The Chief of Staff title is pathetic

Reality check - Chiefs of Staff, you’ve got a pathetic title that doesn’t do you justice. And this is coming from someone who has wrote an entire Chief of Staff Playbook and over 100+ LinkedIn posts evangelizing the role.

My opinion is that all of you desperately need a rebrand.

You are a vital resource, helping your leaders think more strategically and execute more efficiently.

You play the following roles: a strategic advisor, trusted confidante, master organizer, communications director, special projects director. Your domain is running the Leader Operations business function.

So when your colleagues, family and friends first hear that you are a Chief of Staff, the natural question is “What the heck does a Chief of Staff do?!”

That’s because the title Chief of Staff is extremely unimaginative, dull and confusing. So I say, as a Chief of Staff, you need a rebrand. And you need it right now.

I posted the above on Monday on LinkedIn and about 100 likes and 41 comments later, here are some alternative Chief of Staff titles we've found:

• Manager, Leader Operations

• VP, Executive Operations

• Analyst, Office of the CEO

• Manager, CEO Operations

• Director, CEO's Office

Note that these have the word Executive, CEO or Leader in the title. I believe these work better because it is clear that you are working to serve senior leadership.

These titles also provide commonsense leveling as you progress from Analyst to Manager to Director, and even VP.

Here are some companies using these titles today: Gusto, dentsu and Tesla. Curious - what titles have you seen so far? Let me know in the poll below:

Help Us Grow

Our mission is to impact 1,000,000 Chiefs of Staff and their leaders. If this newsletter would help someone in your network rethink their Chief of Staff title, please forward it to them.

And if someone forwarded this edition to you, please don't leave without hitting that Subscribe button now.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for next week’s edition.