The VD's perspective on the Chief of Staff
The CEO role is unique within the management team in that it carries the overall responsibility for the organization’s direction, results, trust, and long-term development. Whether operating in the private or public sector, the CEO is expected to balance strategy and execution, short-term performance requirements and long-term value creation, as well as internal priorities and external stakeholder expectations. At the same time, the increasing complexity of organizations has made it increasingly difficult for an individual to maintain the same level of overview, coordination, and progress as before.
From the CEO’s perspective, the Chief of Staff is therefore not primarily an administrative relief function, but a strategic management function that strengthens the CEO’s ability to lead the organization through complexity. The role exists at the intersection between strategy, governance, coordination, and operational follow-up. A successful Chief of Staff helps the CEO ensure that the organization’s most important issues receive the right attention, that the leadership team works in a coordinated manner, and that decisions are translated into concrete results. At the same time, it is important to understand what a Chief of Staff is not. The role does not replace the responsibilities of line managers, does not take over the mandates of the leadership team, and does not act as an alternative decision-maker. Nor is the Chief of Staff a chief assistant with a primary focus on calendar management or administration. Instead, the value lies in serving as the CEO’s strategic extension, tasked with creating structure, transparency, and the ability to execute on the organization’s highest-priority issues.
The relationship between the CEO and the Chief of Staff is based on an unusually high level of trust. The Chief of Staff often has insight into strategic discussions, sensitive assessments, organizational issues, and board-related processes. At the same time, the role must be able to act without creating uncertainty about the division of responsibilities within the organization. This makes integrity, judgment, and clarity at least as important as analytical ability. The central question for a CEO is therefore not whether a Chief of Staff can relieve workload, but whether the role can increase the quality of management of the entire organization. The value arises when the Chief of Staff contributes to better decisions, higher execution capability, stronger coordination, and increased strategic discipline without weakening the formal leadership or the line organization’s responsibilities.
What the CEO can expect from the Chief of Staff
The most important expectation a CEO should have of their Chief of Staff is that the role strengthens leadership capabilities rather than merely relieving the workload. A skilled Chief of Staff helps the CEO lead the organization more effectively by improving communication, coordination, prioritization, and follow-up. A key task is to create an overview of the organization’s most important strategic initiatives. In many organizations, there are a large number of parallel activities competing for the attention of management. The Chief of Staff acts as an integrative force here, helping the CEO understand how different initiatives are interconnected, what dependencies exist, and where risks arise. The role ensures that management focuses on what is most critical rather than what is most urgent.
The CEO can also expect support in decision-making processes. It is not about making decisions on behalf of the CEO, but about improving the quality of the decision-making process, making the consequences visible, identifying conflict of interests, and ensuring that relevant perspectives are brought forward before a decision is made. In complex organizations, this is often as valuable as the analysis itself. Another important delivery is creating the enforcement power after decisions are made. Many management teams are strong in strategy but weak in implementation. The Chief of Staff can act as a catalyst by ensuring clear responsibilities, defined follow-up points, and regular reporting on progress. The role not only helps the CEO know what has been decided but also what is actually happening after the decision is made. In relation to the management team, the Chief of Staff often acts as a neutral coordinator. The CEO can expect support in creating consensus between different functions and business areas. Because members of the leadership team naturally represent their respective areas of responsibility, goal conflicts sometimes arise. A skilled Chief of Staff helps lead discussions back to the organization’s overall goals.
When it comes to information management, the CEO can expect help in filtering and structuring information flows. In many organizations, the amount of information exceeds the time available for analysis. The Chief of Staff helps to highlight strategically relevant issues and reduce the risk of important signals being lost in operational details. At the same time, there are clear boundaries for the role. The Chief of Staff should not become an alternative decision-making structure where the organization bypasses managers to reach the CEO indirectly. If employees or managers perceive that real power lies with the Chief of Staff, the role risks creating uncertainty and distrust. The CEO must therefore be clear about the mandate, responsibilities, and purpose.
Another potential tension concerns the relationship with the management team. If the Chief of Staff is perceived as the CEO’s control function rather than as a supportive coordination function, collaboration may deteriorate. An effective Chief of Staff therefore works through influence, trust, and relationships rather than through formal power. The CEO should ultimately expect the Chief of Staff to serve as a qualified sounding board. The role should be able to provide honest feedback, raise uncomfortable perspectives, and contribute alternative viewpoints. A Chief of Staff that merely confirms the CEO’s perceptions risks reducing rather than enhancing the quality of leadership.
Recruiting the Chief of Staff from the CEO's perspective
When a CEO recruits a Chief of Staff, the focus should be on the ability to create organizational value through influence rather than through formal authority. The role requires an unusual combination of strategic acumen, relational skills, and operational discipline.
The first basic requirement is strong analytical ability. The Chief of Staff must be able to understand complex relationships, break down strategic questions, and identify the factors that are most crucial to the organization’s success. The role needs to be able to switch between details and the big picture without losing perspective. Equally important is a very good judgment. Since the Chief of Staff often works closely with the CEO on matters related to strategy, organization, leadership, and sometimes sensitive personnel issues, the person must be able to handle information with a high degree of integrity. The trust between the CEO and the Chief of Staff is one of the most important assets of the role.
