Maximize Your Impact as an Executive Assistant: The Power of Microsoft Teams

As an Executive Assistant, your role goes beyond just scheduling meetings. You’re not merely arranging dates and times; you are orchestrating the entire meeting experience. From preparing detailed agendas to ensuring the right attendees are present, your contributions significantly impact how meetings function and their outcomes.

Microsoft Teams provides a robust set of tools that facilitate every stage of the meeting lifecycle. Whether it's before, during, or after meetings, these features can enhance your efficiency and improve collaboration. Here’s how to maximize the potential of Microsoft Teams for your meetings.

Before the Meeting: Set Up for Precision and Impact

✅ Leverage Meeting Templates

Standardising recurring meetings—like board updates or project reviews—can save you time. Utilize Meeting Templates to:

• Designate default presenter and attendee roles.

• Control chat and Q&A settings effectively.

• Enable auto-recording for future reference.

• Pre-load agendas or necessary documents.

  
  

EA Tip: Use templates to save time and ensure consistency across meetings.

✅ Utilize Registration Options

When organizing webinars, town halls, or calls with external stakeholders, the registration feature becomes invaluable. This allows you to:

• Gather attendee details before the meeting.

• Restrict participation to registered guests only.

• Automate the distribution of invites after registration.

  
  

EA Tip: Customize the registration page with speaker bios or relevant pre-event materials.

✅ Pre-set Breakout Rooms for Engagement

For workshops or planning sessions, it’s helpful to assign participants to breakout rooms in advance. You can:

• Name rooms based on specific topics or teams.

• Pre-load discussion prompts to guide conversations.

  
  

EA Tip: This setup helps meetings start smoothly and keep discussions on track.

✅ Define Custom Meeting Roles

Establish specific roles before the meeting begins. For example:

• Executive = Presenter

• EA = Co-organiser

• Attendees = View-only

  
  

EA Tip: This ensures control over who can share content and manage participants effectively.

✅ Enable Auto-recording Setup

Activate auto-recording when scheduling to capture all essential details. This feature is particularly useful for C-suite briefings or when stakeholders are absent.

EA Tip: It guarantees that no critical information is overlooked.

During the Meeting: Keep Things Running Smoothly

✅ Incorporate a Built-in Q&A Feature

The Q&A feature helps streamline interaction during large sessions. It allows you to:

• Moderate incoming questions.

• Prioritise or group questions by topic.

• Mark questions as answered to track discussions.

  
  

EA Tip: This feature works wonderfully for large gatherings like town halls.

✅ Control the Chat Functionality

Manage the chat environment during meetings effectively. You can:

• Disable chat for focused discussions.

• Allow chat only during the Q&A segment.

• Keep chat open for ongoing collaboration.

  
  

EA Tip: Adjust these settings based on the meeting type and your executive’s preference.

✅ Use a Meeting Guide Link

Instead of relying on Teams Wiki, utilize OneNote, SharePoint, or a Teams file tab to share the meeting agenda, ground rules, and essential resources.

EA Tip: Include the link in the meeting invite or chat to make access easier for all participants.

After the Meeting: Streamline Follow-Up and Accountability

✅ Prepare Copilot Summary Settings

If your organization is using Microsoft Copilot, prepare for AI-generated summaries by:

• Enabling transcription and recording.

• Clearly identifying participants.

• Explicitly noting down decisions and action points.

  
  

EA Tip: This process eliminates the need for drafting lengthy minutes and ensures nothing is forgotten.

🔹 Extra EA Power Moves

• Use OneNote or SharePoint to draft meeting minutes and track follow-up actions.

• Pin crucial messages in the meeting chat for quick reference.

• Employ Teams Tags to notify groups about meeting outcomes or important decisions.

• Schedule buffer time after meetings to address urgent tasks or conduct debriefs.

  
  

In Summary: You’re the Meeting Strategist

As an EA, you represent more than just a scheduler — you are the architect of effective meetings. Microsoft Teams equips you with various tools to ensure that every meeting your executive attends runs smoothly, professionally, and productively.

From the initial calendar invite to the end of the meeting conversation, Teams empowers you to manage meetings like a pro.

Take advantage of these features to enhance your impact as an Executive Assistant!

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About the Author: *Richard Arnott, BA, FInatAM, FIToL is a Director at BMTG (UK) Ltd., serving as the author and lead presenter of the internationally recognized Advanced Certificate for the Executive Assistant: ACEA® program. Richard is also a member of the editorial board of Lucy Brazier OBE Executive Support Magazine.

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