Maggie Olson is the Founder of Nova Chief of Staff, the premier destination for Chief of Staff education and development.
In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, Maggie dives into the basics of the Chief of Staff role, the differences between EA, CoS, COO, and CEO, the main responsibilities, and who makes a great Chief of Staff.
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ABOUT MAGGIE
Maggie Olson is the Founder of Nova Chief of Staff, the premier destination for Chief of Staff education and development. As the first Chief of Staff to a president at a Fortune 40 company — who led a multibillion-dollar business with 5,000+ employees — Maggie built the president’s Chief of Staff model from the ground up. Maggie has 20 years’ experience leading large teams and has spent her career focused on both customer and employee experience at companies including T-Mobile, Nordstrom, and Starbucks. In addition to operating the Nova Chief of Staff Certification course, Maggie is a fractional Chief of Staff focused on helping mission-driven, for-profit startup founders scale their businesses quickly. In her spare time, Maggie loves spending time outside with her husband, their animals, and their 1-year-old, Max!
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Visit leaderassistant.com/nova to learn more and secure your spot!
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LEAVE A REVIEW
If you’re enjoying the podcast, please take 2 minutes to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Each review helps me stay motivated to keep the show going!
THE LEADER ASSISTANT BOOK
Download the first 3 chapters of The Leader Assistant: Four Pillars of Game-Changing Assistant for FREE here or buy it on Amazon and listen to the audiobook on Audible. Also, check out the companion study guide, The Leader Assistant Workbook, to dig deeper.
LEADER ASSISTANT LIVE EVENTS
Check out our constantly updated schedule of events for admins and assistants at LeaderAssistantLive.com.
JOIN THE FREE COMMUNITY
Join the Leader Assistant Global Community for bonus content, job opportunities, and to network with other assistants who are committed to becoming leaders!
SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to The Leader Assistant Podcast so you don’t miss new episodes!
You can find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora, and Stitcher.
Join my email list here if you want to get an email when a new episode goes live.
LEAVE A REVIEW
If you’re enjoying the podcast, please take 2 minutes to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Each review helps me stay motivated to keep the show going!
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
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<v SPEAKER_2>The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing leader assistants.
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JEREMY: Hey friends, the Nova Chief of Staff certification course is one of the most popular professional development resources for growth-minded leader assistants like you.
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JEREMY: With dozens of templates, self-paced learning, multiple instructor touchpoints, and peer engagement, Nova alumni walk away empowered and confident to level up as an assistant or even negotiate a promotion to a Chief of Staff role.
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JEREMY: With well over 500 students across 22 countries, Nova is the top spot for Chief of Staff learning and development.
00:00:59.137 –> 00:01:01.897
JEREMY: Join the movement today at leaderassistant.com/nova.
00:01:03.837 –> 00:01:05.117
JEREMY: That’s leaderassistant.com/nova.
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JEREMY: Welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast.
00:01:10.477 –> 00:01:12.737
JEREMY: It’s episode 308.
00:01:12.737 –> 00:01:16.457
JEREMY: You can check out the show notes for this conversation at leaderassistant.com/308.
00:01:20.357 –> 00:01:23.437
JEREMY: Today, I’m excited to have my friend, Maggie Olson back on the show.
00:01:23.437 –> 00:01:24.877
JEREMY: Welcome back, Maggie.
00:01:24.877 –> 00:01:25.637
MAGGIE: Thank you.
00:01:25.637 –> 00:01:27.577
MAGGIE: Happy to be here.
00:01:27.577 –> 00:01:46.517
JEREMY: We are going to dive in to the question of what exactly is a Chief of Staff, and the basics of the Chief of Staff role, the differences between EA, Chief of Staff, COO, CEO, etc.
00:01:47.237 –> 00:01:50.277
JEREMY: And then maybe who makes a great Chief of Staff.
00:01:50.277 –> 00:01:52.957
JEREMY: So, yeah, we’re excited to jump in.
00:01:52.957 –> 00:01:58.657
JEREMY: We’ve had a lot of great conversations over the last several months.
00:01:58.657 –> 00:02:09.557
JEREMY: And a couple of those that are related to this topic that might be good for listeners to go back and check out are episode 257.
00:02:10.897 –> 00:02:13.857
JEREMY: That’s from EA to Chief of Staff, how to level up.
