How to Hire a Chief of Staff

Hiring a Chief of Staff is one of the most valuable appointments a CEO can make, and one of the easiest to get wrong. The role has no fixed template, no single career path that produces it and no universally agreed job description. Done well, it gives the CEO back time, sharpens decision-making and keeps the leadership team pointing the same way. Done badly, it creates a well-paid adviser with no clear remit, a confused leadership team and a CEO who is no better off than before.

This guide is written for CEOs, founders, chairs and investors who are considering the hire. It covers what the role actually is, how it differs from an Executive Assistant, COO or Deputy CEO, when to hire, whether to hire on a permanent, interim or fractional basis, what good candidates look like, a sample job description and person specification, interview questions, how to run the search, how to think about pay, the first 90 days and the mistakes that most often derail the appointment.

What Is a Chief of Staff?

The Chief of Staff role has become one of the most sought-after senior appointments at UK scaling firms, PE-backed businesses and large listed companies. It is also one of the most misunderstood. Ask ten CEOs what their Chief of Staff does and you will get ten different answers, which tells you something important about the role. It is, by design, shaped by the leader it serves. Beneath the variation, though, there is a consistent core: the Chief of Staff is the person who makes the CEO more effective, at scale.

In practical terms, the Chief of Staff owns the operating rhythm of the CEO’s office. They decide, with the CEO, what reaches the CEO’s desk and what does not; they prepare the CEO for the meetings that matter; they make sure decisions taken in those meetings are followed through; and they run the cross-functional projects that are too important to leave unowned but too temporary to justify a permanent executive. For a fuller view of why the role has moved from a rarity to a regular feature of UK leadership teams, see our article on why the Chief of Staff is becoming the next C-suite staple.

The Chief of Staff is not a glorified EA, and it is not a junior COO. It occupies a distinct position in the leadership structure, one that can have an outsized impact when the hire is right and that can create real confusion and frustration when it is wrong. Getting the brief right before the search opens is the single most important thing a firm can do.

A useful test before writing that brief is for the CEO to answer three questions honestly: what do I personally find hardest to delegate; where am I spending time that should be spent elsewhere; and what kind of person could I genuinely trust with sensitive information and internal relationships? The answers to those three questions are the brief. The job title is almost secondary. A brief that simply says “support the CEO and drive strategic initiatives” attracts every available candidate and tells you nothing about whether any of them will be right.

Chief of Staff vs EA, COO, and Deputy CEO

The most common confusion in Chief of Staff briefs is boundary definition: where the role ends and adjacent roles begin. Getting this wrong produces a candidate pool that is either too senior or too junior, and often results in an appointment that frustrates both the CEO and the hire within the first year.

Chief of Staff vs Executive Assistant. The EA manages the CEO’s time, diary and logistics. The Chief of Staff manages the CEO’s priorities, decisions and organisational leverage. These are different skills, different seniority levels and different relationships. A strong EA is indispensable; a strong Chief of Staff operates at a different level of abstraction. Firms that try to upgrade an EA into a Chief of Staff role often find the transition fails, not because of the individual’s ability, but because the relationship dynamic is wrong. The EA works for the CEO; the Chief of Staff works with the CEO on behalf of the organisation. In the best set-ups the two work as a pair, with the EA running the diary the Chief of Staff has helped to prioritise.

Chief of Staff vs COO. The COO owns operational delivery: P&L responsibility, functional leadership and execution cadence. The Chief of Staff usually has no P&L and few, if any, permanent functional reports. The Chief of Staff’s authority comes from proximity to the CEO, not from organisational position. A COO at a 500-person firm may lead a large part of the workforce; a Chief of Staff at the same firm may have a team of two. The Chief of Staff is faster-moving, more fluid and more dependent on influence than authority. At firms that already have a COO, the Chief of Staff manages the interface between the CEO’s strategic agenda and the COO’s operational execution, which is a distinct function. If the real gap in your business is operational ownership rather than executive leverage, COO recruitment may be the better answer.

