The Real Impact of a Chief of Staff with Maggie Olson

Speaker A: Welcome to youo Belong in the C Suite Podcast. You are ambitious in life and in your career, but something is missing. You want to bring more of your passion to what you do because, let's be honest, you pour a ton into your work and it needs to mean more. I'm your host, Laura Igel. I'm a mom, wife, PhD coach, advocate, introvert and indoor rowing fanatic. I'm passionate about living a life that's in line with my values. We'll give you the actionable tips and tools you need to lead with your values, make a difference, and have career success. The world needs more diversity and authenticity in the top jobs at organizations. Your leadership belongs there. You belong in the C Suite. My second book, Values First Teams how to Build a Culture that's Synchronized for Success launches on May 20. Miscommunication, misalignment, missed Deadlines Every leader knows the frustration of a team that feels more like a tug of war than a unified force. And in today's whirlwind of deadlines and demands, it's easy to lose sight of the why behind the work, leaving your team feeling disconnected and disengaged. In Values First Teams, I'm sharing my proven framework for building an engaging team culture where shared values create stronger results and individual efforts harmonize to achieve a powerful collective momentum. It's more than just a leadership book. Values First Teams is a guide for building a workplace where everyone is aligned, engaged and rowing in the Same Direction. Values First Teams launches on May 20, 2025. Learn more at theketchgroup.com valuesfirstteams. Welcome to this week's episode of the youe Belong in the C Suite podcast. I'm excited to share my conversation with Maggie Olson with you today. Maggie is the founder of NOVA Chief of Staff, the premier and first of its kind destination for Chief of Staff education, certification and development. She has 20 years of experience in retail, food and beverage and technology sectors and has held leadership roles at Nordstrom and T Mobile. At T Mobile, Maggie's impressive work led her to become the Chief of Staff to the President of T Mobile Business Group. In that role, she built Chief of Staff model from the ground up, creating a highly efficient team and establishing an executive back office structure supporting the President, SVPs and over 5,000 employees. She also built a Chief of Staff team, defining all roles, processes and systems. Through NOVA Chief of Staff, Maggie continues to shape the future of business leadership, providing the tools and resources necessary for Chiefs of staff to excel in their roles and drive company success. In our conversation, we talked about Maggie's career journey. She shares how a life changing experience helped her reevaluate her relationship with success and led her to create something truly impactful. We also talked about how she helps leaders, especially those in fast paced executive environments. How she helps them gain clarity, align their teams and prioritize what matters most. We dug into the real work of a chief of staff, how that role supports not just strategy, but also culture, and why high performing teams depend on someone who can operate in both the forest and the trees. I love this conversation with her because I've seen chief of staff roles used in many companies in many different ways and she breaks down what the role can do and how it can be optimally used. Whether you're in a support role ready to lead, or an executive looking to scale more effectively, this conversation has something for you. Like, let's get started. Well, I want to welcome you to the you belong in the C Suite podcast. Thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker B: Thank you for having me.

Speaker C: Well, I am excited to get to know you more. Um, and so uh, I know we have lots of really great, um, questions for you, um, in your area of expertise. But before we dig into all of that, I want to just kind of get to know kind of career story. What's life like for you? Where did you grow up? Any of those kinds of things?

