Should I Hire a Chief of Staff?

In 2014, I wrote an article called "What Does a Chief of Staff Do ?". Since then, the Chief of Staff role has reached a tipping point in the business world, from startups to trillion-dollar companies. Over the last seven years, over 300K members have read the article and taken my LinkedIn course . More recently, I've talked to ~100 CEOs, all asking the same question:?Should I hire a chief of staff (CoS)?

Here's what I tell them.

Do you really need a CoS? What problem are you trying to solve? Be as specific as possible. Are you hiring one because it sounds cool or because your peers have one? Unfortunately, that's not a great reason. Are you hoping the CoS will solve a lack of product-market fit, nuanced org battles, or existential competitive threats? Sorry, but it's wishful thinking.

Where a CoS helps: At the highest level the CoS will help the CEO and executive team become more productive and successful. How the CoS does this tends to follow three bodies of work:

• Operations. Managing the rhythm of the business. Includes staff meetings, OKRs, Quarterly Business Reviews , exec offsites, and leadership summits. The core of the CoS role is keeping the trains on track.
• Strategic projects. Leading cross-functional, critical, time-bound projects. These tend to have no natural owner in the organization, but are exec-level and have clear objectives.?
• Communications. Creating and supporting cohesive narratives internally and externally. This can include annual plans, investor presentations, board decks, all hands, keynote speeches, etc.

Signs you need a CoS. If any of these four statements apply to you, then you should consider a CoS:

• Working unsustainably hard
• Doing stuff that could reasonably be done by a great right-hand
• Critical cross-functional projects have unclear ownership and timeline
• Your team is begging you to get one (hint: they're bottlenecked)

If all four have been true for some time, you probably should have hired one a while back. As the proverb says, the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is today.

OK, you need a CoS. The steps most CEOs miss:

• Write core (bullseye) and additional CoS responsibilities on one page
• Share JD with execs. Ask them to add anything missing + ensure agreement
• Check for overlap on responsibilities (would any execs feel threatened by CoS?)

These steps take time to do right. The more you socialize the role with your team, the more receptive they will be in welcoming the CoS. I recall a few years ago talking with a senior executive who wanted to hire his first CoS. I recommended he first articulate the desired responsibilities and share them at his staff meeting. He did, and he was surprised that half his staff members volunteered to take up elements of the CoS job description. So he didn't hire one, and his team stepped up. But it only took a few weeks for the team to come back to the senior executive, saying they couldn't keep up with the extra workload. He ended up hiring a CoS and hasn't looked back, and his team couldn't be happier.

What type of CoS do you need??There are a few different common profiles.

• Rising star: ~4-8 years exp, BizOps / Strategy / Finance / Consulting background.
• Lieutenant: 10+ years exp, directly grooming to C-suite exec.
• Generalists make great candidates. They tend to be versatile, adaptable, and have a steep learning curve.

Regardless of the type, you should aim for a 18-24 month commitment. This provides enough time for the CoS to fully onboard, see a complete cycle, and have meaningful impact across the team and company. It's also time-bound to ensure there is an expected exit path should that be desired.

Where do you source? (Aside from LinkedIn of course!)

My belief is the best CoS candidates are often internal. Ask each of your execs for the top 1-3 candidates in their functions. Existing employees are best because they know the culture, the people, the business, the way the work is done.

I generally recommend opening up an external search too, because you never know whom you might find. Seek trusted referrals from your network. Make sure your job post is not too limiting, e.g., candidates with non-traditional backgrounds (most CoS are not career CoS) can make for incredible hires.

How do you interview? Ask candidates "what does success look like a) during, and b) after the CoS role?" It helps you understand their near-term and longer-term aspirations. The interview panel should include a few execs, after you've vetted top candidates first. When it's time for the offer, the best candidates won't hesitate to accept once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If they are on the fence for too long, it's probably not right. This is the kind of role where you're either all-in or you're all-out. Anything in between is going to be painful.

Congrats, you've hired a CoS! Now what? You have to set them up for success. Schedule daily syncs for first 2-4 weeks to align on priorities. It can shift to weekly over a natural horizon.?Recognize their work in public forums and encourage team members to go to the CoS for support / ideas / requests. Reinforce their responsibilities at every turn, because if the CoS role is new to the organization, more often than not, people will wonder, "what's her role again?" As the CoS settles in, stay aligned on their post-CoS career goals throughout the experience. I'd recommend a quarterly cadence that starts with the question, "on a scale of 0-10, how is this experience going for you?" Feel free to share this Chief of Staff course with your new hire; it includes tips to help them get off to a strong start in the first 30 days.

Lastly, when I started as Chief of Staff in 2014, Jeff Weiner told me "the role is ultimately what you make of it". He's right, of course, and I would add that it takes two to tango. The CoS role also depends on the CEO's ability to set them up for success and trust them from day one.

And I can attest that the real magic happens when that trust compounds over time.