Leveraging Leadership

Listener Question: Building a Mini PMO as Chief of Staff - Growth or Backslide?

• Emily Sander • Season 1 • Episode 208

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Emily answers a listener question from Tamsen in Minneapolis, who’s been asked to build a mini PMO function. She talks through concerns about returning to project management work, possible worries about people management, and how to clarify the scope with the CEO and COO. Emily suggests separating past experiences from the new opportunity and making sure the Chief of Staff role remains broad and strategic.


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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. 

emily-sander_1_07-08-2025_132411:

All right. We have a listener question from Tamson V in Minneapolis. Tamson says, hi, Emily. Love the show. I'm in a bit of a weird spot. My CEO and COO recently came to me with a project they'd like me to take on, and they were very clear. It's my choice. No pressure. They think I'd be great at it, and I get why It plays to a lot of my strengths. The idea is to build out a sort of mini PMO function to help us get more rigor across initiatives. It would mean bringing on a couple of new people and probably owning the structure and rhythm for how projects flow through the org. But I'm hesitating and I'm not totally sure why. It's work I've done before and I know what it takes to do it well, but something about it just feels heavy, I guess. I'm trying to figure out if this is an opportunity. If I'm walking back into something I've already outgrown, would love your take. All right, Tamson, thank you so much for the question. I have loads of questions in my head back to you, what about this makes it feel heavy to you, or there Seems like there's something going on beneath the surface here. Maybe a. Previous experience or connotation you have to something. And the reason I say that is because I'm reading between the lines on some of this. I'm walking back into something I've already outgrown is an interesting sentiment as is They think I'd be a great fit and I get why it plays to a lot of my strengths. And then you're also bringing on some new people, so I'm gonna make some guesses here. Hopefully those are relevant guesses for you. My guess is you've had some previous functional experience I. With project management or with PMOs, and maybe that was like your functional expertise and maybe you took the chief of staff role to try to get out of that, to try to broaden your s scope or be more strategic about things, get a broader scope of the business and lift yourself into a, a strategic leader. And so this might feel like a backslide into like, Hey, like we're going into PMO territory and I don't like that. So the first thing I would say there is, this is not that. This new opportunity is not tied to your previous experience. What do I mean by that? Clearly, like it is in like a, in like a practical external way. they might be leaning on you for like, Hey, like you probably know how to do this. Well, it plays to your strengths'cause you've done this functionally. But what project management or being part of a PMO. Meant for you before, doesn't need to carry into this future opportunity. So separate those two things in your mind. A lot of times chiefs of staff go, oh, I don't wanna be pigeonholed into this thing, and I totally get what they're talking about. And in some cases you do have to guard against that. But this actually sounds like it's pretty open-ended, meaning. The CEO and COO are coming to you about this project, and the idea about it is sort of building out a mini PMO function that doesn't sound totally. Concrete. It doesn't sound like, okay, here's exactly what we want. Here's how it has to be. They're not coming to you with that. It sounds like they kind of have this idea, it might add some more rigor to the business, and they're leaning on you as their chief of staff who has the added benefit of being involved with the PMO previously, and you might be able to help craft that. You might be able to help design that, so it's like, Ugh. I have some reservations about what that meant in the past. Let me number one, separate that in my head. the past experience doesn't have to dictate what that means for me going forward. So number one, number two is, hey, I'm now in a position where I can probably help design this thing and craft this thing and make it so it's this, not that. Make it so it helps with the business objective. It helps align what the CEO and COO want, and it's something that would work well for me. So I think there's a lot of room in there for that, from what it sounds like. The other thing here I caught onto is this would mean bringing on a couple of new people. I. Many chiefs of staff I speak to go into the chief of staff role.'cause they don't want any direct reports. They're like people management. Not for me, love people. I could handle a few high performing ics, but I don't want to do like the people management thing. So this is a guess. You could love people, you could want a team. This could be a great opportunity in that sense for you, but just kind of calling that out in case it's something of a concern for you. And I would say that. Managing people is. There's a lot of range in managing people. Are you managing, an intern, it's their first job ever and they're like bright eye and bushy tails. They dunno what anything means at all. Or are you managing a senior leader and a senior executive, or even a very seasoned IC who's like, plug and play. I've done this before. I can do it in my sleep. I've been to the rodeo before. I know what it's all about and I can just do this for you. Very hands off, very self-sufficient, all those things. So. Just kind of a, a word of consideration there that if there is kind of a reluctance or hesitation around bringing on a couple new people, depending on who those people are, that could be a very involved thing. That could be a very hands off thing. and again, you might be able to craft that into what you want. I. If I'm going along with the guesses that I've had, in this example, if you are building a mini PMO function and you have been in the PMO world before, maybe you have some contacts where it's like, Hey, if you want a mini PMO function, I know this person, this person, this person. They're excellent. They're exactly what we need, and I know them. I can work well with them and I can build my team, in my own mold in that sense. So you could have options like that at your fingertips. Okay. What else would love your take on this? Is it an opportunity or am I walking back into something I've already outgrown? From the outside looking in, I don't see it as like, oh my gosh, clearly you're walking back into something that you've outgrown. I think again, you can craft it and maybe just have some conversations around, hey, uh, like depending on your relationship with the CEO and COO, it could be like, Hey, I know I come from a PMO background. I just wanna make sure that I'm still gonna be involved in all these other things. Or even do a presumptive close around that where, you know, as we're building out this mini PMO team, here's how I see this integrating with the other. Departments, or here's how I see this integrating across departments or in our long-term strategy, all these things that are just presumptively, you're still doing all of the overarching chief of staff roles and responsibilities. So I think if there's a concern, figure out how much of that is a you thing versus how much of that is like, no, this actually a good thing to talk about upfront and just kind of lace it into the conversation. Or, I don't know if this has been like a, A thing between you and the CEO or COO before, and you need to hit it on the head and make sure, hey, I wanna be clear about the expectations. You could have that conversation too. Nothing about this screams like, oh my gosh. stepping back into something you're, you've outgrown again, I'm making some guesses here. but I think this is an opportunity. I think you can craft this how you want it to be. I think having a mini PMO function rolling up to you is. Not a bad thing at all. I think it's a good thing to have a little oomph under the chief of staff and have a little arms and legs and tactical and practical I can execute this strategy. And it's not just you doing it, you have a mini team. So I think all of those things are positive, Hopefully it gave you some good food for thought. Um, again, nothing about this is screaming like no, like red alert. Don't do it. it sounds like for you some conversations and some thinking about what does this mean to me and what would I need to, I. Talk about with my CEO and COO going into this decision. It sounds like there's some thought that needs to be had there, and you're reaching out to some folks, myself included, about some considerations and inputs there, and then you can move forward and come to a good decision for yourself and for your team from there. So I hope that helps and if anyone else has a question they'd like to ask and have answered on the air, then feel free to reach out to me. I have been told by my team not to say email me directly, which I normally say. I say, email me at Emily at next level. I. Coach, but they have said to say, drop it in the comments. And they kind of told me that in a way where that's what the cool kids say. So if that's what I'm supposed to be saying, then if you have a question for me, please drop it in the comments or Drop me a DM on LinkedIn, so direct message. Just message me on LinkedIn, find my profile. It's in the show notes. Or you could email me directly at Emily at Next Level coach, and I'll catch you next week on Leveraging Leadership.