If you think you need a Chief of Staff...

Before you hire a Chief of Staff (“CoS”), ask your leadership team a few key questions. Do we really need a CoS? Are we really ready for a CoS? How will we onboard our new CoS? Companies considering the CoS role should conduct candid internal audits before seriously entertaining the CoS role. Like other internal audits, the results will be of strategic significance to the company.

Do we really need a CoS?

As a CoS, I evangelize the strategic advantage of the CoS role with complete conviction. When structured correctly, it can truly free up a principal’s time, and spearhead progress on key initiatives that exist outside of any one executive’s scope. Principals are busy, and someone very close to them must major in the minors. The CoS can prevent stalled projects, can identify opportunities to drive efficiency, and can stave off avoidable pitfalls.

When empowered by her principal, the CoS speaks on her principals’ behalf and advances her principal’s interest when working on cross-functional strategic projects. “You’ve got the ball rolling on this,” is a piece of feedback that I recently heard on a project. When the CoS is involved, it showcases that a project or initiative is of special interest to her principal. Her influence in the room can create excitement around potential innovations in processes or departments.

If your company is experiencing rapid change, or is potentially dealing with a bit of inertia, a CoS can step in, spark conversations, and put energy toward launching new projects. If your team has remained relatively steady for several years and across business cycles, a fresh perspective from a CoS who is permitted to ask tough questions, to benchmark existing processes to industry norms, and to speak truth to power, can revolutionize your business.?

Are we really ready for a CoS?

Change is hard. Unexpected change can be unnerving. But if you think change is hard, imagine what challenge from a newbie at the company feels like. A CoS, if committed to her job, will challenge a company to change in both small and more strategic ways. A CoS on a mission is bound to ruffle a few feathers here and there. But all successful companies have a story or two about feathers that rustled. The question for an executive team is, “Are we really ready for that?”

Everyone aspires to be innovative, intellectually curious, and nimble. Their success in those endeavors is showcased when they are challenged to change from the inside out. Before considering a CoS role, do an internal exercise whereby the leadership team at your company conducts change management case studies from the past 5 years. The answers that arise will reveal how truly innovative, intellectually curious, and nimble, the organization is. You’ll need to be a bit of all three to introduce a CoS to your company. For the exercise, ask your leadership team the following questions:

1.?????What are the most important strategic changes that we made or declined to make?

2.?????Who initiated the discussion on changes?

3.?????When did we embrace the change and roll out the process after deciding to change?

4.?????Where did we miss the mark?

5.?????How are we measuring success on changes that we made or declined to make?

How will we onboard our new CoS once she starts in the role?

A solid onboarding plan can decrease the ramp up time and potentially lead to some very crucial early wins for a new CoS. Because the CoS role requires strong relationships with key players in the company, appoint a mentor with tenure at the company, who is embedded within the culture, and who has enough institutional power to not fear “calling a spade a spade”. The mentor should be a guide, confidant, and an executive sponsor. In the first few months, the mentor should meet weekly with the CoS. The mentor should be a safe place to sound concerns and to ask candid questions about key relationships and dynamics. Chiefly, the mentor should be there to steer the CoS clear of avoidable and potentially career altering mistakes.

The CoS should spend a lot of time with her principal during her onboarding, especially in a hybrid and virtual world. So much of the CoS value is driven by her ability to “read” her principal. A CoS should be able to effectively communicate with her principal. That takes a lot of one-on-one time. Over time, these meetings will be less frequent because the relationship between the CoS and her principal will be established. But at the outset, these meetings are critical to the CoS’ individual success, and to the company’s success in hiring a CoS.

If you think that you need a CoS, you’re probably right. If you think that you don’t need a CoS, you might need one more than you realize. There are various levels of the CoS role, and your company should be very clear-eyed about how they plan to set the CoS up for success before she arrives. The CoS role should be deliberately designed to fit a company’s known and unknown needs. A CoS commissioned to grease the wheels and keep the ball rolling on projects is very different than a CoS that is commissioned to do the former, to lead strategic projects, and to be a confidant of the executive team. Approaching the CoS search with a clear picture of the added value that your company is targeting, will make the role a success for the company and the executive team.

This is the final article in my series on the CoS role...unless my readers demand more!

Previous article in the series:

What It Means to be a Chief of Staff

The Path to the Chief of Staff

The Challenges of the Chief of Staff

It has truly been a pleasure to write this series, and to interact with readers along the way. Next week, I will start a series on my journey as a Gen One in the C-Suite. Feel free to drop any specific questions that you have for the next series below.