Chief of Staff vs Deputy CEO or MD. The Deputy CEO or MD typically has explicit succession intent or a defined coverage scope. The Chief of Staff does not carry the CEO’s authority when the CEO is absent, and is generally not positioned as heir apparent. At PE-backed firms this distinction matters commercially: a Deputy CEO may be positioned for an eventual CEO role as part of a value creation plan, whereas the Chief of Staff is there to make the current CEO more effective, not to replace them. Some Chief of Staff roles do evolve into COO or other operational roles, but that should be a consequence of the hire’s development, not a premise built into the original brief.

Chief of Staff vs Chief Strategy Officer. A Chief Strategy Officer owns the strategy itself: market analysis, portfolio choices, M&A screening and the long-range plan. The Chief of Staff owns the machinery that turns the CEO’s strategic intent into action across the business. In smaller firms one person sometimes does both, but the brief should be clear about which is the primary job. Our guide on how to hire a Chief Strategy Officer covers the strategy-led version of the role.

What a Chief of Staff Actually Does

The Chief of Staff mandate varies by CEO and context, but the following areas of ownership are consistent across scaling and PE-backed firms where the role has been well defined.

Strategic agenda management. The CEO works across a wide range of priorities at once. The Chief of Staff provides the connecting tissue: tracking which priorities are moving, which are stalled, where the CEO needs to spend time and where decisions are backing up. This is not administrative tracking. It needs a genuine understanding of the business, the competitive position and the CEO’s strategic logic.

Preparation and follow-through on CEO commitments. Board papers, investor updates, all-hands presentations, partner conversations and acquisition discussions: the Chief of Staff prepares the CEO for high-stakes interactions and makes sure the commitments made in them are followed through. At a scaling firm with an active board and investor base, this alone is a substantial workload.

Cross-functional alignment. The Chief of Staff is often the first person to notice when two parts of the organisation are working at cross-purposes, when the product roadmap and the sales pipeline are out of step, or when the people plan and the finance headcount model have diverged. They raise these misalignments with the CEO before they become problems, and often work directly with functional leaders to resolve them.

Special projects and CEO-level initiatives. M&A due diligence, new market entry assessments, organisational design reviews and investor relations projects: the Chief of Staff frequently leads or co-leads the initiatives that sit at the CEO’s level but below the threshold for a standalone hire. These projects often become the Chief of Staff’s most visible output, though they are only part of the actual workload.

Leadership team operating rhythm. Many Chiefs of Staff own the cadence of the executive committee: agendas, pre-reads, decision logs, quarterly planning and the annual budget timetable in partnership with the CFO. A well-run leadership meeting, where papers arrive on time, decisions are recorded and actions are owned, is one of the clearest signs that the role is working.

Internal communications and culture. At scaling firms the CEO cannot personally maintain the cultural signal at every level. The Chief of Staff helps carry it, translating the CEO’s thinking into internal communications, keeping the leadership narrative consistent and managing the cadence of all-hands meetings, leadership forums and town halls.

Relationship management. Board members, key investors, senior advisers and strategic partners: the Chief of Staff manages many of these relationships on the CEO’s behalf, providing continuity between the CEO’s own interactions and making sure nothing important falls through the gaps of a crowded executive schedule.

Gatekeeping, done properly. A Chief of Staff protects the CEO’s time, but good gatekeeping is not about blocking access. It is about routing issues to the person best placed to resolve them, so that the CEO only sees what genuinely needs the CEO. A Chief of Staff who becomes a bottleneck, or who is seen by the leadership team as a barrier rather than a channel, is failing at the role however hard they are working.

When Is the Right Time to Hire a Chief of Staff?

The Chief of Staff hire is usually made later than it should be. CEOs at scaling firms tend to manage without one until organisational complexity has already become hard to manage. By that point the Chief of Staff is hired into a reactive brief, fixing problems rather than preventing them.

