive support team in Microsoft Germany's CEO office.

Go behind the scenes of Microsoft Germany’s CEO Office with two inspiring women: Andrea Bross (Executive Assistant) and Svetlana Barsova (Chief of Staff). In this candid conversation, they share what it really takes to support a top executive, manage complex schedules, and keep leadership moving at full speed.

Show Notes -> leaderassistant.com/368 

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Speaker

Hey friends, thanks for tuning in to the Leader Assistant Podcast. I'm excited to share another spotlight episode of my friend Diana Brandl's show, Executive Office Insights. Be sure to check out the show notes for more information about her show and today's featured guest. But in the meantime, enjoy this conversation and keep leading well. Check out the show notes for this episode at leaderassistant.com/368.

Speaker 3

When she's at the right spot, with the right briefing, with the right person, at the right time, I've done a good job.

Speaker 1

This service attitude has to be there. If you're not a person that's ready to leave in someone's calendar or someone's mind, she wouldn't be a good one, right? So you need to be to be liking this and you know, and be okay supporting, not always leading. True.

Speaker 5

The Swiss Army Knife. She brings out this tool this morning and she brings out the other tool this evening, whatever is necessary. And I think having that mindset, being so solution-oriented, is the core skill for being an assistant for sure, right? Welcome to Executive Office Insights with your host, Diana Brandle, consultant and coach for executive support. I travel around the globe to bring you the most exciting voices in the industry in front of my microphone. Get inspired by insider knowledge, real success stories, and new perspectives on leadership and executive support. Well, I have to tell you, I know Andrea for such a long time, and she has been on the podcast quite some years before, which was a German episode. So she's now in a new function and she's working very closely with the chief of staff of the Microsoft CEO. So for me, as we talk so much about both roles, the EA and the chief of staff, it was a no-brainer to go over there to meet with them in Munich at the headquarters and to really have the real talk going on about their roles, about how they support Agnes, the CEO, and yeah, so many other things. So I know you're gonna love this episode and make sure you connect with them. And if you're interested in learning how they do CEO office trainings, um, because they love to collaborate and get to know other CEO offices and just share the knowledge. So make sure you reach out to them or connect through me. Uh, happy to make the intro just in case you need their service. This is a very special episode because I am here with two guests today, and I'm actually at the Microsoft Building in Munich. So, Andrea and Svetlana, thank you so much for making it possible to talk to the EA and the chief of staff of the managing director of Microsoft Germany, and a shout out to Agnes as well, because for sure we're going to talk about her today. How are you doing today? How did you start into your day, Andrea? I think you had something on the schedule already.

Speaker 3

I had something on the schedule already. Um I'm doing uh street crossing service twice a week in the morning, um, letting those little uh pupils across the street helping them. Um and uh this morning it was raining like hell. The funny thing is, if the weather's like this, the only one in the streets and on the streets are uh my colleague and I, and the pupils are um waving from the um car windows. I'm the only one here. I'm uh we feel sorry for you. But I got some fresh air. Um the rain was very uh good for the nature. We had like 32, 34 degrees in the past day. So it was a nice refreshment. There's no bad weather, just bad clothes.

Speaker 5

So Svetlana, how do you usually start into the morning? Are you a morning person and having a good breakfast?

Speaker 1

Or no, I'm not a morning person, but I start very early usually because if I want to make my sport, I do it in the morning. So I do my yoga classes usually from 6 to 7:30. If I was uh able to wake up, not today. So today woke up because of the thunderstorm, yeah, and like thinking, okay, how do I get to the office? But yeah, generally I start with sports routine. If not, then no sport in my life.

Speaker 4

Okay.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And in and German classes as well. Okay. I either have yoga or German classes. Good. Also at seven.

Speaker 5

Very good. Um, so you both work very closely together. We're gonna take a deeper dive into your fields of expertise, how you support Agnes. Atlanta, how would you describe the lady next to you?

Speaker 1

I was about to say fast and furious. Just kidding, just fast. Uh, but seriously, Andrea is extremely fast, like insanely fast. I I I don't know how I always feel behind, uh, but also super professional, very deeply caring, and this is what I value a lot because I feel it every day, and I think everyone around and reliable and funny. That's we we have fun, a lot of fun, and this is what I also value a lot.

Speaker 5

That is super, super important. And how about you? How would you describe the lady next to you?

Speaker 3

Uh, as we just talked about fun, Svetlana is laughing out loud often and sometimes, which I like. Um, but uh Svetlana is, and and I have to admit, um, I asked uh co-pilot uh to describe our relationship a bit in Svetlana based on the last six months, I think, was my prompt. And then uh co-pilot's reply was based on the 1400 Teams messages you sent and over a thousand uh emails you were on. Uh this is my summary. And what I liked most about the summary was um Svetlana is a street strategic powerhouse. So um not bad, like not bad. No, yeah, but she's uh she's a strategist um with a lot of uh operational excellence, operational um focus, and I think that's the that differs our roles a lot or how we how we work, but um challenging, challenging situations. That that's something I learned from her straight away when I moved um into my new role um a year ago. So not taking things for granted and uh saying, okay, yeah, let's do it, and uh okay, looks good, but always like every little thing, giving a little challenge. Like what could we do better, differently? And that's what I like a lot.

Speaker 5

Is it more the challenge or is it more the perfectionism in you, maybe?

Speaker 1

No, I like to challenge status quo. I'm like, I wouldn't say I'm a perfectionist, not like this lady or our boss, maybe, but yeah. But I like to challenge the status quo because I don't like the answer no, to be honest, in general. And if something we approach and they say no, whatever it is, I was like, hmm, maybe we try. And uh yeah, this is just a lifestyle. Interesting, yeah.

