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A Chief of Staff recently told us about a difficult moment. Her CEO asked her to summarize what she'd accomplished in the past quarter for a board update. She opened a blank doc, stared at it for twenty minutes, and realized she couldn't articulate a single clear outcome. She'd been in dozens of meetings. She'd coordinated countless workstreams. Her calendar was proof she'd been busy. But what had she actually done?
That same week, two different colleagues pinged her to follow up on requests she'd completely forgotten about. Her project tracker had dozens of items, none with clear owners or deadlines. And when her CEO needed a critical data point for an investor call, it took three days to surface because nobody knew who had it.
She'd become a Radar Jammer, the shadow expression of the Air-Traffic Controller archetype. Instead of keeping the CEO's runway clear and ensuring data flows to the right people, she was scrambling signals. Critical intel wasn't reaching the cockpit. Collaborators were stuck in endless holding patterns waiting on her responses. She'd become so focused on staying busy that she'd lost sight of outcomes entirely.
The Radar Jammer trap is seductive because it feels like working hard. Your packed calendar is evidence of your importance. But the signs are clear if you're honest with yourself: colleagues constantly following up because things slip through cracks, caring more about checking items off than what those items actually achieved, and that sinking feeling when someone asks what you've accomplished and you can't point to anything concrete.
The healthy Air-Traffic Controller brings operational sanity to chaos. They keep planes from colliding, close loops by owning outcomes (not just calendars), and drive things to "done" rather than merely "scheduled" or "discussed." The transformation requires solving three challenges: triaging effectively, maintaining visibility into priorities, and actually finishing what you start.
AI has gotten genuinely good at all three. Here's how to use it.
How AI Transforms the Radar Jammer into an Air-Traffic Controller
AI Tactic #1: Intelligent Triage and Priority Management
The first step is getting control of the incoming fire hose. AI-powered email and task management tools can automatically categorize, prioritize, and even draft responses to routine requests.
Specific Implementation:
Use Claude, ChatGPT, or similar AI assistants with this daily triage prompt:
"Review these 20 messages and categorize them: (1) Urgent, needs CEO attention today, (2) Important, I should handle this week, (3) Delegate, someone else should own this, (4) FYI only. For category 3, suggest who should own it and draft a warm handoff message."
This simple practice, which takes less than 10 minutes daily, prevents the accumulation that turns you into a bottleneck. In our experience at the Chief of Staff Network, members who adopt systematic triage report feeling dramatically more in control within the first week.
Advanced move: Set up AI-powered email rules using tools like Superhuman or Jace, which learn your prioritization patterns and surface what actually matters.
AI Tactic #2: Automated Follow-Up and Communication Systems
Consider this hallmark of the Radar Jammer archetype: colleagues constantly following up because you've become a black hole where requests disappear. The Air-Traffic Controller, by contrast, commits to aggressive response SLAs and consistently hits them.
AI can manage this entire system for you.
Specific Implementation:
Use a tool like Reclaim.ai or Motion that integrates with your calendar and task list. These AI schedulers automatically:
- Block time for responses and follow-ups
- Reschedule tasks when meetings run over
- Send you alerts when you're approaching SLA deadlines
- Track which commitments are at risk
Pair this with an AI prompt template for rapid, high-quality responses:
"Draft a response to this request that: (1) Acknowledges receipt, (2) Clarifies next steps and owner, (3) Provides a realistic timeline, (4) Identifies any dependencies. Tone: warm but efficient."
This transforms you from someone who drops balls to someone known for reliably closing loops, the defining trait of a great Air-Traffic Controller.
AI Tactic #3: Real-Time Status Dashboards and Visibility
Remember that one of the key challenges for Air-Traffic Controllers is maintaining visibility into priorities? AI makes this trivially easy to do.
Specific Implementation:
Set up a tool like Notion AI or Coda that can automatically populate project status updates. Use this weekly prompt:
"Based on my calendar, Slack messages, and email from this week, generate a status update for each of my active projects. Format: Project name, current status (on track/at risk/blocked), key progress this week, next milestone, owner of next action."
Copy the output into your dashboard. Total time: 15 minutes weekly. Impact: stakeholders stop asking "where are we on X?" because they can just check the board.
AI Tactic #4: Meeting Intelligence and Action Item Tracking
The shift from Radar Jammer to Air-Traffic Controller requires ruthless clarity about who owns what after every conversation. AI meeting assistants have become remarkably good at this.
Specific Implementation:
Use tools like Otter.ai, Granola, or Fathom to record, transcribe, and analyze your meetings. After each meeting, use this prompt with the transcript:
"Extract all action items from this meeting. For each, identify: (1) What needs to be done, (2) Who owns it, (3) When it's due, (4) Any dependencies. Then draft a follow-up email I can send to all participants that summarizes decisions made and these action items."
Send that email immediately after the meeting. This single habit turns you from someone who lets commitments slip through the cracks into someone who ensures every meeting produces clear outcomes.
A Realistic Implementation Plan
If you're currently deep in Radar Jammer territory, trying to implement everything at once will fail. Here's a sequenced approach:
Week 1 is just about triage. Set up the daily categorization habit. Create response templates for your five most common request types. Block 30 minutes each morning for AI-assisted inbox processing. Don't add anything else yet.
Week 2, add the follow-up infrastructure. Pick an AI scheduling tool or commit to using the response prompt for every incoming request. Define your SLAs, I use "acknowledge within 24 hours, substantive response within 72."
Week 3, build visibility. Create your dashboard, use AI to populate the initial state, and share it with your top five stakeholders. Ask what they wish they could see that isn't there.
Week 4, tackle meetings. Add transcription to your key recurring meetings and start sending the AI-generated summaries. Track whether action items are actually getting completed.
By day 30, you won't have transformed completely, that takes longer. But you'll have systems in place that compound over time. And you'll probably be able to articulate what you actually accomplished this month, which is more than many Chiefs of Staff can say.
What Can Go Wrong
I'd be lying if I said this was all upside. A few warnings:
AI triage isn't infallible. It doesn't understand political context. Your CEO might need you to drop everything for something AI marked "low priority" because it involves a board member's pet concern or a relationship that needs protecting. Always review before acting.
Confidentiality matters. Board materials, sensitive HR issues, proprietary strategy, keep these out of third-party AI tools unless you're using enterprise versions with appropriate security controls. When in doubt, leave it out.
Systems aren't a substitute for judgment. The goal is to free up your mental energy for the work that actually requires you. If you find yourself mindlessly processing without ever stopping to ask "does this matter?", that's a problem.
How to Know It's Working
Remember the Radar Jammer warning signs? Here's what flipping them looks like:
Your calendar has breathing room for the highest priorities, not just wall-to-wall meetings. Colleagues stop following up repeatedly because things don't slip anymore. You catch yourself caring about the result of an initiative, not just crossing it off. And when someone asks what you've accomplished, whether that's your CEO, a board member, or yourself, you can point to concrete outcomes with your name on them.
If three or more of these are true, you're on the path.
The transformation from Radar Jammer to Air-Traffic Controller is one of the most valuable evolutions a Chief of Staff can make. Not because the tools are impressive (though they help), but because the shift in identity matters: from "person who handles everything" to "architect of systems that handle everything."
The Chiefs of Staff who thrive aren't the ones who work the hardest. They're the ones who build the infrastructure that lets their CEO and organization move fast without colliding.
Start with triage. Build from there.
