Most Important Skills For a Chief of Staff at an Education Non-Profit

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One thing that's made a couple of things. I'll call out as one is being able to work effectively with a lot of different people across diverse lines of difference and similarity. This is super important.

In a chief of staff role, you're working with every single person in your organization, as well as some external folks. Being able to build relationships and have cordial, productive working partnerships is super important. So that's one.

I think another one is being able to manage up really well. When we talk about management, we often focus on managing down, which is supporting the people you supervise. While that's super important, I think managing up is equally, and particularly important for this role.

This means communicating with your boss about what needs to be done, how it's being done, and offering feedback. You need to do this in an appropriate way, considering tone and method. Balancing managing up with humility is also really important.

Finally, it's important to be able to manage your own work streams and others' work streams well. This means not dropping any balls, being detail-oriented, and helping others achieve that as well.

The final thing I'll say is being able to look through what Ronald Heifetz talks about, the balcony and the dance floor. The dance floor is the nitty-gritty, in-the-weeds work. The balcony is zooming out and looking at the work at a more strategic, 30,000-foot level. For a chief of staff, both are important, and you need to be able to navigate between them.