“The most visible benefit for me has been time,” he says. One CHRO has employed five over the past 10 years (the fifth is still with him) while working at two Fortune 100 companies. “It’s not that he gives me the answer but that our discussions make the answer clearer.”Īt some large companies, executives reporting to the CEO also choose to have a CoS.
“He’s the best listener of anyone who’s ever worked for me,” Joe says. Perhaps most satisfying, he had more time to think through big decisions, with the CoS serving as his most reliable sounding board. He’d built a better relationship with corporate headquarters. Within six months his communications to the organization were more frequent and clearer. Within three months Joe was better prepared for meetings and more confident delegating (because he knew that his CoS would follow up). Joe hired a chief of staff-someone who’d held that role at a larger company in the same industry.
I was working longer hours than I ever had but not getting as much done and not spending time on what mattered most.”Ī CoS’s primary duties make time, information, and decision-making more effective. Take an executive I’ll call Joe, who was promoted from head of sales and marketing to president of a midsize company that had just been acquired-meaning that Joe was now reporting to a chairman and CEO at a distant headquarters, adding political complexity to the job. Regardless of specific responsibilities, a CoS can help a leader achieve sharp gains in productivity and impact. The highest-level CoS should be a full-fledged member of the senior leadership team, albeit without the rank or compensation of a C-suite officer. Unlike an EA, a chief of staff works autonomously and does not handle routine correspondence or manage the leader’s day-to-day schedule. The CoS role is decidedly different from that of the leader’s executive assistant (EA). Importantly, a CoS acts with the implicit imprimatur of the CEO-something that calls for humility, maturity, and situational sensitivity. They function as extra eyes and ears by pointing out political potholes their bosses may not recognize (especially if the bosses are new to the company). They anticipate problems and are especially sensitive to issues that require diplomacy. The most sophisticated chiefs of staff also assist CEOs in thinking through and setting policies-and making sure they are implemented. Other newsletters or opt out at any time by managing your Aylward points out that “while a CEO’s other direct reports typically emphasize their own areas, a good CoS can consider the needs of the whole enterprise.” Patrick Aylward, a vice president and CoS at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, breaks the job down into five roles: serving as an air traffic controller for the leader and the senior team as an integrator connecting work streams that would otherwise remain siloed as a communicator linking the leadership team and the broader organization as an honest broker and truth teller when the leader needs a wide-ranging view without turf considerations and as a confidant without an organizational agenda. As an adviser and as a board member, I’ve recommended to several dozen executives that they add the position to their teams-and in some cases I’ve helped them hire for and structure the job.Īlthough each leader should tailor the position to his or her own needs, the CoS should handle several principal duties, all focused on making time, information, and decision processes more effective.
#Air traffic controller salary by state software
Often there’s a better way to handle the information flow necessary for a CEO to succeed-and very often a chief of staff (CoS) can play an essential role.ĭuring the 25 years I spent working at a consulting and software firm-a dozen as chairman and CEO-I had a chief of staff myself. Many new CEOs default to the system they’ve inherited, even if it is poorly suited to their style or to the operational changes they must make. This system ensures that leaders make the most of their limited time, that information arrives at the right point in their decision-making process, and that follow-up happens without their having to check. Most new CEOs pay little attention to a key factor that will help determine their effectiveness: the administrative system that guides day-to-day operations in their offices. Those choices guide other decisions, including who their senior managers will be and how the leaders will allocate their time. When new CEOs with a change mandate take over a company, they typically invest time in reshaping its strategy and determining the kind of culture needed to succeed.
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