The CEO’s leverage problem. The clearest trigger is when the CEO is consistently unable to spend time on the things only they can do, because they are spending it on coordination, preparation and follow-through that could be delegated. A CEO whose week is dominated by board and investor preparation, internal alignment meetings and chasing previous commitments is a CEO who needs a Chief of Staff. A simple diary audit over a month, sorting meetings into “only I can do this” and “someone trusted could do this”, usually makes the case one way or the other.

Organisational scale inflection. The move from one hundred to several hundred employees, from single-market to multi-market, or from founder-led to institutionally backed each creates a step-change in the CEO’s coordination load. A Chief of Staff hired at the start of one of these transitions is far more valuable than one hired into the disorder that follows. Our Scale-Up Executive Hiring guide covers the wider senior team questions that come with growth.

PE investment or institutional board activation. Private equity investors frequently encourage Chief of Staff appointments at portfolio companies following investment. An active board needs reporting discipline, investor relationship management and strategic project capacity that most CEO offices cannot provide without dedicated senior support. The Chief of Staff often becomes the owner of the value creation plan tracker and the monthly board pack timetable.

IPO preparation. The pre-IPO phase adds a heavy workload for the CEO around investor relations, regulatory readiness and governance maturity. A Chief of Staff with capital markets experience, or a strong grasp of listed-company governance, is a high-value hire in the run-up to a planned listing. Listed companies are expected to report against the UK Corporate Governance Code, and the Chief of Staff is often the person who keeps board processes, papers and evaluations running to that standard. The IPO Executive Hiring guide covers the broader senior team implications of a listing.

A new CEO. An incoming CEO, particularly one appointed from outside, often benefits from a Chief of Staff who can help them learn the organisation quickly and land their first-year agenda. Equally, a long-serving CEO approaching succession may want a Chief of Staff to help hand over cleanly. Where the CEO appointment itself is still open, settle that first: our CEO recruitment practice handles the lead appointment, and the Chief of Staff brief should follow the CEO’s own priorities.

When not to hire. If the CEO is not willing to share sensitive information, delegate genuine decision rights and give the hire visible backing in front of the leadership team, a Chief of Staff will struggle. The same is true if the real problem is a missing functional leader, such as a weak finance function or an absent head of operations. A Chief of Staff cannot paper over a gap in the executive team for long.

Permanent, Interim or Fractional Chief of Staff?

Most Chief of Staff roles are permanent, because the value of the role builds as trust and context build. But there are good reasons to consider other models.

• Permanent. Right when the CEO is settled, the business has a multi-year plan and the role will become a fixture of the leadership structure. The permanent hire builds the deepest relationships and institutional memory.
• Interim. Useful for a defined period of intense workload: a transaction, a post-acquisition integration, a turnaround, a CEO transition or cover for a Chief of Staff on leave. An experienced interim can be in post quickly and step away when the programme is complete. Our interim executive recruitment team handles these appointments.
• Fractional. Suits smaller or earlier-stage businesses that need senior structure around the CEO’s office, such as board pack discipline, a planning cycle and investor reporting, but not a full-time seat. A fractional Chief of Staff working a set number of days a month can install the operating rhythm and then hand it over. See our fractional C-suite service for how these arrangements work.

A common and sensible pattern is to start with an interim or fractional appointment to prove the role and shape the remit, and then recruit a permanent Chief of Staff against a brief that has been tested in practice. That reduces the risk of hiring permanently against an untested job description.

The Chief of Staff Candidate Profile

The Chief of Staff candidate market is smaller than most firms expect, because the combination of attributes required is unusual. High intelligence is necessary but not sufficient. Operational experience is useful but not the primary criterion. The defining characteristics are relational intelligence, intellectual range and a particular kind of ambition: one that finds satisfaction in making others more effective rather than in accumulating personal authority.

The intelligence requirement. A Chief of Staff needs to operate credibly across every function in the business. In one day they may review a financial model with the CFO, edit a board paper on product strategy, handle a sensitive people situation with the CPO and prepare the CEO for an investor call. The ability to switch contexts quickly and contribute meaningfully in each is not negotiable.