Communication skills are another crucial selection criterion. The role needs to be able to communicate with the board, management team, specialists, external stakeholders, and sometimes political or societal actors. The ability to adapt messages without losing objectivity or credibility is central. From the CEO’s perspective, experience in change management is often more valuable than specific industry knowledge. A Chief of Staff needs to understand how organizations change, what resistance arises, and how governance can be combined with engagement. At the same time, a deep understanding of the context of the business can be crucial in certain environments. Among the personal qualities that often distinguish successful candidates are:
- Strong integrity.
- High personal maturity.
- Good self-awareness.
- The ability to influence without formal power.
- Structured approach.
- High stress resistance.
- Clear focus on collaboration.
- The courage to express dissenting opinions.
The CEO should pay particular attention to candidates driven more by influence than by results. The role often offers access to strategic processes and decision-making forums, which can attract individuals who primarily seek position rather than responsibility. A successful Chief of Staff focuses on the organization’s results, not on their own visibility. In recruitment, it can be valuable to examine the candidate’s ability to navigate complex stakeholder environments. Relevant assessment areas could include:
- How the candidate has managed conflicts between strategic priorities.
- How the person built trust between different management functions.
- How difficult messages are communicated up and down in the organization.
- How the implementation of strategic initiatives has been secured over time.
- How the candidate has handled situations where loyalty and integrity have been in conflict with each other.
It is also essential to assess the candidate’s ability to function as an independent support rather than as an executor of the CEO’s instructions. A Chief of Staff should be able to challenge reasoning, identify risks, and contribute with their own perspectives without becoming oppositional. Meritorious experiences may include work in leadership team-related roles, strategy functions, business development, management consulting, larger transformation programs, or complex project management. These experiences should, however, be seen as indicators rather than guarantees of success. Finally, the CEO should prioritize cultural compatibility. Since collaboration is often intense and is based on great mutual trust, even highly competent candidates may fail if their style of work, values, or communication methods do not harmonize with the CEO’s leadership.
Differences between the public and private sectors
From the CEO’s perspective, the role of the Chief of Staff is influenced by differences in governance logic, stakeholder structure, and the environment of responsibility between the public and private sectors. In the private sector Expectations are often strongly linked to competitiveness, growth, profitability, and operational execution capability. The Chief of Staff is expected to contribute to faster and more consistent execution of strategic priorities. The focus is often on creating coordination between business areas, driving transformation initiatives, and ensuring that strategic decisions lead to measurable results. In the public sector CEO-like roles are often characterized by a more complex stakeholder landscape. In addition to the business results, consideration needs to be given to democratic processes, transparency requirements, legal certainty, political mandates, and the perspective of citizens. The Chief of Staff therefore often needs to have a greater understanding of governance models, decision-making processes, and the division of responsibilities than is required in many private organizations.
However, differences should not be exaggerated. Many public organizations operate under strong pressure to change and need high executive capabilities. At the same time, many private businesses operate in regulated environments where transparency, documentation, and stakeholder management are crucial. From a recruitment perspective, the private sector tends to value commercial thinking, change management capabilities, and strategic execution capabilities highly. The public sector often places greater emphasis on understanding formal decision-making processes, societal responsibilities, and complex stakeholder management. In the public sector, experience with politically driven organizations can be a significant asset. In the private sector, experience with growth journeys, business transformations, or international operations can weigh more heavily. However, what is common to both sectors is the need for strong judgment, integrity, and the ability to coordinate between different parts of the organization. For the CEO, this means that recruitment should focus not only on general leadership qualities but also on the candidate's ability to function effectively within the governance and accountability environment in which the organization operates.
Summary
From the CEO’s perspective, the Chief of Staff is primarily a strategic management function whose task is to increase the quality of the organization’s leadership and execution. The value of the role lies not in administrative relief but in the ability to create overview, support decision-making, strengthen coordination, and ensure that prioritized initiatives are translated into results. The CEO should expect the Chief of Staff to function as an integrative force between strategy and execution, between the management team and operations, and between different organizational perspectives. The role should contribute to better decision-making, clearer priorities, and higher execution capabilities without taking over the responsibilities of line managers or members of the management team.
In recruitment, strong analytical ability, integrity, judgment, and the ability to influence without formal authority are crucial. At least as important is the ability to build trust, manage complex stakeholder relationships, and provide the CEO with qualified resistance when needed. A successful Chief of Staff dares to say what needs to be said, not what is comfortable to hear. The differences between the public and private sectors affect how the role is shaped, but do not change its essence. Regardless of the context, the CEO needs a person who can translate strategic ambitions into organizational coordination and concrete progress. Therefore, the perhaps most important conclusion is that the CEO should recruit a Chief of Staff who strengthens leadership without competing with it. When the role works best, it increases the entire organization’s ability to prioritize correctly, make better decisions, and deliver results with greater consistency over time.
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