Decoding the Modern Chief of Staff and Their Essential Responsibilities

Rachael Goldfarb shares real-life stories from her time supporting the Chief of Staff to President Clinton and leading at the Gates Foundation. She breaks down what a Chief of Staff is and isn’t, highlights why the role is senior and not administrative, and talks about challenges women face in these positions. The episode includes examples of advocating for staff, building relationships, and navigating tough boundaries with principals.

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If we haven’t met 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:
01:25 Experiences in the White House
05:55 Defining the Chief of Staff Role
12:15 The Importance of Relationship Building
20:58 Women in Leadership and Chief of Staff Roles
25:43 The Thrill of Helping Others
27:53 Challenges and Misunderstandings
32:09 Elevating the Chief of Staff Role
42:33 Demonstrating Value as a Chief of Staff
46:10 Final Thoughts and Advice

Transcript

0:06

Welcome back to Leveraging Leadership, where we unpack the art of business leadership. I'm your host, Emily Sander, chief of staff to an executive leadership coach. This show is all about finding your points of greatest influence and leveraging them to better serve those around you.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 0:25

My guest today is Rachel Goldfarb, founder of Golden Glue Strategies and partner at Prime Executive Office, and we are gonna talk all about the real chief of staff role. So what it is, what it is, not, how it differs from an ea, and what makes the principal Chief of staff partnership work and what the chief of staff role means for women in leadership. Rachel spent time supporting the Chief of Staff to the President of the United States and serving as special assistant and chief of staff to the president of Global Health at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is currently serving as chief of Staff for sparkly. Rachel, welcome to the show.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 1:03

Thank you.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 1:04

Quite the introduction, quite the background.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 1:07

I thank you. I always say that it's really important to remember that I did very unimportant work for very important people when I was serving in the White House.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 1:20

Fair, fair enough. But still, still quite the experience. So

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 1:23

Thank

Experiences in the White House

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 1:24

just jump in right there. What, what was it like being in that whole POTUS atmosphere ecosystem?

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 1:31

I mean, it was the most fabulous experience. It was such an honor, but it was also completely bananas. I mean, it, it just, know, every day Bill Clinton wanted to spend. Wanted to extend the day by three hours if he could, because he just loved that job so much. And know, I was really lucky in that I worked for John Podesto, who was considered one of the most effective chiefs of staff that he had. and so I got to see somebody who really understood the position and how to sort of manage the entire behemoth of the federal bureaucracy. So. That was great. But, um, bill Clinton was like, the very best sense, a complete nightmare to manage as a chief of staff because, you know, he would. Go out there and talk to a bunch of people and suddenly one of them would say, Hey, Mr. President, I have the solution to the Middle East peace problem.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 2:37

Oh, good.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 2:38

you know, he would, and Bill Clinton would say, great. I need to bring this back to my team. so John, you know, it was like, it came from everywhere, anywhere, every idea, every possible thing you could think of. And um, it just. He was very hard to manage, but John did a superb job, and I was really incredibly lucky and fortunate to be there.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 3:08

What's one of the things that John did to, to manage that in the best possible way? This person who would just take opinions and advice and wanna have conversations with people. What's one thing that helped?

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 3:18

I mean, you know, I think that. of the great things that I learned about the chief of staff role broadly is that you have to be able to say no, and you have to be the one that goes in the room and says, Mr. President, this is a crazy idea. And just sort of manage expectations and, really understand sort of the extent to which, um. People are just, the president gets so many inputs throughout a single day and you know, managing his. His legacy, because obviously this is very important to each president that they feel as though they are making a difference, making history, doing all of the things that you aspire to do as president, um, but also in a realistic way that doesn't completely, you know, kill your whole staff and drive everybody crazy. So. Um, I, I think that that was the best thing that I saw was that John was very good at sort of saying, look, do this, but we can't do that. that was sort of his shtick, which was, um, I think just very impressive.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 4:35

And it takes KA to say, I'm sorry, Mr. President, we can't do that.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 4:39

Yes it does. And most people do not wanna say no to the President of the United States, but somebody has

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 4:46

Right.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 4:47

And I think that that's true of, all chiefs. And I, I also think, you know, it gave me a wonderful vantage point in terms of understanding the role itself This was the first American chief of staff. And so watching this role in action, um, really gave me a very particular vantage point. And so it's given me a very clear definition of what the role is and what it is not. so I very strong opinions about this because I really do feel like I've got a very, Like exciting, but also privileged opportunity to watch this role and see it. And I think with that kind of honor, you also have to sort of serve the public and look, a chief of staff is, is in service to people anyway, so it's sort of in my blood.

