Executive assistant meetings: prepare, capture and follow up

Where meetings fit in the role

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics lists scheduling appointments, updating calendars and arranging staff meetings among typical administrative duties. Executive assistants give high-level support to top executives, often reviewing incoming documents, doing research and preparing reports.

In practice, that puts you on both sides of each meeting. You decide what the executive needs to walk in with, and you track what they agreed to on the way out.

Before: a one-page brief, not a folder

Give the executive one page they can read in two minutes:

• Purpose: the decision or outcome this meeting is for.
• People: who's attending, their role and your last contact with them.
• Open items: commitments from the last meeting, and whether they were met.
• Ask: what the executive wants to leave with.
• Logistics: the link or room, and anything to read beforehand.

During: agree who captures what

Decide before the meeting whether you attend, who takes notes and what they capture. For most meetings, the executive needs decisions, commitments with dates and anything they promised personally.

If you aren't in the room, ask the executive for a 30-second debrief right after. Asking "Did you promise anything?" surfaces commitments to add to your list.

Example: one meeting, three follow-ups

An executive meets a partner about a joint event (fictional example). Afterwards, the assistant's list reads:

After: keep one follow-up list

Keep a single list across meetings, not one per meeting. Review it with the executive at your regular check-in, and chase other people's commitments before their dates, not after.

When a commitment depends on someone outside the meeting, note who and when you'll check. That stops it from quietly dropping.

Using Bridge for executive meetings

Bridge builds a brief for each upcoming meeting on the calendar connected to your Bridge account. It covers who's attending, recent activity with them and context from earlier conversations. Use it as raw material for the one-page version.

Bridge only works with calendars and events your connected account can access. So briefs cover meetings that appear on the calendar you connect, such as ones you're invited to or organize.

After each meeting, notes include a summary, decisions and follow-ups, and action items also collect on Home. Share the notes with the executive or with attendees from the meeting's Share menu.

• On paid plans, an agent with access to your connected calendar can look up availability and schedule a follow-up meeting.
• Add an executive's recurring meetings, such as board or leadership meetings, to a space so their history stays in one place.