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The 90-Day Window That Defines How Strategic Assistants Are Valued

The 90-Day Window That Defines How Strategic Assistants Are Valued

The Strategic Assistant Revolution Continues

Joshua Washington
September 11, 2025

💬 Quote of the Week

Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.

Joe Biden

💼 A Personal Note from Joshua

Hey EA-Pros Community,

As we close Q3, executives everywhere are asking the same questions:

➡️ “Where did we win?”

➡️ “Where did we fall short?”

➡️ “How do we reposition for next year?”

And here’s the truth: how you show up in the next 90 days will shape how your executive, and your company, views you in 2026.

This isn’t about doing more. It’s about positioning your work as strategic fuel for the business.

That’s what this week’s feature is about.

With purpose,

Joshua

🧠 Feature Insight

Career Positioning in Q4: The Strategic Assistant’s Playbook

Q4 is a spotlight quarter. Executives are pressured to close strong, boards are looking at annual performance, and budgets for the next year are set. Strategic Assistants who seize this window can shift how they’re valued for the next 12 months.

Here’s how to position yourself:

1️⃣ Align With Organizational Priorities

Pull the company’s stated Q4 goals and directly link your work to them. Example:

❌ Don’t just say: “I coordinated the leadership offsite.”

✅ Do say: “I designed the offsite agenda to ensure alignment with the company’s growth strategy and Q4 revenue targets.”

2️⃣ Quantify Contributions

Executives are judged on metrics, so bring them data.

Example: “By reworking the project workflow, I freed up 12 executive hours this month, time redirected toward closing Q4 deals.”

3️⃣ Position Yourself in Year-End Reviews

Offer to draft your executive’s year-end reflection or board prep. By doing this, you’re not only saving them time, you’re inserting yourself into the narrative of success.

4️⃣ Set the Stage for Next Year

Bring one proactive recommendation for how your role can create greater impact in 2026. Framed correctly, this positions you not as a doer but as a thought partner.

👉 Executive Coach Action Step: Pick one Q4 priority and map how your work contributes to it. Prepare a 2-sentence summary you can use in meetings. Repetition of this framing across Q4 will reposition you as indispensable.

🧠 Executive Coaching Corner

Why You Need a Framework Now

Positioning isn’t luck, it’s strategy.

And strategy requires a framework. Without it, even the most talented Strategic Assistants risk being invisible.

That’s why the ElevateEA Master Strategy Class exists. With over 6,000 research and development hours behind it (that’s more than most executive MBA programs), the class equips you with the exact frameworks to:

Position your work as strategic impact, not task execution,
Build visibility at the executive and organizational level,
Enter 2026 already recognized as a Strategic Assistant who drives results.

🔥 REPLAY ACCESS: Breaking the Career Ladder

If you missed the last session, you missed some eye-opening truths that assistants said blew their minds.

Here’s what attendees discovered:

Secret #1: The Invisible Shift: A new identity standard is redefining EA value, and ignoring it could cost you your career ceiling.
Secret #2: The Strategic Identity: How a small group of EAs is being invited to the table because of one subtle shift.
Secret #3: Timing: Why waiting even one year could set you behind, and the shortcut strategic EAs are taking instead.

✉️ P.S.

Q4 isn’t just another quarter; it’s your stage.

Play it right, and you walk into 2026 already positioned as the Strategic Assistant your executive can’t imagine working without.

With respect,

Joshua Washington,

Senior Executive Coach

P.S. Don’t wait until next year to start repositioning yourself. Start this week. Map one Q4 goal and frame your work against it, and you’ll feel the shift immediately.