Defining the Chief of Staff Role

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 5:46

Yes. I have so many questions about your experience there but since you mentioned it, you have strong feelings about what a chief of staff is and is not. Let's just get into that. In your opinion, what is a chief of staff and what is it not?

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 6:01

so I think it's important to sort of recognize that first of all, a chief of staff needs to exist in any organization. I don't care whether it's three people or 30,000 people. You need a chief of staff. Um, and I always say that. Um, I'm originally from Philadelphia, so I always like to talk about Ben Franklin, and he had this wonderful quote that was, if you wanna keep a secret between three people, two of them need to be dead. And so my whole thing is when you have more than one person in a room, opportunity for miscommunication is quite high. And so it really doesn't matter what the number is. need a chief of staff in the room if you're trying to conduct business and you're trying to grow a business. Um, so that's the first thing. The second thing is, you know, there are three overarching foundational sort of, um, they're just found, they're very foundational to the role, is, uh, number one, they need to. the, the principle and also extend the, the principal's time, energy efforts, all of that stuff. I don't believe in saying a force multiplier because I'm a little unclear on what that means exactly, but I, I do think you have to protect the principle. You have to make sure that things, you need to play chess, right? You need to make sure that people understand, um, you know, what's coming down the pike. What could potentially hurt them, what the risks are how you need to make certain decisions based on context and information that the principal may not have. So that's the first thing. The second thing is you really need to make that you are serving in sort of a conductor slash orchestration role. So my. Argument for this is, this is what the White House chief of staff does. Right? Which is he or she makes sure that, you know, the State Department isn't saying something that the Department of Defense said the exact opposite thing three days ago. Right? And so it's important, I understand that not everything is a federal behemoth, but, and a bureaucracy. But nevertheless, when you have people in the room who are C-suite executives and they're focused, they're very focused on their remit, not really thinking about the broader organization, and it's critically important that you have somebody who is who understands that alignment and all of these sort of challenges that come up when you have a bunch of people in a room. Um. You make sure that those are all smoothed over because ultimately, A CEO should be thinking about strategy, external affairs, selling, whatever it is that they're doing internally. Somebody needs to mine the shop and make sure that things are working across the organization effectively. So I think that that's the second piece. And then the final piece is sort of broadly advocating for the staff. What I mean by that is not, you know, going in and say, Hey, Sally had this problem and we need to do something about it. I, I would let the HR function handle that. But I do think that it's really important when a policy is not landing well with the entire staff and it's making people profoundly unhappy. Somebody needs to go into the principal's office and say, Houston, we have a problem. And so I think. It really requires having a pulse on the broader staff, having an understanding of all of the C-suite and the executives and all the, the direct reports to the principal, and sort of making sure that all of them are aligned and understand what the goals are, what the priorities are, and what the values are of the organization. Um, and then, you know, protecting the principal. Those are sort of, I think, the three foundational things. And, you know, I, I'm. I've recently started working with Prime Executive Office, which is, um, a search firm, a placement agency that provides also advisory services with Catherine Ardi, who, um, was Melody Hobson's, chief of staff. For those of you who love Star Wars, she is married to George Lucas, but also in her own right, has some. Very deep, um, and sound understanding of investments. She runs aerial investments, which is a very famous sort of investment for her anyway. Um, Catherine and I talk about this often, which is, you know, it's really important to sort of understand that this needs to be a senior person. It needs to be somebody with business acumen. needs to be somebody who sort of understands. people and power and sort of how to move the needle and how to navigate those spaces Well, and so, you know, I am of the view that the chief of staff is actually, has some pretty foundational elements that are critical for any and every chief of staff. if you're doing. None of those things, then you don't have a chief of staff, you're just calling them chief of staff. So that's my view on it.