00:02:13.857 –> 00:02:20.437
JEREMY: And then episode 298 is Chief of Staff, the next step for EA.
00:02:20.437 –> 00:02:31.897
JEREMY: So those are some good conversations that you guys can go back and listen to and fill in some of the blanks for today’s conversation.
00:02:31.897 –> 00:02:33.357
MAGGIE: Yeah, I’m so excited.
00:02:33.557 –> 00:02:43.817
MAGGIE: We’ve gone into a lot of specific tactics and how to be an excellent executive project manager, for example, or kind of more specific questions.
00:02:43.817 –> 00:02:48.917
MAGGIE: And today we’re going to step back and just sort of level set on what even is a Chief of Staff.
00:02:48.917 –> 00:02:56.117
MAGGIE: And I don’t understand the difference between Chief of Staff and EA and who makes a great Chief of Staff and what does a Chief of Staff do all day.
00:02:56.117 –> 00:02:58.097
MAGGIE: So I’m excited.
00:02:58.097 –> 00:02:58.757
JEREMY: Awesome.
00:02:58.757 –> 00:02:59.217
JEREMY: Perfect.
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JEREMY: Well, we’ll jump in then and I’ll let you kind of lead the way as you’re the Chief of Staff Guru.
00:03:05.777 –> 00:03:07.517
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:03:07.517 –> 00:03:09.057
MAGGIE: That’s a big title to live up to here.
00:03:09.057 –> 00:03:17.297
MAGGIE: So we’re just going to start with the easy question here, which is how do I define a Chief of Staff?
00:03:18.357 –> 00:03:31.897
MAGGIE: So I define a Chief of Staff as a business leader’s strategic thought partner who’s excellent at execution and allows the business leader to focus on what’s most important, vision, strategy, growth and leadership.
00:03:31.897 –> 00:03:47.237
MAGGIE: So just like an EA, a Chief of Staff supports the leader directly, but in a highly strategic role that at its core is focused on driving the leader’s many, many business initiatives forward quickly and efficiently, solving problems and removing roadblocks along the way.
00:03:47.237 –> 00:03:58.477
MAGGIE: The Chief of Staff often also acts as a proxy for the leader, driving alignment across the leader’s executive team and leading major cross-functional projects as necessary.
00:04:00.697 –> 00:04:02.857
MAGGIE: So, that’s a lot, that’s a lot of words, a lot of jargon.
00:04:02.857 –> 00:04:11.517
MAGGIE: But at the end of the day, the Chief of Staff is the right hand to the business leader and they are helping drive alignment across their leader’s team.
00:04:11.517 –> 00:04:23.397
MAGGIE: They’re taking on projects, they’re filling gaps, they’re looking at the business both with a 10,000-foot view, like a bit more in a strategic kind of removed way.
00:04:23.397 –> 00:04:26.937
MAGGIE: And then they’re also able to be excellent at execution.
00:04:27.557 –> 00:04:29.837
MAGGIE: And they’re doing both constantly.
00:04:29.837 –> 00:04:35.297
MAGGIE: So from here, I’m going to dive into the differences between EA and Chief of Staff.
00:04:35.297 –> 00:04:39.277
MAGGIE: But first, I’m going to talk about how a Chief of Staff and an EA are similar.
00:04:39.277 –> 00:04:46.337
MAGGIE: So both roles exist to support a human, to support a person, versus their own scorecard or business category.
00:04:46.337 –> 00:04:49.877
MAGGIE: For example, like a COO or CMO, marketing role.
00:04:49.877 –> 00:04:53.137
MAGGIE: Both roles are highly organized and very planful in their work.
00:04:53.137 –> 00:04:56.057
MAGGIE: Both roles can be seen as the glue that holds the team together.
00:04:56.657 –> 00:05:05.737
MAGGIE: Both roles have a major impact on the leadership team in the company, and both roles are really kind of the right hand or left hand to that business leader.
00:05:05.737 –> 00:05:09.617
MAGGIE: But at the end of the day, these two roles are very different.
00:05:09.617 –> 00:05:17.057
MAGGIE: You will rarely ever find the core functions of admin work in a Chief of Staff role.
00:05:17.057 –> 00:05:21.497
MAGGIE: And those core functions are calendar, inbox, travel, expense, logistics.
