Executive Assistant Masterclass

The Executive Assistant Masterclass is a five-day senior support professional course delivered by Mars Training Centre at its international training centres — including London, Dubai, Paris, Amsterdam and Geneva — designed for experienced executive assistants, personal assistants and chiefs of staff who support directors, C-suite leaders and boards.

The executive assistant role has changed faster than most job descriptions admit. The modern EA is a gatekeeper, a project manager, a communicator, a discreet adviser and increasingly a quasi-chief-of-staff. The volume of email, the pace of decisions, the expectations around discretion and the demands on judgement have all increased, and the executive being supported has less and less patience for friction. This programme is built for EAs who want to operate at that elevated standard.

Across five focused days you will sharpen the disciplines that define a senior executive assistant: anticipating the principal's needs, managing complex diaries and travel, handling confidential information, communicating with authority on behalf of an executive, and acting as a calm, organised partner inside the leadership team. The programme is delivered by senior practitioners with direct experience of supporting boards and C-suite executives.

What You Will Learn

• Anticipate the priorities of the executive you support and structure your week around them.
• Manage complex, changing diaries across time zones, geographies and competing demands.
• Coordinate executive travel, accommodation and meeting logistics to a senior standard.
• Draft, screen and respond to email and correspondence on behalf of your principal.
• Plan, run and follow up on senior meetings with discipline and discretion.
• Handle confidential, sensitive and politically delicate information appropriately.
• Communicate with authority across senior stakeholders, boards and external parties.
• Apply project-management thinking to the initiatives an EA increasingly leads.
• Build a productive working partnership with the executive you support.
• Manage pressure, workload and personal energy at executive intensity.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave with the confidence, frameworks and practical skills of a senior executive assistant operating at the top of the profession, together with a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain an executive assistant who removes friction from the principal's week, runs the executive office with discipline, manages confidential matters with discretion, and frees senior leadership to spend time on the work only they can do.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for senior support professionals, including executive assistants supporting C-suite leaders, directors and boards; personal assistants stepping up to executive-level support; office managers and chiefs of staff with EA responsibilities; senior secretaries and administrative coordinators; board secretaries and governance assistants; executive office coordinators in government and public bodies; and family office assistants supporting principals and high-net-worth clients.

This is a professional-development programme for support staff and managers. There is no director-level seniority floor — the programme is built for the people who keep executive offices running.

How the Week Unfolds

Day one sets out what a senior EA is today and where the role is heading, and benchmarks each delegate against that picture through a personal capability diagnostic. Day two builds the operational disciplines that define a senior EA: diary management across time zones, prioritisation and gatekeeping, executive travel and contingency planning, and handling last-minute changes without losing control of the week. Day three focuses on writing, speaking and representing the principal — email triage and drafting, tone and voice, board papers and short executive notes, external requests, and the language of discretion under pressure. Day four covers the growing remit of the modern EA: small projects, board meetings and board secretarial work, senior stakeholders, offsites and executive away-days. Day five draws the week together with personal energy and workload, faculty coaching, and a personal action plan for the next twelve months.