The Importance of Relationship Building

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 11:29

And you mentioned, there's three people in the room and they can't keep a secret, and conversations happen. I heard someone. Someone say when you expand your team, the number of relationships grows exponentially.'cause you think about all the permutations of relationships between 2, 3, 10 50 and at a certain level, chief of staff is managing the staff and certainly at a, you know, 30,000 employee. Company they're not having BFF friendships with, with all of them, but they are having to manage a plethora of relationships. So I'm wondering where that sits in your, Hey, there's some common threads and certain traits and skills. A chief of staff has to have to be called a chief of staff. Where does relationship building fit into that?

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 12:17

So it is absolutely one of the most important, um, parts of the role. what I would argue is that, you know, a lot of CEOs talk about how they want their chief of staff to make them look like a superhero, they want a chief of staff who's just gonna get their vibe, right, like, who gets them, who understands them. my whole argument is, look, this is not a romcom from Hollywood. You're not going to have somebody walk in and suddenly feel like, wow, I just get this person and they so get me. And it's like this fabulous spark that happens in a moment that is never happening because we do not live in Hollywood land. Ultimately the way in which a chief of staff builds their sort of remit and can provide the kind of counsel that I think CEOs and executives expect to create relationships and build trust. And so that becomes sort of the critical part, um, of. Any chief of staff's role within, you know, there's the 90 day magic that apparently happens where after at 91 days you don't have these responsibilities anymore, or something happens and you don't turn into a pumpkin. I don't know. But, um, you know, people constantly refer to 90 days. I, I don't believe that to be true. I think it's actually a much longer period than that. But I do think that within those first couple of months, as you are. Navigating an organization, building relationships, building trust, that is your main remit. It's the main thing you have to accomplish. Everything else is just gravy.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 14:10

And I think there's a, a nuance that I wanna call out or maybe tease out, which is there's the, we're not in a rom-com movie, so like Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant or whatever, Notting Hill is gonna walk in like, oh my gosh. Uh, I think there is, I. Trust. You can, you need to have trust, I believe, and you can have trust by having very different personalities and very different, uh, you don't have to like get them, you have to respect them. I would say you have to trust them. But I'm wondering what you think about like the nuance in there.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 14:42

Yeah, I mean, look, I think it's hard and I think that this is where sort of chiefs of staff either thrive and, and really flourish or are barely surviving. You know, there's, there's sort of a demarcation there. I do think that, um, you know, it's important to consider that. Part of a relationship. I, I think the two sort of critical things that make relationships work well, um, particularly in a business context is number one, listening. So an opportunity for you to listen and absorb what is the principle telling you? What worries him or her? do they see their weakness? What are the things that, um. They feel they're missing or they're doing too much of, or their time is being wasted by devoting it to the following three things kind of thing. And I also think it's a time to be vulnerable, right? Which is, it's an opportunity for you to sort of talk about yourself, talk about some of your personal stuff, and hangups. And you know, I, I think it's an opportunity to sort of figure out. How does this person operate how can I make them sort of their best selves work? Right. And so, um, yeah, there's a tremendous nuance. I mean, part of the reason why chiefs of staff, struggle as much as they do is because this is very much personality driven as much as anything else. And it's important to sort of recognize that you've got. That you have a role to play that's important, but you also need to sort of manage and protect a principal who has personality and quirks and wins. And those can get very complicated very quickly.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 16:43

And, and sometimes it's protecting them from themselves. I was just talking to a chief of staff the other day and he was saying, well, Emily, I, I always ask my principal, what can I help you with? What can I take off your plate? And now I have all these add. In tasks that they don't wanna do. And I'm like, okay, let's pause with that question. I think asking yourself, what does the principal need? They might not want to do it or, or know to do it, but what did they need and what is gonna move the needle for the team and company overall, like that's your job. And it might mean supporting, encouraging, taking stuff off the principal's plate. Or it might be challenging like, you need to get up here. Like go here and stay here. The team has this, we need you up here.'cause this, this activity up here is the one that only you can do. So I'm wondering the kind of age old question in chief of staff land is. There's the strategic component and I love, love, love that you said. It has to be a senior role. This is a senior executive role and there may be operational components or elements in there as well.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 17:45

Yeah. And so look, the chief of staff should not be managing somebody's calendar and the minute by minute of their day

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 17:54

Thank you. Slow clap. Let's an applause. Yes.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 17:57

Because look, I, I really believe that a executive assistants are critical roles.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 18:03

They're awesome.

