The Excellence Mindset, Pt 1: Introduction
After taking a few weeks off to prepare for EA Ignite Spring 2025, I’m excited to launch a new blog series titled “The Excellence Mindset.” I hope you enjoy this look into an important way to strengthen your impact as an administrative professional.
Every time I attend a conference, open LinkedIn, or read a professional development message board, there is an overarching message: Admins deserve more. So many conversations center around a lack of recognition, low wages, or no opportunities for promotion or advancement. These things are all incredibly important, but what are we doing right now to earn it? How are we each individually taking ownership of our skill set and career trajectory?
Our industry has overcome so much to get to where we are today. For example, look at the amazing strides administrative professionals made as we entered the computer era. We adapted from snail mail to email, typewriters to office suite programs, pen and paper to digital calendars—the list goes on. But as we now enter the AI era, the new trajectory for administrative professionals is to utilize tools that consolidate and streamline tactical, routine work, allowing us to focus on higher-level, strategic contributions. With all the innovations made over the years, are we as an industry still pushing forward? Are there members of our community who are stagnating? And if stagnation is present, what are we doing to earn more recognition, higher wages, and opportunities for promotion or advancement?
I must admit, I am often stunned by the two different camps of administrative professionals I’ve seen—and how the chasm between them grows deeper by the day. The first camp is filled with administrative professionals who are not open to innovating or actively thriving in their roles; they are comfortable simply working within the reactivity of their day-to-day work. The second camp is filled with administrative professionals who are eager to grow and develop their skills and mindsets in order to demonstrate that they are worthy of greater recognition and compensation. As you read this, take a moment to reflect … which camp do you fall into?
We must first come to a common understanding of where an administrative professional’s value is derived. It’s easy to calculate the value of a salesperson, as there is hard and fast data to show the value they’re bringing. For administrative professionals, it’s a bit trickier to calculate—but it really boils down to ROI: the time and cost savings they bring to their organization by taking on the administrative load that slows others down, freeing them to handle the things only they can do. If you believe you should be receiving a salary of $100,000, then the question becomes: are you providing a time or cost savings of at least that amount to your organization? How are you saving your team or executive time? Are you being proactive enough that they don’t even have to ask you? How much of their mental load are you carrying?
The same goes for recognition or opportunities for advancement or promotion. Are you actively finding ways to innovate, automate, and streamline your role? Are you looking at the systems in place and asking how things can be done better? Are you taking the time to set yourself up for future proactivity?
I propose that administrative professionals who want more recognition, compensation, and opportunities for advancement must first adopt what I’m calling the “Excellence Mindset.”
The Excellence Mindset is a professional posture rooted in self-leadership, humility, and purpose—where growth is intentional, impact is strategic, and high standards are a daily choice. There are many important keywords in this definition that we will focus on over the course of this blog series, but the most important is the last word: choice. If you are going to demonstrate and own the value you bring to your organization, you must make the choice not to stagnate. You must choose to innovate, strive to improve every day, and recognize that there is always something to learn. The Excellence Mindset is broken down into five pillars, each of which I will cover in depth over the course of this blog series:
Growth Focused | Growth is never done. It’s not about where you are, but how willing you are to keep moving forward.
Own It: Proactive over Reactive | You can’t be proactive if you don’t first take ownership.
Strategic Curiosity | Excellence isn’t just about adding tools—it’s about choosing the right ones that elevate your impact.
Self-Reflection | Excellence doesn’t happen by accident—it’s the result of regular reflection and realignment.
Impact Orientation | Excellence isn’t just about doing your job well. It’s about expanding your influence beyond the job description.
This blog series is a streamlined consolidation of the lessons I’ve learned throughout my journey. This isn’t a quick fix or something that will immediately click into place on day one. If you are serious about being worthy of more, it will likely take a few months of hard work, testing, adjusting, and realigning your workflow to build the habits and systems you need for it to become second nature. But I will tell you: by implementing these into your daily life, it will revolutionize your work, and your value to your organization will be both measurable and impactful.
As we embark on this journey together, I invite you to reflect on where you are today and where you want to grow. Cultivating an Excellence Mindset isn’t about achieving overnight perfection—it’s about committing to intentional progress, one choice at a time. In the upcoming posts, we’ll break down each of the five pillars and explore how you can apply them to elevate your work, your impact, and your career trajectory. Remember: excellence doesn’t just happen—it’s a daily decision. Let’s make that choice together.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments: What part of the Excellence Mindset resonates most with you right now? Which pillar are you most eager to explore?
