Investing in You Ltd.
Carve out time for yourself; otherwise, you might never have any.
Being a Chief of Staff means you're rarely in the spotlight, but you're often very close to it. This unique vantage point offers something invaluable: the opportunity to observe leadership up close while developing your own capabilities away from the immediate pressures of being the primary decision-maker.
That's why it's the perfect time to invest in yourself. You have a front-row seat to leadership; you can see what works and what doesn't. You're often out of your comfort zone, which creates natural learning opportunities. The challenge is making the most of these moments while managing the demands of a role that's inherently reactive and support-focused.
Time, energy and money are finite resources, especially in a role that often demands long hours and constant availability. Here are some practical ideas for investing in your own growth and wellbeing, organised by the level of commitment and resources required.
Easy and inexpensive
Use ChatGPT for some basic "coaching"
AI tools can serve as a useful thinking partner for working through challenges, preparing for difficult conversations, or exploring different perspectives on workplace situations. The key is using it as a prompt for your own thinking rather than accepting its responses wholesale. A lot of the work many of us do is becoming increasingly commodified through automation – your ability to think critically, synthesise information, and apply judgement in complex situations is what will differentiate you.
Try using prompts like "Help me think through the pros and cons of this approach" or "What might I be missing in this situation?" The goal isn't to get the "right" answer from AI, but to use it as a tool to examine your own assumptions and broaden your thinking.
Reduce digital distractions
Take all but the most important notifications off your phone. The constant ping of emails, Slack messages, and app notifications fragments your attention and makes it harder to engage in the kind of deep thinking that senior roles require. Configure your phone so that calls from your contacts can get through for genuine emergencies, but everything else can wait until you actively choose to check it.
This simple change forces you to be more intentional about when and how you consume information. Instead of reacting to notifications as they arrive, you can batch similar tasks together and give your full attention to whatever you're working on.
Create a weekly reflection practice
Set aside 20-30 minutes each week to reflect on what you've learned, what challenged you, and what you want to focus on going forward. Use pen and paper rather than digital tools – there's something about the physical act of writing that helps clarify thinking.
Consider questions like: What situations pushed me out of my comfort zone this week? What did I handle well and what would I do differently? What patterns am I noticing in the problems that come across my desk? This practice helps you extract maximum learning from your experiences rather than simply moving from one crisis to the next.
Remember to protect confidentiality in any written reflections, keeping them focused on your own responses and learning rather than sensitive details about people or situations.
Inexpensive but more of a commitment
Learn something completely new
Take up a skill that has nothing to do with your work. Learning a musical instrument, a new language, or a craft like woodworking or pottery exercises different parts of your brain and builds resilience. The process of being a beginner again – making mistakes, persisting through frustration, gradually improving – mirrors many aspects of professional growth.
The goal isn't to become expert-level, but to maintain your brain's plasticity and remind yourself what it feels like to learn. This experience often translates into greater patience with others who are learning and more creativity in approaching workplace challenges.
Read strategically and consistently
Subscribe to a high-quality publication like The Economist and commit to reading it regularly. The breadth of topics covered – from global politics to technology trends to economic analysis – helps you develop the kind of broad contextual knowledge that makes you more valuable as a strategic advisor.
The key is consistency rather than perfectionism. Even reading one article properly is better than skimming through dozens. As you build this habit, you'll start noticing connections between seemingly unrelated topics, which is exactly the kind of systems thinking that senior leaders need.
Consider supplementing with industry-specific publications or podcasts relevant to your organisation's sector. The goal is to build a mental framework for understanding how different forces and trends might affect your organisation's strategy.
More expensive, more of a commitment, and more long-lasting
Invest in professional coaching
While AI can help with quick thought experiments and generic advice, complex career decisions and mindset shifts benefit from human insight and accountability. A good executive coach helps you identify blind spots, work through limiting beliefs, and develop strategies tailored to your specific situation and goals.
Look for coaches with experience working with senior professionals and a track record of helping people navigate career transitions. The investment typically pays for itself through better decision-making, increased confidence, and clearer career direction.
Even a short engagement of 6-8 sessions can provide significant value if you're committed to doing the work between sessions. The coach's role is to ask the right questions and hold you accountable – the insights and changes come from your own reflection and action.
Develop your professional reputation
Your reputation – or personal brand if you prefer – is built through consistent actions over time. This might involve writing thoughtful pieces about your area of expertise, speaking at industry events, or simply being known for delivering exceptional work and developing others.
The key is authenticity and consistency. Rather than trying to be visible everywhere, focus on one or two channels where you can add genuine value. This might be LinkedIn articles about lessons learned in your role, contributions to industry publications, or thought leadership within your organisation.
Building a reputation takes time and requires discipline, but it creates opportunities that wouldn't otherwise exist. It also forces you to clarify your own thinking about what you've learned and what you stand for professionally.
Making it sustainable
Your role might only exist because of someone else's role, but that's all the more reason to prepare for whatever comes next. The skills you develop as a Chief of Staff – strategic thinking, stakeholder management, problem-solving under pressure – are highly transferable, but only if you're intentional about developing them.
The most successful Chiefs of Staff use their unique position not just to support their principal, but to accelerate their own growth. They treat every challenge as a learning opportunity and every interaction as a chance to build relationships and demonstrate capability.
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