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MAGGIE: Those just generally are not part of the Chief of Staff role.
00:05:25.317 –> 00:05:42.177
MAGGIE: However, where it gets a little bit murky is there’s incredible EAs out there, and many who are reaching and grabbing for a strategic project here and there, or maybe solving a company problem, of course, and taking on some of those responsibilities that might live more within the Chief of Staff role.
00:05:42.177 –> 00:05:46.377
MAGGIE: So that’s why it can get a little bit murky, but they are two very different roles.
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MAGGIE: I’m going to pause there, Jeremy, because I know we both have this conversation a lot.
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MAGGIE: Do you have anything to add around kind of the differentiation between Chief of Staff and EA, and how you talk about the two?
00:05:58.197 –> 00:06:13.717
JEREMY: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing I would just want to add that we’ve talked about before is just that there’s such a difference in these titles and roles.
00:06:13.717 –> 00:06:17.337
JEREMY: But there’s a difference between how people…
00:06:17.637 –> 00:06:38.177
JEREMY: Let’s put it this way, there’s a difference between the difference, depending on the industry and depending on the company size and depending on the, even the CEO’s preferences on how they want to organize their leadership team.
00:06:38.177 –> 00:06:50.957
JEREMY: And so what some people will see as, oh, this is a very, this is very clearly a chief of staff, you know, job description line item.
00:06:50.957 –> 00:07:02.637
JEREMY: Other people might see that as, you know what, actually, if you’re in a small nonprofit organization, they actually might put that line item in the executive assistant to the CEO job description.
00:07:02.637 –> 00:07:31.557
JEREMY: So it’s kind of fluid depending on the organization and depending on the industry and depending on the company size and all that kind of stuff, which can be part of the problem because there’s a lot of confusion and there’s not a lot of clear levels when it comes to, you know, how much should I get paid for a chief of staff role or how much should I get paid for a senior executive assistant to the CEO role and all that.
00:07:31.557 –> 00:07:33.417
JEREMY: But I just wanted to throw that out there.
00:07:33.417 –> 00:07:39.817
JEREMY: I know we’ve talked about before, but it’s just always good to consider the context of the situation.
00:07:39.917 –> 00:07:41.417
JEREMY: And the conversation.
00:07:41.417 –> 00:07:41.857
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:07:41.857 –> 00:07:42.157
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:07:42.157 –> 00:07:48.377
MAGGIE: You know, there’s just so much variety and range in both of these roles depending on the business.
00:07:48.377 –> 00:08:03.037
MAGGIE: And you could be in the same size business, in the same industry, and still have this massive difference in just the day-to-day operations of your role, or maybe the seniority level, or, you know, any of those things that Jeremy, you’re just talking about.
00:08:03.037 –> 00:08:10.417
MAGGIE: So it, you know, it’s one of those, whenever you’re supporting a human, because we’re all so different, the role can just be very, very different.
00:08:10.417 –> 00:08:21.777
MAGGIE: But I always come back to, at the end of the day, any Chief of Staff role, regardless of industry or size or your seniority level or who you’re supporting, the core purpose of the role is the same.
00:08:21.777 –> 00:08:23.137
MAGGIE: And that’s what I talked about earlier.
00:08:23.137 –> 00:08:38.197
MAGGIE: You know, the core purpose of the role is to be that leader’s right hand, to help them execute, to drive alignment across their leadership team, to fill gaps and drive execution and, you know, manage all their many initiatives.
00:08:38.197 –> 00:08:39.637
MAGGIE: That’s the purpose of the role.
00:08:39.637 –> 00:08:51.377
MAGGIE: And when it comes down to it, because, and we’ll get into this in a minute here, but because the breadth of the role is so wide, it can just day to day look very different depending on where you’re at.
00:08:51.377 –> 00:08:58.217
MAGGIE: So, and often I’ll chat with an EA and they’ll tell me that they’re doing all the things that a chief of staff is doing.
00:08:58.217 –> 00:09:09.137
MAGGIE: And I tell them that they probably need a promotion to chief of staff and to offload the admin responsibilities in their role so that they can be as effective as possible as a chief of staff.
00:09:09.137 –> 00:09:12.857
MAGGIE: So all sorts of things happening out there, lots of going on.
00:09:12.857 –> 00:09:15.297
MAGGIE: Let us know what bucket you’re in and how we can help you.
