The title of Chief of Staff is especially critical in the corporate world. It implies a supportive and collaborative nature with the people in the organization. It has become increasingly common for growing companies to hire a Chief of Staff, and in start-ups, the title “right hand” or “strategic assistant” is more widely used. Start-ups prefer to hire younger people for the Chief of Staff role than larger organizations, and consultants with 2 to 5 years of experience are usually sought after.
The base salary for a startup's Chief of Staff usually ranges from 70,000 to 100,000 pounds sterling, depending on the desired seniority. In large companies backed by private capital, large domestic corporations and multinationals, the position of Chief of Staff is usually directed to a higher-ranking candidate. While there is still an element of “special projects”, a larger part of the function is acting on behalf of the CEO or replacing him. The position involves a large part of managing the stakeholders of other senior colleagues, and as such, CEOs and other executives who hire a Chief of Staff typically seek candidates with between 7 and 15 years of experience.
The Chief of Staff role is typically a springboard position that serves for 12 to 24 months before moving to a commercial or operational leadership position. In this way, hiring a Chief of Staff every 1 or 2 years is a way to create a portfolio of high-potential talent for “future leaders”. Generally, the annual base salary of a Chief of Staff in the United Kingdom ranges from 120 000 to 175 000 pounds sterling. As a Chief of Staff (CO), you'll experience the professional life of a busy executive and the daily operations and initiatives that he or she oversees.
Given the variety of your responsibilities and the versatility you have, defining the right position after completing your CoS period can be difficult. However, you should be able to use your long list of responsibilities, skills, experience and accomplishments to position yourself for various subsequent positions. The good news is that you have options. In this role, a CoS has a more limited focus and manages a team.
This function is often converted into “business operations” and is sometimes referred to as “internal management consulting team”. The Chief of Staff's main responsibility is to take charge of important projects that members of the leadership team don't have the capacity to execute, but that are important enough to be on the CEO's to-do list. The most sophisticated Chiefs of Staff also help CEOs to think about and establish policies and to ensure that they are implemented. The executive assistant to the executive director must understand the role of the executive director, since he or she participates in the flow of information and will continue to handle the routine tasks that support the activities of the Chief of Staff.
If a startup has fewer than 100 to 150 employees, level 3 operations managers could also play an operations director role. She states: “If the leader experiences these areas of dissatisfaction, the best solution might be the right type of Chief of Staff”. While the title of Chief of Staff has grown significantly in recent years, it continues to adopt different naming conventions in all sectors and companies, from small and medium-sized companies to companies, and often plays a very different role in technology companies compared to politics. The next time you network and ask a Chief of Staff what he does and he answers you like that, at least you'll know why.
Carol's career path could include senior marketing or operations positions and could eventually lead to director of operations. Susan has worked at this company for nearly 20 years, under the direction of three CEOs, and she understands the culture. The Chief of Staff would expect to receive a performance bonus similar to that of other colleagues of the same seniority and benefit from a long-term incentive plan (as is usual at the leadership levels of large companies). He joined a large life science company as Chief of Staff after earning a doctorate and an MBA in the best programs, and then working for a strategic consulting firm, where his current boss was a client.
However, a former chief executive who now advises boards of directors argues that many chief executives need a Chief Of Staff (CO), someone who goes beyond the role of executive assistant to help keep the office running smoothly.
