virtual assistant improvement

Francis:

Let’s go back really improving how to research. We talked about research as an example. And we can always expand research by forum, internet research, Youtube videos and PowerPoint archives. If you are very motivated, you make a profile and start asking questions in the forums to get even better research results. 

There are survey tools which results in anonymized research results which your assistant can add to the research. If you want to go even further, you can tell your assistant to research for E-books that can train him even further. And then you decide if you buy that E-book and let your assistant read it. So that he can improve his work. 

Research is perhaps not the best result example but website creation is a very good example. If you have a WordPress website or another website or a blog, there are lots of free E-books out there. Let your assistant research a few E-books, download them or show you where you can find them. 

You check all the resources very quickly, decide which research he should read and then you tell them “Okay, this is a paid training. Take 5 hours reading this.” And then implement everything. 

This only works if really he’s already delivering the basic work then we can add the training.

Stefan:

Yes, that’s no problem for me. If I would hire someone long-term, I would be interested in improving this spectrum of abilities, of course.

But that’s only if he already delivered that he is capable of improving himself and not leaving next week or 1 month or something.

Francis:

Yes. I think these tactics are only been there when you are already working with your assistant for 2 months, at least.

If we’re still in the first week and that was the previous part of the interview, you need to make sure that he does what he’s told and he doesn’t leave you without a second note.

Stefan:

Yeah. Okay. And after that, you can work on improving him.

Francis:

Yes. You don’t start with this. Else, you lose a lot of time and money.

Another thing which really improves the motivation of an assistant to bring his own ideas in to the work is to repeat a lot how much it’s important to you that he brings improvement ideas. So this is very easy to do when you do video instructions.

You can talk off the top of your head. While you do video instructions, you can always tell “Ah yeah. By the way if you have any idea to make this better, please tell me in the next email- the next daily email.”

And while it takes you 2 seconds to say in a video recording when you repeat this from time to time, your assistant will start bringing you his own ideas. Perhaps, his own ideas at the beginning are very small ones and you cannot do anything with it. But the fact that he has given you idea from his own perspective means a lot. So don’t disregard it.

If for example you have a WordPress blog and ask “Okay, do you have any idea to make this better?” And he said, “Yeah. I have the idea to research how to do WordPress blogs and then we can make it better.” This is not a tip that would bring you much. But he brought his own tip and then you tell him “Okay. It’s very good that you bring your own tip.” 

Actually, you did already know this so nothing will change but it’s very, very good that he brought his own tip and please continue to doing that. Encourage him to bring his own ideas into it.

When he brought to you his basic first tip, tell him what you already know. That it surpasses his basic tip and that after he has implemented all that; he should feel free to bring even more complicated tips. 

It’s just important that you show interest in the motivation of your assistant even if it’s very small. It’s like a small plant that you water with nice feedback.