Scope a chief of staff mandate against the specific gaps in an executive's time, attention and information flow.
Leadership & Management
Setting Up and Running a Chief of Staff Office
Design a chief of staff function from scope to cadence, and learn to run it so it extends executive capacity without becoming a shadow layer of management.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Organisations create a chief of staff role when an executive's time and attention become the binding constraint on the business, but the role fails almost as often as it succeeds because nobody has defined where it starts and where line management stops. This course walks through building a chief of staff office deliberately: scoping the mandate against the executive's actual gaps, whether that is strategic follow-through, cross-functional coordination or information flow, rather than copying a job description from elsewhere. Participants learn to design the office's core deliverables, including running the executive's decision agenda, tracking commitments made in meetings, preparing board and leadership materials, and managing special projects that cut across departments. The course addresses the political dimension explicitly: how a chief of staff earns credibility with functional leaders who might otherwise see the role as a bypass of their own authority, how to exercise influence without formal power, and how to know when a request has crossed from coordination into decision-making that belongs to someone else. Participants also build a cadence for the office itself, covering weekly executive syncs, commitment tracking and quarterly priority reviews, and leave with a scoping document and operating cadence they can implement immediately.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Distinguish deliverables that belong to a chief of staff office from decisions that must remain with line managers.
Design a commitment-tracking system that closes the loop on actions agreed in executive meetings.
Build credibility with functional leaders who might otherwise see the office as a bypass of their authority.
Exercise influence without formal authority when coordinating across departments on the executive's behalf.
Prepare board and leadership materials that reflect the executive's priorities rather than departmental submissions.
Establish an operating cadence for the office, including weekly syncs and quarterly priority reviews.
Who Should Attend
Newly appointed chiefs of staff building the role and its remit from scratch.
Chief executives and senior executives considering whether to create a chief of staff office.
Executive assistants moving into a broader chief of staff or head of executive office role.
Heads of strategy or transformation whose remit overlaps with a proposed chief of staff function.
Board members and investors assessing whether a portfolio company's chief of staff office is adding value.
Human resources leaders designing the reporting line and success measures for a new chief of staff.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Scoping the Chief of Staff Mandate
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Diagnosing the Executive's Real Gap
- Interview the executive to identify whether the constraint is time, coordination, information or follow-through.
- Distinguish a chief of staff mandate suited to a growth-stage business from one suited to a turnaround.
- Avoid designing the role around a template job description rather than the organisation's actual need.
- Set explicit boundaries stating which decisions remain with the executive and which the office can make.
Session 2Defining Deliverables and Success Measures
- Specify the office's core deliverables, such as decision agendas, commitment tracking and special projects.
- Set measures of success that reflect executive capacity gained, not activity performed by the office.
- Agree with the executive which meetings the chief of staff attends and which decisions require their presence.
- Review the mandate after an initial period and adjust scope based on where value has actually appeared.
02Earning Credibility and Exercising Influence
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Working with Functional Leaders
- Introduce the chief of staff role to functional leaders in terms of support rather than oversight.
- Build relationships with functional leaders before needing to ask them for anything on the executive's behalf.
- Recognise signs that a functional leader perceives the office as a threat and address the concern directly.
- Avoid becoming a filter that functional leaders must go through to reach the executive.
Session 2Influence Without Formal Authority
- Use the executive's mandate deliberately and sparingly rather than invoking it for routine requests.
- Build a personal reputation for follow-through that earns cooperation independent of positional power.
- Recognise when a coordination task has become a decision that belongs to a functional leader, not the office.
- Escalate to the executive only the disagreements that genuinely need their intervention.
03Running the Core Deliverables
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Managing the Executive's Decision Agenda
- Maintain a live decision log that tracks what the executive owes a decision on and by when.
- Prepare decision papers that give the executive the minimum information needed for a sound choice.
- Track commitments made in executive meetings and follow up until they are closed out.
- Prevent the decision agenda from becoming a to-do list disconnected from strategic priorities.
Session 2Coordinating Cross-Functional Projects
- Take ownership of special projects that cut across departments and lack a natural single owner.
- Design a lightweight governance structure for cross-functional projects run out of the chief of staff office.
- Prepare board and leadership team materials that synthesise input from multiple functions coherently.
- Close out projects with a clear handover to the function that will own the work going forward.
04Establishing the Office's Operating Cadence
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Weekly and Monthly Rhythms
- Design a weekly executive sync that reviews priorities, decisions pending and commitments outstanding.
- Set a monthly rhythm for reviewing cross-functional project status with the relevant functional leaders.
- Build a lightweight reporting format that keeps the executive informed without adding to their reading load.
- Protect time in the cadence for the executive's own thinking rather than filling every slot with meetings.
Session 2Quarterly Review and Office Development
- Run a quarterly review of the office's priorities against the executive's evolving strategic agenda.
- Assess whether the chief of staff office should grow, shrink or change shape as the organisation develops.
- Plan succession or handover for the chief of staff role to avoid a capability gap when the person moves on.
- Capture lessons from the office's first year to refine its mandate and operating model going forward.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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