The relationship requirement. The Chief of Staff’s effectiveness depends almost entirely on how well they are trusted: by the CEO, by the leadership team and by the board. Trust takes time to build and is easily lost. Candidates who are politically astute, even-tempered and known for discretion are far more valuable in this role than candidates who are brilliant but transactional.

Experience profile. The strongest Chief of Staff candidates typically come from one of three backgrounds. First, management consulting: a consultant who has moved into an in-house strategy role has the analytical breadth, structured communication and executive exposure the role demands. Second, investment banking, particularly those who have done significant M&A execution and can operate in fast-moving, high-stakes environments. Third, in-house strategy or corporate development roles at scaling firms, where candidates have already worked closely with a CEO or board and understand the rhythm of a leadership team. Candidates from very large, process-heavy corporates sometimes struggle with the autonomy and pace of a scaling-firm Chief of Staff role.

The ambition calibration. This is the most delicate part of the hire. A Chief of Staff who privately resents the CEO’s authority, or who is using the role mainly as a stepping stone to a title they intend to pursue elsewhere, will underdeliver. The most effective Chiefs of Staff find genuine satisfaction in the role: in the quality of their influence, the breadth of their exposure and the knowledge that the organisation performs better because of their work. That is not a common combination, and identifying it requires careful process design and honest reference conversations. Ambition is not a problem in itself; a clear, openly discussed plan for what the role leads to after two or three years is healthy.

Stage and sector fit. A Chief of Staff who has excelled at a very large firm may struggle at a 150-person scaling business with no support infrastructure, no established processes and no template for the role. Stage fit usually matters more than sector fit for this appointment. Experience of building in ambiguous environments is more valuable than deep sector knowledge that can be learned on the job. The exception is heavily regulated sectors, where some familiarity with the regulatory environment shortens the learning curve considerably.

Sample Chief of Staff Job Description and Person Specification

Every Chief of Staff brief should be built around the specific CEO and business, but a starting framework helps. Adapt the following rather than using it as it stands; the value is in the specifics you add.

Purpose of the role

To increase the effectiveness of the CEO and the executive team by owning the CEO’s operating rhythm, driving delivery of the company’s strategic priorities and leading selected cross-functional initiatives, acting as a trusted adviser and a reliable extension of the CEO’s office.

Key responsibilities

• Manage the CEO’s strategic agenda, priorities and time allocation alongside the Executive Assistant.
• Run the executive committee cadence: agendas, papers, decision logs and action tracking.
• Coordinate board and investor reporting, including the board pack timetable, with the CFO and Company Secretary.
• Track delivery of the strategic plan or value creation plan and flag risks early.
• Lead or co-lead CEO-sponsored projects such as acquisitions, integrations, market entry or organisational redesign.
• Draft and shape CEO communications to staff, the board and external stakeholders.
• Act as a point of contact for the leadership team on cross-functional issues, resolving them or escalating as appropriate.
• Prepare the CEO for key meetings and make sure follow-up actions are completed.

Person specification: essential

• Experience working closely with a CEO, board or senior leadership team, in-house or as an adviser.
• Strong analytical and commercial skills, including comfort with financial statements and business cases.
• Excellent written communication: board-quality papers and clear, concise briefings.
• A track record of delivering cross-functional projects through influence rather than line authority.
• Proven discretion and sound judgement with confidential information.

Person specification: desirable

• Background in strategy consulting, investment banking, private equity or corporate development.
• Experience of a transaction, integration, fundraise or listing.
• Experience in a business at a similar stage of growth or ownership structure.
• Sector or regulatory familiarity where the business operates in a regulated market.

Add the specific problems the Chief of Staff is being hired to solve in the first year, and the outcomes they will be measured against. Those two paragraphs do more to attract the right candidates, and deter the wrong ones, than any list of competencies. Our Strategy Director job description is a useful comparison if the role leans towards strategy ownership. Once an offer is agreed, make sure the contract and written statement cover the points required under UK rules on the written statement of employment particulars, and agree confidentiality terms that reflect the access the role carries.