Women in Leadership and Chief of Staff Roles

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 18:04

they're so important. They are. I always say this, which is if you're in an all hands meeting with a CEO and you do not understand that the executive admin is the most important person in the room, you know nothing about people or management, right? so, you know. I revere executive admins, and also I know that I am, I would absolutely be awful at what they do because I schedule myself and it is usually a train wreck, you know? So my life is, is absolutely a mess. Um, and what I wanna sort of emphasize is that those two roles have very distinct and different. Remits and also that they require completely different skillset sets, right? you know, the chief of staff sort of needs to look at the bigger picture and understand everything that's happening. And to some extent, an executive admin needs to understand what's going on across the broader organization. But mostly they are there to protect principal, the person that they do all the logistics around. That's their role. and so I think it's important to sort of keep in mind that look. You are going to be asked to do a bunch of things that are outside of what you envision, because I think you could almost argue this about any job description, which is on day one. You can throw that thing out because it is not gonna be what you think it is. It's not gonna be what they think it is. It's going to be something completely different. I do think that there should be some expectation around, yes, it needs to be strategy. Yes, it needs to sort of have some components like the three that I talked about earlier. But also, you know, look, if, if you walk into somebody's office and they say, I can't find my binder for today. I can't find, I can't find this, I can't find that, whether it's the CFO, the COO or the chief of staff, somebody's gonna help. Right? And so ultimately what ends up happening is. If you are leveraged correctly, and if you are positioned properly, you have the most access to the principal outside of their executive admin. So the likelihood that you're going to get asked, you know, these sort of. Seemingly small things is very high, but that doesn't mean that your entire job should revolve around lunch orders and making sure that people have their briefing books, like, you know, there has to be some balance, I think. As we're, you had mentioned women in leadership for me, and so this is like an excellent segue, which is I think a lot of women sort of take on these roles and think that they suddenly have to do them all the time. Um, and I simply don't believe that to be true, and I think you have to sort of draw some lines in the sand. so perfect segue to women in leadership because obviously women. For a wide variety of reasons, cultural, gender, norms, all sorts of reasons. Um, sort of take these jobs and make them sort of permanently part of their remit. And I think, you know, it's really important to consider that, you need to draw a line in the sand. At some point you have to say, you know. Getting lunch for the entire staff is not my job, but know, if you need it for this one moment in time, I'm happy to do it, to be helpful, but like that's not a permanent part of my job,

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 22:00

Yeah, and I think people often say, do you have a good chief of staff? Like make sure you have a good chief of staff and make sure it's the right fit and they make me look good and all these things. And to me that's a valid question. So equally is do you have a good principal? Do you have a principal who knows how to support a chief of staff who knows how to utilize and optimize a chief of staff across their org? I'm, you're smiling, so I'm gonna, what are your thoughts there?

The Thrill of Helping Others

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 22:27

So I, I have very strong thoughts about this too. It shouldn't surprise you that I have very strong thoughts about a lot of things. Um, you know what's interesting about my partnership with Prime is that, uh, you know, a number of communities came up to me and said, I want to, you know, you should be a part of our organization. You should be a part of our group. And the reason why I was so interested in Catherine's sort of. Company. And what she does is, because in her placement process, what she actually does is evaluate the leadership team first. So she looks at every single senior leader. She interviews them in depth. I've actually, I'm actually participating in what she calls a discovery right now. Um, and we're interviewing every senior. Senior lead, um, throughout the organization in order to evaluate whether they need a chief of staff and to sort of think through. How, what are the problems we're trying to solve here? And does the chief of staff actually solve them? Because I do think that it's, it's having a renaissance moment for sure, and everybody thinks they need a chap chief of staff because like Mike next door has a chief of staff, so obviously I need one too. the reality is sometimes you just need a really good executive admin, right? Or you, that you have in your senior office needs to reflect your own needs, wants, wishes and desires, but also sort of through your weaknesses, where you need help, how, where, how the organization is structured. So, um. You know, I really appreciate, and, and I will say this, which is I'm working for some fabulous leaders right now. I'm really lucky. that has not always been the case. I have had plenty of people in my career, uh. One in particular who sort of thought that it was my job to go get his dry cleaning. And I finally said, you know, I'm actually a lawyer and I've clerked for two federal courts and you know, I, you're just, this is a massive waste of time and money really for both of us. And so, you know, again, I think, I'm never one to not roll up my sleeves if you need me to do something. I mean, I was at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I was the number two employee of the technology team, so somebody needed a stapler. My boss, I was getting it for him. I was also responsible for building a team of 250 people in a distributed workforce for the first time in the federal government. also negotiating an open source policy agency-wide, which was the first of its kind in the federal government too. So it wasn't like I was only getting staplers. I was also doing some pretty important work too. I think that's the balance, right? Is that you sort of have to realize that. You're here to help. You're here to be in service of the people around you. Because real thrill of this job being able to help others, right? And to see them shine and to see them achieve the things that they were trying to achieve. And that's the thrill of the job is when you say, removed a bunch of blockers for that person so that they could actually shine and really show their stuff. Um, and so when you don't have that, it's, it's a really hard job. So you wanna make sure that, um, you know, you, you are in service of others, but it's gotta be balanced. It's a really, it's a really tricky balance, but it's one that needs to happen.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 26:20