Speaker A: Tell me more.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Um, well, thank you so much for having me. I am from Seattle, Washington. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska now. We moved to Lincoln two years ago when I had um, my little baby, little baby boy, max. He's almost 2. Um, and I was in Seattle for 35 years. So that's where I've called home. Um, it's definitely a change being here in Lincoln, but great for this stage of life, great pace, um, in terms of kind of career spotlights. Uh, here I, it's, it's funny when you think about like leadership and you think about is it a born quality or a taught quality? I think it's both. Personally, um, thinking back on my early, early years, I for example was like 6th grade elementary school president and I don't know why I wanted to do that role. I don't know why I decided to run. I don't know why I was elected, but I remember loving it. Um, I remember having a charter like trying to get every student to hand make a sit upon so they could sit on a more comfortable surface at school assemblies. Um, and we did that throughout the whole school. So, you know, leadership is in my veins. I'm the oldest, oldest child, um, of a small family. But uh, yeah, so from there I really I was in sports throughout my youth. Um, and I played college volleyball as well. So pretty competitive, um, volleyball player and captain of the team setter. So you know, more leadership roles there I guess. Um, and then from there I will share that I had a really uh, the privilege of having um, a very career focused mom. And my grandmother was one of the first female physicians in the country and my aunts, so my mom's sisters were also um, in, in leadership roles. Like throughout my life I've seen, I've seen these examples and so it wasn't so much of ever being told to go do this or you into these leadership positions. It was more just sort of seeing, seeing them naturally gravitate towards leadership roles. And I think it m opened the door for me to feel like oh I can do that too or I just belong at this table, in this meeting. You know, those types of conversations. I, I should negotiate my salary, I should raise my hand for the next promotion. So I definitely credit a lot of that early leadership experience, um, and sort of steps to my family for sure. Um, yeah. So sports throughout my adolescence and then in college and then um, I found myself leading big teams in the retail and food and beverage industries. So managing you know, big food and beverage outlets, managing sales floors at Macy's. And then I finally um, had a, you know, moved into an office role ah, for Nordstrom corporate headquarters in Seattle as a buyer. So I was an assistant buyer in my first role. And then over five years I moved into different buying roles. Eventually um, into a multi channel online in store buying position. And looking back it's really akin to like consulting experience because I went into new businesses, had to learn them quickly, find efficiencies, operationalize, get buy in and then really improve the business and move on. Um, I loved that experience and I ended up going back to school, getting my MBA at the University of Washington foster school. Um, while I was still working I did the evening program and then I found myself in um, being recruited for a leadership development program with T Mobile. Um, and so they were looking for MBA students, you know, who are going to be graduated to move into full time roles who had had large um, team leadership experience which is a little more rare in an MBA program with you know there's a lot of engineers usually in those programs. Um, and so after a really competitive interviewing process I ended up getting that role and was moved to Salt Lake City to lead a district of stores about a hundred people, 15 stores in an industry I've never worked in, and a place I'd never been. And I had to perform. I had to, like, improve the business and report on the business and, you know, influence a ton of people, um, in order to stay in that role. And then I ended up moving back to corporate in, you know, near Seattle and Bellevue, Washington, and moved into a retail strategy position and then finally found myself in the chief of staff role.

Speaker C: I love it. And I love the themes of leadership in your childhood and the models that you saw. I don't, I don't think that's very common.

Speaker B: Really, do you think?

Speaker C: I don't know. I feel like I'm. I, I guess I'm thinking of even just my own experience. I think I saw my mom go back to work, um, and she had, she was an entrepreneur at one point. She had a career as well. Um, but I, I love the legacy that your family had too, of, like, all the women leaders, like with your grandmother and aunts and all those things. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't know that it's that common.

Speaker B: No, I don't think it's common to have like, a number of different female leaders in your life showing, paving the way and showing you that it's okay to raise your hand and ask for what you want. I don't, I don't think that's common. So it's part of the work I do now. It's like I, I've always felt, um, I'm. I'm the founder of Nova Chief of Staff. Nova Chief of Staff is a development, um, education company for aspiring and current chiefs of staff. And we have a certification course and a ton of other resources. But I've always been drawn to the executive assistants that I've worked with. And I've never been an executive assistant, but in, you know, each buying office in Nordstrom, there were EAs in each office. I was at AT T Mobile multiple. You know, there's EAs everywhere. So the last 10 years I've been intimately connected with executive assistants and especially coaching and, um, playing sports. I've. I've found myself in mentorship roles and I think that's common for, for folks who in, in leadership positions. But, um, I don't think there's a lot different from, between me and some of those folks that maybe I've mentored or some of the EAs I've worked with besides the opportunity and the confidence that you can do the job. So I had the confidence early on. I had the opportunity because I was raising my hand. You know, the EA is like, I'll think of this woman named Kate that I worked with at Nordstrom. And incredibly smart, um, lacking some confidence, can figure things out really quickly. Didn't quite know what she wanted yet. Now she's in some like, product engineering role, I think most recently at rei. Um, back then she was an EA and didn't really have her footing. There's no difference between us back then besides privilege and opportunity on my, my end to have these female leaders. So I think I, I reach out to that group a lot because, um, gosh, I just want them to hear that message.

