Most leaders are doing too much, and not enough.
Too much of the wrong work, not enough of the right work. The answer is not more effort. It is leverage. The modern Chief of Staff (CoS) gives you that leverage, if you let them.
Your job is to do the things only you can do: the high value, high impact work that drives your mission forward. Everything else can, and should, be delegated, automated, or offloaded. A great CoS helps you figure out which is which.
Start With Why You Were Hired
Every executive role has a core purpose, something that only you can deliver.
For a CEO, that might be setting direction, building the team, and securing resources. For a divisional leader, it might be driving growth in a market or portfolio. Over time, though, most leaders accumulate what I call organizational barnacles: legacy responsibilities, meetings, and projects that no longer serve their original purpose.
A capable CoS helps scrape those barnacles off. Together, you clarify your mandate and align everything back to that North Star.
Analyze What You’re Actually Doing
Once you are clear on what matters most, analyze where your time really goes. Review your calendar, your inbox, your meetings. Categorize every activity: strategic or tactical? Mission critical or noise?
That is where most leaders discover a painful truth: far too much time goes to operational detail and reactive firefighting.
A strong CoS acts as the mirror and the filter. They show you where you are drifting and design systems that keep you focused on what only you can do. They manage your schedule in line with your priorities, protect you from distractions, and ensure your time reflects your intent.
Ensure You Have the Team to Delegate To
Delegation only works if someone is ready to catch what you throw.
Part of the CoS’s role is making sure you have the right people, with the right decision rights, in the right seats. That means regularly asking:
- Do we have the talent to handle this?
- Are they empowered to decide without upward referral?
- Is accountability clear?
The right CoS helps operationalize delegation, ensuring work flows to where it can be done best, while you stay focused where you add the most value.
Manage the Boss
The most effective Chiefs of Staff do not just manage for their bosses, they manage their bosses. That is where leverage comes from.
By managing your schedule around your true priorities, a CoS ensures you spend more time on things that matter and less on things that do not. They screen and sequence distractions so you can focus on what truly requires your energy and attention.
The key is clear decision rights. Every interaction between you and your CoS should fall into one of five categories:
- Recommendation or request: They bring something for you to decide or do.
- Contribution or input: They seek your perspective on something they will do.
- Advance notice: They tell you what is coming unless you object.
- After the fact: They inform you of what has already been done.
- Follow up: They nudge others to ensure your priorities stay on track.
That clarity prevents confusion and builds trust. Over time, your CoS becomes an extension of you, a thought partner who frees you to think and lead at a higher level.
Manage Priorities, Programs, and Projects
A great CoS turns strategy into execution. Not by doing the work, but by coordinating and aligning it.
- Priorities are the few big things that matter most.
- Programs are the long term components of those priorities.
- Projects break programs into tangible efforts.
- Tasks are the day to day actions that deliver them.
Your CoS ensures all of these connect cleanly, from the daily tasks up to your strategic priorities, so everyone moves in sync. They act as your proxy when work crosses silos, ensuring no one drops the ball and everything advances against your goals.
Manage Communication
Everything communicates: what you do, what you do not, what you say, when you say it. Your CoS becomes both amplifier and editor of your message, helping you craft communication that is strategic, precise, and credible.
That means they have to be able to challenge you. The most valuable CoS sharpens your thinking, questions your assumptions, and ensures your message lands as intended.
Elevate What Only You Can Do
If you really want to focus on what matters most, do not try to do it alone.
Your Chief of Staff can help you clarify what you were hired to do, examine how you are spending your time, and ensure you have the team to whom you can delegate everything else.
When you offload wisely, you do not lose control. You gain capacity and elevate your performance, enabling you to deliver the success you were hired to deliver.