Where Chief of Staff Talent Comes From

The Chief of Staff talent pool in the UK is spread widely. There is no obvious career path that produces a ready-made Chief of Staff in the way the finance track produces CFOs. The role is usually someone’s second or third act, not their first.

From strategy consulting. Former consultants who have moved in-house into strategy or Chief of Staff roles at other firms are the most common source. They combine analytical rigour with the communication skills and executive exposure the role requires. The move from consulting to an in-house Chief of Staff role is one of the cleaner transitions in the market.

From investment banking and private equity. Former bankers or PE investment professionals who want operational exposure often move into Chief of Staff roles as a bridge. These candidates are usually financially literate and comfortable with pace, but may need development on the relationship and communication side that is central to the role.

From within the firm. Internal promotions into Chief of Staff roles are common and can work well when the candidate already has the CEO’s trust and a strong internal network. The risk is promoting someone whose internal relationships are defined by their previous functional role rather than the broader remit the Chief of Staff needs.

From adjacent roles at other firms. Former Chiefs of Staff, strategy directors and corporate development leads looking for a step up or a change of context. These candidates are the most directly comparable and usually the quickest to become effective, but they command a premium and the pool is limited.

From the public sector and politics. Senior private office and policy roles in government, regulators and large public bodies produce people who are expert at running a principal’s agenda, handling stakeholders and writing for decision-makers. They can be strong hires for larger or regulated organisations, though they may need support on commercial pace and P&L thinking.

Running the Chief of Staff Search

A Chief of Staff search needs a different process design from most C-suite searches, because the role is so tightly coupled to the CEO. The standard executive search approach of brief, longlist, shortlist and final panel has to be adapted to include meaningful CEO exposure earlier and a more careful assessment of candidate-CEO fit.

The CEO interview is the assessment. More than any other role, the Chief of Staff hire depends on the quality of the relationship between the hire and the CEO. A process that gives candidates no substantive CEO time until the final stage is optimising for the wrong signal. The best processes include a working session, not just a formal interview, with the CEO in the second round, so both parties can test the working dynamic before the final shortlist is set.

A practical exercise. A short, realistic task works well: turning a set of rough leadership meeting notes into a decision log and action plan, drafting a one-page board update from a data pack, or prioritising a CEO inbox of competing requests. Keep it proportionate and use material that is not commercially sensitive. The aim is to see judgement, structure and written clarity, not to obtain free consultancy.

Leadership team input. The Chief of Staff will work with every member of the executive team. Giving two or three of them a structured conversation with finalists helps test whether candidates can earn the trust of peers who may initially see the role as a threat. It also builds early buy-in for whoever is appointed.

Board and investor engagement. At PE-backed firms and listed companies, the Chief of Staff will have significant exposure to board members and investors. Many searches include a board member in the final-stage assessment, both to validate the candidate’s credibility at that level and to start relationships that will matter from day one.

Confidentiality. Chief of Staff searches are frequently confidential. The appointment can signal something about the CEO’s workload, a pending transaction or the firm’s organisational maturity that the business may not want in the market. Confidential search needs a targeted direct approach rather than an advertised process; our confidential executive search guide explains how that works.

Pace. Chief of Staff searches can often move faster than other C-suite searches, because the pool is more focused and decisions are quicker once the CEO-candidate fit is clear. Searches that drag usually do so because the CEO was not sufficiently involved early on, or because the brief kept changing. Fix the brief, block out CEO time in advance and agree the decision-makers before outreach begins.

Referencing and checks. Take references from people the candidate has supported, not just people they reported to: former principals, peers on the leadership team and, where possible, someone who saw them handle a difficult situation. Ask specifically about discretion and judgement. Complete standard pre-employment checks, including right to work checks, before the start date.

For a broader view of how retained search works for senior appointments, the Executive Search Methodology guide covers the process end to end, and our Chief of Staff recruitment page explains how we run this particular search.

