The Chief of Staff, the new gem of companies

Creating value is what is expected of chief of staff, those famous right-hand men who have been in high demand for some time now. Their role is to facilitate, simplify, streamline, and accelerate. Their motto is to help organizations achieve their performance goals.

The arrival of chief of staff positions in organizational charts can be explained by one obvious observation: "the more effective a leader is, the more effective their company will be." However, the job of a leader is exceptionally demanding: the workload is often exhausting, in a highly complex environment subject to intense pressure to deliver results, performance, and innovation. To meet these challenges, the most important quality of a good leader, but also undoubtedly one of their greatest challenges, is to surround themselves with the right people. This is precisely where the Chief of Staff comes in: they are the leader's right-hand person, sometimes even their confidant, the person in whom they place their complete trust and to whom they delegate part of the management of complexity.

Originating in the world of startups, Chiefs of Staff are now attracting the more traditional world of SMEs, mid-cap companies, and large groups, sometimes under a different name (Director of Operations, Chief of Staff, Project Director). Whatever the title given to the position, at 359, we like to say that the role of Chiefs of Staff is to create "augmented CEOs."

Chiefs of Staff, for augmented CEOs

Why increased? First, because these profiles, often from top business schools and leading consulting firms, enable companies to optimize their use of these firms, manage them more effectively, and challenge them. The very existence of the Chief of Staff position aims to make the CEO more effective, strengthen the efficiency of governance bodies, and facilitate the development of the growth plan.

Secondly, because Chiefs of Staff are true chameleons, capable of adapting to any environment. Their diplomatic skills and situational intelligence, their ability to listen and their sincere interest in others, as well as their ability to be firm when necessary, make them true champions of soft skills. In addition to their operational capabilities, these fundamental qualities guarantee the success of their mission. 

A key role in performance management

"To effectively manage growth and transformation, a leader must surround themselves with trusted right-hand people. It is thanks to the added value provided by this role in startups that Chiefs of Staff are emerging in the world of mid-sized companies and large groups. Chief of Staffs bring with them highly attractive values linked to performance optimization, strategy deployment, proximity to the CEO and teams, trust, and transparency," emphasizesNicolasRequillart, for example. Nicolas Requillart, Operating Partner and Associate Director of Siparex, an investment fund with €3.7 billion in assets under management. For him, there is no doubt that "the Chief of Staff plays a key role in the highly operational management of performance."

A different context, but a similar observation. The Accor group, for example, has "drawn inspiration from the job model used in startups to respond to the evolution of [its] structures, which are becoming increasingly complex and matrix-based," explains Karen Vaniche, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at the hotel giant. "Faced with this evolution, it has become necessary to provide members of the Executive Committee, as well as C-Levels who are taking up new positions or gaining in importance, with a right-hand person who filters issues and acts as a gateway and decompression chamber. The role of this project manager—or Chief of Staff—is to manage priorities, coordinate projects, and communicate effectively with all stakeholders, taking into account the agenda and constraints of the executive to whom they report. They therefore play an essential watchdog role and ensure that no department, function, or area of expertise with which the C-Level interacts is left waiting for a response.

Create a "Chief of Staff" company

Of course, the scope of a Chief of Staff's role differs depending on whether they are working in a startup, an SME/mid-cap company, or a large corporation. However, they are based on common fundamentals:

• A major role as a sparring partner, structured by trust between individuals and alignment of visions.

• A remarkable ability to execute projects with a strong strategic dimension. 

• A role as internal facilitator and performance manager.

• A very active contribution to PR and external affairs, to give ever greater visibility to the leader's actions.

Depending on the context, it is essentially the level of importance and the distribution between these four facets of the role that are likely to change. It is therefore a highly multifaceted role, and the reality of the position will depend above all on the context of the company, its size and its sector of activity, but also on the personality of the manager, their ability to delegate, and their working habits. This is why identifying the right profile requires extreme sensitivity.

The role of a specialized actor such as 359 is precisely to respond to this issue on a case-by-case basis: identifying the right right-hand man for each executive, the one with whom the transplant will take root. "We want to become The Chief of Staff Company. That is to say, to be perceived as the natural extension of CEOs, their exoskeleton, with the sole KPI and sole limit to our intervention being the success of the executive!"

This ambition justifies the choice of a hybrid offering, organized around three value propositions:

• Direct involvement of outsourced chiefs of staff with the CEO, either on a part-time or full-time basis, or through a specific assignment (strategic plan, external growth, new business, etc.).

• Identifying and recruiting the best candidates for permanent positions. 

• Mentoring internal teams to develop future Chiefs of Staff within the organization. Or training Chiefs of Staff on the most strategic topics.

A position for future leaders

The success of such support is all the more essential given that the role of Chief of Staff is a real springboard for those who hold the position. At Accor, for example, "we place people identified as high potential in this role. One of the first Chiefs of Staff is now a member of the Executive Committee," points out Karen Vaniche. 

Because it allows you to tackle a wide range of challenges and forge close ties with numerous C-level executives and employees, the role of Chief of Staff generally opens the door to very senior management positions. The career path of Smahane El Arouni is a perfect example of the career opportunities available to Chiefs of Staff after a few years in the role. After working in a consulting firm, this HEC graduate joined Accor as Chief of Staff to the CTO in April 2021. Three years later, this brilliant young woman is now VP of Transformation and Performance at Europe's leading hotel group.