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I love that story. So, um, I heard, you know, leadership has always been kind of a part of it. So not just, um, like, probably part of your personality maybe, but also you learned it from along the way. What other kind of core values or core themes have impacted the way that you lead or the way that you make your career decisions? What other, like, values are important to you?

Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I feel like there's been external factors for a long time helping push me to achievement. And um, I think that's where I was through my 20s. That's where I was through my MBA program. That's where I was through throughout, like a lot of my career moves. And yet, um, I think when I went through a pretty dramatic divorce when, when I was in my. Around, around 30, I'm 38 now. Um, and this was during my MBA program. I was employed at Nordstrom at the time. It was before I moved to T Mobile. Um, and I just had this moment where I was like, am I doing all this, like, intense career, like, reaching and striving and achieving for myself or for somebody else? Um, and I think through like dramatic life changes, you have to search and seek a bit. And I ended up, um, traveling for three or four months before moving to Salt Lake City for this T Mobile opportunity. And, um, I became a certified yoga teacher. I traveled and like, hiked in Annapurna. I, like, um, traveled around India and I, I had this, um, you know, kind of guiding thought or principle that I am going to go back, I'm going to start this role at T Mobile in this, you know, pretty competitive executive development program. Could be a lot of pressure, could be high stress. But I'm going to approach it as now I'm going to figure out if I'm doing this for me or not. Am I, Do I love this type of work? Do I love the achieving and the striving and the what's next? What's next? Or is this something that was more environmental that I was just going for because I thought I had to. And I think that change of kind of the lens of how I was viewing things really helped me in large part become a much better leader because I, I think I released the perfectionist that I needed to be prior that I, you know, I had to have it all together. I had to be the leader and get the best promotion and the best jobs. And I think I realized that, um, it's the vulnerability and just being really who you are and the mistakes and the sharing and the communication that actually makes people want to follow you. So I, I, I think vulnerability has been a really, really big one in the last six years or so in that time frame. And I've become such a better leader and such a better, um, you know, partner and friend and all the things. Because now I, I, and through therapy and through these life changes, it's like, okay, I can still be a leader. I can still do this for myself, and I can do it my way and be vulnerable with people. Because it's not about perfection. It's about just, you know, leading the way and showing people how it can be done and elevating them in the process.

Speaker C: How do you feel about achievement now?

Speaker B: I, uh, so are you an Enneagram person?

Speaker C: You know, I have dabbled here and there, and I'm, I'm a six. I don't even.

Speaker B: You're a six. So I, I don't know.

Speaker C: I can't even remember everything that means. Um, Yeah, I thought I was gonna be a three, which is the achiever. Right. So I, Right. Like, for sure it was gonna be a three, but, um, it was not.

Speaker B: But you chose six. Yeah, well, um, I, I was gonna use Enneagram as an example. I think the achiever part is just inside of me. But I believe the way Enneagram talks about it is like, you're like a, um, what are the, what's the language? Like, you're kind of on the positive side or you're sort of on the negative side. And I think I've moved over to the, like, using the competitiveness, using the achievement as more of awareness, and it just sort of is what it is. But I think from an achievement perspective, um, it's, it's absolutely what makes me a strong entrepreneur. So I still see that in me. I, but the awareness is the difference. The awareness now to say, like, you know, it's kind of like a disease. You just can't stop. So just know that about yourself and just slow down if you can.

Speaker C: Well, and I love the, that you, you did the digging and is it achievement because I want it or it's achievement because that's what the world wants from me and that's kind of just this world that I'm in. Like, for what reason do I want it? I love who. Whatever you. It, whatever it is that you want, that you value. Um, if that is good for you in the world, like, go do it. I love that you figured that out for yourself. Um, and that's a motivator for you. And then you're not doing it for somebody else or from a system perspective because of society wants you to do xyz. And you've dropped the perfectionism part. I'm still working on that myself.

Speaker B: Yeah, I'm, I'm of course working on it, but so much better. And yeah, I think, I think I ended up learning that like I was doing it for myself. Because I do love, I really do love to work. I love to find, um, I like the build mode. So I call myself like a build mode person. Um, I love to build and scale and operationalize and you know, figure out processes and tools. Um, and then I like to build something else. And that's kind of a chief of staff characteristic as well. Um, learn a completely new business, learn it fast, figure it out, and then, oh my gosh, my brain's ready for something else.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's right.