00:09:15.297 –> 00:09:21.477
MAGGIE: I know Jeremy and I are both really passionate about this and helping everybody who’s kind of in the middle trying to figure it out.
00:09:21.477 –> 00:09:23.197
JEREMY: Yeah, definitely.
00:09:23.257 –> 00:09:28.457
MAGGIE: Okay, so what are the differences between chief of staff and chief operating officer?
00:09:28.457 –> 00:09:39.497
MAGGIE: Now, this comes up a lot because both roles are highly operational and often both roles support, let’s say, a CEO, right?
00:09:39.497 –> 00:09:43.177
MAGGIE: I mean, chiefs of staff can support directors and VPs and business leaders.
00:09:43.177 –> 00:09:56.797
MAGGIE: But in this example, it can be murky because maybe you’re both supporting a CEO and they’re definitely both operational roles and at times, you can potentially work on similar projects as a chief of staff and COO, but that’s really where it ends.
00:09:56.797 –> 00:10:06.357
MAGGIE: So the key difference is that a chief of staff exists to support a human, to support a person and the chief operating officer exists to support the company.
00:10:06.357 –> 00:10:20.557
MAGGIE: When we think about COO, they have their own organization, their own scorecards, their own problems to solve, their own true business within the business, business within the company, and their own real operational categories of a business.
00:10:20.557 –> 00:10:32.097
MAGGIE: So a chief of staff exists to catch all of the initiatives from the business leader, not just open initiatives for the company, the business leader’s priorities.
00:10:32.097 –> 00:10:37.557
MAGGIE: The chief of staff usually doesn’t have this giant org chart or category of business, of ownership.
00:10:37.557 –> 00:10:51.657
MAGGIE: Instead, they support the CEO or business leader in everything and anything they need to help that leader stay focused on what I mentioned earlier, which is looking forward, vision, strategy, leadership, growth.
00:10:51.657 –> 00:10:53.497
MAGGIE: So those two can get pretty murky.
00:10:53.497 –> 00:11:01.017
MAGGIE: And at times, there seems to be a lot of overlap, especially in a small environment, like let’s say a startup with not a ton of people.
00:11:01.017 –> 00:11:08.497
MAGGIE: And a chief of staff is potentially operating in a chief operating officer kind of world, they’re just out there solving company problems.
00:11:09.017 –> 00:11:25.057
MAGGIE: Now, if that chief of staff is really actually just jumping on the things the leader wants them to jump on, they’re supporting the leader in terms of kind of their engagement planning and their rhythm of business, and it’s much more tied to that human, tied to that leader, that is the chief of staff role.
00:11:26.077 –> 00:11:33.897
MAGGIE: Now Jeremy and I touched on this a little bit in the discussion around EA and chief of staff and how we define the role, but the role is growing in popularity.
00:11:35.097 –> 00:11:40.957
MAGGIE: And truly, you can find a chief of staff in like every single industry.
00:11:40.957 –> 00:11:52.557
MAGGIE: You can imagine, I’ve talked to you all, people from all these industries, which is super exciting, and the chief of staff role really exists under lots of different titles and different leadership levels.
00:11:52.557 –> 00:12:05.057
MAGGIE: So there are leadership, let’s see, so we’ve got chiefs of staff for CEOs or head coaches or directors, sports, entertainment, media, product companies.
00:12:05.057 –> 00:12:13.197
MAGGIE: It’s clearly a role that’s in the C-suite supporting, you know, VPs and SVPs and presidents.
00:12:13.197 –> 00:12:20.557
MAGGIE: And the role can really range from manager level to director level to C-suite level even.
00:12:20.557 –> 00:12:27.117
MAGGIE: But again, you know, I’ll just keep bringing it back to the core purpose of the role is the same, which I’ve been which I’ve been chatting to.
00:12:27.477 –> 00:12:35.757
MAGGIE: So, okay, Jeremy, if if you think I should go here next, I’m going to chat through who I believe makes a great chief of staff.
00:12:35.757 –> 00:12:42.297
MAGGIE: If you’ve been following Jeremy’s podcast, heard me before you, this list may sound similar, but it’s my favorite.
00:12:42.297 –> 00:12:45.057
MAGGIE: So I’m going to dive in if that sounds good to you, Jeremy.
