This one might sting a little. But it needs to be said.
If you are an executive who carefully controls what information your EA has access to, who keeps them on a need to know basis, who shares just enough for them to complete a task but not enough for them to truly understand the bigger picture, you are actively making your own life harder.
I know that is not your intention. Most executives who gatekeep information do it out of habit, out of an instinct to protect sensitive details, or simply because they have never stopped to think about the cost of keeping their EA in the dark. But the cost is real and it shows up every single day in ways you might not even notice.
Let me explain.
Your EA Can Only Be As Effective As the Information You Give Them
Think about what you’re actually asking your EA to do. You want them to manage your schedule strategically. You want them to handle your communications thoughtfully. You want them to anticipate your needs, make good decisions on your behalf, and represent you well in situations where you’re not present.
Now think about how possible any of that is without context.
An EA who doesn’t know that a particular client relationship is strained cannot be appropriately careful when scheduling a call with that client. An EA who doesn’t know that a key initiative is about to be announced cannot protect the calendar accordingly. An EA who doesn’t know that you are in a difficult negotiation cannot filter your inbox with the right level of sensitivity.
Context is not a luxury for your EA. It is the raw material they use to do their job well. Without it, they are guessing. And when they guess wrong, you are the one who feels the consequences.
The Confidentiality Concern Is Valid. And It Is Manageable.
Here is what I hear most often from executives when this topic comes up. “But some of this information is sensitive. I can’t share everything.”
You’re right. You can’t share everything. And a good EA would never expect you to.
But there is a significant difference between sharing genuinely sensitive information that has no bearing on your EA’s ability to support you, and withholding context that your EA needs in order to do their job effectively. Most executives who gatekeep are doing far more of the latter than the former.
Your EA is a professional. Discretion is not a skill they developed on the side. It is a core competency of the role. The EAs who work at senior levels understand that they are trusted with sensitive information and they treat that trust with the seriousness it deserves.
If you are not sure whether your EA can be trusted with certain information, that is worth examining. Either you have a trust issue that needs to be addressed directly, or you are operating on an assumption about confidentiality that is costing you more than it is protecting.
Information Gaps Create Costly Mistakes
Let me give you some real examples of what happens when executives gatekeep information from their EAs.
Your EA schedules a meeting with someone you are quietly moving away from as a vendor because they didn’t know the relationship was changing. Now you have an awkward meeting on the calendar and someone whose expectations have been inadvertently raised.
Your EA drafts a response to a board member’s email with a perfectly reasonable tone that misses the political nuance of the situation because they didn’t know there was tension from last quarter’s meeting. Now you have to unsend, rewrite, and explain.
Your EA confirms your attendance at an event you were planning to skip because they didn’t know you were reconsidering your involvement with that organization. Now you’re either going to an event you didn’t want to attend or you’re backing out of a commitment, neither of which is a good look.
None of these mistakes happened because your EA was careless. They happened because they were operating without the information they needed. And every single one of them could have been avoided with a thirty second conversation.
How to Start Sharing More Without Oversharing
You don’t have to narrate every detail of your professional life to your EA. What you do need to do is develop a habit of flagging the context that is relevant to their ability to support you.
Before your EA manages a communication or a scheduling situation involving a sensitive relationship, give them a quick heads up. “Just so you know, we’re in a delicate moment with this client. Please loop me in before confirming anything with them.” Thirty seconds. Problem prevented.
At your weekly check in, take five minutes to brief your EA on anything significant that’s happening that might affect how they manage your calendar or communications in the coming week. What’s the big priority? Who are the key relationships to be careful with? What’s coming that they need to know about?
Make context sharing a regular habit rather than something that only happens after something goes wrong. Your EA will become measurably more effective almost immediately.
Trust Is a Two Way Street
Here is the thing about withholding information from your EA. It sends a message whether you intend it to or not. It tells them that you don’t fully trust them. And when people feel they are not trusted, they stop bringing their full selves to the work. They stop taking initiative. They stop making judgment calls. They do exactly what they’re told and nothing more because they have learned that operating beyond the boundaries of what they’ve been explicitly told is not welcome.
That is the opposite of what you want from an EA at this level.
The executives with the most effective EA partnerships are the ones who treat their EA like a trusted partner. Who bring them into the room, figuratively and sometimes literally. Who share context generously and trust their EA to handle it with professionalism.
That trust, extended intentionally and consistently, is what transforms a good EA into an indispensable one.
The Bottom Line
Your EA is not just someone who executes tasks. They are the person you have chosen to help you manage one of your most valuable assets, your time and your professional relationships. Give them what they need to do that job well.
Share context. Flag sensitive situations. Brief them on what’s happening. Trust them to handle it.
The return on that investment will show up every single day in fewer mistakes, better decisions, and a working partnership that actually functions the way it’s supposed to.
Are you an executive who has struggled with this? Or an EA who has felt the impact of being kept in the dark? This is a conversation worth having. Drop your thoughts in the comments.
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