The Chief of Staff Association

You already shape strategy, align leaders and keep decisions moving. Now make that expertise official. Join more than 1,000 other professionals to hold the Certified Chief of Staff® credential: the global standard trusted by the world's leading organizations. Learn from expert faculty who understand the role from the inside. Our program builds the competencies the role demands, through online learning and executive education at the University of Oxford, Harvard Business School and SDA Bocconi School of Management.

The Certified Chief of Staff® credential is a statement of intent – showing employers, principals and stakeholders you've mastered the skills, judgement and standards the role demands. Choose the pathway that fits your career: online through our competency program or in-person at the world's leading business schools. Join the more than 1,000 professionals across 75 countries to have earned it. Available exclusively to members of the Chief of Staff Association.

Six years ago today, The Chief of Staff Association was founded. What started with a clear ambition, and a lot of faith in the profession, has grown into a global network spanning more than 75 countries. Watching that growth has been one of the great privileges of my career. A lot has changed. But the thing that hasn't is the reason we started: to give chiefs of staff the support, community, recognition and impact the role deserves. Today feels like a good moment to reflect on that. And to share some news. Earlier this year we acquired Vannin Chief of Staff, also founded in 2020, bringing together two organisations built on the same belief: that the chief of staff role, done well, changes everything. Since then both teams have been working on something we're proud to launch today. The Chief of Staff Success Series is a new programme of monthly live workshops for CSA members, built with the Vannin team, designed to help chiefs of staff define their role with clarity and set themselves up for real impact. We're opening our first session to non-members too. Résumé Frameworks for Chiefs of Staff is free to attend. Register via the events tab on The Chief of Staff Association LinkedIn page. And there's more: as of today, members have access to dozens of new tools and frameworks developed by the Vannin team, taking our Resource Bank to more than 260 resources built especially for chiefs of staff. That includes a full library of sector-specific job description templates you can access and adapt right now: https://lnkd.in/ePkANsdy Six years. Two organisations. One community. Here's to what comes next.

Chiefs of staff, in the the shadows and now Underground 😆 Our campaign is live across the London tube network and Rachel Cardona from Global caught our billboard at London Bridge in all its glory. This is what a growing global community looks like. 🚆 Keziah Wonstolen The Chief of Staff Association Nicholas Langford Transport for London Richard Williams Vannin Chief of Staff

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 Chiefs of staff see the tension leaders face every day: balancing long-term strategy with the immediacy of daily decisions. The resultant noise leaves little room for clear thinking. This is where the role comes into its own. Not as a fixer, but as the partner who keeps the centre steady and aligned. The work often looks like this: • Creating space for better decisions • Connecting priorities so teams stay focused • Turning strategy into steps people can act on • Surfacing insight before issues grow • Reducing noise so leaders think rather than react You hold the context others rely on. You help the organisation balance vision and delivery at the same pace. This is leadership work. How do you decide where to focus your attention when everything feels urgent?

Last week I stood at the entry to the New York subway in Manhattan staring at an ad for The Chief of Staff Association. It felt surreal. Ten years ago The Chief of Staff Association was an idea scribbled in a notebook. Today we have members in 75 countries and programmes at the University of Oxford and Harvard Business School. These ads aren't really about us. It's about a role that finally getting the recognition it deserves. To everyone who believed in this profession before it was fashionable: thank you. You built this. We just gave it a home.