This is the 3rd part of my series about the Chief of Staff role. If you directly found this article, I suggest you read the first part and the second part, before reading this.
To be successful as a CoS, a CoS has to discover 3 significant things about himself/herself:
- There are archetypes of the role that a CoS could adopt to be more effective. I think this aspect is unique to the role, given that there is no standardized job description for this role in the corporate.
- There are orientations that a CoS must judiciously adapt to and bring to life, depending on the changing situations and contexts.
- Nothing in a CoS role remains the same forever. The role, skills and profile continue to evolve, resulting in self-discovery both by the CoS and the Executive.
What are some archetypes of a CoS
How must one approach the CoS role, to carve out the responsibilities and functions? A good starting point is to understand the archetypes of the role and then build your own through orientations. I am sharing some archetypes I have come across. For an easier synthesis of these archetypes, I am using illustrations instead of textual descriptions:
An archetype by McKinsey: A CoS typically assumes a combination of 5 different roles:
- Administrator: Focus on Management and Administration, to ensure ‘trains run on time’
- Gatekeeper: Fiercely protect Executive’s time and attention, shielding him/her from unnecessary things
- Counselor: Serve as one of the Executive’s close confidantes and providing perspectives with radical candor
- Implementor: Drive Executive’s priorities and coordinate with various stakeholders to ensure execution
- Proxy: Communicate or Act as Executive’s surrogate in certain situations
There is another framework, which pretty much aligns with McKinsey’s with a minor variation:
There is a book called Consiglieri (I am yet to read this) by Richard Hytner, which proposes four archetypes:
Yet another archetype, as covered in an article by Chief of Staff Association is this one:
Irrespective of the archetypes, one fundamental learning I have had is to ensure that the Executive views a CoS as:
What are some of the orientations of a CoS?
Orientations are combinations of these archetypes that a CoS can deploy, depending on the situation and the context of the organization. Simply put, it is another lens of looking at the role – when you zoom out a bit – to see what aspects of these archetypes could be brought to the fore to serve 3 different contexts. Here are the 3 most commonly prevalent orientations:
- Supporting the Principal
- Supporting the Stakeholders & the Leadership (team)
- Supporting the Organization
How can a CoS consolidate and evolve in the role, through these archetypes?
The baby steps of every CoS, irrespective of their experience and career-level, start with administrative tasks and ‘operator’/’implementor’ responsibilities. The first 3-4 months (1st phase) are critical for a CoS to establish role clarity through execution capabilities, building trust and developing a strong understanding on:
- The Executive’s Leadership style, preferences and priorities
- The key stakeholders and leadership team and their motivations
- The organization, culture and priorities
In the 2nd phase, (after 4 months of a strong performance of CoS), a CoS will need to start pushing the envelope of the role by bringing in all other facets of the archetypes and orientations that I have illustrated above. One critical aspect of this phase is that a CoS needs to build trust with the Executive’s stakeholders and Leadership team too. I will be writing about this in my next article.
In the 3rd phase, which could be after 12 months in the role, a CoS could become an integral part of the Executive’s Leadership Team and the archetypes of Proxy, Confidante, Advisor will play out in the profile of a CoS. But the precondition for that to happen is that the CoS should have, by that time, strengthened his/her capabilities in the facets of Operator, Implementor, Integrator, Gatekeeper etc.
It would be disingenuous to say that I have invented these elements – be it archetypes or orientations for the role. I picked them from a lot of reading and I have modified a few, to bake in my experience and understanding. My last post in this series will have all the links to all my source materials. These elements worked like frameworks for me, in which I plotted my CoS journey and they helped me shape my role a lot.
to be continued