Leveraging Leadership

Four Reasons to Retain Your Chief of Staff During a Downturn

• Emily Sander • Season 1 • Episode 196

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Cutting your Chief of Staff during a downturn is a big mistake—they act as a utility player who can fill gaps in HR, operations, sales, and more. Chiefs of Staff keep morale up after layoffs, help maintain strong communication, support the CEO’s decision-making, and are key to rebuilding when things improve. Emily compares them to the knight in chess: flexible, able to jump over obstacles, and unblock problems where others can’t.


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Who Am I?

If we haven’t yet before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want. 

 

Time Stamps:

00:48 Reason 1: The Utility Infielder
01:45 Reason 2: The Culture Keeper
04:16 Reason 3: Keeping the Principal Sane
06:00 Reason 4: The Comeback Catalyst
07:52 Summary of Key Points
08:27 The Chess Knight Analogy

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Let me tell you why. The worst mistake you can make in a layoff or a downturn is cutting your chief of staff. Chiefs of staff are not overhead. They're leverage. Think of them as your utility infielders or your shock absorbers, or the glue that holds things together, or the person who gives you a sanity check when you need it most. So here are some reasons why you need to keep your chief of staff. Reason number one, they are that utility infielder. Chiefs of staff aren't fixed to one functional area. They can drop into gaps wherever is most needed for you. So if you're like, Emily, we can't hire multiple heads to run these departments anymore. The chief of staff is perfectly suited to just hold HR together for the next little bit. You know what we have to have our operations run. Our delivery teams need to have a leader, a chief of staff can step into that role. Same with sales operations, with marketing, with compliance, with product, all these different things. A chief of staff has a working knowledge already of all of those functional groups. And knows how they tie together to the overall business. And so they're well suited to step into those roles. They're flexible. They're versatile. They're adaptable. And you can, I just kind of feel like moving a chess piece on a board. You can move them where you need them to be. And a chief of staff is a utility infielder in that sense. Reason number two, chiefs of staff are culture keepers in these scenarios. So chiefs of staff are designers of culture. In certain situations, we're like, Hey, we're professionalizing the org, we're growing. Let's help design and be intentional about the culture. They certainly help espouse the culture in their day to day and how they interact with people. In these scenarios, if you've had a riff, if you've had a layoff and the people left are looking around going, okay, like the four people I used to sit next to and work with are just gone. That's a gut punch. That's a blow to morale. And so having someone who has been involved with the culture, who is attuned to that, who knows what needs to be done production wise, but also takes care of the people, takes care of the staff, and can talk to people on a human level, I. Is a huge advantage to have in your organization. The last thing you wanna do is get rid of that and or get rid of communication channels, right? So if, okay, things are flying around, we're doing layoffs, we're doing riffs, which means. Something has not gone to plan. So there's changes happening. People are freaked out because like, so and so next to me doesn't have a job anymore, and I'm looking at their empty chair or whatever. Having someone say, here's the latest information. Here's what we're looking at, here's how we're making decisions. We actually need to hear from you what you're hearing from customers, and integrate that into our decision making process. Someone to coordinate and connect. All of that is critical, is imperative. You don't wanna get rid of that at this juncture. I think also. Chiefs of staff are either spearheading or at least involved in the rhythm of business. So in the leadership meetings and in the all hands meetings, and maybe they have some different, conversations with specific teams or perhaps specific individuals at the C-suite level, the VP level director, manager, rank and file level. Those can continue and maybe even accelerate during these times to make sure the communications channels are flowing. The last thing you want is people to be. Freaked out'cause of layoffs and left in the dark and left wondering what's gonna happen to me? Are they doing more, what's coming up? Embracing themselves. So keeping that culture intact as best as possible, chief of staff is that culture keeper. Reason number three, a chief of staff helps keep the principal sane. And I've said this in previous podcasts, but I'll say it again. Keeping the CEO sane and on point and not losing their gosh darn mind and not losing their marbles is a win for everybody. Right? If a chief of staff goes insane, it's good for zero people. It's not good for the principal themselves, the CEO themselves. It's not good for the chief of staff. It's not good for the leadership team, for the expanded team and staff in the company. It's not good for their family, et cetera, et cetera. So the last person you wanna get rid of is the