Speaker B: Yeah. So I, I went from chief of staff at T Mobile was my first chief of staff role for a president who'd never had a chief of staff and I'd never been one. Um, and I had the honor of building out a team of seven or eight folks, uh, on my chief of staff team and building every process and tool and system and role, responsibility for all of us. Um, and then I'd kind of had that entrepreneurial bug since my MBA program and basically thought, you know, I think I want to do chief of staff consulting. Um, and along the way sort of pivoted into, well, actually chiefs of staff, like, don't have a lot of resources. We need some form of hands on, um, certification course, hands on training course to, um, give people like, practice doing the things chiefs of staff do every day. So that's what I built. That has now really become NOVA Chief of staff, um, that I lead as founder.

Speaker C: I love it. And let's, um, I'd love to hear what your chief of staff kind of model and world encompasses. So I think there's lots of models and some that are really do well and others that are maybe not so great. And so in my, so I've been in um, CPG where I've seen you know, Chief of staff staff be like the right hand person of a president or somebody in the C suite. And in that model what I've seen is that usually it's like a, it could, it could be a leader or an upand cominging leader that um, you know, has operational or um, departmental excellence and they have, they're a proven leader, um, and they're in this Chief of staff role to really be that right hand person for that, that president or you know, C suite leader. But they're also there for their own learning and then they stay in that role for a bit and then they go on to another role. Um, but there's other ones that are there. People have careers of just being of like being really amazing chiefs of staff with lots of operational excellence um, and be and they're a key part of that C suite team that makes it a high performing team. So I'd love to understand like how, what kind of role when you were, when you were in that role what kind of like Chief of staff did you play? Um, what was that like? And then what, what do you, how do you teach it and what do you think is kind of the most effective model of Chief of Staff?

Speaker B: Yeah, you know where the way that I talk about the chief of staff role is, is really that while the chief of staff role can um, the day to day can look really different depending on your environment, depending on the leader you're supporting, the industry you work in your own strengths and opportunities. The core purpose of the Chief of staff role is the same everywhere and that is to maximize your executives time, um, drive alignment across the leadership team, lead, manage, prioritize, own key uh, initiatives for your leader and really just you know, remove roadblocks, solve problems, drive efficiencies along the way. You are the strategic partner um to your leader focused on executing uh, the most important initiatives so the leader can stay focused on vision, growth strategy, um and leadership. So those, the core principle of Chief of staff work um in my mind should, should be the same everywhere. Now where people go wrong is when um, Chief of staff is combined with executive assistant or you know, maybe people don't really understand the difference between chief operating officer or Director of Operations and Chief of staff which the way I describe that is that a Chief of staff exists for the human, for the business leader and the operations Role exists on behalf of the company, exists for the company. Um, so, um, the chief of staff has to do, you know, a lot of different things. But most importantly, before they do anything, it's about learning the business, uh, building relationships, gaining trust, um, solving small problems, getting their back office in line first, documenting current state, considering the rhythm of business. What are all the meetings that your executive team's having that your leader's involved in? What's the flow of information to your leader? All of those things really need to be solved before a chief of staff should be tackling big company problems. Um, you got to get your back office in line before you go tackle company problems. That's kind of a foundational core belief. But people really do get the chief of staff role wrong when it's treated more like an executive assistant. Um, when chief of staff is uh, expected to do things like calendar or inbox or travel expense logistics, that's really not chief of staff work and shouldn't be. Um, the chief of staff has to have the bandwidth, um, to be able to see the whole picture. And when you give a chief of staff like major repeating work streams or deliverables or ea work, um, you're pulling them into this major chunk of business that they have to see, stay in. And they're in this like deep narrow view where we need the chief of staff to be 10,000 foot view, kind um, of toggling between that, that trees and the forest, um, so that they can identify problems, solve it, scale it, move on, see another one, address it like uh, operationalize, check in. They've got to be able to do this over and over across the business. So you know, when you're asking like what, what, what's kind of the model, the ideal model is that the chief of staff is brought on and treated as the executives like strategic partner that's focused on execution.

