How to Write an Effective Chief of Staff Job Description

You’ll need a clear understanding of their responsibilities to find your ideal Chief of Staff.

Key Takeaways:

• There are key questions to answer to find out if you’re ready for a Chief of Staff
• You can find your CoS using an external search as well as looking inside your company
• A Chief of Staff has a wide variety of duties and required skill sets
• Good job description listings often follow a standard formula

If you’re your company’s CEO, founder, or co-founder, are you being pulled in too many directions? Do you find yourself struggling to complete your goals each day? Most importantly, is your business starting to stagnate because you’ve become a bottleneck in daily operations?

These are tough questions, but being the boss means stepping up to the plate to answer such questions. If you’re reading this, you likely are considering hiring a Chief of Staff. Different from an Executive Assistant, a Chief of Staff has increased responsibilities and access to more of your business details. The right hire can help you accomplish much more, stay organized, and help you grow your company.

This article will give you key questions you need to ask yourself, where to find ideal candidates, important tips for writing the perfect job description that will attract the ideal candidate for you, and more.

3 questions to ask yourself before hiring a Chief of Staff

Since you’ll be working with your Chief of Staff, it’s time to get to know yourself better. Look at the questions below and ask yourself if your current mindset fits them.

1. Are you willing to bring this person into your innermost business workings?

One of your Chief of Staff’s responsibilities will be to lighten your workload. That means you’ve got to release your death grip on everything you’re controlling. If your Chief of Staff doesn’t have access (and your blessing) to your company’s essential details, they aren’t doing you much good.

2. Will you help your Chief of Staff develop into the role?

No matter how qualified your ideal candidate may be, they won’t be able to hit the ground running. This person will likely come to you from outside your company or another department. Since they’re coming in with fresh eyes and seeing many parts of the company’s workings, they will need time to get up to speed.

That’s where you come in. Are you going to let your new hire get acclimated? Or will you toss them to the wolves and hope they can find their way? Most importantly, will you take the time to help them ease into their role?

3. Are you an effective communicator?

This is the heart of the most successful bosses. The ones who can explain what they need in a clear, unambiguous fashion have a serious leg up on those who give vague or confusing directions. Are those currently serving under you often coming to you for assignment clarification? If so, you may need to brush up on your communication skills.

If you answered “yes” to the above questions, you might be ready to take on a Chief of Staff.

Where to find a Chief of Staff

Not sure where you’ll find your Chief of Staff? There are two approaches you can take. First, begin searching for candidates outside your company. Use the proven effective channels when filling other vital roles in the company.

Second, consider hiring from within. Your ideal Chief of Staff maybe someone already working for your company. They already know the culture and important details of your business. Hiring from within may also reduce the acclimation period an external hire may need.

But rather than restrict yourself to one path, try both. Run both searches simultaneously. Now it’s time to craft the ideal job description. How do you get started?

Key qualifications to include in your Chief of Staff job description

Your ideal candidate will need strong interpersonal, problem-solving, and organizational skills. But those are just the broad skills. Below are several essential characteristics a good Chief of Staff will likely need.

• Collaboration – working with personnel to discuss and execute business duties
• Management – Your Chief of staff will be organizing and tracking your schedule
• Meetings – Your candidate will be in charge of keeping meetings on point
• Support – Your Chief of Staff will need to support other team members to achieve goals
• Risk Assessment – They will need to consider all factors to determine risk in a given course of action
• Analysis – The CoS will provide an analysis of company operations for you and other team members to consider
• Monitor Progress – Your candidate will analyze the actions you and the company take, keeping you apprised of progress toward specific projects and benchmarks
• Performance – Your Chief of Staff will need to monitor the performances of key team members and report back to you
• Improvement – Are there areas of improvement you can make? Your CoS can identify ways your company’s operations can improve and report the findings back to you

While you and your company’s specific needs may vary, the above is a good general list of duties and responsibilities for most Chiefs of Staff.

What to include in Chief of Staff job descriptions

Now that you know what your new CoS will be doing, it’s time to pare everything down into a manageable job description. When creating your listing, consider using these sections:

1. Introduction – Include information about your company, what it does, and where the job location is.
2. Role & Responsibilities – List the key roles the CoS will perform. Use clear, easily understandable language.
3. Qualifications & Educational Requirements – List relevant prior work experience and educational degrees you want to see from ideal candidates.
4. Preferred Skills – What skills do you want to see? This can include computer skills, experience with critical responsibilities, and more.
5. Additional Skills – List interpersonal skills, organizational skills, or other areas you’ll need your CoS to perform.
6. Benefits & Compensation – This is self-explanatory.

There are many formats for crafting useful job descriptions. The above sections are common examples, but other popular and effective formats exist.

Where to go next

Now you know many of the likely duties your Chief of Staff will be doing. And you have a simple outline for creating a job description. And if you were honest in asking yourself the three self-assessment questions, you’re likely ready to find a Chief of Staff. But you don’t need to conduct your search for an effective Chief of Staff alone. To learn more about how we can help you find your perfect Chief of Staff, contact us today. Chiefly Consultants Agency is here to help.