What You Should Know About Executive Operations

What is the future of the EA profession? In short: Strategic executive operations supercharged by AI. Melissa Peoples breaks it down. 

Recorded at EA Ignite Spring 2025 and produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals - ASAP. Learn more and submit a listener question at asaporg.com/podcast.

Leah Warwick: Hi, everyone. I'm Leah Warwick, and you're listening to "The Admin Edge." At ASAP, we empower executive assistants to be executive operations strategists. And who better to discuss this than expert trainer, Melissa Peoples? Now, this episode was recorded at EA Ignite, and with so many people at this event, the background noise is quite loud in the beginning, but it gets much better after the first few minutes, so stick around to hear from Melissa, interviewed by Rachel Rice at EA Ignite.

00:00:41                     

Rachel Rice: Hello. I'm Rachel Rice, Director of Administrative Coordination at the Corporation for Supportive Housing. My guest today is Melissa Peoples, CEO and Founder of M. Peoples Consulting, and a trainer at this event, EA Ignite. Welcome to the podcast, Melissa.

Melissa Peoples: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here with you.

Rachel Rice: Awesome. I'm so excited to be here with you. So, today, we would like to learn more about executive operations.

Melissa Peoples: My favorite topic.

Rachel Rice: Yes. And I'm really curious, beginning with the definition of executive operations, what is it, and how does it differ from general operations?

Melissa Peoples: Wow, really good question. So the way that I like to describe executive operations really is like systemizing and streamlining the office of whomever, so the office of the CEO or the office of the VP of whatever.

00:01:38

It is really kind of taking that next level, rather than everything just coming down the pipeline and you just have to deal with it, to you taking control and optimizing, putting systems in place, best practices, standard operating procedures. So you're controlling what's coming out of the office rather than everything coming to you, with you having no control. 

00:01:56                     

Rachel Rice: I like that. I really like the idea of having systems in place that you can control, so that things are not cascading and falling on you. Yeah. So what would you say are the top three skills that are needed to run a successful executive operation?

Melissa Peoples: Wow, really good. Well, first, I will say, we often hear executive operations and chief of staff, and I think chief of staff has been the one that's been coming in front of everybody. I guess I just want to remind people that executive operations, to me, is a natural progression of the role of a typical executive assistant role.

The big difference, I would say, is that the executive is the deliverable in executive ops; whereas, in a chief of staff, often the business unit or the organization is and they're responsible for the success of the organization. Whereas, in executive ops, your sole focus is the executive being the deliverable. 

00:02:50

Given that, I think that you really have to come at it with a strategic lens and kind of go: What is broken and what is missing, and how do I fix it? Also, just taking a really deep dive into understanding what's happening in the business, and then what are the blockers. 

Of course, this changes the farther up in an org that you get, right? If you're partnered with a director versus a CEO, it's going to look different. But really kind of looking at like: What are the blockers that are slowing down the business? And how is it coming from this office? And then how do we shift all of that to strategic thinking, really leveling up your business acumen? 

00:03:27

I know this one's a little weird, but you have to build your confidence because you're going to be speaking out and to things that people typically aren't used to this role speaking up on. So it's being confident, finding your voice, speaking up, and fully owning your seat at the table. 

Rachel Rice: I love that. One more question and I'm sure you're going to eat this cake. Let's talk about AI and technological advancements within the office of the exec. How do we see AI in action within the realm of executive operations? What's current? What's new? What's upcoming?

00:04:00                     

Melissa Peoples: Really, really good question. I think it's going to -- there's not a one-size-fits-all. [It's] depending on what ecosystem you're in, if you're in Google or if you're in Microsoft, and your own personal habits, your executive business partner and their own personal habits.

I think the starting foundation is having access to AI within the ecosystem. Then the next piece is building your individual habits and foundations around that so that you can go faster. To me, you have to create space and use technology, use AI and automation (which are different, but they do go together). When you kind of can build this -- I like to call them "bandwidth boosters." 

00:04:41

You're using technology to create bandwidth so that you can think about the strategic work that needs to get done, or the things that are broken that you could fix. So I think that's just the foundational piece. 

I think next level is really thinking about: What is all the information that your executive needs? And can you build it into this digital HQ so that everything is at everybody's fingertips, right? So that there's a one-stop shop. There's a communication hub or a digital HQ, whatever you want to call it, and you're really building micro habits and different AI tools, thinking about how you're going to build your tech stack. 

