What burns Chiefs of Staff out faster than anything else

Hi {{first_name|there}},

Most Chiefs of Staff are brilliant at execution. They hold the context no one else holds, absorb the tension, mediate the conflicts, and keep the company moving. But over time, being indispensable to the system is not the same as having a say in where it goes, and that gap is what burns people out.

The Conversation Every Chief of Staff Needs to Have
by Tristan Lim

In this piece, Tristan Lim, coach to Chiefs of Staff and founders and Fellow at the Chief of Staff Network, draws on his own burnout experience and his coaching work on both sides of the CoS-founder relationship to name the hidden cost of being the bridge. In his coaching work, Tristan keeps seeing the same thing: a CoS who is indispensable to everything but has never stopped to ask which parts of the role are truly theirs.

The fix is not working harder. It is having the courage to name what you actually want from the role, do less, and start choosing which bridges to build.

👉 Read the full article

The CoS Connect SF Agenda Is Live!

⭐ Early bird pricing ends today, April 1 — grab your spot before it goes up.

Something has shifted in the Chief of Staff community over the last couple of years and we've been paying close attention to it.

The CoSs who are making the biggest impact right now aren't just making their principals more effective. They're building. Systems. Programs. Operating models. They've moved from amplifying leadership behind the scenes to owning outcomes in their own right.

That transition — from force multiplier to builder — is the lens we're bringing to everything we do this year, including our Connect events.

CoS Connect SF is first up, and the agenda reflects exactly this. We've designed the day around what that shift looks like in practice: how Chiefs of Staff are taking on more ownership, what new skills and frameworks that requires, and where the role goes from here.