Why Every High-Velocity Business Needs a Chief of Staff

Over the years of coaching high-velocity CEOs, one theme has come up again and again: the biggest bottleneck in a scaling business is not money, product, or even customer, it’s the CEO’s bandwidth.

As the company accelerates, the demands on a CEO multiply. One day you’re deep in a strategic pivot, the next you’re with investors, then you’re pulled into a customer crisis, followed by back-to-back leadership meetings. I’ve seen so many CEOs run flat out, constantly feeling behind, and wondering how long they can sustain the pace. Its a bad place to be both for the CEO and for the company.

That’s why I strongly recommend hiring a Chief of Staff (CoS). Time and time again, I’ve watched this role transform how CEOs lead and how companies scale. It frees your time up to focus on “working on the business” rather than “working in the business”

Why The Role Matters

From my experience, a great CoS does three things:

1. They build the systems for scale

I’ve seen high-growth companies get stuck because their operating cadence disorganized, no clear planning cycles, meetings with little accountability and follow up, priorities that shift weekly. A strong CoS fixes that. They design and run the systems, processes, and communication rhythms that keep the leadership team aligned and the company moving in the right direction.

2. They drive strategic execution

In fast-growth environments, the urgent often overwhelms the important. A good CoS brings discipline. I’ve watched them keep the leadership team honest to the goals, track execution, and step in to run critical projects that would otherwise sit on the CEO’s already overloaded plate.

3. They multiply the CEO’s impact

The best CoS I’ve seen act as a genuine extension of the CEO, deciding what deserves their time, stepping in as a proxy when appropriate, and making sure information flows smoothly across the company and with external stakeholders. Done right, they give the CEO the space to focus on strategy, investors, customers, and talent, the most important things only the CEO can do.

Hiring The Right Chief of Staff

Of course, not every good operator makes a great CoS. I’ve seen CEOs make the mistake of hiring someone too junior, or too tactical, and the role ends up looking like an over-qualified EA. That doesn’t work.

The best Chiefs of Staff I’ve seen bring a rare mix: business context, operational discipline, emotional intelligence, and the adaptability to switch gears a dozen times a day. They are a force multiplier to the CEO.

So getting the right person in the COS seat is absolutely critical. If you get the hire wrong, the role creates confusion and slows you down. Get it right, and it’s a game changer.

Setting Your CoS Up For Success

Hiring is only half the battle, the other half is how you as CEO set the role up.

I’ve seen both sides of this. One Silicon Valley CEO I worked with hired a brilliant CoS, but didn’t empower them properly. They had access to meetings but no authority to act. The leadership team quickly saw them as a “note-taker” rather than a partner. Within months, the CoS left the organization and the role failed to deliver impact.

Contrast that with another CEO who did it brilliantly. On day one they told the team: “When I’m not in the room, assume it’s me speaking.” They gave them access to board discussions, investor conversations, and exec-level decisions. That CoS became indispensable, running cadences, leading key projects, and creating enormous leverage for the CEO. Later, the CEO told me it was the single best hire they had ever made and ultimately the COS made the transition to CEO himself.

From these experiences, I’ve learned a few essentials for making the role work:

• Clarity of mandate – Spell out exactly where they have authority to act for you.

•  Access and trust – Give them full context and a seat at the table in all the key conversations.

• Public backing – Make it clear to your team that when the CoS speaks, they carry your authority.

Final Thoughts

I’ve watched enough high-velocity CEOs to know this: those who hire and support a great Chief of Staff break through bottlenecks and scale faster, with less stress and burnout. Get this right, and your CoS will not only support you, they’ll unlock capacity across your entire leadership team.

So if you’re scaling quickly and feel like you’re carrying too much, take it from my experience: hire a Chief of Staff. Hire the right one. Support them fully. It might be the single most important step you take to unlock your next stage of growth.