Yeah. And you talk about women in these senior executive high trust roles and that being sometimes the quickest pathway into leadership, and you've, you've got thoughts on, on that as well.

Challenges and Misunderstandings

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 26:32

Yeah. And so, you know, my view on this is, and it is a view shared by many, it's not an original idea by any stretch, which is, you know, women dominate chief of staff roles. You know, there are great men out there who do it. Um, I respect them enormously, but women for the most part do this role. It's, it, it's. They're attracted to it in a way that men aren't. and so in my mind what it does is it effectively diversifies the C-suite and it's the fastest way to do it because you don't have to get a million degrees in certifications and sort of, right. It's a, it's a. there's no question that it's a job that you grow into and that you work towards. And I do believe it's a pinnacle. It is not a pit stop. This is not a job that you say, oh, I'm gonna do this for two years and then become the COO. No, this is the ultimate, and you know. When John Podesta was in the White House, he wasn't thinking, oh, what should my next gig be? You know, he was, it was quite clear that he was in charge and he was, that was the job. but I think that, uh, you know, women in particular can diversify the C-Suite through this role. The problem is that it is classically. Under leveraged, misused, mispositioned, um, you know, it is the role that no one understands and everybody wants, and the problem with that combination is. It's, you are setting them up for failure. The minute they walk in the door, they haven't even opened their mouths yet, and it is set up for failure. and my concern around this is that a, it really pushes women out of workplaces and it really sort of marginalizes them and it's a hit to the ego, right? I mean, it's really hard to sort of come back and think, oh, I can do this again. Right. You know, it's a, it's a hard thing to sort of. back from. but I will say that it's, it's one of those roles where if you are positioned well and if you have the right leadership and if you sort of build a level of influence, really think that it is the role that will be responsible for. making the workplace tenable for again, right? Because right now, post COVID, there's this whole, should we go back to the office? Should we not? Is it hybrid? What does it look like? And I think a lot of people are missing in this debate is that, um. Look, childcare is a huge issue, and I am experiencing it right now because I have a toddler and I understand the expense, and it is enormously difficult to manage a career while you have a kid. Um, but I actually think it's a bigger problem than that. I don't think. Just think it's childcare. I think it's caregiving. And everybody is parents hope, right? I mean, uh. And you hope that you care about them enough that you're going to help take care of them. Not everybody feels that way. I completely understand that. But for the most part, we're, we're sort of, this is what's happening is that our parents are getting older. They cannot afford the kind of care that. Our grandparents had. so both men and women are going to be juggling a healthcare system that's profoundly broken. You know, doctor's appointments, prescriptions, pharmacy visits, all of these things. And ultimately, workplaces need to be able to work around that. The, and so I've sort of likened this to Cheryl Sandberg because now I know she wasn't a chief of staff, but effectively she was the woman that was really steering Facebook when it was Facebook and also sort of thinking through policies and their implications. And when her husband tragically died, Facebook's bereavement policy underwent a radical change within about. 24 hours of his death because she understood that you can't recover from a death in two days. So now Facebook has a 20 day leave policy. They have survivor benefits. They have all sorts of things in place to really help support people as they manage the difficulty of, of losing a person in their lives. And so of the mind that if you get women into these spaces. will pay attention to this stuff and they will make it far easier for people to really operate in a workplace, and not feel like they have to choose one or the other. Like I think that's important.

