By Daniela Papadakis Bared
When someone asks what a Chief of Staff does, I’ve realized there isn’t always an easy answer.
The role can look completely different depending on the company, the founder and what the business needs at that particular moment.
One day you’re thinking about hiring. Next you’re reviewing a contract, coordinating a project, preparing for an important meeting or figuring out why something that was supposed to happen hasn’t happened yet.
That unpredictability is actually what taught me the most about the role.
A Chief of Staff doesn’t necessarily own one specific function. The job often exists in the space between strategy and execution, helping turn priorities into action and making sure important things don’t get lost along the way.
Turning Ideas Into Execution
Founders tend to move quickly.
They’re thinking about growth, products, people, partnerships, customers, problems and opportunities, sometimes all within the same conversation.
That’s part of what makes working closely with a founder exciting. It’s also where a Chief of Staff can become incredibly valuable.
An idea can sound simple in a meeting.
Executing it usually isn’t.
Someone has to determine what needs to happen next, who needs to be involved, what information is missing, what could hold things up and whether the project is actually moving after everyone leaves the meeting.
I came to see that as one of the most important parts of the role.
It isn’t enough to understand what the priority is.
You have to help move it forward.
You Become Comfortable Wearing a Lot of Hats
Working as a Chief of Staff taught me very quickly not to become too attached to a job description.
My responsibilities touched hiring, recruiting, onboarding, operations, contracts, project management, communications, events and other areas of the business.
Some days were strategic. Some were extremely operational.
Usually, they were both.
I might spend part of the day thinking through a larger company initiative and another part following up on something seemingly small that still needed to get done.
At first, those things can feel unrelated.
Eventually, you realize they’re connected by the same question:
What does the business need right now?
That mindset changed the way I approached work.
Instead of thinking only about what belonged to me, I started thinking about what needed an owner.
The Small Things Aren’t Always Small
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in operations is that small details have a way of becoming big problems when nobody owns them.
An onboarding document that wasn’t sent.
A candidate who hasn’t received a response.
A contract waiting for review.
A meeting where nobody documented the next steps.
A project everyone assumes someone else is handling.
None of these things sounds particularly important on its own.
But growing companies are made up of hundreds of these small moving pieces.
When enough of them fall through the cracks, execution starts to slow down.
A strong Chief of Staff notices those gaps.
Sometimes the job is solving the problem yourself. Other times it’s figuring out who should own it, giving them what they need and making sure it actually gets completed.
Follow-Up Is an Underrated Skill
This may sound simple, but I think one of the most underrated professional skills is following up.
People are busy. Priorities change. Messages get buried. Meetings happen and everyone moves immediately to the next thing.
I’ve learned that there is a major difference between discussing something and completing it.
Following up isn’t about constantly checking on people. It’s about creating accountability and clarity.
What did we decide?
Who owns the next step?
When does it need to happen?
Is anything preventing it from moving forward?
Those questions can seem basic, but answering them consistently can dramatically change how effectively a team operates.
Working Closely With a Founder Requires Adaptability
Being close to leadership also gives you a unique view of a company.
You see how decisions are made. You see how quickly priorities can change. You see where communication breaks down and where the business needs more structure.
You also learn that not every problem arrives neatly packaged with a solution.
Sometimes you’re given a clear assignment.
Other times you’re given a sentence.
Or a problem.
Or an idea.
And your job is to figure out what happens next.
That requires judgment.
You have to know when to move independently, when to ask questions, when to bring something back to the founder and when to simply solve it.
I think that’s one of the hardest parts of the role to teach because so much of it comes from understanding context.
Creating Structure Without Creating Bureaucracy
Growing companies need systems.
But they also need speed.
The goal isn’t to create a process for everything simply because you can. Too much structure can slow a company down just as easily as too little structure can create chaos.
The challenge is figuring out where structure actually helps.
Maybe it’s a clearer onboarding process.
Maybe it’s documenting responsibilities.
Maybe it’s creating a better way to track projects.
Maybe it’s simply making sure every meeting ends with clear next steps.
Good systems should make work easier.
If the process becomes more complicated than the problem it was designed to solve, it probably isn’t a very good process.
The Role Is Really About Leverage
The more I worked in the role, the more I realized that being a Chief of Staff isn’t about being involved in everything.
It’s about helping the organization operate better.
Sometimes that means taking something directly off a founder’s plate.
Sometimes it means making sure the right person owns it.
Sometimes it means creating a system so the same problem doesn’t keep happening.
And sometimes it means noticing a problem before anyone has officially identified it as one.
The best outcome isn’t necessarily that everyone sees how much work the Chief of Staff is doing.
It’s that priorities are clearer, communication is better, decisions turn into action and the people around you can do their jobs more effectively.
What the Role Taught Me
Being a Chief of Staff strengthened something I’ve always naturally enjoyed: taking complicated situations and figuring out how to make them more manageable.
I like understanding how all the pieces connect.
I like solving problems.
I like bringing structure to situations that feel disorganized.
And I especially like taking something from “we should do this” to “it’s done.”
That’s ultimately how I’ve come to understand the role.
A Chief of Staff isn’t there simply to be close to the founder or sit in important meetings.
The value is in what happens afterward.
Turning conversations into next steps.
Turning priorities into execution.
Turning complexity into clarity.
And making sure the things that matter actually move forward.