Speaker C: I love that. As uh, just so simply stated and I love the lens of. Is it for the person? Yeah, not specifically for the business. And if the person's successful, obviously the business success follows too.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker C: So what types of leaders are a good fit for a chief of staff position?

Speaker B: Yeah, so I term to the chief of staff role as that expert generalist position. Um, and the reason why it's not just a standard generalist role is because uh, you've got to be an expert in a lot of things to be a chief of staff. Executive support and project management and facilitation and influential leadership. There's a lot there. But chiefs of staff are really, uh, you Know, the magic happens across the breadth and so kind of that I use the term expert generalist to describe chiefs of staff. Loving, um, the breadth of work, but having the ability to dive in when needed. Um, so that's a key characteristic. You know, we talked about achiever, definitely helpful, uh, comfortable behind the scenes, you're elevating somebody else in front of the curtain. Often, um, collaborative, curious, high eq. Often you're leading through influence, not necessarily direct reports. And you may as the Chief of staff, um, we should talk about chief of staff titles by the way. But you may as the Chief of staff be a much more junior than the executive team that uh, reports to your, let's say CEO. So how do you lead through influence and how do you ask the right questions and gain trust and buy in? It's a huge EQ role, the ability to work quickly. I mentioned executive project management. You've got to be organized in your own way. Um, sometimes if I'm talking to students I'll say like um, okay, who's the one who's got the, all the color coded sticky notes and your binders like full of them. Great, that works. Okay, now who's the one with the Google sheet? Who's planning all your friends, vacations? Okay, that works too. You've just got to be organized kind of in your own way. Um, and the last thing I'll say is one theme throughout my career that I've just realized I totally loved is um, the blend of the art and the science, the creativity piece and the analytical piece. And the chief of staff role is absolutely that. Um, so you're figuring out how to boil, you know, a lot of information down and talk about complex things, things in easy to understand ways. And sometimes you're doing that digitally and sometimes you're doing that verbally. Presentations, whatnot. Um, it takes a lot of creativity, which can sometimes be the fun part when you're like designing a slide that's going to a board or to an executive team.

Speaker C: Yeah, I love that. And you mentioned you know, the varied roles and titles and I even ah, as I see things posted even on LinkedIn. And um, like you said, sometimes the job descriptions are, are not actually what you described. Right. And so what, what do we think about that? Like one, like all titles are not created equal and it feels like sometimes it is a, um, Unfortunately I see probably the trend of downgrading this really important role. What do you think?

Speaker B: You know, it's what I, what I usually say is that we are not in control of the title that our company chooses. And so we, we kind of have to adapt in that way. Um, companies may not use the Chief of Staff title. They may not like it, they may not really know it very well or be comfortable with it. And also it may be reserved for only certain people in the C suite. Maybe just CEO or just the C

Speaker C: suite team they cut because of the word chief. Yeah, okay.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Yep, exactly. Um, because it's chief and it's also like Chief of Staff, who's the staff, like 70% ish of Chief of staff roles don't actually have direct reports. So it's a hard role to articulate and understand. I'm only good at it because I've been practicing for a year and a half every day. Um, so our most popular blog on our website, novachiefofastaff.com is called the Many Titles of Chief of Staff. And we've got 25, 35 titles up there, um, that truly reflect Chief of Staff work. So it's outside of our control if the term is used most of the time. What is in our control is choosing a title that aligns with the work we're doing and is likely to be adopted by the company. So maybe it's Business Planning Manager, maybe it's Director of Strategic Initiatives, maybe it's Transformation Lead, Special Assistant to the President. Um, it's most important to be able to identify the Chief of Staff work. So, um, it might be obvious at the C suite level who the Chief of Staff is because there's only a few or one. Um, but at lower levels of the company, it's really common for directors to have chiefs of staff. For VPs to have chiefs of staff, they just may be under different title. Um, it's about identifying who's the person on that director's team who's putting the all hands meetings together, who's the one, when you ask for something from the director, who's the one that actually sends it? It's probably their quote, chief of Staff under like a business operations title. So this work, this important strategic executionary work is happening everywhere. It's just who's doing it and under what title. That's Chief of Staff work. And that's the most important message here.

