How to Create a Communication Style Guide for Your Executive Assistant
Byline: RemoteExecutiveSupport Editorial Team
Executive assistant communication style guide: why it matters
When an executive assistant writes an email on your behalf, that email represents you. The recipient does not know whether you wrote it personally or your EA drafted it. Getting the tone, voice, and content right matters, and doing it consistently requires more than verbal guidance.
A communication style guide gives your EA a written reference for how you communicate: the words you use, the ones you avoid, how formal or informal you are in different contexts, and what decisions they can make without coming back to you. The time you spend building it pays back every time they draft something accurately without needing your review.
What to include in a communication style guide
Your tone across different contexts
Your tone with a long-term client is different from your tone with a new vendor, and different again from your tone with your board. Spell out the distinctions. A brief description for each common context, including internal team, board-level, investors, clients, prospects, and external partners, gives your EA a frame to work from.
Include a few examples of emails you have sent that represent the tone you want for each context. Real examples are more useful than abstract descriptions.
Words and phrases to use and avoid
Most executives have a set of phrases they use regularly and ones they would never write. List both. If you always close with "let me know if you have questions," write that down. If you would never write "per my last email," note it.
These specifics sound small but are exactly the kind of detail that makes EA-drafted emails feel genuine rather than off. A short list of ten preferred phrases and five to avoid is a strong starting point.
What the EA is authorized to decide
Your EA needs to know which situations they can handle and respond to independently and which require your input before sending. Define the categories clearly. Examples include: rescheduling existing meetings (EA decides), accepting new speaking invitations (needs your approval), responding to press inquiries (never respond without checking).
Without this guidance, your EA will either over-escalate, which creates friction, or under-escalate, which creates risk. This section is the most important part of the guide for day-to-day efficiency.
How to handle requests and follow-ups
Describe how you want your EA to handle common situations. If someone asks for 30 minutes of your time, what should the EA say while they check your availability? If a follow-up has gone unanswered for a week, when should the EA prompt you versus send a follow-up independently?
These small decisions happen dozens of times a week. Writing down the preferred approach for the most common scenarios eliminates the need to ask each time.
How to build the guide without starting from scratch
The easiest way to build a communication style guide is to start with your email inbox. Have your EA pull 20 to 30 of your recent sent emails across a mix of contexts and read them as a group. The patterns in how you write, the phrases that appear consistently, and the way you open and close different types of messages are already there.
The guide turns those patterns into explicit reference material. After the initial version is built, plan a short review every few months. Communication evolves, your priorities shift, and the guide should reflect the current version of how you work.
For more on the onboarding steps that make EA communication delegation work from the start, the guide on setting expectations covers the full framework.
For the broader document that governs how your EA handles day-to-day operations, the guide on SOP for your EA explains the full SOP structure.
According to Harvard Business Review research on how C-suite leaders manage their time, executives who clearly define decision authority and communication expectations for their support staff consistently report fewer unnecessary interruptions and better use of high-value working hours.
FAQ
What is an executive assistant communication style guide?
It is a written document that defines how an executive communicates so their EA can draft emails, responses, and messages on their behalf accurately. It covers tone, preferred phrases, words to avoid, and which situations the EA is authorized to handle independently versus escalate.
How long should a communication style guide be?
One to three pages is usually sufficient for a working guide. Starting with the highest-frequency situations and adding detail as patterns emerge is more practical than trying to anticipate everything upfront.
How often should the communication style guide be updated?
Review it every three to four months or whenever a significant context change occurs, like a new role, a new board relationship, or a shift in how you want to communicate externally. A guide that reflects how you communicated a year ago is less useful than one that reflects your current approach.
What is the difference between a communication style guide and an EA SOP?
A communication style guide is focused specifically on voice, tone, and decision authority for written communications. An EA SOP is broader and covers all operational procedures, from calendar management to travel coordination. The communication style guide often lives inside the SOP as a dedicated section.
Can an EA use the communication style guide for all types of outreach?
A well-written style guide should cover all the common communication contexts your EA handles on your behalf. For unusual situations not covered in the guide, the EA should check before sending rather than guess. The guide is a reference for the 90 percent of situations that repeat; judgment covers the rest.