Elevating the Chief of Staff Role

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 31:37

Yeah.'cause a lot of those are false choices and so this is a senior role, you've gotta set it up, right? You have to have the right principal and the right chief of staff and all these different things. There's intangible and unique things about every single instance of chief of staff, and there's also these common threads where you've gotta have these foundational pieces. Yet so many people still talk about chief of staff. It's like, oh yeah, like she's, she's my EA chief of staff, you know, EA office manager, kind of, that's she, she's great. How do we. Elevate the role and elevate the conversations around the role, especially when you say lots of executives want a chief of staff, but they are woefully unprepared to use them well.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 32:18

Yes. So I think it requires a couple of things, and this is going to be rather controversial, but as you know, I don't shy away from that, which is, um, you know, of first I think that the community itself needs to sort of figure out the definition and it's why I write as much as I do, and it's why I speak as much as I do about this because I really do feel that if you are not following the White House model, then you're doing it wrong. And a lot of people. Push back on me and say, you're nuts, but I don't think I am. Um, I think I'm right. And so, um, you know, I think it's important for the community to sort of figure out, okay, this is how we elevate the discussion, is we figure out a definition that actually makes sense. Um, and then there need to be some expectations around it. And, know. Part of what I'm fascinated in and what I'm trying to do is to educate, you know, search firms and HR offices and themselves to sort of say, look, um. Your chief of staff is not a COO and they're not an executive admin. There is a very distinct and clear and responsibilities that are involved in this, and those are the ones you need to highlight and talk about in any job description. And so on. LinkedIn, you'll see I've, I've now sort of. a number of search firms and people who post jds. And I'm just saying to all of them, please come and talk to me for seven minutes because I would love to explain this role to you. And so, um, you know, I think it takes a lot of us to do that. And I think that there are an increasingly large number of men and women who are sort of taking up the role of. Both educating on the chief of staff role as well as actually doing it. Um, and I find that really encouraging'cause I think it's, it's critically important.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 34:27

I agree and I talk to a lot of chiefs of staff where they get in there and the role wasn't set up well. Sometimes the leadership team doesn't know a chief of staff is coming, which is like, oh my gosh, face palm. And if they do, they like vaguely under like, chief of staff is coming, okay, what is gonna happen? Is my access cut off? Like, is this a threat? All these things. And so a big part of their job is to, is to. Educate themselves sometimes because it's a brand new role for them. The principal, if they've never had a chief of staff and the entire executive team was like, what is this person doing? And that's a big lift on top of just having a new job, just having a new boss at a new company. That's a lot. But oftentimes that is part of the scope to get you outta the gate at the beginning. And the other thing I often say to people is to elevate the role in conversation. All the things you mentioned, I'm in a hundred percent agreement with, and chiefs of staff have to act like a senior executive. If you act like an ea, you're gonna get treated that way, and that might be right or wrong. Fair enough. That's just the world we live in. Sometimes you've gotta act like, sometimes you gotta take it. You don't ask to be given it. Like take that initiative, take that role, take on that project. And I say, don't be a total blatant a-hole about this, but sometimes like just start doing the thing and then you're in charge of the thing and then the thing gets done. Thoughts.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 35:52

Yeah, and I, you know, I completely agree with you on this. Um, I've, I've always been a big fan of yours and what you espouse, which is why I'm on here. Um, and I think that, you know, the one thing that I do and, and really look, principals should set this up before you walk in the door. And as you say, onboarding a chief of staff is The way you do it, how it's structured, all of those things become enormously important in a way that it doesn't necessarily for CFO. Um. I also think that you really, you have to sort of do, as you said, and the thing that I do is that I go into every senior person's office and I sit down and I say, I help you? How can I make your life easier? How can I make this a better experience for you? can I ensure your success? Because ultimately, if you are able to provide some value. Relatively quickly. it's amazing what people will do to support you and help you. Um, and I think that that also sort of neutralizes this idea of I'm going, I'm gonna be a bottleneck. I'm gonna be the thing that stuck between you and the principal, because that is absolutely not the role. it is actually to be a facilitator. And the whole idea is if you have access to the principal on a regular basis and. Sufficiently frequently enough that, you know, you're able to sort of get answers relatively quickly. idea is that you can communicate that stuff throughout the organization a lot faster than a CEO can. so I think that that's the first move. I mean, and I think it's not a hard one to do. It's a hard one. To actually execute on, right? I mean, that's the challenge. And figuring out who are the most important people in any given room, who navigates what, who's responsible for what, regardless of job descriptions and titles,