00:12:45.057 –> 00:12:46.917
JEREMY: Yeah, that sounds perfect.
00:12:46.917 –> 00:12:47.377
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:12:47.377 –> 00:12:54.717
MAGGIE: So as I think about this list, I often think about the people in my life that I’ve worked with that fit in this profile.
00:12:55.457 –> 00:13:00.817
MAGGIE: And maybe it’s easy for you to say, yes, that’s me or that’s partly me or, oh, that’s my friend.
00:13:00.817 –> 00:13:01.877
MAGGIE: She’s just like this.
00:13:01.877 –> 00:13:03.477
MAGGIE: So here they are.
00:13:03.477 –> 00:13:12.297
MAGGIE: You’re fast, you’re driven, you’re curious, you’re growth minded, you have a strong executive presence, so you’re on your way there.
00:13:12.297 –> 00:13:17.837
MAGGIE: You’re achievement focused, high emotional intelligence, loves breadth versus depth.
00:13:17.837 –> 00:13:39.837
MAGGIE: I call this expert generalist, problem solver, solution oriented, graded a lot of things, learns quickly, asks great questions, collaborative, influential leader, wants more responsibility if you’re looking towards what’s next and you’re not a chief of staff yet, and that you love supporting senior leadership.
00:13:39.837 –> 00:13:41.817
MAGGIE: Anything else that you would add, Jeremy, from your side?
00:13:47.396 –> 00:13:55.696
MAGGIE: I’m Maggie Olson, founder of Nova Chief of Staff Certification, the first of its kind online course for aspiring and existing Chiefs of Staff.
00:13:55.696 –> 00:14:07.856
MAGGIE: With curriculum taken directly from on-the-job responsibilities, Nova’s self-paced learning modules provides you with hands-on experience so you can feel competent and confident moving into a Chief of Staff-style role.
00:14:07.856 –> 00:14:10.876
MAGGIE: It’s the perfect next step for executive assistants.
00:14:10.876 –> 00:14:15.756
MAGGIE: Head to leaderassistant.com/nova to learn more, grab the syllabus, and enroll today.
00:14:20.756 –> 00:14:24.776
JEREMY: I mean, that’s a pretty good overview for sure.
00:14:24.776 –> 00:14:35.436
JEREMY: I think that if anybody listening is like, oh man, that describes me perfectly, then definitely reach out to Maggie.
00:14:35.436 –> 00:14:37.336
JEREMY: She’d love to chat.
00:14:37.336 –> 00:14:38.196
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:14:38.196 –> 00:14:40.216
MAGGIE: If this is you, it’s a sign.
00:14:40.216 –> 00:14:46.676
MAGGIE: If you’ve been waiting for what’s next, not sure what it is, looking for development and Chief of Staff’s been on your radar.
00:14:46.676 –> 00:14:49.796
MAGGIE: These are the characteristics that make a strong Chief of Staff.
00:14:49.796 –> 00:14:56.216
MAGGIE: I think these are far, far more important than, for example, having an MBA or consulting experience.
00:14:56.216 –> 00:15:14.076
MAGGIE: I know that if I was interviewing somebody and it was clear that this described them, I would hire them over somebody else that maybe it didn’t describe, but they had the credentials, for example, of an MBA or consulting background, which I do not believe are necessary for a Chief of Staff role.
00:15:14.076 –> 00:15:18.616
MAGGIE: So, you know, characteristics are different than skill set.
00:15:18.616 –> 00:15:25.496
MAGGIE: I think that when it comes to skill set, you know, we haven’t talked about this yet, but I’m the founder of Nova Chief of Staff.
00:15:25.496 –> 00:15:40.456
MAGGIE: We have a very successful Chief of Staff certification course that offers hands-on practice doing the daily functions of the Chief of Staff role, but, you know, the foundational skills necessary to be a Chief of Staff.
00:15:40.456 –> 00:15:49.816
MAGGIE: Some of them were just mentioned in kind of those characteristics, but strong executive project management is really, really important in an executive back office.
00:15:49.816 –> 00:15:56.496
MAGGIE: The ability to lead a meeting, so facilitation is highly relevant.
00:15:56.496 –> 00:16:15.156
MAGGIE: Being comfortable networking, that executive presence that I mentioned, having good sessions and one-on-ones and kind of information gathering tactics to kind of who you are to get to know your surroundings, your leadership team, that learning quickly component.