Speaker C: Okay, I love that. Um, and so you mentioned before, the Chief of Staff role is for, it's beneficial for the human, the person that they are, um, the executive for. So if you are that C suite leader, that president, that Vice president, um, that's that person. And you need a Chief of Staff what are the pain points that you may be feeling?

Speaker B: Yeah, great question. You know, you know you need a chief of staff when you are focused on follow up and execution and your head is down and you're chasing deliverables, um, you just sort of reflect, reflect on how your time's being spent, reflect on that major project that you're not getting to. Um, again as a business leader your focus should be on uh, you know, leadership growth, vision strategy, um, how much time are you spending there? If it's less than 50%, you probably need a chief of staff. Now I always recommend you get an EA first because even more important than strategic executionary support is administrative support. You need help with your calendar, you need help with your email and those tactical items. Um, but likely you need a chief of staff to allow you to step away from the business while still being connected. So the chief of staff can bubble up what's most important to you. A chief of staff can act as your proxy. Depending on the level of chief of staff there's a few key differences and the most senior levels are um, going to act as uh, proxy more often and they're going to act as advisor more often and they're going to lead major cross functional initiatives more often. Um, but true chief of staff work is so beneficial to uh, most leaders who have a lot going on, a ton of competing initiatives and they're spending too much time heads down on them.

Speaker C: I love that description and I feel like there are so many people I know that are in that space. And so as you consult and help folks um, really like put this into practice. Like how does that work? Is that something that you do? Is that like walk me through that.

Speaker B: Yeah. So I've been doing chief of staff consulting since I left my corporate world and um, we've of course have this chief of staff certification course as well for folks who are currently chiefs of staff or aspiring chiefs of staff. And I do placement for CEOs looking for chiefs of staff. Um, and from a consulting perspective it really depends on what the business needs. So I had a long term client, I think it was last year, most of the year who very um, cool company. They were a um, coffee tech company that offers like the um, technology of let's say a Starbucks to indie coffee makers. Loyalty and buy online pickup in store and things like that called the Joe Coffee app. Many listening might use it. Um, anyway they have two co founders, brothers who run the company and they needed chief of staff support but they didn't have the budget for a full Time chief of staff. So I did fractional chief of staff support for them and I led from a project perspective. Things like their board meeting materials and their investor updates and their all hands meetings and I think a few other projects, um, each month so fractionally can be done, kind of step in, solve some gaps, some, some higher level kind of strategic projects to fill. Um, and then in terms of, you know, other consulting, it really just depends on the individual. I was consulting with a, um, Nebraska, um, government official here in, in Nebraska for some potential kind of like family office support. And how do you get your family office in line and what, what are your major work streams and what's blocking and who's owning and how do we prioritize for you? Um, the fundamentals of chief of staff work being, you know, taking complex messy things and boiling them down into easy under easy, uh, to understand work streams and project management approach, um, can be done across so many industries. And it's really fun being the instructor for Nova because I talk to, gosh, we've got almost 700 students now in our course over the last 15 months or so in 23 countries now. And I talk to folks in tons of different industries and it's, you know, I had somebody on who is an aspiring chief of staff, um, for a black poet nonprofit recently. And then we've got family office and then we've got like Idaho government today. And I uh, had a call with you know, someone in Argentina and someone in Mexico and everyone's doing different work but the chief of staff roles necessary for everybody, which is really fun.

Speaker C: I love that there's lots of different points of entry. So um, if it's work that can be fractional, it could, you can help with full time and then you are developing leaders to then do that. Um, and so what do you think the difference is between those, those teams that have it right versus the team that don't. So not just the benefit to the executive or to the CEO, but like how does it benefit the whole, the whole group and the company?

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, one of the things we haven't talked about is how key a chief of staff is to culture.

Speaker C: Yeah, let's talk about it. I love that.

