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Executive Assistant to the Founder

Role Context

APS was founded by John Amaechi OBE in 2007. He has been a vocal advocate for effective leadership, including inclusive leadership in and outside of the workplace for the last 35 years and more recently has been a prominent voice in the global conversation on race and antiracism.  John has been inducted into HR magazine’s HR most influential Hall of Fame as well as being an Honorary Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter Business School. John is a LinkedIn influencer and was a LinkedIn Top Voice in 2020.

As John and our delivery, client success and sales teams support organisations in an ever-evolving operating landscape, we are looking for an experienced and diligent Executive Assistant with project management skills to play a pivotal role in supporting John in all his day-to-day activities, ensuring his internal and client-facing duties are delivered optimally, removing unnecessary cognitive load and maintaining smooth processes, allowing John to maximise his focus on his various business obligations.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for a committed and highly-skilled, interpersonally proficient, detail-oriented, mutually accountable peer to work alongside our Founder. This role will work with the Founder and report to the Head of Client Success.

We are looking for a London-based candidate as facetime with the Founder in Central London will be an essential part of a successful partnership, and a working knowledge of the Capital will help with effective scheduling of activities.

We are looking for someone who can advocate for the Founder but understands the importance of liaising and working in synergy with the larger APS Intelligence team to achieve our goals.

We would like someone curious and willing to learn about the work we do, in order to provide the most effective and fulsome support to the Founder.

Responsibilities

  • Reduce cognitive load for the Founder to enable him to deliver complex, concurrent initiatives (including speeches, workshops, advisory services, Mastermind sessions and more – both in-person and via live-virtual delivery.) 
  • Take control of the Founder’s diary management practices and conduct daily, deep diary management 
  • Manage Founder’s inbox for external and internal enquiries, upholding and augmenting where possible, the current ‘red flag’ system
  • Ongoing internal and external meeting scheduling and re-scheduling 
  • Act on behalf of Founder in his absence with client-facing correspondence and action planning 
  • Protect Founder’s time by acting as gatekeeper and liaison for wider business and ad hoc requests. 
  • Booking domestic and international travel, ensuring that client requirements across time zones are met 
  • Provide onsite logistical and administrative support during live, face-to-face activities 
  • Connect to act as a sounding board for ideas and thoughts 
  • Quality assurance and solo production of client-ready documents and presentations (Word & PowerPoint) 

Project Management responsibilities: 

  • Designing and implementing processes and implementation schedules for larger or longer-term projects  
  • Liaising with client sponsors on behalf of the Founder 
  • Tracking good ideas and driving effective governance and positive outcomes  
  • Designing and overseeing internal project management  
  • Project oversight for tasks delegated to the Founder and their tracking e.g., development of new workshop syllabus, employee handbook and policy updates 

 Supporting the wider team at APS Intelligence: 

  • Supporting wider Leadership team with diary management, meeting content and projects 
  • Ensure meeting ‘hygiene’ (including pre-read, agenda and purpose of meeting documentation) is upheld and followed, pushing back when it isn’t 
  • Be the owner and ‘day-to-day go-to person’ for any Founder-related request 

 The knowledge, skills and attributes you will need to be successful in this role are: 

  • Possess several years of experience in a similar role, working at a senior management level 
  • Demonstrate crisis and risk management skills 
  • Willing and able to challenge and hold Founder to account  
  • Support colleagues who request Founder’s time to self-solve or bring a recommendation instead 
  • Be flexible and adaptable to changing tasks/Founder’s needs 
  • Be a great, active listener 
  • Exercise emotional literacy and an ability to manage the emotions of others 
  • Be inherently organised with excellent management, time-management, and problem-solving skills 
  • Be able to present data in a succinct and well-written manner 
  • Have the ability to work independently and with professional discretion, be reactive and proactive with your approach 
  • Have excellent writing, editing and research skills including the ability to produce, edit and complete quality assurance of documents to client-ready status 
  • Be able to handle confidential and sensitive information with the utmost discretion 
  • Possess the drive to close things down so there are less items left inconclusive or ‘open’  
  • Demonstrate effective governance skills 
  • Be open to continuous improvement 
  • Have excellent attention to detail 
  • Be proficient in Outlook, Toggl (or similar time-tracking apps), Zoom, Teams, SharePoint, Word, Excel, PowerPoint 

Benefits 

We are a small, but fierce organisation that is on a rapid growth trajectory. Personal development is a core element of our client work, and our own internal mantra. When not in situ with clients, our working environment is relaxed and casual. We operate a predominantly remote model of work that can be flexed to meet your individual needs.

We offer an employee pension scheme and 25 days of holiday plus Bank Holidays per year. All APS Intelligence employees sign the EU working time exception.

Compensation is £43,000 – 50,000, commensurate with experience and scope of the role.

How to apply

Send your CV and a covering letter explaining, with examples, how you meet the requirements of the role specification, plus any other experience you feel makes you the right person for this role.

Email your CV and cover letter to: [email protected]

Applications close on Wednesday, 20th July 2022. 

About APS Intelligence 

APS Intelligence is a strategic advisory firm that specialises in organisational psychology. We work with a diverse array of large domestic and multinational clients to solve workplace challenges – leadership, internal communications, teaming, culture, inclusion and more – that impact organisational performance. We foster organisational change using evidence-led methodology to solve intractable People problems. 

APS Intelligence is a dedicated and cross-disciplinary team of experts from different branches of psychology, education and business, who deliver interventions to our clients that are based on the best critical thinking and current psychological and organisational research. 

APS Intelligence is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes prospective colleagues from across the entire spectrum of protected categories and other diverse perspectives. We do not believe that any role has an inherent, ‘designated demographic’.  

 APS Intelligence operates a flexible working system, whereby most work will be completed remotely alongside regular, face-to-face time for teaming and other essential activities.  For this role it is regularly expected that 2 days a week will be on-location in or near the APS Intelligence Central London office. 

APS Intelligence works in the UK, mainland Europe and across the United States and this role will at times be asked to accompany the Founder on the occasional international work trip.