00:16:15.156 –> 00:16:16.656
MAGGIE: Confidence is a big one.
00:16:16.656 –> 00:16:22.816
MAGGIE: A lot of the Chief of Staff role, people are concerned that, oh my gosh, well, what if I’ve never worked in that industry before?
00:16:22.816 –> 00:16:26.596
MAGGIE: Or what if I’m not super confident from a financial perspective?
00:16:26.596 –> 00:16:29.116
MAGGIE: We have a podcast episode we recorded on this.
00:16:29.116 –> 00:16:33.216
MAGGIE: Jeremy, I know he’ll put it in the show notes for us around building financial acumen.
00:16:33.216 –> 00:16:37.516
MAGGIE: But the Chief of Staff role is about breadth versus depth.
00:16:37.756 –> 00:16:43.036
MAGGIE: So what’s important is that you definitely understand the most important parts of your business.
00:16:43.036 –> 00:16:51.716
MAGGIE: But what will be a detriment to your success as a Chief of Staff is if you spend too much time going deep in one area, so you just can’t be an expert in everything.
00:16:51.716 –> 00:17:01.576
MAGGIE: You’ve got to be able to identify what needs to be learned, and the resources to reach out to when you do need to go deep, and that’s a skill for sure.
00:17:02.096 –> 00:17:03.876
MAGGIE: There’s other skills depending on the role.
00:17:03.876 –> 00:17:18.156
MAGGIE: You may be presenting often, and you may be facilitating the information flow and materials for board reviews, which I know a lot of executive assistants also work with, that board level management.
00:17:19.276 –> 00:17:22.356
MAGGIE: Of course, there’s the leadership component.
00:17:22.356 –> 00:17:28.396
MAGGIE: Often, you don’t have a direct report as Chiefs of Staff, but sometimes you do, and you’re definitely an influential leader.
00:17:28.396 –> 00:17:41.356
MAGGIE: The ability to get folks to do what you need them to do, when they may be more senior than you, and they may be an SVP and have a team of 300, and yet you need those slides tomorrow.
00:17:41.356 –> 00:17:42.696
MAGGIE: And how do you get them?
00:17:42.696 –> 00:17:53.676
MAGGIE: That takes some confidence, it takes good planning, it takes good follow up, and it takes some EQ, like how do you approach this situation and this leader based on what you know.
00:17:53.676 –> 00:17:57.436
MAGGIE: That’s a little bit around the tactics that would make a great Chief of Staff.
00:17:57.436 –> 00:18:10.636
MAGGIE: And again, Nova, our course dives into a lot of the overview of how do you build a strategic recommendation or a brief or executive project management, a complex offsite, and you just practice doing those things.
00:18:10.636 –> 00:18:16.356
MAGGIE: So anything on your end, Jeremy, that you would add from a skill set perspective?
00:18:16.356 –> 00:18:28.416
JEREMY: Yeah, I mean, I just want to reiterate your point about the people that have an MBA or formal education that does not necessarily mean that they have an advantage.
00:18:28.416 –> 00:18:53.656
JEREMY: And I think a lot of times, you know, and why I think why assistants are so interested in this role is because assistants have such vast experience from on-the-job training and being in those board rooms, being in those leadership team meetings, reading and filtering and managing a CEO’s inbox.
00:18:53.656 –> 00:18:59.116
JEREMY: I think managing a CEO’s inbox can be sometimes more educational than an MBA.
00:19:00.516 –> 00:19:07.116
JEREMY: It’s just so real and raw and you just can absorb so much about the business.
00:19:07.116 –> 00:19:26.676
JEREMY: And so I think that’s a great point that the skills required is kind of that gritty adaptability, that ability to context switch at a moment’s notice.
00:19:27.896 –> 00:19:37.876
JEREMY: And you really don’t get that skill, I don’t think, unless you’ve got that on the job training and on the job real world experience.
00:19:37.876 –> 00:19:39.336
MAGGIE: Yeah, I totally agree.
00:19:39.336 –> 00:19:46.056
MAGGIE: I have an MBA and I did not learn how to be a chief of staff for my MBA program, that’s for sure.
00:19:47.696 –> 00:19:52.116
MAGGIE: There were good things that I got from the program, I definitely got opportunity.