Speaker 5

So, what would you say, Andrea? What skills or experiences prepared you best for your current role? Because you have a history here in Microsoft, sure. And you just mentioned one year ago you started your new role as a EA to Agnes. Um, but maybe take us on this journey.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I think skills that are um really helpful for this job and that are sort of um a given to me, but maybe they're not. But it's um communication on all levels of the organization, um, getting people on the same page, um, thinking proactively, what might might be needed next week, next month, what questions might be coming along the way um when we tackle a task. And along with those communication skills, I think comes networking. And that's something that really helped me getting uh to the role I'm in now, because um, yeah, it's it's uh you will always like it gives you visibility, you know a lot of people, and um when Agnes role was going to be open her EA role, um it's yeah I I thought I have to do it, and I don't know when when um they started talking about who might be good for the role, um your name is dropped. If you don't have that visibility in the organization, it might be difficult for you. So that's definitely a skill. And as Svetlana said, um, yeah, maybe I'm I'm a perfectionist, but um I'm very very detail-oriented and very organized. And I would love to teach people on how to do it and how to be and how to become that fast. Um I have tools that help me keeping the overview, but it's definitely a skill that helps. Experiences here at Microsoft that really helped me prepare for this role is working uh was working for our COO in the in the previous years for for um for Luca. Um and um a funny story maybe is uh I promised myself to write a book um about my time with Luca. Our weekly one-to-ones on Monday mornings at 8:30 would start with Andrea. Guess what happened? The Italian charm. And I'm telling you, and that's going to be my book title as well.

Speaker 4

Andrea, guess what happened?

Speaker 3

Because over the weekend always something happened. It might have been um I forgot my ID in my Munich apartment, so I can't uh fly home on Sunday. I'm driving now, I was driving, or um the next time uh I forgot my money, my wallet. Uh hello to Luca. Hi Luca. Um and it it's so it was challenging, but when I started working for Agnes, I I said, whatever will happen to you, to your company car, uh, to your insurance is what I'm I'm I have a solution. Yeah, I have a solution. And how amazing it is, right?

Speaker 5

I like the Swiss Army knife. She she she brings out this tool this morning and she brings out the other tool this evening, whatever is necessary. And I think having that mindset, being so solution-oriented, is the core skill for being an assistant for sure, right?

Speaker 1

Yeah, and being prepared for everything. Like really.

Speaker 5

So, how about the chief of staff? I mean, uh, what would you say when we narrow it down to your role?

Speaker 1

Okay. I started here in Germany as chief of staff two and a half almost years ago. And this is my first job as chief of staff. And before that, uh at Microsoft, I had a few jobs. One was uh chief marketing officer for Microsoft in Russia, and I was running also bus uh business solutions uh business in in Russian Microsoft as well. But I would say nothing of that prepared me for this job. Uh rather, my education, I have two degrees. One is in international management, and it's about business and management in general, and the other one is uh business psychology. And I I would say everything I learned there had nothing to do with what I'm doing now. But I think the basis and something the thing the the way I'm thinking and the way I see the full picture, both from the business perspective and people perspective, not being in fully into the sales or marketing now, but not fully into the people, not being HR, but combining this all in my head is kind of something that also developed over time. And this is skills-wise, and I think other skills that are required is about project management, like the complex project management plus change management, plus people management, and ability to bring things together and to connect the dots. And this is a skill that I have, and I think this is my strength. I can see the really big picture and try to connect all the pieces together. And uh, experiences-wise, uh I would say uh in my previous career before Microsoft, um at the age of 26, I became a general manager of a little company, but with the full stack, like with PL responsibility, people accountability, and everything. And I was young for that. I was not a good general manager, to be honest. But it also I learned what accountability means. Like literally, what does it mean if you're responsible for everything? End to end, and there is no one you can lean in and say, maybe you saw now I can. And there, but that's what happened on there. Exactly. But I think these two two combinations it helped a lot. But I would say nothing really can prepare you for being chief of staff because it's super unlinear job, right? So you cannot predict what happens.

Speaker 5

Yes, and every chief of staff roles different. I mean, everyone has a different focus, just like being in the EA role. But if we look into these both of your fields, what would you say someone listening to this episode starting their career as a junior assistant? What does it take if they want to take a similar path? What would you say this needs to be your mission, this needs to be part of your passion?

Speaker 3

A part of your passion and your mission needs to be making someone else successful. It might sound uh crazy maybe, but my success is the success of Agnes. Yes. So um when she's at the right spot with the right briefing, with the right person at the right time, I've done a good job. We have um regular calls with her. If there are not many open questions, I've done a good job, or we've done a good job, all of us, our our CDP office team. Um and you need to like that. Yes, it's it's a lot of it's supporting other people. A lot of this is happening in the background and might not be seen, but I'm someone who likes to make it seen as well. Um, and but that's something you have to have a passion for the job, I would say. You have to be a proactive thinker, you have to not just uh yeah, I don't as I said, not just look at a week ahead or a day ahead, but plan. And for Agnes, it's it's compared to other roles I've had. Um it's very special, but because for now, um I would say the next six months are more or less prepared, and not much we can juggle around, maybe. Yes. Um but that's you have to have a bigger view, um, connect the dots, and um as I said, it's maybe it goes along with a little helper syndrome. I don't know.

