How to Succeed as a Chief of Staff

What does success look like in a Chief of Staff role? Hear from EA turned Chief of Staff, Meg Steinschauer, on the unique challenges, KPIs, and opportunities of this career path.

Recorded at EA Ignite Fall 2024 and produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals - ASAP. Learn more and submit a listener question at asaporg.com/podcast.

Leah Warwick: Hi, everyone. I'm Leah Warwick, and you're listening to "The Admin Edge." If you're an EA or admin professional who's considering chief of staff as a potential next role or career path to pursue, we have a great guest for you today. Meg Steinschauer has worked as an EA and a chief of staff, and shared about the differences between the two positions at EA Ignite Fall 2024. Now let's hear from Meg in conversation with Katie Hendrickson at EA Ignite.

Katie Hendrickson: Hi, I'm Katie Hendrickson, Executive Assistant to the President and Chief Operating Officer of AIT Worldwide Logistics and ASAP Advisory Board Member. My guest today is Megan Steinschauer, Founder and Managing Director of Connected Assistants. Welcome to the podcast, Meg.

00:00:53                     

Meg Steinschauer: Thank you so much for having me.

Katie Hendrickson: My pleasure. Well, tell us a little bit about your journey.

Meg Steinschauer: It's been a super interesting one, I'm not going to lie. So I started off as an administrative professional. I worked as a receptionist at one point, and worked my way into being a personal assistant. I've worked with some high-net-worth individuals, and then I've gone into the corporate world. I worked at Nike Golf for a period. I worked at Nvidia, the most valuable company in the world. I did not get enough shares. And then I've worked at – I've just worked at some really incredibly awesome technology companies and engineering firms, and I currently serve as a chief of staff within the biotech industry.

Katie Hendrickson: Wow, that's amazing. I think "chief of staff" is kind of a buzzword out and about these days. You're here at EA Ignite talking about the role of chief of staff. So for all of our listeners, ranging across all spectrums of the administrative profession, can you explain what a chief of staff does and how this role differs from the different administrative positions? Obviously, knowing that this role can look very different across industries and organizations, both in title and scope.

00:02:06                     

Meg Steinschauer: Yeah, that is definitely a buzzword at the moment, but I'll start off by going: Chief of staff is not necessarily always for everybody. It's not the natural progression, I don't believe, but you can definitely do it. So how it differs from a traditional administrative professional role is it's very similar to any other kind of role, right? So you'd need to learn that they're going to have different kinds of pain points, right? The title is incredibly ambiguous. You're right. It depends what industry you're in. It depends [on] the specific organization that you're in, whether it's a startup world, such as the world that I'm in, or whether it's an established corporate world.

00:02:45

Essentially, the way that I've summed it up for myself is a chief of staff is ultimately responsible for the organizational objectives, whereas an administrative function – when I was serving as an EA, my deliverable and my core focus was my executive and everything that was on in there. 

Although, as a chief of staff, the executive is still somebody I work really closely with, it's a little bit wider than that right now. I've got more stakeholders than only my executive. I've got the entire executive team, who are my peers, and we need to work together to ensure that this organization is functioning as it should be. 

Katie Hendrickson: Wow, that's really impactful and gives a lot of clarify for, I think, a lot of our listeners. So for those of our listeners who are tuning in that are really content in the administrative function and in their roles, what benefits can they gain from having a deeper understanding of that chief of staff position?

00:03:42                     

Meg Steinschauer: Look, it's very similar to being onboarded with a new company or a new executive. Have conversations with that chief of staff. Understand what their particular pain points might be. What are their individual goals? What KPIs matter to them? Get to know that role and that function within that organization as deeply as you would any other person. It's somebody that you can work really closely with, and you can bounce a lot of ideas off of. You'll find that, because the chief of staff role is so far and so wide, there's –

One of the things I always say is, as a chief of staff, you're a couple of miles wide and a couple of inches deep. Their world is quite vast, so having an understanding of what that world looks like and what their pain points are, I think, is really incredibly important. 

Katie Hendrickson: So then, for our listeners and any administrative professionals who are interested in the chief of staff role, what skills and experience should they focus on developing now, as they look forward to that?

00:04:48                     

Meg Steinschauer: Yeah, that's a tough one, right? In my experience, I was very fortunate. I had an executive that was so incredibly gracious and took me along the journey of what it means to have that executive presence. You wouldn't say that looking at me right now. I'm a little bit of a nervous nelly because I'm a natural introvert, whereas a lot of executives and these VPs and these directors, these bigshot individuals, they're quite extroverted. Whereas, I think a lot of administrative individuals are quite introverted.

I guess what I'm getting at is the skills and the strategies in order to develop into this role, there's a good number. So I think to focus on effective communication – and it's not simply sending out an email or sending a WhatsApp or capturing the minutes of something and sending out the actions of that. It's being able to communicate with individuals and meeting them where they're at. So feel comfortable having a conversation with somebody who perhaps has a difficult personality, and how you're going to approach that. 

