Hello, and welcome to the 143 new readers of the Office of the CEO newsletter! I’m Mackenzie, and I write about all things Chief of Staff, Executive Operations and the CEO Office.

Every week, you’ll get 1 new leadership tip or tactic that you can implement, a roundup of our exclusive Office of the CEO events, a list of hot Chief of Staff jobs, and more.

Join our community of over 2,000 readers by subscribing below👇

PS Join me and 100s of professionals at our upcoming How to hire a Chief of Staff Webinar, SF Happy Hour, Palo Alto Happy Hour, NYC Happy Hour, and more.

How to build the Office of the CEO

Building the Office of the CEO is no mean feat. It takes grit and determination. It requires time and energy. And it requires investment and sponsorship directly from the CEO.

So, whether you are a Chief of Staff, Executive Assistant, Chief People Officer, Organizational Effectiveness consultant or a CEO yourself, here’s my call to arms:

It’s time to put on your hardhats and get to building.

Read on to review Phase 1: Assessment to implement a world-class Office of the CEO. Phase 2: Design and Phase 3: Build to follow in separate newsletters.

PHASE 1: ASSESS

To build your Office of the CEO, you’ll need to complete your Assessment of where you are today. Examine your current Office of the CEO through the lenses of People, Process and Technology.

PEOPLE

Let’s start with PEOPLE: Who is on your CEO Office team? Do you have a clear mission and vision? What roles do they play? What strengths does everyone have? What talent gaps do you need to fill? Are folks properly incented and compensated? Do you have exit plans and succession plans? These are a few of the people-related questions that you should ask.

PROCESS

Continue with PROCESS: Do you have CEO standard protocol? What activities have process and which do not? How streamlined is each process? What can be improved? How strong is your interaction model? Do you have proper documentation? How often is correct process followed? And more.

TECHNOLOGY

Finish with TECHNOLOGY: What tools do you use? How often do you use them? Can you consolidate any tech? Can you remove any blockers? Can you simplify and reduce tech bloat? How do you make tech work for you? Are there tools you wish you had? And many more questions.

BENCHMARK & BASELINE

Now it’s time to benchmark against other Offices of the CEO to understand where you fall on the CEO Office Maturity Model. Connect with other Chiefs of Staff, Executive Assistants. Figure out how strong they are on the 3 dimensions listed above. Compare notes: what’s working and what isn’t? Swap best practices.

Establish a baseline of where you are today. Create a deliverable that lays out all of your research listed above with your rationale on how you are ranking yourself on a maturity model scale of 0-5 according to the following scale. Are you L0-Undefined, L1-Initial, L2-Repeatable, L3-Defined, L4-Managed, or L5-Optimized when it comes to the overall dimensions of People, Process, and Technology and the sub-dimensions based on the questions above? And why?

HEATMAP & ROADMAP

Once you have a proper baseline and benchmarking exercise under your belt, you can move to creating a heatmap and roadmap.

Identify development opportunities by scanning your heatmap. Where are the reds and oranges? What are the issues and can you define them properly? This will inform your roadmap. What do you want to work on first, second and third? What are easy wins that can build momentum as you continue your quest to building a world-class Office of the CEO? How much effort and investment will be required to properly execute this body of work? Bring these 2 deliverables to your CEO to get buy-in on the next phase of work - Design.

And just like that, you’re done with Phase 1: Assessment. Stay tuned for Phase 2: Design and Phase 3: Build in future newsletters.

Need help to complete an Assessment of your Office of the CEO? Simply reply to this email to learn more about our comprehensive Assessment. We measure dozens of variables, produce a detailed heatmap of development areas, and give you a clear roadmap of where to go next.

Vote in my poll below to see whether your peers have completed an Assessment …or not.

You’re Invited! Office of the CEO Happy Hours

​Office of the CEO Happy Hour series, presented by Mackenzie and the Cedar team.

​I'm excited to host spring happy hours for my Office of the CEO community in San Francisco (April 4, RSVP), Palo Alto (April 8, RSVP) and New York (May 2, RSVP). Join us!

​Who should attend? ​Founders, CEOs, Executive Assistants, Chiefs of Staff, aspiring Chiefs of Staff, Executive Communications professionals and Executive Operations professionals are all welcome.

​Why come to my happy hour? ​You’ll of course be able to network with like-minded Office of the CEO professionals. But also it wouldn’t be a Cedar event without some sort of thought provoking and entertaining programming from my team. And I’m making fresh salsa. See you there!

Secure your spot: San Francisco (April 4 RSVP), Palo Alto (April 8 RSVP) and New York (May 2 RSVP)

Share this event with a friend or colleague who also would be interested in joining.

Upcoming Events

Fireside Chat: Navigating Board and CEO Synergy, Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, New York, April 12, 2024 (Private Event)

Workshop: Turn Your Executive Team into Fast and Fearless Leaders: How to Build an Executive Operations Function Engineered for Speed, EA Ignite, American Society for Administrative Professionals, Nashville, TN, April 23, 2024 (Sold Out)

Roundtable: Become a Fast and Fearless Leader in the Office of the CEO (or Any Executive Office), EA Ignite, American Society for Administrative Professionals, Nashville, TN, April 23, 2024 (Sold Out)

Panel: Mastering Stakeholder Management and Making a Lasting Impact, Women in the COO Community, Armstrong Wolfe, New York City, NY, April 24, 2024 (Private Event)

Send me a note if you’re interested in booking me as a niche, unique speaker at your next event to speak about the Chief of Staff, Executive Operations and/or the Office of the CEO.

Chief of Staff Jobs

Welcome to our Chief of Staff job board. If you have a Chief of Staff job you’d like shared to 2,000+ readers of this newsletter or need hands-on recruiting help to hire your Chief of Staff, reply to this email.

Chief of Staff, Thoropass, New York, NY, Tech, Corporate

Chief of Staff to the CTO, WorldQuant, Austin, TX, Finance, Corporate

Chief of Staff, Ohmium, Fremont, CA, Startup

Chief of Staff, City of Seattle, Seattle, WA, Government

Chief of Staff, Rex, Austin, TX, Tech, Startup

Chief of Staff, Glocap, New York, NY, Finance, Corporate

VP, Chief of Staff, Moody’s, New York, NY, Finance, Corporate

Help Us Grow

Our mission is to impact 1,000,000 leaders. If this newsletter would help someone in your network learn more about how to assess their Office of the CEO, please forward it to them.

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

Until next week,

Mackenzie

Mackenzie Lee | Founder & CEO
M: 650.283.4152 | E: [email protected]
New York City, NY
www.CedarChief.com

At Cedar, we turn executives into fast and fearless leaders.

Thanks to technology, changing markets, and demanding investors, the C-suite job is tougher than ever. We help executives find freedom from blockers and busywork.

Our mission is to help 1 million CEOs and their C-suite teams let go and do more of the things that matter. We help you hire a Chief of Staff, build an Office of the CEO, and implement C-suite operating systems.

On average our clients see a 25% meeting reduction, 20% strategic sales increase, and 2x speed-to-execution in their first 90 days with us. Data is continuously analyzed to improve performance and accelerate growth.