Chief of Staff Reporting Lines

CEOs, what’s the secret to achieving maximum impact with your Chief of Staff? A leadership org chart with clear Chief of Staff reporting structures.

Your Chief of Staff usually reports to you, the CEO, and has no direct reports. Now, we need to add some critical details to the org chart.

There are dotted lines to practically all middle managers, senior leaders, investors, and external partners. The Chief of Staff is highly matrixed with dotted lines to most stakeholders at your company.

That’s why we advocate for defining the primary, secondary and tertiary stakeholders that your Chief of Staff serves. This can be visually represented by different thicknesses of dotted lines. You can even use color coding to graphically display the importance of each relationship.

Ultimately, this should reflect the time and energy the Chief of Staff spends with each stakeholder. So CEOs, get clear on your org chart and socialize it with your company.

Then every few months, revisit your Chief of Staff's relationships with primary, secondary and tertiary folks on your team. Recalibrate your Chief of Staff stakeholder mapping to better align with your business goals. Watch your Chief of Staff reach maximum impact.

Reach out if you need help structuring your organizational chart. Contact us here to start the conversation.