If you ask most executives what their Chief of Staff does, they will describe someone who manages their calendar, preps their briefings, runs their meetings, and keeps the trains on time. Which is accurate, as far as it goes. If you ask the Chief of Staff herself, she will describe a person who holds theContinue reading “The Chief of Staff’s Guide to Fixing the Broken Stuff Everyone Ignores”
Category Archives: Chief of Staff
The Chief of Staff Perspective on IQ, EQ, SQ, and AQ (Enduring Skill)
At some point in your career, technical excellence stops being the differentiator. You can be the smartest person in the room and still struggle to influence outcomes. This is where a more complete view of intelligence becomes critical. Not just IQ, but EQ, SQ, and AQ. These are not buzzwords. They are enduring capabilities thatContinue reading “The Chief of Staff Perspective on IQ, EQ, SQ, and AQ (Enduring Skill)”
Gatekeeping as a Service: The Polite and Less Polite Ways to Tell Stakeholders Their Urgent Request Is Actually a June Problem
If you have ever sat in a meeting where someone labeled something urgent that clearly was not, welcome to one of the most misunderstood executive functions in technology leadership. Prioritization is not just a skill. It is an act of survival. And if you are a Chief of Staff in a technology organization, you areContinue reading “Gatekeeping as a Service: The Polite and Less Polite Ways to Tell Stakeholders Their Urgent Request Is Actually a June Problem”
The Q2 “Spring Cleaning” Survival Guide: 8 Roles, 1 Shared Delusion
Welcome to April. The cherry blossoms are blooming, the Q1 post-mortems are finally buried, and leadership has decided that Q2 is the “Quarter of Streamlining.” In tech, “streamlining” is usually code for “we bought a new AI tool we don’t understand, and now everyone has to change their workflow by Monday.” Since this is StressContinue reading “The Q2 “Spring Cleaning” Survival Guide: 8 Roles, 1 Shared Delusion”
The Women Who Run Tech and Keep It from Exploding
They call them soft skills until the day something goes wrong and then suddenly everyone wants to know where the women are. International Women’s Day posts usually come with stock photos of women smiling at laptops and a polite caption about empowerment. That is fine. But if we are being honest the women who runContinue reading “The Women Who Run Tech and Keep It from Exploding”
I Do Not Have a Job Description I Have a Fire Extinguisher
Somewhere buried deep in the bowels of your company’s HR system there is probably a dusty PDF that claims to describe the Chief of Staff role. It likely mentions strategic alignment, executive support, and cross functional coordination in very respectable fonts. That is adorable. In technology, the real job description for a Chief of StaffContinue reading “I Do Not Have a Job Description I Have a Fire Extinguisher”
The Silent Power Broker: How Women Chiefs of Staff Run the Company While Everyone Else Is on Stage
Let’s talk about power. Not the Instagrammable, TED-worthy kind, but the kind that shows up in your inbox at 11:47 p.m. with an urgent “Can you talk?” from your CEO who just watched a competitor make headlines. It’s the kind of power that looks invisible from the outside and feels like an ongoing political thrillerContinue reading “The Silent Power Broker: How Women Chiefs of Staff Run the Company While Everyone Else Is on Stage”
2025 Wrap-Up: What the Data Really Says About Women in Your Tech Org (And What You’re Going to Do About It in 2026)
Listen, I’ve spent the last three weeks of December doing what every Chief of Staff does this time of year: turning raw data into narratives that actually make executives uncomfortable enough to care. And let me tell you, the 2025 numbers on women in tech are… well, they’re something. Before you roll your eyes andContinue reading “2025 Wrap-Up: What the Data Really Says About Women in Your Tech Org (And What You’re Going to Do About It in 2026)”
Surviving the Annual Budget Hunger Games: Tech Priorities vs. “Real” Priorities
Welcome to Q4, ladies. That magical time of year when the budget planning process transforms normally rational executives into gladiators fighting over every last dollar like it’s the final slice of pizza at a team lunch. As your resident Chief of Staff who has survived more budget cycles than I care to admit (my therapistContinue reading “Surviving the Annual Budget Hunger Games: Tech Priorities vs. “Real” Priorities”
Protecting What Matters Most: October’s Guide to Keeping Your Tech Team Focused
It’s the second week of October, and I’m sitting in my fifth “urgent” meeting of the day. The agenda: Should we pivot our Q4 roadmap to accommodate a new initiative that came up yesterday? The executives are excited. The sales team is pushing for it. And I’m watching my engineering team – who’s been heads-downContinue reading “Protecting What Matters Most: October’s Guide to Keeping Your Tech Team Focused”