Part 4: Chief of Staff — The First 90 Days
The first 90 days are critical to establishing the right frameworks and relationships that will set up a Corporate Chief of Staff for long-term success. I interviewed 12 Chiefs of Staff to learn how they approached their new roles. While these Chiefs all came from different backgrounds, worked at companies of vastly different sizes, and had different expectations for their CoS role, they all followed some common tactical best practices.
Much of the corporate CoS role is about indirect influence, as the main working relationships for a CoS are typically not his direct reports. For a CoS, success in the role requires not only working well with one’s executive, but also having credibility across the senior leadership team (SLT) and with other employees.
This article is structured against two key goals and associated actions for achieving those goals. These goals are:
- To establish trust and gain alignment with your executive
- To establish trust and gain alignment with employees, both on the senior leadership team and elsewhere in the company
This article does not address what the CoS will do, but rather how the CoS should work.
