Most first consultations start with the same sentence: "I do not really know where to begin." That is normal, but it also means the hour can drift toward generalities. To avoid that, prepare a short brief before you sit down. You do not need a polished document, just a few notes that give the assistant a clear picture of your daily workload.
Start with the tasks that take up most of your week. List them in order of time spent, not importance. A manager who spends three hours a day on calendar coordination has a different problem than one who is drowning in supplier follow-ups. The assistant needs to see where the hours actually go, not where you think they should go.
Next, write down the tools you already use. Include the ones you dislike. A spreadsheet that works badly is still useful information, because it shows what you tried and where it broke. The same applies to templates, shared drives, and email rules. The assistant is not there to judge your setup, only to understand it.
Bring two or three concrete examples of documents you struggle with. A messy meeting minutes draft, a confusing invoice, or a supplier email chain that went nowhere. Real examples are worth more than a list of generic pain points. They let the assistant see your actual constraints and suggest something that fits, not something that sounds good in theory.
Finally, think about what you want to change in the next month, not the next year. A single improvement, like a cleaner filing structure or a faster way to prepare board packs, is easier to implement than a full reorganisation. The consultation should end with one clear next step, and that step has to be small enough to actually happen.
If you are unsure what to bring, send a short email beforehand with your role, your main tasks, and one example of a recurring problem. That is enough. The rest can be discussed live, and the assistant will guide the conversation from there.