Hello, and welcome to the 76 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 others at our upcoming Navigating CEO & Board Synergy Webinar, How to Hire a Chief of Staff Webinar, Palo Alto Happy Hour, NYC Happy Hour, and more.

Strengthen your CEO-board relationship

CEOs, Chiefs of Staff and Executive Assistants: avoid a Sam Altman-OpenAI board fiasco by deepening your CEO-board relationship.

Deliver an exceptional board experience for your internal team and the board itself. The payoff is huge - you avoid uncomfortable oversight and you enjoy more strategic, insightful discussions on where to lead your company.

Otherwise, the downside is tragic - your CEO might lose their job and the entire Office of the CEO team suffers a hit to their own personal reputations. Don’t pull an Open AI.

So what board services should you provide in the Office of the CEO?

Keep reading to find out more and join my Navigating CEO & Board Synergy webinar (RSVP) next Friday April 12 at 12p ET / 9am PT, where I speak on this very topic with Glenn Ramsdell, Chief of Staff at Chewy, a Fortune 500 company.

Board prep

The Chief of Staff or a very senior Executive Assistant coordinates the creation of board meeting materials, well in advance of the actual board meeting.

This can include interfacing with your finance, strategy, operations and business leaders to source the data and content that will go into the board deck. Ask for what you need, weeks in advance.

You will clean the data, update charts, perform analysis, propose a narrative arc and prepare a first draft for the CEO’s review.

Then come several rounds of edits and reviews with the stakeholders mentioned above. This ensures that your company narrative is strong, strategic and compelling. Buckle up, you might get up to v15 of the deck, depending on how many drafts you go through.

The best board decks anticipate and handle all potential objections and questions from the board. Recall past questions and comments from board members, and be sure to preemptively address them. Do you need to address new AI technology, a faulty product recall, or company culture? Ask yourself - are there any holes in our story, or is it water tight?

Board prep can be stressful and time intensive, on top of the daily responsibilities, so make sure you carve out extensive timeblocks to get it done. Avoid treating this like a last-minute school project that’s due the next day.

Board meetings

Of course, the CEO is the main company attendee of the board meeting. The Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant can also be invited into the board meeting itself, and select committee meetings on a case by case basis.

Approval sessions are rarely attended by the Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant. Board meeting minutes are the responsibility of the company secretary, and you should not take notes for legal reasons.

Be alert, notice who is saying what, and take a temperature check of the room. Is the conversation frosty or is it warming up quite nicely?

Board follow-up

Immediately post-board meeting, schedule a brief meeting with the Chairman of the Board and the CEO. Review each agenda item and discuss whether it was appropriately discussed and handled in the board meeting itself.

Hold an internal debrief meeting with the Office of the CEO. Review what worked and what didn’t. Look at the meeting minutes and determine how you might adjust your company’s strategy in light of what was discussed.

Do you need to put more attention on sales, team or AI?

Do you need to create better relationships with specific board members who asked tough questions and seemed uninspired or even antagonistic in the board meeting itself?

Make a plan to improve your next board meeting, and keep on improving your CEO-Board relationship.

And there you have it. The typical Office of the CEO responsibilities to the board meeting, pre-during-post.

Want to learn even more board tips and tricks? RSVP to the webinar below on Navigating CEO-Board Synergy.

Join me and Glenn Ramsdell, Chief of Staff at Chewy, a Fortune 500 company for a webinar on Navigating Board & CEO Synergy

Next Friday April 12 at 12p ET / 9am PT / 4p GMT
Secure your spot here.

Join me and Glenn Ramsdell, Chief of Staff at Chewy, a Fortune 500 company, next Friday April 12 at 12p ET / 9am PT for a webinar on Navigating Board & CEO Synergy where we discuss the particular role of the Chief of Staff and the Executive Assistant and the CEO's Office in improving board relations.

We'll also chat about what’s top of mind for CEOs these days, the differences between public and private boards when it comes to this relationship, the pathways for Chiefs of Staff to Board service and Board diversity.

Who should attend?

• CEOs who want to create a deep, trusted relationship with their board
• Chiefs of Staff/EAs who want to make their CEO shine in board meetings
• Board Members who want to use the Office of the CEO for better oversight
• Investors who want to derisk portco investment w/ strong CEO relationships
• Executive Coaches who want to learn more about the Chief of Staff-board dynamic

The discussion will be hosted by the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, a diverse board of directors community led by Fabrice C Houdart.

RSVP here and share this event with a friend or colleague who also would be interested in joining.

Upcoming Events

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 are a woman in financial services and you’d like to attend.

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 to CCMO, Freshworks, Bellvue, WA, Tech, Corporate

Chief of Staff, Peace for DC, Washington, DC, Non-profit

Chief of Staff, Business Operations, Adobe, New York, Tech, Corporate

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

Chief of Staff, Ohmium, Fremont, CA, Startup

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

Chief of Staff, Glocap, 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 strengthen the CEO-board relationship, please forward it to them.

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

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.