Speaker 5

And and just the service provider, of course, and you are you know providing service in many directions. And yes, sometimes it's not seen, and that's why it's wonderful that you are such an advocate. I mean, you you're out there, you speak about your role, you speak about your journey, um, you go into companies, you help assistants to grow into the modern workplace, and that's wonderful because um, and that's why I said, you know, I'm so happy to see that there are still people going into this direction. They want to become an assistant. Because, as we all know, AI is wonderful, and we can't wait to explore it even further. But it's not taking any jobs away from the assistant role as long as we decide to move on and to look into new um fields of services. What would you say, chief of staff pathway? As we just heard, it's quite hard to say, like this is the definition of a chief of staff because actors might need you in that field, and someone else's chief of staff might need their chief of staff in a different field. But how Andrea was explaining it, what would you say is relevant?

Speaker 1

First of all, you said very rightly that uh there is so different expectations from the chief of staff's roles, and they are defined by the leaders and the personalities also. This is also important, I think, because it depends, and I think the the really good one uh complements the leader because what leader needs, and chief of staff is aspiring partner, and aspiring partner has to be a little bit different, right? And to to provide the different perspective all the time on anything that we need to move on with. Um the second, in my personal view, and my personal uh suggestion, I don't think the chief of staff role has to be a profession. I do think it's a development step, it's an extremely interesting role. Uh but I can hardly imagine myself doing this all my life, just you know, elevating or you know, developing further, because at some point you just you you you saw everything. You need to move on in your own field. But I would agree what what kind of uh very similar to what Andrea described, this uh service attitude has to be there. If you're not a person that's ready to live in someone's calendar or someone's mind, you wouldn't be a good one, right? So you need to be to be liking this and uh you know and be okay supporting, not always leading. True. Yeah, but the beauty is that you can do both.

Speaker 5

Yeah.

Speaker 1

So I I like both sides.

Speaker 5

And it's interesting what you say because this is what I see out in the market. A chief of staff is sometimes like a two, three, four-year role, and then many of them move into leadership roles. Although chief of staff is kind of a leadership role already. And when I see all the people that are coming to our certification course, um they are moving into COO roles, they are moving into leading a subsidiary, and it's incredible to see these wonderful careers out there. So actually, Andrea, have you ever thought about that? Could be also an interesting role here.

Speaker 3

It could be. I've had other roles in the past, um, especially before I had children. I led the internal communications department for EMIA for my previous um employer. I would I would still, with hindsight, I would still say that was the best role in my life and the best fit for me. Um, and I loved it. Internal communications and being a connection between HR and internal marketing, and as I said, communications, getting people on the same page, asking what we can do better, right? What can we do differently? Um, where can we communicate better, be more transparent, etc. But I was traveling a lot. So in that role, I was sometimes one week traveling through Southern Europe, Northern Europe, um, and I loved it when I had kids and um came back into business. Um it might sound silly, but I loved um getting uh the offer to ask for the new IMEA president as an assistant because he needed someone knowing the business already, having the connection already. Um, and to me, it was nice to go back into my comfort zone and not like have sleepless nights because the kids are maybe uh sick, but not because I have a new um project on the table or I'm running the employee survey, satisfaction survey, and um thinking about the analysis. So um I went back to this comfort zone, but the nice thing is um that there are so many things that drag you out of that comfort zone if you wish. Again, yeah, yeah. Um so yeah.

Speaker 1

So you don't want to be cheap. was stuff.

Speaker 3

No, no. Because I'm the um I was just thinking though, like what's what was the original question? I was like, I got stuck on my previous employer or my career. But never say never. Never say never. But when I see what Svetlana is doing, there are like for me I see things that I am lacking and might not be able to acquire somehow. And it it might not be right, but that's my view. And I love I love this job that I'm doing. I have uh and and we have this in our feedback conversations also like but Andrea when you're that satisfied like don't you want to do yeah yeah and I don't get bored because I'm someone and that was part of our first interview as well when I applied for for the role working for Agnes um saying Svetlana you can be you can be certain with me I'm not sticking to my job description description. I will never say to you but that's your job and this is my job. Sorry I don't do that. Yes I'm trying to make Svetlana successful as well or or us as a team. And um we have a lot of projects here at Microsoft where you can um yeah go beyond your job description when you can um enter projects and be a successful part of a of a project when your capacity allows. Totally I'm telling you and you know that I um led the families at Microsoft GRT for a lot of years. I remember yeah but I took a decision not to lead it anymore because I'm lacking capacity and if I do this project I want to do it well so I rather stopped things and said I'm going to still focus on assistant workshops and what's even better now we're offering CEO office workshops. Yeah I know for the past year. We've been exchanging with some of the companies yes yes exactly so and that's all like every wizard every exchange we have when we prep for it um it will take you out of your comfort zone again yes because you have questions that you didn't have before you have sometimes satisfied customers or not so satisfied or some who are still asking you for the magic wand which we don't have like I don't have it I have my tools I have my um ways of working with Svetlana with Agnes uh but not the magic wand. But as I said you have plenty of opportunities to learn and to grow but the role itself I love.

Speaker 5

Absolutely and I think it's a great testament for the EA community because a lot of people just love to stay in this role because they are fulfilled because we can pick so many wonderful choices like what you just described. And I think it's also important that we say the chief of staff career is not a typical career for an assistant. Although it's going to be discussed in a very different way out there we need to be very careful that not everyone thinks like oh this needs to be my next career path because for sure it's not and look at your background what you just said and how you came into the role.

Speaker 3

I just wanted to add um I think it's a very good consequent next step because in the position I sit and Svetlana sits you get an overview on the whole organization and you you really can get prepared for this step if you want to because you're sitting in the right position already.