Speaker B: Yeah. So, um, my friend Clara Ma, who runs the chief of staff membership community, she describes chief of staff in this really simple way using the acronym cos Culture Operations Strategy. And culture is first for a reason. Um, the higher up you get as an executive, the less truth you're going to be told by everybody on your team. Yeah, right. And the Chief of staff is somebody who's supposed to come in and be honest with you and figure out how to bubble up information that's happening in your organization, um, that you need to know about. So the chief of staff should be really focused on listening to, you know, their employee base, listening to the executive team, solving problems without the leader, and bubbling up the most important things to the leader with recommended um, fixes and solves. Um, so it's, it's definitely an important, an important piece in terms of the culture aspect. But um, yeah, I can't think of, I can't think of a more important component for chief of staff work than, than that.

Speaker C: Yeah. So in terms of um, then building capability in it, um, how does that learning journey look from that perspective? The learner. So if I'm interested I've, you know, I have my color coded tabs or my Google sheet and that kind of person that wants to make that impact, um, what kinds of folks are um, are your learners? And then what does that learning journey look like?

Speaker B: Yeah, um, so we've got folks kind of that fall into three buckets in the NOVA Chief of staff certification course. We've got folks who are current chiefs of staff and they're looking for a roadmap, they're looking for support, um, tools and just honestly lot of validation that they're, that they're doing the job right. Um, many chiefs of staff are on islands alone. They're the only one in their company. Might be a small company, might be a big one, but they feel alone. And so we give them sort of that sense of like, uh, you're doing this right? Here's some more support and like you've got this. Um, but the course is 50, 60 hours of hands on, intense work. So it, it is quite the journey for everybody. Um, the next bucket would be aspiring chiefs of staff. So about 50% of our student base are senior executive assistants who are ready for um, a career path that they've never had before. And as we talked about earlier on the call, like there is no reason that some of these like highly skilled executive assistants who are already solving problems and taking on more leadership. There's no reason they should be gate capped from the chief of staff role. Um, and what's cool is that they're moving into chief of staff roles. So I've got students on my calls who are telling me, oh, my executive told me he wants to move me to chief of staff. So I'm here to level up and we're going to backfill for these ea, you know, more junior admin responsibilities. And I'm hearing that more and more. Um, so we've got aspiring chiefs of staff, whether they have an opportunity in front of them or not. And then we've got the folks who actually like, love their current role and they're not looking to be a chief of staff, but they are in a role that might be adjacent maybe at some level of suite adjacency, um, that they want more tools and resources and kind of a strategic lens of looking at things or a future, you know, potential someday and C suite kind of strategic support. Um, and so, yeah, we've got, we've got all kinds in our course.

Speaker C: I love it. And it, it feels like it should be something that the company is supporting and investing in their, um, in their employees.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, about, I think 70% of our students have company funding to join, which is great.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I think that's a very big, um, indicator of the kind of culture of development and opportunity to sponsor learning. For sure.

Speaker B: Oh my gosh. And it's only going to help the team. Like you asked earlier about the team impact. Like the other huge impact is the executive team I joined. And chiefs of staff don't get a lot of credit, a lot of recognition. Like things are good when you don't hear anything usually is how it is. But I remember like distinctly. I don't know if it was two or three months in, but being told by multiple different members of my executive team in my corporate role, um, just little comments like, wow, we've never been this organized or I've never, Our team's never been this prepared or this efficient for a meeting. Like little comments like that. That is what you got to hold onto as the chief of staff. Like you're making an impact on this executive team who are highly paid, their time is money and they've got a lot going on. Um, and many, many, many executive teams, as you know, Laura, ah, sit around in meetings that are like totally not worth their time.

Speaker C: So many of them, or they are leading these poorly run meetings themselves.

Speaker B: 100%. Yeah. So the chief of staff, like at first it can be a little bit, it can be a little tough. Like, who is this new person? And they are now the closest person to my boss. It used to be, maybe it used to be me. Um, the EA might think is this person after my job, are they going to change a bunch? But over time the chief of staff, um, you know, will, will get there if making, I guess essentially if they, um, if people Understand that they're there for the right reason, that they're continuing to stay genuine. They're focusing on relationships like it. Trust. There's no shortcuts for trust. Like, it just takes time and people will realize that you're on their side. Even though you're like this driven achiever coming in, excited to make a difference.

Speaker C: Yeah, I, I really love that. And I think you're so right. Like, um, the. They're probably unsung heroes and at the end of the day when it's going well, they probably don't hear a lot, which is good.

Speaker B: Yeah, you've got it. Yep. Yep.

