What does it truly mean to elevate the Executive Assistant role to one that serves as a powerful and strategic business partnership and reaps endless benefits for your executive? For starters, it goes way beyond ‘tell and do’ and daily tasking. It’s about alignment across the full discipline of the role of the executive assistant, and while many believe they’re already performing at this level, the reality is this; very few are operating as strategic business partners to their executives.

For 26 years, Debbie Gross made it her business to know everything about John Chambers. As the Cisco CEO’s chief executive assistant (CEA), Gross was much more than Chambers’ “right-hand woman” or “girl Friday” or any of the other cutesy clichés that fail to capture the immeasurable value of administrative professionals who ensure their company’s seemingly effortless efficiency.