00:05:56

How are you going to approach individuals who are chatty? How are you going to approach individuals who are perhaps more about themselves rather than the organization or the mission, or whatever it might be? So feel comfortable in the different kinds of communication strategies and being really good at the different ones that you'll encounter. 

Develop your strategic thinking – and I know that "strategic thinking" is like a buzzword and everybody is saying strategy this and strategy that, and what does this even mean? But, for me, it means thinking beyond the next 18, 24, 36 months. Strategic thinking, to me, is about: What are the factors that could affect the organization down the line? Think about political landscapes. Think about environmental impacts. There are things that are so far outside of any individual within an organization's scope. Strategic thinking is about thinking [about] what could go wrong, but also what could go so, so, so right? And how is this going to affect us? And how can we win from this? 

00:07:02                     

Katie Hendrickson: Wow, that's a lot of thoughts to process, but I love what you're saying about that because this type of role does need to be strategic, and it impacts so many across the organization. So for those administrative professionals who there is a chief of staff at their organization, what are some ways that they can effectively partner with that chief of staff to really enhance the organizational efficiency?

Meg Steinschauer: Again, I would say, what are those pain points that they're experiencing? What are their individual goals? Understanding and really partnering with that individual, I think, is going to be the first step.

00:07:46

I think it's the same as really getting to know anybody else in the organization. They're not there to come and tell you how to do your job. That's what I do. I don't at all tell anybody how to do their job. We work together because we're all part of this machine that is trying to move this organization forward. We're trying to make this thing happen. I think just getting to know what drives them the same way that you would anybody else in the organization. 

Katie Hendrickson: So then with that, what advice would you give to administrative professionals who are considering a transition to that chief of staff role? Maybe they're just considering it. They've heard different webinars. They've heard different podcasts about it – including ours – and then our like, "Hmm, maybe I want to do that." What advice would you have for them?

Meg Steinschauer: Well, I think you're in a very unique position to be able to make that shift, but I will start by saying it's probably not what you're expecting it to be. I think we've all read the Harvard Business Review, "The Case For a Chief of Staff," and went, "Oh, yeah, I can do that. That's really awesome.

00:08:57

I read that and I was like, "Yeah, I can do that." The reality, when I was in it, I was like, "Oh, my gosh! This is not at all what was on the paper." But I think, just to come back to the administrative function, you are already in a very unique position to have a 360 view of everything that is going on in the organization. You know how the sales are operating (if there's sales). You know how the operations functions, what's going on, and what's going right. You know all of that already; whereas, perhaps, an external might not know that. 

So I think you've already got a lot of the key skills required in order to make that shift, but it's about refining your executive presence, and it's really about refining what it is that you want to achieve. You need to understand what your why is for making that transition. I'll just say it: If it's financial, if that's your only pure motivator, then don't do it because it's more than that. 

00:09:56

I just wanted also expand on another skill if that's okay: emotional intelligence. We all feel that we're emotionally intelligent, and we totally are, but when you're a chief of staff you are going to be privy to a hell of a lot more than what you were privy to before, and you need to be okay with making decisions and standing behind those decisions, and looking at the ethics of things, and being okay with that accountability that comes with it. That's heavy. That is really heavy. If you think about it, it's a little bit scary. But you can do it. You totally can. It's just not for everyone. 

Katie Hendrickson: Yeah, that's true. I think anybody in the administrative profession can say, this isn't for everyone, but it's such a privilege to be part of it.

Well, we have had a listener question submitted by a member of our community, and they wrote: Are there specific metrics or ways that you track your success as a chief of staff, given that the role can be so varied? 

00:10:57                     

Meg Steinschauer: Yes. So my goals and my metrics, my KPIs, are the organization's goals. Yes, of course, there are some things that I do individually that I have to ensure is happening, so I've got to make sure that my stakeholders know where things are and when we're going to get things. But for me, ultimately, if we're not achieving our quarterly, six-month, annual goals, I have failed because I am there to ensure that that is happening. I have to manage the resources. I have to move things around in order to enable that to happen. So, very simply, if the organization is not doing what it should be doing, then neither am I.

Katie Hendrickson: That's so good. Thank you so much for joining us on "The Admin Edge," Meg. Where can our listeners find you online?

00:11:44                     

Meg Steinschauer: Find me on LinkedIn. I'm on there. I've got a website as well, which is connectedassistants.com. You're welcome to have a look at that. I write a blog, so whatever is up in my noggin, I like to write about and share. You're very welcome to have a read of that and let me know if there's something specific. Just reach out to me via email [email protected], or come find me on LinkedIn. I'm always on there, trying to share stuff.

Katie Hendrickson: Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Meg Steinschauer: Thank you so much. It's been absolutely awesome being here with you today.

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Leah Warwick: Thank you for listening to "The Admin Edge," produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals, original music and audio editing by Warwick Productions, with video and audio production at our events by 5Tool Productions. If you like this podcast, please leave us a nice review, five stars, and subscribe. If you'd like to submit a listener question, you may do so on our website at ASAPorg.com/podcast.