Book Review: “Chief Of Staff: The Strategic Partner Who Will Revolutionize Your Organization”

"In many situations, you need someone in your organization with a reputation for getting things done; who can deal with as many issues as possible so that you don’t have to; who doesn’t have a particular departmental agenda; who has an analytical bent, can make sense of the unprecedented volume and sophistication of data you’ve got at your disposal, and translate it into options, proposals, and recommendations; and who can ensure that your strategic thinking is translated into action, measured, and adjusted over time. The chief of staff is perfect for this situation.“—Chief of Staff

This is a lengthy quote but it gives a perfect sneak-peek into Tyler Parris’ book.

Chief of Staff is a service manual for an organizational leader. It outlines what a chief of staff role can be about, what benefits it may bring, and what kind of person can succeed in it. It is up to the leader to assess whether this role is needed within his or her organization and customize it as necessary (or—as possible—given the circumstances, the leader’s personality, and the chief of staff proficiency).

For his book, Parris interviewed “more than 60 chiefs of staff, C-suite executives, and HR executives in various industries and around the globe.” 60 individuals is by no means a good statistical sample but it does provide added credibility.

Chief of Staff offers several pivots that a leader can use to determine whether he or she needs a chief of staff and if yes—what would their role be like:

• Pivot #1—Organizational dynamics: size (medium to large), significant changes in leadership/organizational structure, structural complexity (diverse lines of business, spinoffs, semi-independent business divisions, multiple geographies, etc.), leadership dynamics.
• Pivot#2—Benefits of the chief of staff role: focus on the best use of the leader’s time, knowledge of what is really going on in the organization, decision-making support, shortening of the leader’s learning curve, business continuity (while the leader is out of the office or abroad), people retention and development.
• Pivot#3—Most common deliverables that chiefs of staff manage: rhythm of business, communications, business and financial analysis, special projects, and executive office budget.

The second part of the book offers recommendations on how to find a good chief of staff if you decide that you need one, what to expect in the first 90-100 days, and how to set your chief of staff for success and evolve the role over time.

All and all, Chief of Staff is a good book for its target audience: C-suite executives (especially, those new to their role), department heads, and HR leaders who are looking for someone who would be able to fill the gaps and tie the disjointed and increasingly complex organizational parts together, but aren’t quite sure what this person should be like, how to define their role, or where to find them.

Collaterally, this book would be useful for aspiring chiefs of staff to better understand the skills they need and the context they will have to navigate. More experienced chiefs of staff will find some inspiration on how to better shape their role for the benefit of their organization or some good ideas on how to sell their role to their leaders if those are less experienced in the chief-of-staff matters.

Context Is Key

When writing my first deep-dive into Chief of Staff, I never expected it to be widely read. After scarily relevant What Color Is Your Parachute? or Adam Grant’s more “pop” Hidden Potential, a very niche book published in the distant 2015 was more of a personal journey—my way to summarize, categorize, and ponder upon the many lessons I learned since transitioning into Business Operations and the chief of staff role. A book I wish I’d read 4 years ago.

Then something astonishing happened.

My first deep dive (How The Chief Of Staff Role Reflects The Core Shift In Management And Leadership) which I re-published on LinkedIn got picked up by the algorithm and went somewhat viral. As I am writing this review, more than 300 people opened my article and at least 27 of them read it through the end because they liked or reposted it. I got about a dozen connection requests and a couple more subscribers to my blog (welcome and I appreciate your support!)

My second deep-dive going into the personality of a chief of staff and their leader gained significantly fewer views (only about a dozen people opened the article) which made me come to the following conclusions:

1. Social media algorithms work in mysterious ways—sometimes you reach a broader audience by sheer luck, other times—an article you are proud of flops miserably.
2. People really want to understand the context they are operating in.

And I think #2 perfectly ties it back to the chief of staff role—the role naturally derived from and defined by the changing context organizations have to navigate nowadays.

This context is characterized by increasing complexity, volatility, fast pace, informational overload, pervasive change, high visibility, and particular leadership challenge which I can best describe as “flawless authenticity” (aka “be yourself but the best version of yourself, everywhere I see you and as often as I can”). A leader cannot steer an organizational frigate solo in a dense fog. They need someone who will run around and listen to the passengers and the crew, define who is the most worried and why, hear out the ideas that might have been too shy to reach the captain’s ear directly, make sure the captain’s presence is felt everywhere, and everyone’s spirits are high. Otherwise, even if the ship gets to the destination point, the customer reviews will be poor, the crew will scatter, or the stocks will drop… You get the metaphor.

A leader needs to understand the context to perform their role. A chief of staff needs to understand the context to support the leader. Both need to understand the context so that they can determine the leader/chief of staff dynamic, shape the role in a way it can proactively support the organization, and keep evolving it to adapt to the context changes.

Chief of Staff was published in 2015 which makes it somewhat dated, but I find it pretty accurate when it comes to the depiction of the role and its challenges. In 2024, it seems that the role is better defined but still leaves room for interpretation. Even more so, it does reflect the transformation that has been happening in strategic and organizational management over the years.

From this point of view, it is no surprise that an essay about strategic shifts in management and leadership that led to the chief of staff role creation caught additional interest.

"I hope that through the various pivots, issues, and questions in this book, I’ve provided not a one-size-fits-all formula or answers that presume that I know you or your organization but rather the context in which you can decide if a chief of staff makes sense for you and your organization.”—Chief of Staff

Useful Links:

If you missed my deep-dive articles:

• How The Chief Of Staff Role Reflects The Core Shift In Management And Leadership
• The Person To Solve It All

To learn more about the chief of staff role:

• The most comprehensive reading list on the CoS role—Richard McLean’s Medium piece “Do You Want to Know About the Chief of Staff Role?” (recommended by Tyler Parris!)
• Chief of Staff—A Force Multiplier! by Al Chase, White Rhino Partners (a white paper from which Parris got a lot of inspiration).
• Clara Ma (LinkedIn page) regularly posts about the chief of staff role and leads a great CoS community Ask A Chief Of Staff
• To purchase?Chief of Staff?on Amazon:?link

This concludes our short yet eventful journey into “Chief of Staff” by Tyler Parris. Over the next couple of weeks, we will have 2 more brief detours, starting with “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson, MD. See you next Monday on my blog knowledge-in-action.com or Friday - here on LinkedIn!