Speaker 1

True absolutely but I think that also important what Andrea is doing now she's doing part of my job actually so I have to admit I in any other setup it would be chief of staff doing what Andrea is doing. And what I mean for example when it comes to the external engagements or speaking engagements that Agnes receiving a lot of requests usually and if my previous job I would be probably filtering them, deciding, suggesting and and organizing but in our case it's with Andrea and some other colleagues which is really good. And what I value a lot that I I'm not involved at all. So I feel sometimes like I probably need to step in and to get more details but I know that if Andrea's covering I don't need to be there because it will be done and it's amazing. This is amazing partnership I would say but this is also I do think that why Andrea never gets bored because it's not just I would say pure you know scheduling it's it's much more what what Andrea is doing.

Speaker 5

Yes and I can only imagine how how how you know how full the agenda must be of Agnes so speaking of Agnes if she would be here and I would ask her you know Agnes your executive support team why do you work with an EA and a chief of staff?

Speaker 1

What do you think is her answer why she needs both of you like okay first of all it was given. So it it it it was given she I think she was lucky to get both and not only us we have a couple of more colleagues who are in the CVP office. It's CEO office actually that's supporting Agnes daily so it's us it's our employees combs and it's also customer partner engagement manager. So we are a team and this team supporting Agnes and I think our roles are like in a serious note not only because she was giving with okay these are two ladies that you have Agnes but also the the roles are different. Like they they really differ and and I do think that we complement each other. So I primarily doing everything connected to our leadership team and Agnes so I'm trying to support the team effectiveness running the regular meetings and sites and follow-ups and decision making. Plus I I'm primarily focusing on the cross-functional project so whatever needed to be done for the org itself this is with me while Andrea covering the rest with the help of our colleagues in the CVP office.

Speaker 3

What Agnes would have said if she would have been here I don't know guess I don't know what she would say about she has both of you yeah because she needs us both because our roles are different and and I as I said I'm I'm connecting the dots the dot I have or the dots I have with Svetlana but also the dots I have with our external communications manager with our internal communic communications manager and with our customer and partner engagement manager. Yes and all of the requests you said it must be busy and I it's busy like hell yes what I wasn't used to from my previous roles was that every day you have a locker full of mail on paper. I'm working with paper again after six years at Microsoft going this is not new Andrea guess what happened I'm working with paper again um don't tell me you have a lights order somewhere no I don't I digitalize everything immediately I uh take my uh co-pilot app say scan uh and then I have a PDF that I save into this certain folder like customer escalations regular mail etc so I do like I do digitalize it straight away of course but it needs to be read it needs to be worked on it needs to be distributed to the right to the right person exactly it needs to be screened yeah and that's just one little little tiny tiny part um we have so many people contacting you contacting me my customer here is is here next week can Agnes come along for a little welcome note uh internally externally lots of and and I I love it I mean she's on high demand yeah our boss I said to you uh it's like OMR OMR festival of course an OFFAMS 20 press interviews stuff like this so sometimes it feels like uh working for a VAP yes and that makes yeah yes definitely uh and that makes it even more important to have her on the right spot yes at the right time with the right period and personally yeah yeah absolutely she was just sharing a little bit of her role so how could you help us explain even further how your role differs?

Speaker 5

Like come back maybe with the topic of a calendar does she touch the calendar or is it all in your hand? It's all in my hand see and and even if Agnes touches it sometimes to have put in a private appointment I'm like yeah just tell me it's better I put it in at the right true I don't touch for all executions out there by the way never touch the calendar and I cannot touch while I can I have physically I have this chance.

Speaker 1

Yes I rather ask Andrea not to be then coached.

Speaker 3

Yeah yeah no but it's it's that is really uh that's that's my responsibility we also have a um CEO office a Germany calendar where we that we use for certain other um appointments and um that's a big part of my job but as we just discussed it's and the whole logistics probably is in your hands. Exactly exactly and I try to put as I said I don't want any questions to be open. So in the meantime I really have um snips from Bing Maps saying with traffic uh the taxi ride to this customer or whatever takes this and that so you have buffer time. And that was also something we learned um like when we sit together on a weekly basis with Agnes and we have time and we have time to get to know each other and and I mean buffer time is important but really uh to really hear um oh last time it was tight and uh it was a little bit stressful and but that's the stuff you need to learn. Of course how many times am I in Stuttgart or in Berlin yes like she's the one traveling. True. But to learn what the bottlenecks are and everything like that is very useful.

Speaker 5

I once heard a story which I found so fascinating and an assistant was newly starting to work with a CFO of a big big uh corporate company in Germany and he took her on this trip. He said I want you to go with me I want you to run with me through the airport just to get feeling you know about the distances and about you know this is where I'm going to the lounge and this is where I need to be so I loved this approach because he wanted her her to be really the shadow and go with her so she really understands the next time she's she's doing a planning for him that she's fully aware of what he needs. Yeah I loved it. Yeah. Speaking of meetings so obviously I can imagine how many meetings you are sitting in with Agnes but how about your level of attendance? Joining meetings or is this also something more Svetlana covers?

