For experienced Executive Assistants, becoming a Chief of Staff can be a natural next step in their career. EAs have a unique position from which they see operations from the top down, equipping them with invaluable insights and experience.
Both positions involve working closely with senior leaders, managing competing priorities and ensuring the wider business runs smoothly. However, moving from EA to Chief of Staff usually requires more than excellent organisational skills. Taking great ownership of business priorities, influencing decisions and helping shape leadership strategy are just some of the key skills you’ll need to showcase.
For those contemplating the shift, this guide illustrates a roadmap for aspiring EAs to make the leap.
What does a Chief of Staff do?
A Chief of Staff works closely with the CEO, founder or members of the SLT, helping deliver business objectives. The role varies depending on the organisation, but responsibilities often include coordinating strategic projects, preparing leadership meetings, tracking business priorities, improving internal processes and ensuring decisions are followed through.
Unlike an EA, whose primary focus is typically enabling an executive to work effectively, a Chief of Staff often takes responsibility for how priorities are delivered across teams. They may act as a link between the leadership team and the wider organisation, helping departments collaborate and keeping important initiatives on track.
There is considerable overlap between the two positions, which makes the EA to Chief of Staff career path a realistic option for assistants who already contribute beyond diary management and administration.
Which EA skills transfer to a Chief of Staff role?
Some of the typical EA skills transfer to a Chief of Staff role through day-to-day work. These include:
- Strategic thinking: understanding an executive’s priorities, anticipating challenges and recognising how individual decisions affect wider business goals.
- Stakeholder management: building relationships with senior leaders, clients, board members and colleagues across departments.
- Communication and influence: handling sensitive information, adapting communication styles, influencing decisions and bringing people together to achieve an outcome.
- Project management: coordinating complex diaries, managing deadlines and keeping projects running smoothly.
- Discretion and judgement: understanding when to act independently, when to escalate an issue and how to handle confidential matters.
The important distinction is how you apply these skills. A Chief of Staff is expected not only to organise the work but also to question assumptions, identify risks, recommend solutions and help drive decisions forward.
For further inspiration, read PA Life’s interview with Yvette Pearson about her journey to Chief of Staff, which explores a real career journey behind this transition.
What experience do you need before making the move?
While you might already have a lot of the skills needed to make the move, the most competitive candidates can demonstrate that they understand how a business operates beyond the executive’s immediate needs.
If you are considering the move, now it’s the time to start looking for opportunities to build experience in the following areas:
Strategic projects and business planning
Volunteer to coordinate a project linked to a wider business objective, such as an office move, organisational change, new system implementation or company-wide initiative. Try to understand why the project matters, how success is measured and what the outcomes mean for the business. Keep track of everything you did and the results.
Budgeting and commercial awareness
Gain exposure to budgets, financial reporting, resource allocation and business performance. You do not necessarily need to be a finance expert, but understanding costs, risks and return on investment will help you contribute to strategic decisions.
Cross-functional leadership
Look for opportunities to work with other departments such as Finance, HR, Operations, Marketing and Sales. A Chief of Staff often needs to bring different teams together, resolve competing priorities and keep projects moving without having direct authority over everyone involved. If you haven’t already, now is the time to start building relationships with people in these teams.
Decision-making and accountability
Move beyond coordinating meetings and recording actions. Where appropriate, take ownership of project delivery, identify blockers, propose solutions and report on progress. Being able to demonstrate measurable results will strengthen your case for a more strategic position.
Do you need formal Chief of Staff qualifications?
There is no single qualification required for every Chief of Staff role. Depending on the employer and seniority, organisations may look for experience in business operations, project management, strategy, consulting or leadership, alongside strong communication and analytical skills.
For EAs, additional training in project management, finance, business strategy or change management can help fill knowledge gaps. Short courses and professional development programmes such as those offered on LinkedIn may be useful, but practical experience is often just as important.
When researching Chief of Staff qualifications, read job descriptions carefully. They can reveal which skills and responsibilities are most relevant to the organisations you want to work for and which gaps you need to fill.
How to become a Chief of Staff: your next steps
You do not necessarily need to leave your EA role to start building relevant experience. Instead, look at how you can gradually broaden your responsibilities. You can start with:
- Review your current experience. Identify examples where you have influenced decisions, led projects or improved business processes, rather than simply supported their delivery.
- Speak to your executive. If appropriate, explain your career ambitions and ask whether you can take on more responsibility for strategic initiatives.
- Build your business knowledge. Learn more about the organisation’s commercial priorities, performance measures and challenges facing its leadership team.
- Find a mentor. Connect with a current Chief of Staff or someone in a business operations role who can offer insight into the responsibilities and expectations.
- Target suitable opportunities. Look for roles that value executive support experience alongside project delivery, operational leadership and strategic thinking. Some positions may offer a transition through business operations or a hybrid EA and Chief of Staff role.
The right chief of staff career path will depend on your existing experience, the size of the organisation and the scope of the role. In some businesses, the transition may be relatively direct; in others, you may need to gain additional operational or commercial experience first.
Is becoming a Chief of Staff the right move for you?
Moving from EA to Chief of Staff can offer the opportunity to influence business decisions, lead strategic initiatives and work across the organisation in a different way. However, it also brings greater accountability for outcomes, potentially more ambiguity and a shift away from the hands-on executive support work that many assistants enjoy.
The strongest candidates are not necessarily those who have held the most senior EA title. They are the people who can demonstrate sound judgement, commercial awareness, leadership and the ability to turn priorities into results.
If you are an experienced EA considering this next step, start by looking at the work you already do – and identify where you can take greater ownership. Building that experience now can help you make a more confident and credible move when the right Chief of Staff opportunity comes along.
