Clarity before harmony

Hi {{first_name|there}},

There's a version of the Chief of Staff role that a lot of people aspire to. The one where you're in every room, trusted by leadership, hands on every important initiative. The connective tissue of the company. The force multiplier.

Then there's the version that actually works at scale. And it looks a little different.

Marlen Heske is Chief of Staff to the Managing Director of production engineering and supply chain at Enpal, one of Germany's leading renewable energy companies. She's 1 year into the role at a company that just crossed a billion in revenue and employs close to 5,000 people worldwide.

Which means she has a very clear answer to the question most CoS at fast-growing companies are quietly wrestling with: when everyone has a priority list a mile long, how do you keep a team actually focused?

"The issue is never not enough ambition, not enough speed," she told me. "It's more so that there are too many parallel ambitions happening and you need to figure out where we actually need to drive."

Marlen's operating philosophy distills to three words: clarity before harmony.

In practice it means refusing to let agreement substitute for alignment. It means conducting reality checks at the leadership level before the team sprints in three directions at once. It means making trade-offs visible.

This is harder than it sounds. The pressure to align quickly and keep momentum is real. The CoS who can hold the line on this, who can slow the room down long enough to name what's actually being decided, is doing some of the most valuable work in the building. It's not a popular job in the moment. But done well, it's what defines a CoS who creates real leverage.

Marlen's core responsibility, as she describes it, is not to make decisions but to create the conditions for better ones. "My key objective is never to make the decision or drive a certain decision. It's more so bringing transparency and clarity so we can make a very clear decision on what we're talking about."

That means mapping trade-offs, identifying who hasn't been consulted, and giving leadership the full picture before a call gets made. The OKR process is central to this at Enpal, not as bureaucratic overhead but as a mechanism for holding focus. "Creating clarity, getting everyone aligned, writing this down in the OKRs, in the North Stars, whatever it may be. Also having regular check-ins every couple of weeks: is this still the OKR we're aiming for? Does this still make sense?"

This is the effort that rarely gets talked about when people describe the CoS role. But it's probably where the most durable value gets created.

Most people drawn to this role are high performers with a bias toward action. These are exactly the instincts that can sink you.

"There is the trend that every Chief of Staff is a perfectionist and a control freak. Always striving for perfectionism will make your mental health suffer." Her answer is the 80-20 rule, applied consistently. The 80 gets done. The 20 doesn't block anything from moving.

Beyond perfectionism, there's the harder lesson around timing. "You really have to choose when are you gonna chase and be super annoyingly persistent. But sometimes you also need to remain patient and maybe drop a seed, drop an idea somewhere, like in a little half sentence, said in a whisper."

The instinct is to push. The skill is knowing when to plant and wait.

The Hardest Part

At scale, the relational work has a very specific purpose. It's infrastructure. Relationships give you access to real information, the kind that doesn't make it into the decks. Without them, you're operating on incomplete data and your ability to create clarity becomes compromised.

♾ This is the loop that defines a great CoS. Build trust broadly. Gather real information. Synthesize it into a picture leadership can act on. Hold the line on focus when ambition outruns capacity. Repeat.

Marlen has been running that loop for through all her CoS experiences. She listened to this podcast while figuring out how to grow into the role. Now she's one of the clearest thinkers I've spoken to about what it actually demands when the company is big, fast, and serious.

Clarity before harmony. It's a philosophy worth borrowing.

👉 Listen to the episode

Tuesday, May 19 at 12pm ET
Speaker: Damien Riehl, Clio

Your CEO wants to move fast on AI. Your legal team wants to pump the brakes. Your job is somewhere in between. In this kickoff session, Damien Riehl, lawyer, engineer, and one of the most in-demand AI speakers in the legal world, cuts through the noise to give you a clear-eyed framework for thinking about AI adoption.

Thursday, May 21 at 12pm ET
Speaker: Shannon Yavorsky, Orrick

There's no single AI law - and that's exactly what makes this complicated. This session is a practitioner's guide to the current state of AI governance. We’ll cover what’s in force now, what's coming down the pipeline, and critically, what your organization probably needs to be doing right now that it isn't.

Tuesday, May 26 at 12pm ET
Speaker: David Tollen, Tech Contracts Academy & Sycamore Law Group

In this practical closing session, David Tollen, one of the country's leading experts on technology contracts, walks through what non-lawyers need to know to negotiate smarter, avoid costly mistakes, and work effectively alongside their legal and commercial teams.

We're running a pulse survey on how Chiefs of Staff are adopting AI inside their organizations, what's working, what's stalling, and where the real benchmarks sit. The data goes straight into a community report you'll get back, so you can finally stop guessing where you stand.

Anonymous. 2-3 minutes.

We've got an exciting lineup of events coming up across multiple cities and topics. Whether you're looking to connect locally, dive into AI tooling, or level up your Chief of Staff skills, there's something here for you.

Detroit CoS Meet Up (Apr 29) — Wed, Apr 29 Connect with Chiefs of Staff in the Detroit area for an evening of conversation and community building.

What Claude Cowork Actually Changes (CoS x Clarinet) — Thu, Apr 30 A hands-on session exploring how Claude's latest features are transforming the way Chiefs of Staff work. Co-hosted with Clarinet.

Chief of Staff Launchpad (May-June) — Tue, May 5 Our signature program for new and aspiring Chiefs of Staff kicks off. This cohort runs through June.

Boston CoS Meetup — Wed, May 6 Join the Boston community for networking and shared insights.

Berlin Chief of Staff Meetup — Thu, May 7 Connect with Chiefs of Staff across Berlin's startup and scale-up scene.

The CoS AI Build-A-Thon — Thu, May 7 Roll up your sleeves and build AI tools alongside other operators. Perfect for those who want to move from theory to practice.

Amsterdam CoS Borrel — Wed, May 13 Casual drinks and conversation with the Amsterdam CoS community.

CoS San Diego Meetup — Thu, May 14 San Diego's Chief of Staff community gathers for connection and conversation.

Chief of Staff Connect - San Francisco — Fri, May 15 Our San Francisco forum brings together Chiefs of Staff for structured discussion and peer learning.

AI & The Law: An Operator's Guide to AI Risk, Governance, & Contracts — Tue, May 19 Navigate the legal landscape of AI implementation with practical frameworks for risk management and vendor contracts.

Building an AI Champions Program That Actually Works — Thu, May 28 Learn how to scale AI adoption across your organization by building an effective internal champions program.

Chief of Staff Connect - Austin Forum — Thu, Jun 4 Austin-based Chiefs of Staff gather for our Connect forum series.

Chief of AI Fellowship — Thu, Jun 4 A focused fellowship for operators leading AI strategy and implementation in their organizations.

Zurich Chief of Staff Chapter Launch — Thu, Jun 4 Join us for the official launch of our Zurich chapter. Help shape the community from day one.

Chief of Staff Launchpad (June - July) — Tue, Jun 23 Another cohort of our foundational program for those stepping into or exploring the Chief of Staff role.

Workflow Thinking: The Skill Behind Every Automation — Thu, Jun 25 Master the mental models that make automation projects successful, from mapping processes to identifying bottlenecks.

best,
Scott  
Founder, Chief of Staff Network & BizOps Network