Speaker 3

So I have a daily sync with Agnes every morning like sometimes it drops out of the calendar of course but that's very useful. We have a loop component we use where Agnes writes in her topics and I write my topics in to make it even more useful those 15 minutes we have. So I do get my attention I would say um what I'm um not unlucky about is that for example in the leadership team meetings we work together so sometimes building the agenda or when Svetlana says oh I'm lacking capacity or I'm I'm struggling uh can you please send it out it's an it's an invitation for a bigger audience and she would forward uh the conversation to me via Teams and then I set it up so it's a she trusts me that I'm doing it in the correct way which is which is good but I'm not involved too much in the meetings uh per se um but as I said we have a we have a regular thing together with Agnes the whole team I have my sync with her and maybe when we spoke about visibility also we work on a flexible uh very flexible basis here based on trust regarding our um work hours and where we work work location but being in the office when Agnes is having a little time to chat or when she walks by and would just say something like oh I missed to tell you I need to speak to this and that person and that's something Svetlana sometimes does it too when we see in the office and she said oh we need to oh have we thought about this or have we started this already and we have a to-do list together and I put it in so I don't forget it but it's those um little things um that make us uh available for Agnes for little things she can she can pass along to us on the way but also for others so when you're here in the office and you start chatting with other others what's on their mind and and uh you get will visibility ourselves as well to other departments and and managers.

Speaker 1

But I think you were asking about the external meetings as well right like the customers of course I think this is this what differs Microsoft also Agnes is very self-sufficient and Agnes has a lot of one-on-one meetings with the customers so none of us participating so we basically and not only because they are one-on-ones but also because we need to ensure in the background that it works seamlessly right and this is this requires some time so we travel time to time I don't know Andreas rarely I'm I'm almost not traveling which we need to fix because this is a discussion we also had with Agnes okay Sitlana you would better travel with me more often true then we we come to the capacity point so to make her like seamlessly traveling doing everything having everything at hand requires some background thing and but this is the beauty of the role. So I do have this freedom I do have this opportunity to shadow at some point Agnes internally and externally which is amazing like this is exactly what the role for right that is why it's so developing for the person who stepped in.

Speaker 5

And that is why some of the chief of staff become then leaders leaders because they they learned on the go like and they learned from the best as I always say and this is the beauty of both of your roles you have this you know place in the first row of leadership every single day. You are mentored by great leaders you you watch them you observe them you learn so much from them wow who other role in a company has this privilege I call it a privilege working with these incredible minds and really learning and shaping your careers you know let's see what comes next here what comes next there.

Speaker 1

We don't know maybe we need to have an agreement to meet in five years again and let's see okay what happens you know where where are the the ladies now so absolutely um uh true words for here I would say there is an important step and sometimes uh people hesitate to take it with between observing and doing and and this is a gap that like I would suggest everyone to to fill right totally it's sometimes like I I think this is what sometimes holds me back as well like I absorb a lot I know how she does it but then I need to step in and do it myself to be able to to really totally unlock what what what I absorbed for you.

Speaker 5

Yes and it's also kind of moving away from the comfort zone. And but you know the moment you have a boss an executive that gives you the platform that gives you the stage and I know Agnes is doing it that's the way she leads you can grab these opportunities. This is just a wonderful momentum. So can we think of how the typical day look like for you you just mentioned you have uh a regular check-in but are there any specific routines that you like to talk about that help you especially how it differs from a day working from home from a day coming to the office I know you're a great networker so you you're gonna find your uh people of course but you know maybe you're gonna lead us through a little bit how some of the routines look like if there are any would you like to start?

Speaker 3

I can yeah happy to start because I think my first reply always is there's no typical day. Yeah that there will always come some something in the answer yeah that you didn't expect to come along yeah might it be uh the call from another CEO office saying that their CAO has to speak to Agnes on the same day etc and where it gets hectic because for me uh it might just be a call but in the background I start uh going to our colleague Pym saying this customer called who's the account executive what do you know about the customer do they need to speak today can be wizard so a whole machine starts in the background um but a typical day I have to say working working from home is I sit down like when I don't do the street crossing service I sit down at 7 30 or then after sometime after eight and often I get stuck there until I don't know 5 30 6 30 until I get up for the first time it sometimes no lunch time yeah lunch for preparing lunch for my children I have two boys I told you they need uh good foods uh every day uh sometimes I don't even have time to to uh to eat myself uh or then later but anyway um when I'm here in the office and I said I love being in the office when Agnes is around because it gives you some extra time between meetings to sync um and also to connect with other people and my typical typical day as I said is communicating getting people on the same page uh when Agnes takes a step to the right informing lots of people is saying that she's taken a step to the right and not to the left as we expected her to do. Yes. But um I love it.

Speaker 1

So perfect yeah I'm always in the office like literally I think uh since I joined maybe there were a few days when I was not here and I love it and this is what I've been waiting when we were on pandemic sitting at home working remotely okay when I can get back because uh not because I'm an extrovert no but because I do think that in this role first of all you have to be in the office and for me it was so very important I moved from another country I don't speak German. I do need to get my connections done and I have to be in the office to talk to people to meet them to go to the lunch to discuss the things that you never be able to talk. And it's it's like everyone is talking about this you know coffee machine conversation that you meet someone at the coffee machine or exactly the most important ones. To be honest I would not underestimate those and it's like it's a it's a general meaning cooler or coffee machine. Exactly but it's it's elevator as well it's a cafeteria it's a it's it's lunch and so on. I do solve I would say like 10% of the tasks on the way just because I can walk and talk and say hey do you or and you ask me that this is an answer or please do that or and I will remind you later and so on. The routines I we have our our CEO office meeting every week we do have our CEO office meeting with Agnes every week and we prepare Agnes on Friday with everything which is going to happen the next week and we meet with her in person or remotely on Monday when we speak through. So it's all said on Friday what to expect next week and and as said we're walking through on Monday she kind of also gives a direction what is important for her how the last week went what we need to catch up with and everything. And then we actually this is how we start the the the the week we we we get some from her we give we give back and then we go uh we do have our regular leadership meetings and uh it's also it's not a routine but it's something that happens regularly um and then in in my case it's a lot of one on ones because I do manage a team and I I do have a one on ones with the team but also with I would say almost all our stakeholders, more or less. And as we run different projects and I'm I'm leading some of those, there then the there will be extra layer of the project management in there. And the rest I would say there is some time for ad hoc. What I did not expect in this job, it's how much hands-on work needs to be done. And because my last three jobs in the role have been people management, and I had large teams, and at some point I didn't do much myself, and then I come to this role, and I was like, oh, this is how well I forgot how then okay, now we need to.