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 38:01

Yes.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 38:01

they almost never align, um, becomes sort of the, the big overarching challenge that you have in the first couple of weeks on the job. But it allowed you to learn the organization, and I think that that's a really important and useful thing to do, really the minute you walk in the door.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 38:20

And so you've been in so many chief of staff roles and you have clearly thought about this and you have different frameworks and things that you're, that you're talking about and are evolving as you continue to gain. Experience and talk to more people, but what is your favorite part of the role? You kind of mentioned the thrill of it is when you get to stand back and let this person shine and remove blockers and things like that. But just for you, Rachel, like what is the intrinsic like this, this makes me excited like this. This gives me enthusiasm.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 38:51

Yeah, mean it's obviously evolved over time. Um, so it's interesting, you know, initially I think there's something sort of, like, I don't know what the word is. It's. sort of, you are so enamored with this particular vantage point of the organization, right? You get to see it from a very different view and you really get to see the whole organization and that in, in the beginning of my career, was a lot of fun. You know, it was great to sort of see how. The Gates Foundation operated and to understand how places like, you know, government agencies sort of navigated through bureaucracy and all sorts of other things. Um, and then it's, you know, when I was at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I got, um, a 100 on a net promoter score. If you're familiar with it, it's,

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 39:52

Wow.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 39:53

uh. And I, you know, the 100 was great, but like that wasn't what was important to me. It was actually the, the feedback I got, which was things like Rachel is Rachel, right? And so there's no way to sort of describe, sometimes it's very hard for chiefs and staff to describe their value. And so what I loved about that was I clearly added value. By avoiding catastrophe loved. The, the comment section because it just sort of highlighted that people recognized what I was doing, even though it's hard to quantify. Um, and when we launched the website, I was not coding and I was not designing the website, but I was a critical and important part of getting the website up and running because was the one who cleared blockers. I ran around trying to figure out who's, who's stopping this. Who needs this resource is needed? How do I get it and doing it as quickly as possible. Now, the, the role is, is bigger for me in that I love being a connector. I love connecting people. I love connecting of behavior patterns that exist throughout the organization. for me, it's. love just sort of being the person who can resources quickly and connect people to resources. I have a really big network of people and some of them owe me some things and I love taking advantage of that. So, um, you know, I think particularly as I work. Um, it's barely for and serve as the chief of staff there. You know, it's a very nimble AI company that is trying to disrupt, uh, the spare parts and manufacturing industry, which is not terribly sexy, but it is a ginormous problem. And, um, it's significant enough that I, I love sort of thinking through, okay, how can I get them more resources? How can I help them move forward in this? In this business because if they're able to solve this problem, it, it's, it makes a lot of people's lives easier and I think that that's sort of a joy that I get in it.

Demonstrating Value as a Chief of Staff

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 42:16

You mentioned how to show value as a chief of staff, which is a huge topic. For people in their chief of staff career who are like, I do need to demonstrate value. Sometimes it's hard'cause we work in intangibles, we're not creating widgets, we're not doing production work, things like that. how does the chief of staff demonstrate their value when a lot of the times they're working in intangibles, it's like the X factor stuff.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 42:38