Chief of Staff Interview Questions

Good Chief of Staff interviews are built around evidence of influence, judgement and discretion. The following questions are a starting point; follow each answer with “what did you do, specifically?” and “what happened as a result?”

Influence without authority

• Tell me about a time you had to get a senior leader to change course when you had no authority over them. How did you approach it?
• Describe a cross-functional project that stalled. What did you do to restart it, and what would you do differently?
• How have you handled a leadership team member who saw your role as a threat?

Judgement and discretion

• Tell me about a time you held sensitive information that others wanted. How did you manage it?
• When have you disagreed with your principal? How did you raise it, and what was the outcome?
• How do you decide which issues to bring to the CEO and which to resolve yourself?

Structure and delivery

• Walk me through how you would set up a leadership team operating rhythm from scratch.
• What makes a good board paper? Show me one you are proud of, with confidential detail removed.
• How would you track delivery of a value creation plan with a dozen workstreams?

Motivation and fit

• Why a Chief of Staff role rather than a functional leadership role?
• What would success look like for you after two years, and what would you want to do next?
• What kind of CEO do you work best with, and what kind do you find hardest?

The CEO should also answer some of these questions in reverse, being open with finalists about their own working style, the things they find hard to delegate and how they handle disagreement. Candidates choose principals as much as principals choose candidates.

Chief of Staff Compensation and Package Structure

Chief of Staff pay in the UK varies widely because the seniority of the role varies widely across firm types. A Chief of Staff at a 200-person venture-backed firm does a different job from a Chief of Staff to the CEO of a large listed group, and the package reflects that. Rather than anchoring on a headline figure, benchmark against the role you are actually hiring for.

Base salary. The most reliable reference points are the candidate’s current package and the pay of the leadership team members the Chief of Staff will work alongside. A Chief of Staff is usually paid below the functional C-suite but at or above the level of the senior directors who report into it. Where the role is a genuine executive committee member with a broad remit, pay moves closer to the C-suite; where it is a high-potential development role, it sits lower. Our C-suite salary guide gives wider context on senior pay.

Bonus. An annual bonus is standard. At PE-backed firms bonus structures often include a component tied to company performance, which suits a role so close to the firm’s strategic decisions. Personal objectives should reflect the specific outcomes in the brief, not generic “support the CEO” measures.

Equity. Equity participation is common for Chief of Staff roles at venture and PE-backed firms. Qualifying smaller companies often use Enterprise Management Incentives share options; at PE-backed businesses, participation in the management incentive plan is typical for a genuine Chief of Staff role, usually at a lower level than the functional C-suite. Take specialist tax and legal advice on the structure. The Executive Equity Incentives guide gives broader context on how equity is structured for senior hires at different stages.

Benefits and working pattern. Private medical cover, life assurance and pension contributions at senior-employee levels are expected. Flexible working is worth agreeing clearly up front given the on-call nature of supporting a CEO, as are travel expectations if the CEO travels frequently.

Interim and fractional rates. Interim and fractional Chiefs of Staff are usually engaged on a day rate. Rates depend on seniority, the intensity of the programme and the commitment required, so it is best to scope the work first and price it against that scope.

The Career Path from Chief of Staff

One of the most common questions from candidates weighing up a Chief of Staff opportunity is what comes next. The honest answer is that the role, done well, opens more doors than almost any other position at a comparable level, because the breadth of exposure it provides is hard to match.

Common next steps are COO or General Manager roles, where the operational and cross-functional experience the Chief of Staff has built is directly applicable. Strategy director, corporate development and, in time, CEO roles are also common outcomes, particularly for those who have worked in PE-backed or high-growth environments. Former Chiefs of Staff who become CEOs tend to be well prepared for managing their own board and investor relationships, having observed and supported them from the inside. Our guide on how to hire a COO covers the role many Chiefs of Staff move into.

