Time is Our Most Valuable Resource
As we know, time is our most valuable resource and is irreplaceable. In our professional lives, we are being pulled in a million different directions with never-ending demands and to-do lists. Some days, we don’t feel like we accomplish what matters most. For the C-suite, this is especially true, and it is even more important to carve out time for strategic and forward-looking initiatives.
Find a Better Way to Leverage Your Time
What if there were a way to better leverage your time and focus on the things that really matter? The military and government found a way to do this long ago and now corporations are catching on, too. More and more companies are working with a chief of staff; tech companies have really embraced this role. According to Forbes, working with a chief of staff can help executives regain a quarter to half of their time.
What is a Chief of Staff (CoS)?
The top goal of a chief of staff is to expand executives’ capacity and maximize their effectiveness.
A chief of staff is a senior leader who is able to think like the C-suite and ask the right questions, obtain the right information, and champion the leadership vision. They can work across the organization, are highly collaborative, and are both strategic and operational. They seek clarity in the midst of ambiguity and know how to delegate efficiently.
How Does a Chief of Staff Impact the Business?
1. Saves Executives’ Time
A CoS saves time for the C-suite in a number of ways, including:
- Translating strategic vision into action, driving business priorities, and converting abstract ideas into concrete projects and processes.
- Managing key C-suite projects, that often fall outside of others’ areas of responsibility, and freeing time for leaders. They relentlessly implement and communicate the implementation plan.
- Continually improving operations by creating systems, processes, and dashboards.
- Prioritizing, organizing, and condensing information going into and out of the executive suite. Protecting leaders’ time and focus by triaging issues, and escalating to others when necessary.
- Organizing, facilitating, and following up on key meetings, including board meetings and quarterly business reviews.
- Offering strategic counsel, leadership, and day-to-day management to the broader team
2. A Chief of Staff is a Trusted Advisor
A chief of staff develops relationships throughout the organization and improves communication between departments, connecting the dots. The CoS works with all departments without having a department affiliation and can gain a broad perspective and give objective opinions.
The CoS monitors projects and outcomes, providing better information to the C-suite. With more time and better information, the C-suite can make more effective decisions.
The CoS keeps a pulse on the organization and makes the leadership team aware of issues or concerns. The best CoS is fearless, giving feedback and making the team aware of any blind spots.
3. A Chief of Staff Identifies and Reduces Costs
A good CoS identifies areas for improvement and takes action. They look for operational inefficiencies, and then recommend, implement, and measure solutions. They may need to create new solutions and processes from scratch. They need to be highly intrapreneurial.
The CoS Role Will Continue to Grow in Popularity
The chief of staff role will continue to grow in popularity because the role addresses the uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of today’s organizations. A CoS is a trusted advisor who can help your organization save time and increase efficiency.
COOs 2Go has all of the resources you need to reclaim your time so you can focus on what matters most to you. We can provide you with a chief of staff on a fractional or interim basis to help with planning, projects, reporting, or any of the areas that have been discussed.
If you need a full-time chief of staff, we can help with that too. Our Talent2Go team has extensive experience finding hiring solutions for all types of companies, from large public companies to startups in a wide range of industries.
For More Information:
Please contact Margaret Abeles at 714-325-3351 or mabeles@coos2go.com. You can learn more about our company here: www.2goadvisorygroup.com
Margaret Abeles is a Partner at 2Go Advisory Group’s COO Division. She leads the Chief of Staff Practice and Co-Leads the Professional Services Practice. She is a C-suite leader and operator who makes good companies even better and helps them grow. Margaret creates and executes business and marketing strategy, performs Chief of Staff functions, project manages key initiatives, creates change management programs, and streamlines operations. Her work spans many industries and has ranged from Fortune 500 companies to early-stage ventures.