Yeah, so the chief of staff demonstrates their value in a wide variety of ways. And some of it is, you can quantify, I mean, you can say to an executive, look, I saved you 10 hours on your calendar this week. Right? Because I got you out of bunch of meetings you really didn't need to be in. and there are ways in which you can sort of tactically. Lock and protect a bunch of people, and that serves a purpose. That is something that you can quantify. I think it's really hard to sort of talk about, what your value is and what the ROI is, because again, you're sort of, basically your job is to avoid catastrophe. It's to avoid three people, you know. Quitting within a 24 hour period. And so I think we're getting better at it. I, I, there's some people who I think have talked a lot about this and done a very good job of it, which is, um, you know, Lindsey Gardner, Kim Hawkins, these are people who are thought leaders in this space. Um, Keegan sar, all of these guys talk about how you sort of. Deal with this question of what's the value you bring and how can you demonstrate it as quickly as possible? So I'd look to them and I'd sort of, and I think that there are ways in which we've gotten more sophisticated about measuring that.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 44:07

You mentioned the contrast between early in your career as chief of staff and later as chief of staff. I'm wondering, do you like early in my career I tried to prove myself, like I need to prove my worth and I need to get external validation, all this thing. And later in my career you kind of sit back into things and you're like, look, I know I deliver value. And if you see that, great, and if you don't, great. So I'm wondering kind of how does that develop with your chief of staff role now?

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 44:33

Um, so look, I mean, I, again, it's, this is a role that's in service of others. Like it is not the role where you get the big billboards and your name in lights. Um, and so. I think, you also have to have a certain confidence in yourself, and would assume you do if you are a senior leader and if you have been a senior leader before. And so that's why I think req this role requires somebody who has had a lot of experience because this isn't a job where you're constantly trying to prove your value. You have to demonstrate value immediately and you have to be confident that you're doing it well. And again, as you said, like if you don't see what my value is, fine. If you do see what my value is, great. But you know, I'm confident in my roles now that I bring value. I know what I'm doing and I know I'm doing it pretty well. Um, and I think. There's a certain level of confidence that you just have to have as you navigate these spaces, um, that you know, somebody in their ear early in their career just can't do.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 45:56

I know we're running short on time. I could talk to you for hours. Rachel. Anything else? Any final thoughts or thought for chiefs of staff or principals for executives, business leaders?

Final Thoughts and Advice

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 46:08

You know, I think that. Executives and business leaders need to understand this role better. They're sort of my new audience and I want them to sort of see that this is not about, you know, making them look like superheroes. And it's not about having a vibe where you walk in and you're suddenly in love. I think it's. It's a role that evolves and it's a role that provides extraordinary value if you use it correctly and if you understand it. and I think that there are a lot of interesting people in this space in the chief of staff space who are doing their very best to sort of promote this role in a way that makes sense. And it's important that people understand also that, and I hate to end on this note, but. It's not a fun job. It's actually quite hard it's, it's very isolating and it can be, um, very stressful and you're absorbing a lot of complaints, concerns, issues, and trying to figure out which do you elevate and which do you deal with yourself and which do you just sort of ignore? Um. And there isn't a, so what I found in this community and what I really love about writing about this. This role is that I've made some extraordinary friends and some met some extraordinary people, you included, it really allows me to better understand how to deal with these sort of tricky situations. And now have sort of a kitchen cabinet of people I can go to to say this, I, I, this isn't working. I need another solution. Um, and I think to the extent that you can build that. It makes you a stronger chief, again, you will never be a strong chief of staff if you don't have, if you have an executive who doesn't understand this role.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 48:13

You're singing to the choir here, but thank you so much. Please continue having these conversations and speaking out, and if there's a chief of staff or a principal who you. Is hearing you speak and wants to reach out and learn more. Where is the best place to find you?

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 48:26

Yeah, so, um, the best place to find me is my email, which is rg@goldenbluestrategies.com. Um, you know, I'm working on my website right now and, uh, we're on LinkedIn. I'm also on LinkedIn, so you can always get me there and, uh, you know, know that I'd love to help. I'd love to sort of be in a position where I can help. Either a founder or an executive think through the role or somebody who is just starting the role or feels like they're sort of floundering in the role. Um, I'm here to help.

emily-sander_1_02-11-2026_081100 49:02

And I would encourage listeners to follow Rachel on LinkedIn. She has fantastic posts, meaningful, meaty, thoughtful posts, not just fluff. And I follow her and get a lot out of that myself. So I will have the LinkedIn link in the show notes as well as the email address to reach out to Rachel directly. But Rachel, thank you so much for being on. It was a pleasure.

rachael-goldfarb_1_02-11-2026_111100 49:23

Thank you so much.

49:27

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