Avoid group think with your next Chief of Staff hire

Group think is the death knell of winning leadership. Hiring a Chief of Staff who 100% thinks the same way as your executive team is a huge missed opportunity.

This came up with my COO client as we are running his Chief of Staff executive search. We wanted to make sure we weren’t hiring the same leadership profile that his org usually goes for. Hiring a carbon copy of the past isn't the goal.

Read on to learn more about how we are avoiding a group think hire:

The Chief of Staff is a Chief Change Agent that will need to naturally push back on your leadership team in order to execute special projects and institute different ways of working.

Therefore you'll need to identify the common profile that your org tends towards, and then consciously hire a different profile. Build this into your hiring process and interview scorecards. Different = good.

Next, you'll need to give the Chief of Staff the right sponsorship to introduce new ideas, while celebrating their different modes of thinking and behavior.

Execute a defined communications plan with both informal and formal messaging to your company that you are investing in change...

And that they can expect a different, exciting and new way of working with the Chief of Staff in the Executive Operations function.

No easy feat… but that’s how you change your company’s culture with a Chief of Staff that thinks and operates differently.

Avoid group think and get back on track to building a winning leadership team.

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