A Chief of Staff’s Guide to Establishing Authority
On gaining buy-in, setting boundaries, and being a true proxy
Hi everyone! Hope my US folks had a nice long weekend.
We celebrated my birthday in Santa Barbara with a memorable dinner at San Ysidro Ranch — major shoutout to YCoS member Avani for all her incredible Santa Barbara recs!
PS - If you’re new around here, come say hi on Linkedin — I post there almost every day!
Today’s topic is one near and dear to my heart and applicable to any woman in business: establishing authority. If you don’t have authority as a Chief of Staff, you can’t do your job.
I hope today’s post encourages you and gives actionable ideas!
TL;DR:
✅ Playbook to establish authority on behalf of your exec as a Chief of Staff
✅ 3 best practices to earn authority with stakeholders
✅ 4 ways your exec can reinforce your authority
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A Chief of Staff’s Guide to Establishing Authority
I’ve had both new and experienced Chiefs of Staff tell me: “Elise, I’m having trouble pushing things forward. I’m getting left out of important meetings and emails left and right because people think I’m an assistant!”
Trust me: I’ve been there. The role is still on the rise, and especially as a woman in the CoS role, many may assume you’re an assistant.
To reiterate: Assistants are amazing, but many don’t hold formal authority – like owning budgets or P&L.
And if you don’t have authority or power, you’ll have a much harder time using influence to get sh*t done.
Maggie Olson, Founder and CEO of Nova Chief of Staff, always says the best thing you can give your Chief of Staff is access.
I’ll take it one step further: give them access, and give them power. You can’t be a proxy without power.
(Important note: as a Chief, especially internally, please be mindful of status and power when exerting influence. I wrote all about that in issue 3.)
You can’t be a proxy without power.
Here’s how I’ve learned how to approach this using 3 best practices and 4 ways how to implement this IRL.
The Proxy: 3 Best Practices to Earn Authority With Stakeholders
First: it must come from the executive.
This is non-negotiable.
Otherwise, it’s giving the same energy as the kid telling the babysitter: “My dad told me I could have pizza for dinner!” instead of dad actually telling the babysitter before he leaves.
Set the stage early.
Have your executive introduce you in meetings + calls + email threads with your title and how you’ll be working alongside internal + external stakeholders.
This may take some managing up + coaching for your executive, especially one who’s new to having a Chief of Staff.
Example: “This is my Chief of Staff, Elise. She’ll be taking the lead on this partnership, so please cc her on everything including billing and campaign updates as you’ll be working closely together.”
Reiterate often.
If a stakeholder doesn’t like an answer they’re getting from you, they’ll try to bypass you. There will be a need for gentle redirection.
What can this look like IRL? Here are some tips to give your exec.
4 Ways Executives Reinforce a Chief of Staff’s Authority
CC your CoS liberally, and make sure they’re on all important meeting invites.
Don’t allow yourself to be siloed. Loop people back into emails, and say “let’s wait to get Elise’s take on this.”
Give your CoS the space to follow-up.
If following up, try to use “we” in emails (i.e. “We’ve discussed, and we’ve decided ___”) (Note: as a Chief, use I in emails unless you’re discussing other involved departments.)
Let’s discuss what this may look like in real-life.
Using Authority as a Chief of Staff: New AI Notetaker for Sales
Scenario: I’m the Chief Revenue Officer’s Chief of Staff. I’ve been tasked to implement a new AI notetaker for sales calls to increase conversions.
To move this forward, let’s say I need buy-in from:
My department
Engineering
The AI vendor
First, you’ll be negotiating the contract with the AI vendor. You’ll work alongside legal, accounting, and maybe finance if you’re not totally managing the P&L.
You’re juggling all departments while negotiating the contract, and the AE isn’t liking the final number. They reach out to the exec directly, and the exec kindly loops you back in via e-mail. You land on a final number and agree to get the implementation.
Now: implementation. You’re relying on engineering and your teams to implement this new software correctly and quickly.
You meet with a new team lead that’s having trouble understanding the reason for this new software, or why it’s important. In this intro call with your CRO and the team lead, your CRO has established your leadership, and why this new notetaking software is key to the department’s success.
Lucky for you, as the CRO’s Chief of Staff, you have ownership over the OKRs for the whole department, and you’re working alongside the CTO’s Chief of Staff to make this successful implementation an OKR for both departments for Q3.
You’ve incentivized everyone to prioritize this key objective, and there’s the underlying knowledge everyone wins (and gets $$, yay!) when this is completed.
Since you’re the one leading OKRs alongside the executive each quarter, you can exert influence to remove any roadblocks.
If you’ve been empowered to act truly on behalf of your executive, you can drive alignment without pulling your exec into everything, saving everyone (especially yourself) a big headache.
One thing I’d be remiss not to mention: If you’re a woman / POC / part of an underrepresented group, many people will need to be reminded of your authority, and they may ignore it. Please know this isn’t a reflection of you.
I’ve often said I could have a Ph.D from Stanford and folks still treat me that way — it says a lot more about them than you.
The good part is: As you continue to gain authority and power, you’ll be able to have veto power on renewing contracts, promotions, etc., for those who choose to do this. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it always bends toward justice. Keep the faith!
How have you established authority? Anything I missed? Let me know!
Until next time,
Elise