The risk of the role, and it is worth discussing openly with candidates, is that its lack of functional ownership can make it harder to explain to future employers than a conventional role. A Chief of Staff who can clearly document what they built, which decisions they shaped and which outcomes they drove will not face this problem. One whose experience has been mainly procedural and coordinating may find the next move harder than expected. Employers who agree a development path at the outset, such as a defined tenure followed by a move into a business unit or function, tend to retain their Chiefs of Staff longer and get more from them.

Onboarding Your Chief of Staff

Chief of Staff onboarding needs deliberate CEO investment in the first month, more than almost any other appointment. Because the role’s effectiveness depends so heavily on the CEO’s trust and on the Chief of Staff understanding how the CEO thinks, the most important early investment is structured time between the two. That means not just formal briefings, but the CEO sharing an unfiltered view of the firm’s challenges, leadership team relationships, board dynamics and the parts of the job they find hardest. This kind of context cannot be put into a written briefing or absorbed through a standard induction programme.

In the first month the Chief of Staff should accompany the CEO in as many significant interactions as possible, including board meetings, leadership team sessions, investor calls and key customer conversations, observing more than participating and building the context that will let them act independently. By the end of month one they should have met every member of the leadership team individually and have a clear picture of the CEO’s most pressing priorities for the next quarter.

The CEO also needs to announce the appointment properly: explaining to the leadership team what the Chief of Staff will do, what they will not do and how they should be engaged. Ambiguity at this stage is where most of the early friction comes from. The Executive Onboarding guide provides a wider framework for C-suite appointments.

A First 90 Days Plan for a New Chief of Staff

A simple, shared plan for the first quarter keeps both the CEO and the new Chief of Staff honest about progress. The detail will vary, but the shape below works for most appointments.

Days 1 to 30: listen and learn

• Weekly one-to-one time with the CEO, plus shadowing of key meetings.
• Individual meetings with every executive and, where appropriate, the chair and lead investors.
• A review of the strategic plan, latest board packs, budget and key risks.
• Agreement with the CEO on decision rights: what the Chief of Staff can decide, recommend or simply coordinate.

Days 31 to 60: take ownership

• Take over the leadership team meeting cadence, decision log and action tracking.
• Own preparation of the next board pack timetable with the CFO and Company Secretary.
• Pick up one or two defined CEO projects with clear outcomes and deadlines.
• Share early observations with the CEO on where alignment is weak or decisions are stuck.

Days 61 to 90: operate independently

• Run defined parts of the CEO’s agenda without day-to-day direction.
• Deliver a first visible result, such as a tighter planning cycle, a resolved cross-functional issue or a completed project milestone.
• Hold a structured 90-day review with the CEO, gathering feedback from the leadership team, and reset priorities for the next two quarters.

By day 90 the Chief of Staff should be operating with genuine independence on defined areas of the CEO’s agenda. If they are still mainly accompanying rather than leading at the end of the first quarter, that points either to a brief definition problem or a fit problem, and it is better to address it then than at the end of the first year.

Common Hiring Mistakes

1. Treating it as a stretch assignment rather than a strategic hire. Some firms appoint a Chief of Staff from within as a development opportunity rather than because they have found the right person for the role. This is a false economy. A Chief of Staff who is still learning the basics of executive-level influence while managing the CEO’s most sensitive relationships will slow the CEO down, not speed them up.

2. Under-defining the role before the search opens. The most common search failure is a brief so vague that it cannot be evaluated. “Support the CEO, drive cross-functional initiatives, manage strategic projects” describes most of the senior population. The brief needs to identify specific problems the Chief of Staff will solve and specific outcomes they will be accountable for.

3. Ignoring cultural and chemistry fit. The Chief of Staff will know more about the CEO’s thinking, relationships and vulnerabilities than almost anyone else in the organisation. A hire the CEO does not fundamentally trust will be ineffective regardless of their CV. Chemistry is a legitimate search criterion for this role, and the process should be designed to test it properly.