00:19:52.116 –> 00:20:06.516
MAGGIE: I was placed into a leader to executive development program post MBA, and I kind of gained confidence around like, you can do anything, this tough mergers and acquisitions class, like you nailed it, you know, like you can do it.
00:20:06.516 –> 00:20:09.536
MAGGIE: There was a confidence building aspect for sure.
00:20:09.536 –> 00:20:15.436
MAGGIE: The hyper local network that you get from an MBA program, it’s not for nothing, like that’s great.
00:20:15.536 –> 00:20:16.956
MAGGIE: I had my MBA in Seattle.
00:20:16.956 –> 00:20:20.736
MAGGIE: I now have a network of hundreds of people that I could reach out to.
00:20:20.736 –> 00:20:22.096
MAGGIE: I don’t live in Seattle anymore now.
00:20:22.096 –> 00:20:23.736
MAGGIE: So that’s when I say hyper local.
00:20:23.736 –> 00:20:27.096
MAGGIE: It is a local network if you’re in person.
00:20:27.096 –> 00:20:38.356
MAGGIE: You know, and then there’s just, of course, like the benefit of learning for learning sake, just to focus on the learning, the philosophy behind something, the how to do something new and challenging, and there’s benefit to it.
00:20:38.356 –> 00:20:43.416
MAGGIE: But I tell everybody, like definitely did not learn how to be a Chief of Staff in my MBA program.
00:20:43.616 –> 00:20:49.956
MAGGIE: That’s for sure, it was all on the job, and it was not just in a Chief of Staff role.
00:20:49.956 –> 00:20:50.716
MAGGIE: Absolutely not.
00:20:50.716 –> 00:20:59.696
MAGGIE: It was from my past experience that then made me a good fit for the Chief of Staff role, kind of as I’ve talked about here with characteristics and skill set.
00:20:59.696 –> 00:21:00.256
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:21:00.256 –> 00:21:02.036
MAGGIE: Well, yeah.
00:21:02.036 –> 00:21:11.996
MAGGIE: You know, one thing to note, Jeremy, you recommended folks listen to, I believe it was episode 257 for how to level up as an EA, if you’re interested in the Chief of Staff role.
00:21:13.996 –> 00:21:29.716
MAGGIE: We went through a number of tactics on that podcast that I won’t get into on this one, but definitely go check that out if you’re looking for some applicable hands-on things that you can do right now to help elevate yourself into the Chief of Staff role.
00:21:29.716 –> 00:21:35.856
MAGGIE: You know, and then I think the last thing that I’ll mention here, Jeremy, just to give folks an idea of like, what are all the things?
00:21:35.856 –> 00:21:41.656
MAGGIE: I’m going to just list off a bunch of the things that make up Chiefs of Staff’s daily functions.
00:21:41.816 –> 00:21:55.196
MAGGIE: So, I can give examples of these as well, but we’ve got business planning, the rhythm of business, executive project management and prioritization, business process and efficiency driving.
00:21:55.196 –> 00:21:57.116
MAGGIE: I mentioned removing roadblocks, problem solving.
00:21:57.116 –> 00:22:00.976
MAGGIE: That’s definitely a category on its own, building process.
00:22:00.976 –> 00:22:04.836
MAGGIE: Filling gaps, Chiefs of Staff fill gaps across the board.
00:22:04.836 –> 00:22:08.576
MAGGIE: As we mentioned, there’s industry after industry that has this role.
00:22:08.576 –> 00:22:14.136
MAGGIE: The gaps are going to be different everywhere, but some could be, oh, let’s lean in a little more to employee culture.
00:22:14.136 –> 00:22:19.596
MAGGIE: Hey, Chief of Staff, can you put a survey together and then pull some tactics and some next steps?
00:22:19.596 –> 00:22:21.416
MAGGIE: It could be, can you cover this leave?
00:22:21.416 –> 00:22:25.156
MAGGIE: You have a background in HR and our HR manager is going out on maternity leave.
00:22:25.156 –> 00:22:26.436
MAGGIE: Can you cover this for three months?
00:22:26.436 –> 00:22:29.976
MAGGIE: It’s not really Chief of Staff-y, but we need somebody.
00:22:29.976 –> 00:22:31.256
MAGGIE: Wow, we don’t have an org chart.
00:22:31.256 –> 00:22:31.616
MAGGIE: Nope.
