The Limitless Leader Newsletter: An EA Is Not a Luxury. It's the Most Underrated Growth Strategy in Business

Most leaders frame the EA relationship as a reward.

Something you earn once you have made it. A nice-to-have for executives at the top. Not a real priority for someone still in the building phase.

That framing is the problem.

You are spending your best hours on work that was never meant to live on your plate. Scheduling. Inbox triage. Travel. Follow-ups. Logistics. Coordination.

None of that requires your judgment. And all of it is stealing it.

The leaders I coach who feel most buried are not buried because they have too much work. They are buried because they are doing the wrong work. They are doing work someone else could own, and they have convinced themselves that is just part of the job.

It is not. It is a choice. And it is costing you more than you realize.

I started my career as an EA. I know what this relationship looks like from both sides of the desk.

And I will tell you exactly what changed everything for me: I stopped thinking of Cameron as my assistant and started treating her as my operating partner.

Every Monday morning, Cameron and I sit down for our weekly 1:1. She owns the agenda. She drives the meeting. She comes prepared to align our week, surface what needs my attention, and clear everything else off my plate. Every Friday before she closes her laptop, the agenda for Monday is already updated.

That is what partnership looks like.

But it goes further. Cameron manages my inbox. She handles not only business work but also personal, such as my self-care scheduling, travel, gifting, calendaring, groceries, and the hundred small things that used to quietly drain me before my day even started. She is the reason I can close my laptop at the end of the day and actually be present.

A few years ago, I discovered my daughters' passports had expired a week before our first family trip to Italy. Months of planning. Flights booked. Everything locked in. And suddenly everything at risk.

Cameron did not wait to be asked. She dropped everything, called passport offices across multiple states, tracked down every possible lead, and contacted our state representative's office until it was solved.

That is not task execution. That is trust built over time. And that level of partnership does not happen by accident. It happens because you decide to invest in it.

When you stop treating the EA relationship as optional, something shifts.

Your brain quiets. Your energy multiplies. You stop showing up to the work that matters most already depleted from the work that did not.

You get your calendar back. You get your focus back. You get the mental margin to actually lead instead of just manage.

And here is what surprises most leaders: it is not just the business that gets better.

When your personal world is handled with intention, your whole life sharpens. Your presence at home improves. Your decisions get cleaner. Your leadership gets stronger.

The ROI on a great EA is not measured in hours saved. It is measured in the quality of the work you do with the time you get back.

An EA is not a reward for success. An EA is a tool for getting there.

What it is: One intentional limit that unlocks the partnership you have been putting off.

Why it matters: You cannot lead well from the bottom of your to-do list. The work that grows the business requires your full attention. Everything else requires a great EA.

How to lead:

This week, spend one day tracking every task you touch. Write it all down. Then go through the list and ask one question for each item: does this require my unique judgment, my relationships, or my strategic thinking?

If the answer is no, it belongs on someone else's plate.

Most leaders who do this exercise are shocked. Sixty to seventy percent of what they are doing every day does not require them at all.

That is not a time problem. That is a delegation problem. And it is one decision away from being solved.

Stop doing more. Start doing what matters. The right EA partnership makes both possible.

What is one thing sitting on your plate right now that does not actually need to be yours?

Download my book, Rise Up & Lead Well, for the exact systems and rhythms I use with Cameron to run my leadership and my life.