What is the role of a chief of staff?

Question

Zippia Team · Accepted Answer

The role of a chief of staff involves being an executive of an organization that provides support to the chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO), and other senior-level executives.

A chief of staff usually oversees and communicates with lower-level employees with these objectives:

Providing project management specifications
Communicating company protocol, policies, and practices
Implementing and overseeing strategic planning processes

This role was best known to be one in the military or politics, but in recent years startup companies have added this job title to their roster to provide additional support to their leadership teams.

Here are some common responsibilities of a chief of staff:

Communication liaison

Chief of staff is responsible for passing information, and sometimes data, between executive team members and other lower-level staff members, like senior-level managers and mid-level managers.

The chief of staff attends board meetings and provides an overall picture of productivity to executives and stakeholders. Then gives this information to the department heads.

Consulting

Chief of staff provides data analysis and metrics of an organization's productivity to the executive team. They also make suggestions concerning strategic methods to improve budget management, teamwork, and overall workflow.

Gauging team performance

Chiefs of staff are usually in charge of selecting and monitoring performance indicators for an organization. They then translate and relay this information to the appropriate parties, such as board members.

Supervising daily operations

This includes items like project coordination, project management, and business administration.

Delegating and prioritizing tasks

This might include scheduling functions for executives, or other tasks involving staff members anywhere on an organization's hierarchy.

Problem-solving

Chiefs of staff must use their decision-making power to identify employee problems and issues, and then develop actionable solutions to be implemented. They also must keep all executives up to speed concerning issues and solutions regarding staff.