00:22:31.616 –> 00:22:34.496
MAGGIE: This isn’t generally a Chief of Staff responsibility, but everybody’s busy.
00:22:34.496 –> 00:22:43.616
MAGGIE: So it’s a sense of there are a lot of priorities, and a Chief of Staff is somebody that fills the highest priorities of that moment at times.
00:22:43.616 –> 00:22:58.696
MAGGIE: And then the final example would be areas like, well, we mentioned board and investor relations, that’s big, but a little bit more broad would be just kind of the oversight or maybe even the doing of the events and communications for your leader.
00:22:58.696 –> 00:23:11.776
MAGGIE: So you may, as a Chief of Staff, you may be the person drafting the comm that your leader is sending out next month for some event going on or some national holiday.
00:23:11.776 –> 00:23:15.716
MAGGIE: You may be drafting it or you might be approving it, but you’re probably involved in some way.
00:23:15.716 –> 00:23:21.336
MAGGIE: You’re probably at least reading it through because you touch almost everything that that leader is doing.
00:23:21.336 –> 00:23:23.356
MAGGIE: And the same thing from an event perspective.
00:23:23.356 –> 00:23:26.856
MAGGIE: I know there’s Chiefs of Staff out there running events and they’re putting it all together.
00:23:26.856 –> 00:23:29.456
MAGGIE: I know there’s EAs out there doing the same thing.
00:23:29.456 –> 00:23:35.196
MAGGIE: Often when you’re in a larger company, there may be an events company that you work with, like a third party.
00:23:35.996 –> 00:23:37.716
MAGGIE: The Chief of Staff is still in the know.
00:23:37.716 –> 00:23:48.556
MAGGIE: They’re still project managing everything to make sure that the leader isn’t, because somebody has to be involved every step of the way and that person should not be the business leader.
00:23:48.556 –> 00:23:57.136
MAGGIE: So the Chief of Staff often steps in on those major kind of cross-functional, multi-person projects and oversees a lot of what’s going on.
00:23:57.136 –> 00:24:01.696
MAGGIE: So those are some of the functions day to day of a Chief of Staff.
00:24:02.896 –> 00:24:05.256
MAGGIE: But there’s many, many others.
00:24:05.256 –> 00:24:05.816
JEREMY: Nice.
00:24:05.816 –> 00:24:06.236
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:24:06.236 –> 00:24:15.456
JEREMY: Well, and I think you mentioned earlier to the Financial Acumen, that was episode 296 for those listening.
00:24:15.456 –> 00:24:21.276
JEREMY: I’ll put all those prior conversations in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/308.
00:24:23.116 –> 00:24:34.956
JEREMY: And of course, you all listening can reach out to Maggie or myself on LinkedIn, or on our websites, and all those links will be in the show notes as well.
00:24:34.956 –> 00:24:54.436
JEREMY: But yeah, thanks for chatting as always, and I love the work you’re doing for the Chief of Staff community, and even the Executive Assistant community is really soaking up all of the tools and tactics and tips and tricks that you’ve been sharing for how to become a Chief of Staff.
00:24:54.436 –> 00:25:20.556
JEREMY: But even, as I’ve said before, even just assistants training themselves to level up in their role, it’s always good to learn because you may work with the Chief of Staff one day, or even if you don’t become one, it’s good to know more about how they think about the role and how they think about the relationship between them and the CEO and the board and how that involves you as an EA and all the things.
00:25:20.556 –> 00:25:23.256
JEREMY: So thanks again for chatting about all this.
00:25:23.256 –> 00:25:24.296
MAGGIE: Yeah, thank you.
00:25:24.556 –> 00:25:29.076
MAGGIE: It’s always a pleasure coming on and anybody if you need anything, just let us know.
00:25:29.076 –> 00:25:31.476
MAGGIE: You can email us at hello at novachiefofstaff.com.
00:25:32.976 –> 00:25:33.276
JEREMY: Perfect.
00:25:33.276 –> 00:25:34.016
JEREMY: Thanks again, Maggie.
00:25:34.016 –> 00:25:36.496
JEREMY: Thanks everyone for listening and we’ll see you next time.
00:25:36.496 –> 00:25:37.456
MAGGIE: Take care.
00:25:47.803 –> 00:25:49.863
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00:25:56.598 –> 00:25:58.298
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