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Earlier this month, I invited Chiefs of Staff from all over Singapore for dinner & drinks.
One attendee told me it was the first time they'd ever met another Chief of Staff. Others said it didn't feel like a typical networking event — people were looser, more curious about each other as people, not just titles. Some CoS even bumped into an old friend from college (who is also a CoS!)
All of us were connecting over the shared, strange experience of doing a job most people can't quite define. For a role that exists to hold everything together for someone else, it was fun to share an evening where we could just be with each other.
I wrote this article to share my reflections and initial thoughts on the CoS role in Singapore.
The problems on the wall
I asked everyone to write down their three biggest problems. The handwritten notes told a clear story:
Leading without authority. Stakeholder management (different strokes for different folks). Moving goalposts with tight timelines. Getting people to take the role seriously. Reactive leadership. Leaders bogged down by the present instead of looking to the future. Managing overlapping priorities.
If you've been a Chief of Staff anywhere in the world, these probably sound familiar. But what I found revealing was the context of these problems that CoS here face.
"Leading without authority" Power structures and hierarchies in companies can be extremely rigid due to cultural norms.
"Getting people to take the role seriously" isn't only about org chart positioning — it's also about the challenge of operating in markets where the CoS title is still relatively new, and where job boards still sometimes classify it under "admin & secretarial."
There's something different about building and scaling companies across this region.
A role that's growing — but still in its early days
The data backs up what I was overhearing at our gathering. LinkedIn ranked Chief of Staff as one of the top 20 fastest-growing job titles in Singapore in 2024.
But as of writing this, there are 5 Chief of Staff job listings on LinkedIn in Singapore. In the US, that same search returns over 700. The gap speaks for itself.
The professional infrastructure reflects the same story. The West has dedicated CoS communities, salary surveys, certification programs at Harvard and Oxford, and annual conferences. Southeast Asia has almost none of that.
We're early. But I think we're at an inflection point, and here's why.
Asian executives are learning to ask for help
My hot (and hopeful) take is that the Chief of Staff role is also growing in Southeast Asia because executives are getting better at asking for help. The less hot take is that we're just copying org structures from the west with the hopes of it working.
In many Asian cultures, asking for help is still seen as a sign of weakness (letting someone into this level, who may not be as senior, is also seen as quite taboo) — especially at the top. Leaders are expected to have the answers, to carry the weight, to figure it out. Hiring a Chief of Staff is, in many ways, accepting that it's a bit too much to handle (not to say that all CoS & principal relationships are healthy, but at least there's a desire to offload a bit).
I do think the shift is happening gradually. As the region's startup ecosystem matures and more founders scale past their first 50, 100, 200 employees, the operational and strategic demands outgrow any single person. The CoS role is one answer to that — and the fact that it's catching on tells me something meaningful is changing in how leaders here relate to support. This, in my opinion, is great.
The cross-cultural edge
The other trend I keep coming back to is this: Chiefs of Staff in Southeast Asia are doing something fundamentally different from their US counterparts — they're operating across multiple cultures, not just across functions.
A CoS at a San Francisco tech company works within one regulatory framework, one language, one set of business norms. A CoS at a SEA startup or regional company might be navigating Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines simultaneously — each with different languages, labour laws, hierarchies, and ways of building trust.
That's not just operational complexity. That's also a cultural translation. And it's why Chiefs of Staff with international backgrounds are disproportionately sought after in this region. The room I hosted reflected this — people who'd lived and worked across multiple countries, who could code-switch between cultures, were able to be bridge builders.
As cross-border work becomes the norm, not the exception, in Southeast Asia, this skill becomes the CoS's superpower.
What's next
The gathering we hosted in Singapore was small and intentional. People talked about AI, upskilling, how to manage up, and how to carve out a career path in a role that doesn't have one clearly drawn yet. It was really awesome just seeing people have fun and exhale for a moment. Also very nice to see everyone let go for an evening, together with others who understood what they may be going through.
Honestly, that's why I helped launch this chapter. Because the role is growing, the problems are real, and the community to support it barely exists yet in this part of the world.
If you're a Chief of Staff in Southeast Asia — ping me. We are also hosting our first conference for CoS like you in the region in Singapore later this year (DM me for a discount code).
And if you're a founder or executive thinking about hiring one — I'd love to hear from you.
Tristan Lim is a Chief of Staff turned executive coach. He works with Chiefs of Staff and leaders navigating change, and recently helped launch the Singapore CoSN chapter. Learn more at tristanlim.xyz/about
