The paradox haunts every Senior Chief of Staff. You're accountable for outcomes but don't own the P&L. You shape strategic direction without commanding teams. You drive organizational momentum while often wielding no formal authority.
For Chiefs of Staff operating at Director, VP, or CXO levels, this tension defines the role and ultimately determines their success.
The Influence Imperative
Authority means you can say "yes" or "no."
Influence means ensuring the right "yes" or "no" happens without you having to say it.
At senior levels, this distinction becomes critical where Chiefs of Staff must navigate complex organizational dynamics without traditional hierarchical power. As Kyle Hagge, Chief of Staff at Morning Brew, explains:
"As a chief of staff, you have to get really good at influencing without authority. You have to be able to join teams that are typically really tight knit and working towards a shared goal... and you have to come in and like, help them and suggest things that they should do differently, but not have it be rejected."
This reality aligns with the Chief of Staff Network's Leveling Framework. Level 5 and 6 CoS, those at VP and Executive tiers, operate as senior strategic advisors who "own outcomes, not functions." They don't manage through hierarchical power; they lead through credibility earned over time through judgment, context, and consistent delivery.
Meanwhile, influence travels further than authority ever could. A Senior Chief of Staff who masters this dynamic can reshape entire organizations.
Beyond the Strategy Myth
Many senior CoS describe themselves as "owning strategy" or "running strategic planning." This misses the mark entirely.
Senior Chiefs of Staff don't own strategy, they own the processes that make strategy executable:
- Driving executive team alignment when competing priorities emerge
- Facilitating offsites and quarterly planning sessions that actually produce decisions
- Translating long-term vision into sequenced, actionable priorities that teams can execute
As one CoS Network member noted:
"I don't own the business strategy, but I'm responsible for making sure the conversations around it happen at the right altitude, with the right inputs, at the right time."
This nuance matters because it clarifies where Senior Chiefs of Staff create their greatest value: not in crafting the what, but in orchestrating the how. They serve as multipliers, managing friction and orchestrating momentum to make strategy executable.
Execution Without Empire Building
Another misconception surrounds team management. Most Senior Chiefs of Staff deliberately avoid building large direct-report structures. Our leveling framework illuminates why:
- Level 4 (Director) CoS may begin managing program managers or analysts
- Level 5 (VP) CoS reorient around managing portfolios of initiatives rather than people
- Level 6 (CXO) CoS function as thought partners to CEOs and boards, working peer-to-peer with other executives
This design forces Senior Chiefs of Staff to develop credibility-based leadership. Hagge reinforces this point: "You have to show respect that you don't know what they're doing and you don't know the business unit as well as them. You might have some ideas that transfer. If you come in with a beginner's mindset and open mindset, and just hear them out at first, then when you do have to work with them, you at least have that relationship already."
Consequently, influence becomes their primary operating system, not just a secondary skill.
What Senior CoS Actually Own
Strip away the ambiguity, and Senior Chiefs of Staff own five concrete domains:
- Operating Rhythms: The cadence of planning, review, and decision-making that prevents organizational chaos. Senior CoS design and maintain the meeting structures, reporting cycles, and communication flows that enable leadership teams to function at scale.
- Principal's Time & Focus: Acting as firewall, amplifier, and triage system for the CEO or executive they support. This includes managing priorities, synthesizing information, and ensuring the principal's attention lands on the highest-impact decisions.
- Cross-Functional Execution: Projects spanning multiple departments—M&A integrations, AI rollouts, culture transformations that would otherwise fall into organizational cracks. Senior CoS excel at orchestrating complex initiatives without owning any single functional area.
- Internal Communications: Creating clarity during ambiguity, especially throughout periods of change or uncertainty. Senior CoS translate executive decisions into organizational understanding and action.
- Leadership Cohesion: Diagnosing friction between executives and aligning senior leaders behind shared goals. This invisible work often determines whether companies execute successfully or struggle with internal misalignment.
These responsibilities don't appear on traditional org charts, yet they prove mission-critical for organizational performance.
The Generalist Advantage
Senior Chiefs of Staff must function as sophisticated generalists who understand how all parts of the business interconnect. Hagge illustrates this through his dual role co-hosting Morning Brew's "Per My Last Email" podcast: "Being able to actually go live the life of a creator at Morning Brew... is actually really helpful for me when I'm thinking about, okay, like we're not monetizing multimedia in the way that we need to be at the company."
This cross-functional experience enables Senior Chiefs of Staff to "more effectively connect the dots" when operating at higher strategic levels.
Strategic Lens, Not Strategic Owner
The most effective Senior Chiefs of Staff ultimately don't chase ownership, they create leverage. Their success stems from shaping context rather than commanding control.
As Hagge puts it: "It's not about doing as many things as possible, it's really deeply understanding which levers you can pull that drive the biggest impact, and really focusing your time on those levers."
This role demands high tolerance for ambiguity, obsession with clarity, and willingness to lead without traditional authority markers. As the CoS function matures, it evolves from tactical execution toward enabling execution at scale.
That level of ownership can't be captured in job descriptions, but its impact reverberates throughout entire companies.
