I Don't Know What My VA is Doing
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In this episode, Barbara and Matt talk to listeners about a common anxiety felt by many business owners who work with VAs - “I don’t know what my Virtual Assistant is doing” – and the strategies they can put in place to ensure they are always across tasks that their VA is working on.
 
During this episode, we take a look at the importance of communication and the setting of clear expectations within your team, to ensure that business owners and their VAs always know what each other is up to.
 
Some of the areas covered include:

The importance of managing your team and flow of work
Set clear expectations around what the deliverables are of each task
How important project management tools are in keeping communication open and transparent
Building solid systems within your business and ensuring you have the right systems and processes in place for your team

Let us know in the comments below what your key takeout has been from this episode or why not join the continuing conversation over in the Virtual Success Facebook Group.
In this episode:
01:36 - “What is my VA working on?”

02:17 - How do I manage my VA?

02:45 - Set clear expectations

03:57 - Use project management tools

05:50 - Keep communication open

06:58 - Set clear deliverables

08:09 - Build a solid system

10:58 - Have I got the right systems and processes in place?

15:15 - Working within your ‘genius’

17:08 - Refining your systems and processes

20:58 - Wrapping things up

Barbara Turley:  Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Virtual Success Show where I'm joined by my fabulous co-host, Matt Malouf. Matt, how is it going?

Matt Malouf:  Excellent, Barb. How are you today?

Barbara:  I'm good. Thank you. Loving doing this show as always. I'm always amazed of how many times we think we have no more topics to cover. Then, we go, "What about this question?" So many things to talk about.

Matt: Absolutely, absolutely. We would come up with a list of I think half a dozen in the prep for this show.

Barbara:  Exactly. I know. So, guys, what are the things we're going to talk about today on today's show? It's a very simple topic, but it's one I actually see quite a bit not just with clients, but people online talking about VAs, and the question that I get sometimes is... It's not really a question. More of an observation or a fear. "I don't know what my VA is working on," which is a tricky one. So, people feel a little bit almost disempowered because they feel like, "Well, I think my VA is working, but I don't actually know what they're doing." Now, Matt, is it just me, or do you hear anything similar in your coaching practice, right, your retreats, or any of your masterminds?
“What is my VA working on?”
Matt:  Yeah. It's very common. I hear, "I'm not clear or sure what they're doing," or it's, "How will I know if they're working all the time at their desk?" So, it's very, very common. Very common.

Barbara:  Yes. Yes, and I think what happens is people start to feel, like I said, a bit disempowered, and then the fear comes in, and I even talked to our VAs about this actually. I say it's very important that you don't let yourself fall into this trap because the client in the back of their head won't be able to help themselves, but wonder, "What are they doing?" So, you got to try to be visible, and you got to try to be demonstrating what you're actually working on.

How do I manage my VA?
But at the same time, it does... I feel it comes back to the client and the way the client is managing their team and managing the flow of work that's going on in a business, which really is the responsibility of the owner or the person managing... You might have an operations person that's managing this. It's really their responsibility to know this kind of thing. So, Matt, what would you... As a coach, what's your take on this? What's your advice?
Set clear expectations