Matt Mochary (via a YouTube clip) explains his preferred model for a Chief of Staff: hire a smart person to literally sit next to the CEO for full workdays for roughly three to six months so they can observe decisions, gain access to emails/inputs, and learn to act like the CEO. After that apprenticeship they can execute on the CEO’s behalf; if the fit is good, hire a second person before deploying the first. Mochary emphasizes liking the person (fit) and notes the main cost is CEO time, not salary.
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So the most effective that I've seen is again, this Chief of Staff or office of the CEO concept. And I probably should change the name from Chief of Staff to something else because we're starting to have problems with Chief of Staffs sort of believing that they're a C level, which they're not. They're really, they're the assistant to the CEO. So I should change that. And for those of you who don't know the Chief of Staff concept, at least the way I envision it, is you take a smart human and and you have them sit next to you, literally physically sit next to you for 10, 12 hours a day, like your entire workday for three to six months. And they see everything that you see, they hear everything that you hear, they have access to your emails, they have access to all the information that you have, all the inputs that you take in, and then they see your decisions and they start to make correlations basically about how you think. And then after three to six months, this smart human can start to do things on your behalf in almost the exact same way that you would do. Which is amazing because it takes zero cost. You have to pay them a salary, but that's not expensive. The expensive part is your time. So having one on ones with people and coaching them, that takes time. But having someone sit there and just shadow you, you don't even have to talk to them if you don't want to. So it takes literally zero time. And then three to six months later, you have this almost perfect replica of yourself and then you can deploy them into areas that you just physically don't have time to be because you can't be in two places at once. But that's another thing. If you do get this chief of staff, make sure if after three months it's working and you really like this person, oh, by the way, you have to really like the person because they're going to be sitting next to you for 12 hours a day. That's probably the number one criteria. Basically, almost anyone is smart enough to do a chief of staff job, but the key criteria is, do you like them? If after three months you find, oh my gosh, this person's amazing, immediately have them go hire a second person. Because what will happen is you'll start to deploy the first person, they'll start going doing work, all of a sudden they're not with you anymore. All of a sudden they're not helping you do your own individual tasks. All of a sudden you'll miss them and go, oh my. Gosh where are they? You want to make sure that other person is already there. But that's the only answer I have for you. It's not a great answer, but that's the practical reality that we've discovered. Great question.