Speaker 5

Exactly. It's boring.

Speaker 1

And this is this is really different because you are also people manager, so you do manage a team, but you are also a hands-on worker, like doing literally and the variety of topics that I manage also, like, and I think it's not it's it it doesn't fit everyone because I do think kind of strategically, but I also do literally some setting up meetings or I don't know, the email addresses or whatever. Right. And it's so different. And I was like, okay, maybe not everyone would be ready to do boss.

Speaker 5

That is true, for sure, for sure. And let's not forget the fast-paced environment you're in. It's just uh incredible. And you need to be prepared for that. It is. So what I and remember when I was uh for 20 years, I was a EA, I was uh kind of a chief of staff. Uh it's it's all called a little bit different in German, it's a more the referentin. Um so we I think we still need to get used to this in German companies, what a chief of staff is all about and what benefits the role brings. But when I look back, uh one of the core subjects was understanding the vision of my CEO and the company, of course, which is so deeply connected. So, how how how would you say how do you translate Agnes vision into the organization out of your roles?

Speaker 1

I I started with you. It's a good question because I think this is probably the most uh critical and most difficult part.

unknown

Okay.

Speaker 1

Um because the the the picture that we see is different, right? And when when you support someone like Agnes who sees everything and who meets everyday customers and policy makers and associations and partners, and and on the market always, and we are uh behind, right? It's pretty difficult, and probably this is the most interesting part. Answering your question, uh to me, took some time to observe, uh just listen very carefully what the person says, but then compare what the person does. Because it also helps you to understand the real priorities, and the real priorities are coming from the action, not from the speech. Because and in in our case, we are lucky, Agnes is very authentic. So we usually what she says, she does. But and I give you an example. Like some time ago, she said something occasionally, progress over perfection. And then you look at the first say, okay, are you saying now progress over perfection because you want just to get something quickly? And you say, ah no, you don't need to be perfect, just give it to me. Or it's a real priority. Like you really want organization things, so we're not trying to polish everything that we do. And with over time, when you observe and you listen and you see what person does and your your boss is doing, in our case, I learned, okay, this is true priority. So this is how I can also convey this message to the org when I speak. So we don't need, you know, fine-tuned, polished, very nicely fancy slides for something. We don't need to spend months to prepare something. We better do something, learn with our failures, and then we do again better. And this is how I would say I try to translate Agnes' priorities and Agnes' vision, and it's just a simple example with this progress over perfection, but this is how I do so. Observe, uh see the difference if there is a difference between saying and doing, and then based on the doing mostly aligning and you know, validating, and then I I can speak on on uh on her behalf as well.

Speaker 4

Good.

Speaker 1

And this is about basically everything. Sometimes I cannot catch up with some super strategically important things, and I ask, like, what did you mean there? What how do how do I what should I do based on what you said? Do I have it again as an action? Or it was more inspiring and we don't need to do something. Where it helps a lot.

Speaker 5

Like ask and again, having the guts to ask a question. I know a lot of people are afraid to ask a question because it might connect to a weakness. I don't know this puzzle piece right now, and this is a weakness. It is, but it's not. I think it's it's courage, it's strength to ask a question, and especially if you know I have a CEO on the other side that sits down with me and that helps me to translate it, right? Because they want they want you, and she wants you to be good at your job as well, of course.

Speaker 1

It is this perception of the weaknesses, and I I like and I cannot say I have never felt it. I do feel it. Yeah, I do feel whether I ask question now, or but uh stay stay quiet. And I force myself to ask, and now I'm comfortable. I think I can ask anyone everything. Very good. Uh sometimes I do disclaimer, maybe it will be a silly question now. Sorry, but now I ask you. And people usually say, No, it's not silly. You cannot say now, I'm done, good.

Speaker 5

So I but I like the disclaimer. Okay, I just want to warm you, warn you. Here's the disclaimer. Here comes the the question. What about you? How do you translate the vision in your specific EA role?

Speaker 3

I think anything what Svetlana just described um needs to be put in the calendar as well. Yeah, it needs time to think alone. Yeah, focus time, which it doesn't have much to be to be honest. There are lots of blockers and focus time in the calendar in the weeks ahead, but they often drop out for those uh calls that are coming in uh spontaneously, or yeah, as I said, keynotes out of things coming up. Um, but but I think that's my part, giving her time to focus on herself, to think, and then also um when Svetlana approaches me and says, Um, and that happens uh quite quite often, sometimes that, oh Andrea, we didn't finish our conversation. There are two or three topics that not not quite often, but uh just just recently we're we're planning an offsite, and the agenda needs to be uh really meaningful to everybody. So often it's not done with 15 hours or 15 hours, 15 minutes, 15 minutes of of uh talking and rushing through. And and um yeah, that's what it means, time time. And that's what speaking of time, yeah.

