Who exactly is a ‘Chief of Staff’?

I have been in a Chief of Staff role (abbreviated as CoS) since the last 1.5 years. A lot of people ask me — “so what exactly do you do?”. I agree — a CoS role is not as broadly understood as UX Designer or Financial Analyst or Content Marketer. And then, some people have a misinformed understanding of what CoS role is all about and assume that it is an Executive Assistant role. If you search on the internet, you will see dozens of different descriptions for this role. It is indeed ironic that very little has been published about a role that has been gaining so much significance in every organization. I thought — “why not I publish something?”. So I embarked upon this 5 part series of articles about CoS role — that is completely based on my journey and experience so far. Given that no two CoS roles are exactly the same, please treat my series as one example, out of many. My attempt here is to share my experiences, learnings and observations with as much candour as possible so that it gives a broad sketch of the role, duties, demands and the value.

In this 5-part series, I will be writing about:

Part-1: 1) What exactly is this CoS role?; 2) What were my motivations?

Part-2: 1) Key functions and Responsibilities; 2) Key attributes and skills of a CoS; 3) Relationship between CoS and Executive

Part-3: 1) Some frameworks and archetypes of CoS role that really helped me; 2) How can a CoS role evolve over time?

Part-4: 1) Working with Executive’s stakeholders and team; 2) Working with people who do not report to you

Part-5: 1) Learnings from CoS role; 2) Links for additional reading

This five-part series will be useful to you if you are:

a) an existing CoS (to compare notes); or

b) if you are aspiring to become a CoS but are unsure; or

c) if you are planning to hire a CoS.

If there is anything specific you’d like me to cover, please let me know through comments. With that, let’s dive in.

Who exactly is a CoS?

A Chief of Staff is generally the right-hand person to an Executive. However, different organizations and different Executives treat this role differently, resulting in multiple interpretations, possibilities and orientations for the role. More importantly, even after an organization/Executive fix on a certain orientation for the role, it very likely expands and evolves over a period of time. So a CoS in 3rd month in the role and a CoS in 18th month in the role are very different, unlike in the case of many other roles. But very broadly speaking, the work done by a CoS spans these primary areas:

So as you can see, the role demands skills cutting into multiple disciplines. But many professionals in the corporate world are specialists and it is usually hard to find generalists who can slip into this role with ease. The truth is that many CoS’ come from a specialist background and then take the leap of faith into this role, while simultaneously learning critical aspects of other needed disciplines. And hence, a key attribute of successful CoS is their ability to learn and be comfortable with ambiguity.

So if I were to answer the question — “Who exactly is a CoS?”, I’d answer it mathematically as:

CoS = Executive Assistant + PMO + Strategic Thought Partner + Operations Manager + Communications planner + Meeting/event design/coordinator + Research expert + Liaison + Executive’s Proxy

The possibilities are enormous. The role becomes whatever the CoS and the Executive script out (over time) to maximize the potential.

What motivated me to become a Chief of Staff?

My background was market research and I used to manage a team of ~25 research analysts. After a nearly 9 year stint in that field, I changed the gears and moved to an entirely new space — Experiential Engagement and Leadership workshops. Though I managed a much smaller team in this space, it was interesting because it involved designing and facilitating problem-solving workshops using design thinking approaches. Plus, it did give me great exposure to Leaders in the organization. After a 3 year stint there, I came across a CoS role in my organization and the job description had all the usual jazzy words — ‘strategy’, ‘innovation’, etc. It intrigued me and a close friend of mine encouraged me to apply. I thought:

1. I was the right fit as I can bring in my diverse experience and exposure to excel in the role
2. My gains would be: getting a richer exposure to leadership (thinking)
3. The role could help me learn (and close some unique skill gaps around) aspects like PMO, Operations and Communications.

So my initial motivations were that I could use my past experience as a springboard, to gain ‘experience’ in a new field, richer ‘exposure’ to Leadership and in the process bridge some gaps through some learning (education). I saw this as an opportunity to tackle the 3 important Es of career building. Yet, somehow, the thought that I will be transitioning from a ‘specialist’ role to a ‘generalist’ role didn’t bother me much. With not much published evidence on the pros and cons between both types, back then, I saw it as just another opportunity to try and learn something new. I applied, interviewed and got the job.

In the next part of this series, I will be covering about the CoS’ key functions and responsibilities, attributes and skills of a good CoS and the relationship between CoS and the Executive.