Speaker C: Um, it's like, uh, the. They keep the machine running kind of thing, like you said, 100%. Um, well, I, I'm really excited to hear what you're excited about in 2025. What is coming up for you and what are you most excited about?

Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. Well, we were Con. Nova was contacted, uh, earlier this year about doing our course in person. Um, so we had our first in person certification course in late October and it went really, really well. And we've got three more planned next year with this conference company that reached out to us. So three in person chief of staff certification courses, I think Louisville, Nashville and Seattle next year. Um, so that's a big change for our company. We're like, okay, we're gonna figure out throwing events and facilitation and like all the things. But it, um, keeps us on our toes.

Speaker C: I love it. That's so exciting to, um, to look forward to and then to then have the community to connect.

Speaker B: Yeah. And the, Our in person students in October, they were, they. It was so funny. They were like, how does anybody do this online? The, the table groups are just so key for our learning. And I'm, I'm like, well, I'm so glad you feel that way. But we honestly have like 600 people online who just love it. So we now have two answers. We've got the in person, you know, learning journey and the online, depending on what kind of learner you are. So that's great.

Speaker C: I, um, so I have a learning and development background and I love that it has. It. There's success in both places. The online and in person. I love. I'm sure you're the builder. Right. And so you built something. It has. For it to work in both, it has to be good. So.

Speaker B: Yes. Thank you. Well, we need you to come facilitate for us.

Speaker C: Well, I'd love to partner with you.

Speaker B: Great.

Speaker C: Well, I have just really enjoyed learning about your career and what makes you tick and how you are growing and developing, um, all of these leaders and, and executive teams.

Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah, it's fun to talk about. Obviously, I'm passionate about it and it's, it's, it's been great.

Speaker C: Well, how should we connect with you? What's the best way to keep in touch?

Speaker B: You know, I post every day on LinkedIn about the chief of Staff role. So that's a good, that's a good one. Um, I saw today that somehow I'm little me with, you know, 25,000 followers, not even, um, I'm ranked top 300 in the US for LinkedIn creators and top 1% somehow for LinkedIn content. Um, which is wild. Thanks. But, yeah, I don't know that. Just, we just found that out today, so I'm a little bit like, really? But that's, that's where you can find me for sure. And then you can find us, um, @novachiefofstaff.com and email us@helloovachiefofstaff.com and I usually recommend people just dive deep into the syllabus as a first step to see if the content is right for you.

Speaker C: I love it. And I think, um, I think for those listening, whether you are looking to enhance your own development or career path, or if you're an executive or in an organization or a C suite team that needs a chief of staff, I think this episode is going to be just so beneficial from so many people, and I hope that you are able to stop and kind of celebrate that achievement from your LinkedIn content creation deal.

Speaker B: Thanks. Thanks. Yeah. If anybody's, you know, curious about what it's like to post on LinkedIn, I started a year ago and, um, been posting every day and it's been, it's been fun to see a totally, totally outside comfort zone, kind of, kind of new work, but it's been, it's been great.

Speaker C: Very cool thing. Well, thank you for sharing that with us. We are celebrating you here too.

Speaker B: Oh, thanks. Well, thank you so much, Laura. Uh,

Speaker A: What stuck with me most about this conversation with Maggie is the reminder that leadership isn't about doing all of it. It's not doing it all. And, and you can't do it all. It's about doing the right things with intention. And if you're feeling overwhelmed or like your role is too reactive, ask yourself,

Speaker C: where is my time going?

Speaker A: What might I need to delegate and let go of? And what needs more clarity, whether you're in the C suite or on your way there. You don't have to do it alone, and you shouldn't. Maggie's work is a reminder that structure, trust and support are leadership tools, not luxuries. Remember, your leadership belongs here. You belong in the C Suite. I want to thank thank you so much for listening to the youe Belong in the C Suite podcast. If you are enjoying this content, please remember to rate and review on Apple Podcasts. By leaving a review, you are helping others find this content. We will be featuring five star reviews on air in upcoming episodes. Editing and support for the podcast is done by S and E Podcast Management. To get more tech tips and tools to help you live a life guided by your values, go to thecatchgroup. Com, Keep your boundaries and take care M.

Speaker B: Of.