Speaker 5

One of your roles is especially your role, is being the efficiency and productivity manager of Agnes. So, of course, we have to talk about tools, right? So lead us through a little bit how you manage Agnes. What are the tools you use for collaboration, for communication, for to-do tracking, just to get a feeling. What's one of your favorites? You mentioned Loop already. Yeah. What else is that?

Speaker 3

That's how that's how uh that's that's how we what we use most for our daily things and for those short-term tasks or stuff like uh this week we had uh I had because she had her Esther visum for the US before I started working for her, and I was like, can we please check it? So the little things, but that need us up and running because when she's at the airport next week and she won't get to the S because her visa went out, then we're all uh yeah, our job job wasn't uh done well. It's still going to be. But anyway, thank you. Before you're almost to considering, thank you. Because every uh everybody's going to the S new uh next week for a sales kickoff. Yeah. Um so I love Loop for any sorts of uh also preparing assistant uh workshops and everything. It's a it's a great tool for collaboration. Also uh scheduling of appointments with all of our uh managing directors. Good. It's it's very useful. Group chat, loop component, hand in some dates already, and people thump up and you have a you have an appointment after two minutes usually. Nice. Um I love to do so. Swedlan and I, for example, have a shared to-do list. Um those tasks uh where we just talk about it or where we have a one-to-one, it's all put in there so we keep sort of an overview, what's due, when, and what do we need to think of in the next um weeks or months ahead. Um for Agnes, sometimes a classic reminder in Outlook helps a lot to keep her on track. Good. So everybody in the organization knows who to talk to when an urgent contract is uh needs to be signed, when a deadline uh needs to be hit and we're getting close and something's uh missing. Um yeah, I don't know, approval of announcement. So sometimes the reminder, like using one of those blockers I just mentioned in her calendar, um, to say, please, um, yeah, contract needs to be signed. And then I also put all the relevant approvals in there already, so she doesn't have to search much stuff like this to make it more. Perfect.

Speaker 1

I would say it's like the I I use this all and it's it's all commodity in in our case. So we are lucky to have all the tools that are available in the market first. We eat our own dog food, and but I can't avoid speaking about the copilot because I think what what happened with Copilot, and this to me it's like insane because it accelerated everything that we're doing now. So it is copilot now is everywhere in all the applications that we have and the loop and the outlook and the teams everywhere. Our commodity is Teams and Outlook, of course, plus loop plus to do, plus one node, and then copilot infused everywhere. And then you just do everything faster. And it and I just give you an example. Our recent example, I wanted to bring it because I want to you to know also. We are preparing an event, and the event requires a hotel. And the hotel in the city we both are not familiar with, right? I have never been there. We're not saying so, we're not ashamed. But we're not we're both we're not there. So there are hotels, and they they they are provided, and the hotels are different in different places, at different rates, different quotes, different facilities.

Speaker 4

Yes.

Speaker 1

And it was like, what we do usually? What do you do? Like Andrea or I or Andrea, and they were together, sit we sit together and look at all the criteria. What's the prices, what's the rates for the rooms, for the meeting rooms, for the food, what the amenities, where the facilities sit around, what's the distance from the office and so on. What did you do? She asked Copilot, Co-Pilot, please compare these three hotels from this perspective and suggest me what should I choose based on the traffic, based on the distance for the leadership team.

Speaker 4

Fantastic.

Speaker 1

So I would say, like, maybe it took beforehand like 40 minutes for you to bring this all together to think and decide on which one is better. And now it's like five minutes to make the proper prompt. Yeah. Yeah. We take the and we take the hotel that copilot suggested. Why I would try to challenge status quo. Yeah. Then we say, no, we go with this suggestion because it seems like okay. And if not, copilot will be in trouble at that moment. But the the beauty is. I would say it's 1% of our overall uh scope. But this already is smaller there and smaller there, and then you're like, oh.

Speaker 5

And it's so true. And of course, uh, I'm glad you're mentioning it because let's not forget there's a third person managing Agnes together with you, which is Copilot.

Speaker 4

Yeah.

Speaker 5

And especially now with creating all these wonderful agents and all the opportunities you have in this field. And that's also a message, of course, we want to give out to our listeners and viewers, like, explore the full variety of AI, whatever tool you are using, and whatever, of course, regulations you have in your company. But I think this is the future of executive support, including AI, what makes you faster, what gives you more time to be more there for Agnes on a different side, maybe in order to talk about her vision and the culture and the organizational changes. Um, and it's it's a game changer. It's absolutely a game changer, and that's why I'm so happy that you are going out there. Um, and we need to say this again that you support other companies by helping other CEO officers to really understand, you know, what opportunities are out there to work with AI and how we, you know, manage Agnes. So this is how they can manage their uh respective executives, right?

Speaker 1

This is one of the projects that I'm personally proud the most.

Speaker 4

Yeah.

Speaker 1

So we started the education for ourselves. So it was initially the idea to learn from the best. Good. So we started to reach out to our peers in the large German companies, and for me, it's for Auslanders was super important, you know, to ask people how we do this stuff. I need to somehow to figure out. And then it all turned into the conversation about the tools as well and how to increase the productivity because we have so common pain points. Everyone goes through the same pain points and challenges and issues, and we probably in some cases we can really share how we solve it. So, yeah, so I I'm really, really, really proud. We are fully booked in summer, but later, but later we can we can still do so.

