4 min read Free

The Chief of Staff Operating Model Series #7: Altitude and Trust

The Chief of Staff role lives or dies by altitude. Too low, and the person becomes a task sink. Too high, and they become an abstract advisor detached from operating reality. The best work happens in the translation layer between executive intent and how the company actually runs. Altitude is
3 min read Free

The Chief of Staff Operating Model Series #6: Operating Cadence: Meetings, Reviews, and Rituals That Actually Work

Operating cadence is where Chief of Staff work becomes visible to the whole leadership team. Staff meetings, business reviews, planning sessions, board prep, customer-risk reviews, and executive offsites can either move decisions forward or become recurring theater. The CoS often has the access and mandate to redesign the system. Cadence
4 min read Free

The Chief of Staff Operating Model Series #5: Decision Hygiene and Follow-Through

Companies lose a surprising amount of energy after decisions are made. The meeting ends, everyone thinks they heard the same thing, and execution begins with different interpretations. A Chief of Staff creates value by making decisions explicit enough that follow-through does not depend on memory or force of personality. Decision
4 min read Free

The Chief of Staff Operating Model Series #4: Context Flow: Making the Company Legible to Leadership

Executives rarely suffer from lack of information. They suffer from poorly shaped information. Updates arrive through meetings, documents, Slack threads, customer calls, dashboards, side conversations, and escalations. The Chief of Staff creates value by turning scattered context into useful executive understanding. Context flow is not summarization alone. A summary can
4 min read Free

The Chief of Staff Operating Model Series #3: Executive Leverage and Attention Management

Executive attention is one of the scarcest resources in a company. A Chief of Staff creates value when they help direct that attention toward the decisions and risks that actually require it. The role is not to make the executive busier in a more organized way. It is to make
3 min read Free

The Chief of Staff Operating Model Series #2: Role Clarity: What the Chief of Staff Owns and Does Not Own

Chief of Staff roles fail quietly when nobody can say what the person owns. The title sounds senior and flexible, so ambiguity feels natural. In practice, ambiguity creates political risk. Teams do not know whether the CoS is a decision maker, messenger, project owner, operator, strategist, assistant, advisor, or escalation
4 min read Free

The Chief of Staff Operating Model Series #1: The Chief of Staff Is an Operating System Role

The Chief of Staff role is easiest to misunderstand when it is described by proximity. Close to the CEO. In the important meetings. Trusted by executives. Able to move across functions. These descriptions may be true, but they don't explain the job. The real question is simpler: does
1 min read Free

Board Communication That Improves Decisions — Series Index

Board Communication That Improves Decisions is a 10 part series. Use this index as the table of contents and read the posts in order. Read the series in...
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