00:05:19

If you think about your tech stack, the bottom being either Google or Microsoft, but then those are your next levels, your individual productivity habits. What tools do you use to go faster? But then when you're thinking on an organizational level, what tools is your organization using, and what AI tools can you implement to make that go faster? Then taking it up to the final topic, the C-suite. This is all going to trickle down. 

I think what's coming next is AI agents. If you haven't heard of them, what are you even sleeping on? AI agents is essentially like an AI employee that will autonomously do things. So I think for our industry, we just have to be uber aware that there are AI tools that can do all of the foundational for us, so calendar, inbox, travel and expenses. We have to be very intentional about leveling up our skills and our mindset so that we can bring the strategic thought work and showcase why not to replace this task with an AI tool. So really showing up. 

00:06:26

I always say: 2025 is the year you have to go from ideation to implementation. We don't have time to keep playing and exploring now. It's time to actually put it into practice and do it. 

Rachel Rice: That is quotable. Get your pen and paper. Move from ideation to implementation. Amazing. One more question before we move to the audience questions and answers. Project management skills: how do they play a part in executive operations?

00:06:52                     

Melissa Peoples: I think it's kind of a core, because when you shift to executive operations, you are driving the business. You are running your own meetings. You're not kind of that person in the background that nobody sees or speaks to, so you have to be really comfortable managing what's coming down the pipeline. If people are behind on getting your deliverable, how are you tracking that? How are you managing it? Are you doing it manually? Is there an AI tool that you're using? And then being able to confidently communicate that, and call people to the carpet when they're dragging the whole project behind.

It really is an expansive skill that you need when you're leveling up in executive operations. It's just such an exciting time, in my opinion. 

Rachel Rice: Awesome. Melissa, you've shared so many helpful nuggets, and you've gracefully unpacked the office of executive operations. Thank you so much.

Melissa Peoples: Thank you.

00:07:50                     

Rachel Rice: We have a listener question, submitted by one of our community members. They write: "How can EAs balance being strategic partners, while also staying accountable for small, but crucial, tasks like expenses, scheduling, and meeting logistics?"

Melissa Peoples: It's an interesting question because part of me challenges just the general mindset of the validity of the very foundational pieces, because they're there and they're important, but I wouldn't call them "crucial." For the majority of us, we have to make the mindset shift: What is business critical? And what is high impact versus low impact?

Although you want to make sure that you're not sending your executive business partner off to Neverland when they need to be in Room A and the logistical piece, but, to me, that's where I'm building systems in place that are making sure that those things are not missed. That does require us to slow down a minute and build the systems that we put in place so that we can think about it. 

00:08:58

With the emergence of AI, again, we don't have time to continue to go like, "I'll get to the strategy later." You have to get to the strategy now, which means you have to take full control of what -- maybe break off some of the old-school mindsets of like: What is business critical, and what is not? And can you put a system in place to make sure that you're not doing everything manually, and that you've systematized some of it? And then you can have AI to help you take care of some of the minutia. But even are you using -- because there are AI tools.

Like I mentioned, there's AI tools to do all of the foundational four, so are you implementing them to do that stuff? Are you using AI to help you with your expense reports? Are you using AI to help you with meeting management? How can you use the tools that are available to you to minimize that work, the goal being 80/20? So 20% of your time tactical, 80% focused on strategy. 

00:09:52                     

Rachel Rice: Love it. So I hope you leaned in when you heard Melissa say it's okay to slow down. Did you know that? You need time to learn and unpack and absorb all of these new tools so that it can make your job easier. This has been amazing. Wow. Thank you so much, Melissa. Where can listeners find more or learn more about you?

Melissa Peoples: Yeah, so you can find me on my website, which is melissapeoples.com. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm mostly, actually, on LinkedIn and just my website now. I do lots of traveling, so I kind of travel the U.S. and beyond, helping assistants learn how to level up in this way, so maybe I'll be at a city near you, and you can come see me there

00:10:37                     

Rachel Rice: Awesome. Well, I look forward to seeing you in Chicago at some time. Thank you again for joining us on "The Admin Edge" podcast.

Melissa Peoples: Thank you for having me. It was a blast.

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Leah Warwick: Thank you for listening to "The Admin Edge," produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals, original music and audio editing by Warwick Productions, with audio and video production by 5Tool Productions. If you liked this podcast, please leave us a nice review, five stars, and subscribe. If you'd like to submit a listener question, you may do so on our website at ASAPorg.com/podcast.