Speaker 5

So very good. And by the way, I heard very good feedback because some of your customers are mine customers, uh, some of the big corporate offices out there, and I I've heard very good feedback. So uh very happy that you offer this, and I think it's very helpful that we all remember that. Also helping each other, and that's why the networking part is so important. Yeah, that's why uh you're organizing this assistance day once a year, and look back at the history we have, you know, 2019, it all started with a hundred people in the room. I will never forget it when we set up the LinkedIn group, and everything has you know just you know been growing so massively, and that's wonderful. And also the chief of staff community is growing, and it's wonderful that you give this extra time, you know, from your busy schedules in order to help others. And that's for me also a wonderful strength. So thank you for that. Thank you. So, do you actually have a common jour fix together with Agnes? Is there a round of three, or just to wrap up the way you communicate with Agnes?

Speaker 3

Um, we have regular one-to-ones, I have regular one-to-ones with uh our Execcoms manager and and uh our CPE manager, but with Agnes we have um, as Svetlana just mentioned already, um we sit down on Monday or in the future, maybe Tuesdays, and we um give her the opportunity to share her top of mind, to ask questions about what she read on uh Friday, what we sent to her. And uh we we streamlined everything um for internal and external communications and custom and partner engagements. Um, we have all the briefings ready for the next week. Sometimes when something like OMR festival comes up, we will have that ready even like four weeks before so she can start preparing herself. We want her to feel comfortable on stage and not give her something last minute. So um this is what we what we start with, with the top of mind, and then we go through the different blocks like uh internal communications, this is what's coming up announcement, people announcements, internal communications, award winners, uh stuff like this, and external communications. Um sometimes we also get questions on uh events taking place on a Saturday and Sunday, and that's where we don't decide ourselves. Of course, but we decide before is there a big impact when Agnes shows up or not? And if there's a big impact, we will ask her like this is a Saturday, and I'm not responsible for Saturdays and Sundays. So um we can discuss anything that comes in. Um, and then uh Pim has a part where we speak about customers and partner engagements coming up, um, and often uh, as I said, there are side conversations where we can then uh keep track track of everything. Exactly, executive visits. Good, as I said.

Speaker 5

So uh we are coming to an end. Uh it has been a great talk so far. Tell me what makes you proud to be a Microsoft D. Just two quick answers.

Speaker 1

I start. So maybe I steal your no. No, no, no. Um I like that we stick to our mission, and our mission, I don't know if everyone knows what our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. And we stick it. And this is what I'm proud of because I know what missions are sometimes. And the missions that something is, you know, floating somewhere in the cloud or written on the wall, and nobody really feels it. Yes, we feel it. Yes, like every day we know this. I I would say everyone at Microsoft would know what mission is and what does it mean, and what does it mean every person. And this connected very much to diversity and inclusion that we are all in, because every person means every person. And this is very important, and this is what I like about Microsoft the most class. I would say the gross mindset principle. And the gross mindset principle is that we are allowed to fail. Yeah, we are allowed to fail because we then learn. Yeah, and this is what Microsoft also supports, not proactively saying, hey, you all fail please. No, but you we're not punished for that, right? We are we are supported and we feel supported and we feel empowered to try something new and to fail. And this is this is amazing to me. Yeah, maybe because I fail fast, I don't know. Fail fast or an often.

Speaker 3

No, no, no, no. I'm proud of our culture. Um, I have to say, um, Lena Rugel liked to say, come as you are, do what you love. Yes, you don't have to drop your private or personal self and all your worries or problems, challenges you sometimes have. You don't have to drop it at the door. You can you can come here with all your backpacks you have, I have the feeling. Um, and yeah, that that makes like everything you said, our growth mindset, our learning days we get offered, our DI diversity and inclusion initiatives, the employee resource groups. Um, I've had the best six years in my professional life here in the past six years.

Speaker 5

And we need to give out a shout-out to Lena for sure. She has been on the podcast here as well. I learned so much in this episode from Lena. So uh it's incredible what she does because it's an important topic. So we're gonna close this wonderful episode with a motto, a slogan. So, the two of you and Agnes, as the dream team together, what could be a motto about all of you?

Speaker 2

No, you tell.

Speaker 4

I'm curious. I'm curious.

Speaker 1

Okay, there are two different motto. One, the the real one that we leave in the CEO office. I would say it's CEO office without Agnes, uh, but supervising but by Agnes. Um, it's what comes to CEO office gets done. And this is what we try to live with. And the second one, the one with Agnes, I would say we both asked copilot. Yeah. Based on our communication, based on what we talk, discuss, and have, what would be the motto? And what is it?

Speaker 3

Uh, my favorite, like I got three such. Yes, but my favorite one was Together we elevate.

Speaker 1

The same suggestion. So it gave us thought.

Speaker 3

Exactly. And the explanation was it was such a diverse team, with every every person has a different actually focus area. But together we can get it done a lot. And we have such a seamless great collaboration that together we elevate.

Speaker 5

I love it. I think these are the perfect words to end this episode. I appreciate your time. I know the next reading meetings are waiting for you, but it was wonderful to really understand both of your roles to get to know Microsoft a little bit better. And as I said, I'm coming back in five years. Let's see what happens next. Woohoo! We're looking forward to it so much. Thank you for watching. Thank you, Diana. That was Executive Office Insights, the podcast for everyone shaping the future of the modern office. I hope you found valuable insights and inspiration for your own journey. If you enjoyed this episode, I would truly appreciate a five-star rating on your favorite podcast platform. Not only does it support me, but it also helps others discover the podcast and benefit from these exciting conversations. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and feel free to share it with anyone interested in executive support, leadership, and modern office management. Thank you for tuning in and see you in the next episode of Executive Office Insights.

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Jeremy Burrows

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