person who is trusted. You're consigliere the person who can be adaptable with you. We're going through some unexpected changes. We gotta stay on point here. We have some decisions coming up that are people's livelihoods and potentially the effectiveness and the existence of the company. In some cases, we have some big decisions to make. I gotta make sure I'm making high quality decisions as the CEO. I need people around me who can push me, who can challenge me, who can see things from a different perspective, who can help me brainstorm who I trust, knows what's going on, and also wants, what's best for the company and want what's best for the team, and is gonna tell me stuff straight to my face and is gonna tell me the truth. So the last person you wanna get rid of are, are those types of people. And chief of staff should be in that position already. So you wanna have that thought partner, you wanna have that person who keeps it real. but also can be encouraging and pick you up in times where if, if you're doing a layoff and you're a CEO, that's a tough spot for you to be in too. That's, that's rough as well for making those decisions. So. Keeping the chief of staff to keep your sanity is a, is a good call. Two thumbs up. The fourth reason I would say is a chief of staff is the comeback catalyst. If you've done a riff or a layoff round or had a downsize, or hopefully you will be able to bring some of those folks back. Hopefully you'll have an upturn and eventually we wanna start bringing people back and we wanna start rebuilding the teams. You have a chief of staff who is who? That's their job, right? Chief of staff. They help design orgs, they help design org charts. They help figure out how do the teams have to be situated to operate the best together and as a group for the overall objective of the company. So. If and when you bring folks back, you wanna have someone who is adept and highly skilled at that, at that function, at that intangible function of here's how we put this thing back together and here's the sequence we do it in, and here's the comms we have about this internally and externally, all that stuff. They can even be training someone up. So let's say they did an interim. HR role? Well, if you're in a position to bring back some HR staff, maybe it's the existing staff or the old staff that was there before, maybe those people have found other roles. So you have to bring on someone new. In either case, the chief of staff is perfectly suited to literally help train and onboard and ramp those folks up'cause they've been doing that role themselves. Or they at least have that working knowledge and they know how. That role ties to the overall picture, how that role ties to the long-term goals of the company. So they can build this thing back up with you and or for you if you're like, you go take care of this chief of staff, I got other stuff to deal with, you can give them the keys to the kingdom, drop it off, and know that it's gonna be taken care of. Well by someone who knows all the players, knows the processes, and knows what you want out of the org structure. Okay, so those were the four reasons. The chief of staff is a utility infielder. They can flex in and out of different things. They are the culture keeper. So you wanna keep morale up as best as possible, especially in these times. They keep you sane, they keep the principal sane. So that is a win for everybody and they are the comeback catalyst for when you rebuild your team and rebuild your staff. You can do that efficiently, you can do that quickly, but also effectively. So those are some reasons why you should not get rid of your chief of staff in a downturn, in a layoff situation. It's almost the last person you wanna get rid of. oh, and one other thing I'll say here is one of the reasons that I chose the chess piece of a knight to be on the cover of my book about the chief of staff role is because the Knight, which is the little horse piece, is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. It moves differently. It has a unique, skill set or move set or whatever you want to call that. But this one is the only one that can jump over other pieces and they can unblock things They just go where other pieces can't. And so I think in the same way as I was talking through this, that's the sentiment and that's one of the reasons why I chose the Knight to be on the front of, of my book cover. So all of that to say if you're in a rough spot right now and you're having to make some tough decisions, I would pause before you cut your chief of staff. Don't think of your chief of staff as extra in quotes. Think of them as your leverage point. The leverage point you need, or the multiplier that you can deploy across your org to make it run better, especially in times of pressure. I. So I would keep some of these things in mind and if you need help brainstorming any of this or soundboarding any of this, feel free to reach out, drop a note in the comments, reach out to me on LinkedIn. You could email me directly at Emily at Next level Coach here to help. I know some of these scenarios are not where you want it to be, but you, it is where you are and so you might have to be facing some of these decisions and try to make the best ones you can with all the information you have at the time. Hopefully, this has been helpful and I will catch you next week on leveraging leadership.