❗Chief of Staff! How they can solve the Middle Management Crisis in Egyptian Startups❗
Chief of Staff! How they can solve the Middle Management Crisis in Egyptian Startups ⚠
So I’ve been working with a venture studio in the past few months and one of the problems I’ve been keen on solving was how to help our portfolio startup founders scale themselves to help them focus more on what matters instead of growing themselves too thin!
I bumped into a role in many artciles I read (copied from them to create the below piece) that has been adopted by many startup/scaleup founders who hire for it aggressively in certain growth stages: CHIEF OF STAFF!
So,
1- What’s a Chief of Staff “CoS”?
2- What do they do?
3- Who’s eligible to be one & why it’s an interesting role for senior talents?
4- How do you know you need one as a startup founder?
5- How to set them to success?
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Before I answer the above question consider this:
Our Early-Stage Startup Ecosystem in Egypt has an issue where demand for talents is much higher than the supply. In addition, well-funded startups are expected to grow and scale aggressively & exponentially, SOMETHING THEY CAN’T DO WITHOUT THE RIGHT TALENTS!
This has led many founders to promote their younger talents prematurely to hold positions that MIGHT be bigger than them and will most definitely stretch them beyond their capacities and normal learning curves.
These talents (usually middle management) NEED A LOT OF HELP in:
- Building Functional Structures & Hiring Effectively
- Streamlining Procceses and optimizing Work flows
- Performance Management
- Planning & Coordinating across all functions
PROBLEM: FOUNDERS CAN’T STRETCH THEMSELVES TO DO THE ABOVE BECAUSE THEY’RE BUSY
- Raising Fund & Dealing With Investors
- Acquiring Key Talents
- Basically running the company
This is when the Founders can get one of their top talents who has both the managerial, leadership & communication skills to become the Chief of Staff. He/She are usually business unit heads, country manager or generalists with a wide spectrum of people and technical skills.
1- What’s a Chief of Staff “CoS”?
*“Co-pilot to CEO” in all matters of thought leadership, planning, execution and people management.
*These people aren’t to be confused with the personal secretaries. Rather, they are close advisers who handle the most-delicate strategic matters and became trusted confidants. The CoS role is decidedly different from that of the leader’s executive assistant (EA). Unlike an EA, a chief of staff works autonomously and does not handle routine correspondence or manage the leader’s day-to-day schedule. The highest-level CoS should be a full-fledged member of the senior leadership team, even if it’s without the rank or compensation of a C-suite officer.
2- What do they do?
Most new CEOs pay little attention to a key factor that will help determine their effectiveness: the administrative system that guides day-to-day operations in their offices. This system ensures that leaders make the most of their limited time, that information arrives at the right point in their decision-making process, and that follow-up happens without their having to check. Many new Founders & CEOs either default to the system they’ve inherited or that is being formed organically, even if it is poorly suited to their style or to the operational changes they must make. Often there’s a better way to handle the information flow necessary for a CEO to succeed — and very often a chief of staff (CoS) can play an essential role.
CoS is focused on making time, information, and decision processes more effective. They can be:
A)An integrator connecting work streams that would otherwise remain siloed;
B)A communicator linking the leadership team and the broader organization
C) An honest broker and truth teller when the leader needs a wide-ranging view without turf considerations
D) A confidant without an organizational agenda. “while a CEO’s other direct reports typically emphasize their own areas, a good CoS can consider the needs of the whole enterprise.”
The most sophisticated chiefs of staff also assist CEOs in thinking through and setting policies — and making sure they are implemented. They anticipate problems and are especially sensitive to issues that require diplomacy. They function as extra eyes and ears by pointing out political potholes their founders may not recognize.
They help in People, Planning & Prog Mgmt, Performance, Processes & Projects!
*People: This charter consists of two major components — Managing the CEO’s Staff and Organizational Design (“are our best and most relevant people in charge of the most critical aspects?”).
*Planning & Prog. Mgmt: The one-line objective here is to develop, institutionalize and execute a tight planning process that takes in the goals and priorities of the company as inputs, deconstructs them into projects/initiatives of varying complexities, allocates resources to each, and finally ensures perfect delivery through project management. In a tech company, there is the added complexity of product planning.
*Performance: Making sure the company delivers predictable performance quarter on quarter and inspires confidence among investors by tracking the journey of the impact of every major initiative undertaken & establishing a strong feedback loop for greater predictability and accountability.
*Processes: Laying down clear ‘Ways of Working’ and institutionalize them in the form of rituals and processes that bring alive its Culture Code. The key is to continuously challenge the status quo and obsess over how things can be done faster and better within the given resourcing constraints. Ultimately, how well a particular process is designed determines whether or not it is widely adopted, which in turn determines whether the gains from it are permanent.
*Projects: In relatively early-stage organizations, the COS can also be asked to dual-hat as Head of Strategy, in which case the Projects charter would be significantly focused on and impacted by her/him.
3- Who’s eligible to be one & why it’s an interesting role for senior talents?
*The CoS role is a rotational one lasting two to four years. It’s typically a springboard to a bigger job.
*Each level requires the same handful of foundational abilities.
1)Well-developed project-management skills: being organized and disciplined, showing attention to detail, and following up doggedly to ensure the right results.
2) Business savvy, including an understanding of the marketplace, competitors, and technology and what is required for sustained operating results.
3) Ability to see what pressures the leader faces in pushing the company to change and to find ways to lessen them.
4) Ability to recognize which relationships are most important to the success of the leader’s agenda so as to assist in strengthening them.
5) Communication skills are crucial, because the CoS must help refine the leader’s message and ensure that it is understood by the right audiences.
4- How do you know you need one as a startup founder?
*Not every executive needs a CoS and the role is not right for every corporate culture.
Three signs that a CEO would benefit from adding the role: concern about productivity, poor information flow that results in slow decision-making, and too much time spent on back-and-forth and follow-up.
•Are you spending enough time on the vital items on your agenda or are you frustrated by time spent on secondary items?
•Do you have enough “white space” in your calendar to consider future opportunities, or is most of your time spent reacting to what has already happened?
•As make decisions, are you getting the best available information or do you get surprised by new information that you should have known?
•Are problems identified early enough that action can be taken before they create damage, or is it common for large problems to occur unexpectedly?
•Do company politics block progress? Does the culture encourage resistance to change or insulated silos rather than embracing new ways to improve?
•When you direct that some action be taken or ask for data on a particular issue, do you often not hear back until you remind people?
5- How to set them to success?
*Reluctance:
Some chief executives are reluctant to add the CoS role. That may stem from unfamiliarity. Without ever having seen a skilled CoS in action, it can be difficult to envision the value one can add.
* When first establishing the CoS position, it is also important to prepare the organization. The CEO’s executive assistant should understand the CoS role, because she or he sits upstream in the flow of information and will continue to handle routine duties that support the chief of staff’s activities. More critical is ensuring that the leader’s other direct reports understand why the role was created, how they and the company will benefit from it, and what the CEO expects from them in terms of support. If these issues are ignored, adding a CoS can upset the balance of working relationships at the most senior level of the company — a place where status, power, and access are always delicate matters and are carefully calibrated.
References:
https://www.xto10x.com/blog/unleashing-the-true-potential-of-the-chief-of-staff-role/