4. Setting wrong expectations on authority. Chiefs of Staff who are given the title but not the access, trust or mandate to operate will fail. The CEO must be genuinely willing to delegate decision rights, share sensitive information and let the Chief of Staff act with authority on their behalf. CEOs who are not ready to do this should not hire a Chief of Staff yet.

5. Hiring for today’s problem rather than tomorrow’s scale. A Chief of Staff hired to solve an immediate coordination problem may be the wrong hire when complexity has grown a year or two later. The brief should be written for the organisation the firm is becoming, not just the one it is today.

6. Letting the role become a dumping ground. Without discipline, every unowned task in the business drifts towards the Chief of Staff. A short, written list of the role’s priorities, reviewed with the CEO each quarter, keeps the job strategic rather than becoming a catch-all for administration.

7. Not planning for the CEO changing. The Chief of Staff relationship is personal. If the CEO leaves, the incoming CEO may want a different profile or none at all. Discuss this possibility honestly with candidates and consider how the role would be handled in a transition.

How Exec Capital Approaches Chief of Staff Appointments

Exec Capital runs Chief of Staff searches as retained mandates with direct CEO involvement from the brief through to offer. Our process starts with a structured brief session with the CEO before any outreach begins, designed to surface the three or four things the CEO most needs from the hire rather than producing a generic job description.

Our network includes former management consultants, ex-bankers and in-house strategy professionals who have held Chief of Staff roles at UK scaling and PE-backed firms. Many of them are not actively looking but are open to the right opportunity. Approaching them well needs a relationship and a compelling brief, and we invest in both before the search opens. We place on permanent, interim and fractional terms, so the conversation can start with the shape of the role rather than a fixed answer.

The Chief of Staff search sits within our broader C-suite practice. For firms still deciding whether a Chief of Staff is the right hire, or whether a different senior appointment would better address the CEO’s leverage problem, such as a COO or a Chief People Officer, we are happy to have that diagnostic conversation before any search commitment is made. To discuss a brief, start with our Chief of Staff search service.

Frequently asked questions

At what size does a business need a Chief of Staff?

There is no fixed headcount. The better test is whether the CEO is regularly spending time on coordination and follow-through that a trusted senior person could own. That often coincides with rapid growth, new investors, an active board or a transaction.

Should the Chief of Staff sit on the executive committee?

Usually they attend, and often they run it, but whether they are a voting member depends on the remit. Be explicit about it at the start so the rest of the leadership team understands the role’s standing.

Who should the Chief of Staff report to?

The CEO, directly. A Chief of Staff who reports to anyone else is doing a different job. In some large groups there are Chiefs of Staff to divisional heads too, but each reports to the leader they serve.

How long do Chiefs of Staff usually stay in the role?

Many treat it as a multi-year role followed by a move into an operating or strategy position. Agreeing an expected tenure and next step up front helps retention and makes the role more attractive to strong candidates.

Can a Chief of Staff be part-time?

Yes. Fractional Chiefs of Staff suit smaller businesses that need an operating rhythm, board discipline and project leadership without a full-time seat, and interim appointments suit time-limited programmes such as a transaction or integration.

Is a Chief of Staff a regulated role in an FCA-authorised firm?

The title itself is not a regulated function, but the duties matter more than the title. In an FCA-regulated firm, ask your compliance team to review the final job description before the role is advertised or offered, so any regulatory implications of the remit are identified early.

Further Reading and Authoritative Sources

For governance expectations at listed companies, the Financial Reporting Council’s UK Corporate Governance Code sets out the board processes a Chief of Staff in a listed environment will often help to run. For PE-backed businesses, the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is the industry body for private capital in the UK and a useful starting point on how investors approach portfolio company leadership.

On the employment side, GOV.UK sets out what must be included in a written statement of employment particulars, HMRC publishes guidance notes on Enterprise Management Incentives, and the Home Office maintains the employer’s guide to right to work checks.

For related Exec Capital guidance, see how to hire a CEO and our PE-backed executive hiring guide, which cover the leadership decisions that usually sit alongside a Chief of Staff appointment.