A FORCE MULTIPLIER
No-one can entirely define the job, because every
leader has different needs. Each chief of staff is
some unique combination of assistant, enforcer,
administrator, counsellor and fixer. Al Chase, a
Boston-based executive search specialist who has filled
a number of corporate chief-of-staff roles for clients,
calls the position a “force multiplier”. When executive
coach Tyler Parris published his 2015 book Chief of
Staff, he subtitled it The Strategic Partner Who Will
Revolutionize Your Organization, emphasising the chief
of staff’s role in big-picture planning. He also describes
the job as “a catch-all role”. Brisbane academic Anne
Tiernan and British political scientist RAW Rhodes
called their 2014 study of Australian prime ministers’
chiefs of staff ‘The Gatekeepers’, emphasising the need
to buffer the leader from demands for their time.
But all analysts agree on this: the job must focus on
the leader. A good chief of staff sublimates their own
ego to the leader’s wants and needs. They spend their
time understanding what the leader wants to happen,
and then making it happen.
GILLARD’S JUGGLER
Ben Hubbard exemplifies the breed: unusually calm
and easygoing, instantly likeable, yet highly organised. He
worked his way up as an Australian Labor Party (ALP)
political strategist to become chief of staff to Victorian
premier Steve Bracks. But he really emerged in the first
Rudd government, doing the job for then deputy prime
minister Julia Gillard.
Under Hubbard, Gillard’s office ran with legendary
smoothness. Ministers took to waiting for one of prime
minister Kevin Rudd’s many foreign trips and then
submitted key issues to Gillard as stand-in PM, knowing
their paperwork would move smoothly and quickly
through the process. Tiernan and Rhodes dubbed
Hubbard “the juggler” for his ability to manage priorities.
After the chaos-weary ALP caucus made Gillard PM,
she recalled Hubbard from a public sector CEO role to do
the job again in 2011. He came back with a clear vision of
how the job should work (see breakout), an understanding
of Gillard’s needs, and a highly developed chief-of-staff
skill set, buttressed by informal advice from former PM
Bob Hawke’s much-admired chief of staff, Graham Evans.
Hubbard worked hard at making the machine run.
“You become very good at knowing which questions
to ask,” he says. Many of those questions centre on
expectations and time lines. Hubbard also stresses the
importance of not thinking you know everything: the job
is to direct traffic, not steer every car.
- Shape reports to the leader. They typically create and
run the reporting system that gives the CEO correct
information. “Chiefs of staff play the role of analyst
and decision framer,” writes Tyler Parris. - Drive staff meetings and reviews. Parris notes that a
COS will not only drive the agenda, but often conduct
pre-meetings so that decisions are properly framed and
as many points as possible are pre-negotiated.
-^ Make external meetings efficient. If two CEOs need
to meet, for instance, their chiefs of staff will often meet
first to map out areas where issues need to be explored
and approaches agreed upon. - Hire and fire staff. “A large part of the role is hiring the
right people,” says Hubbard. And firing those who don’t
fit: Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, delivered the bad
news to sacked chief strategist Steve Bannon. Trump is
one of many leaders to use the COS for sackings. - Stand in for the boss. The chief of staff may have to tell
people what the leader would want – even when they
don’t know for sure the leader’s view. Such calls demand
the chief of staff has deep insight into the leader’s thought
patterns; Hubbard found such decisions the hardest part
of the job.
-^ Communicate. Scott Amenta, chief of staff at New
York mobile shopping start-up Spring, emphasises the
importance of spreading the CEO’s vision and intent
across the business.- Track initiatives and stay in contact with the people
carrying them out.^ Often the chief of staff drives special
business projects, say Parris and other corporate experts.
- Track initiatives and stay in contact with the people
- Guard the gate. Everyone wants time with the leader;
chiefs of staff determine who gets it.
38 | theceomagazine.com
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