30-60-90 day plan for chiefs of staff
On this page
- The three common versions of the role
- Days 1-30: Agree the mandate and learn the system
- Days 31-60: Take over the operating rhythm
- Days 61-90: Run a planning cycle and land a result
- What "on track" looks like
- A filled example
- Borrowed authority and how to protect it
- Questions for the check-ins
- What the principal owes the new chief of staff
- Common mistakes
- Adapting the plan
- Questions people ask
A chief of staff is the only role on the leadership team whose job is defined almost entirely by one other person. What a chief of staff does at one company looks nothing like it does at the next: one runs the board process and the weekly leadership meeting, another runs strategic projects, a third is effectively the head of business operations. That makes a generic 30-60-90 day plan useless for the role. The plan below starts by pinning down the mandate in writing, then builds the next 60 days around it.
This plan is written for the CEO, founder or senior executive hiring a chief of staff to work directly for them. If you are hiring the executive themselves, see the 30-60-90 day plan for executives; for the person who manages the principal's calendar and logistics, see the 30-60-90 day plan for executive assistants. The general structure is in the 30-60-90 day plan template for new hires.
The three common versions of the role
Before writing the plan, the principal should decide which version of the role they are hiring for. Most chiefs of staff end up as a mix, but one usually dominates, and it changes what day 90 looks like.
| Version | What they mostly do | Day-90 test |
|---|---|---|
| Operating rhythm | Leadership meeting agendas, decision log, quarterly planning, board and investor preparation | The leadership team's cadence runs without the principal organizing it |
| Strategic projects | Two or three cross-team initiatives the principal cares about but nobody owns | One project has a decision or a launch that would not have happened without them |
| Principal's proxy | Representing the principal in meetings, triaging requests, drafting communications | The principal attends fewer meetings and nothing important is missed |
Days 1-30: Agree the mandate and learn the system
Goals
- Spend at least the first week attending everything the principal attends, then write down what the principal's week actually consists of, by category and hours.
- Hold a one-to-one with every member of the leadership team. Ask each the same three questions: what decisions are stuck, what the principal should stop doing, and what they worry the chief of staff will get in the way of.
- Read the last two quarters of plans, board materials, leadership meeting notes and any company priorities document.
- Agree with the executive assistant, if there is one, who owns the calendar, the inbox and meeting logistics.
- Inventory every recurring leadership meeting: purpose, attendees, who sets the agenda, and whether decisions get recorded.
Deliverables by day 30
- A one-page written mandate, signed off by the principal: owns, coordinates, does not do, and decisions they can make on the principal's behalf.
- A summary of the leadership one-to-ones, with themes rather than attributed quotes.
- A time audit of the principal's last four weeks, compared with the priorities the principal says matter most.
Days 31-60: Take over the operating rhythm
Goals
- Own the agenda of the weekly leadership meeting: collect topics in advance, separate updates from decisions, and send pre-reads at least a day before.
- Start a decision log: what was decided, by whom, and who acts on it by when. Review open items at the start of each leadership meeting.
- Take on one cross-team priority the principal names, with a written plan and owners from the teams involved.
- Handle a defined slice of requests to the principal: for example, every internal request for the principal's time goes through the chief of staff first.
Deliverables by day 60
- Four or more leadership meetings run from the chief of staff's agenda, with a decision log the team uses.
- A plan for the cross-team priority, agreed by the leaders whose teams do the work.
- A list of meetings the principal has dropped or delegated, with who covers each.
Days 61-90: Run a planning cycle and land a result
Goals
- Run the next quarterly planning or board preparation cycle, or the next comparable fixed event, from timeline to final materials.
- Move the cross-team priority to a decision, a launch or a clear stop.
- Repeat the time audit and compare it with the day-30 version.
- Ask each leadership team member for direct feedback on the chief of staff's first 90 days.
Deliverables by day 90
- A planning cycle or board meeting delivered on time.
- The cross-team priority's outcome, written up in a page.
- A revised mandate for the next two quarters, based on what the role turned out to be.
What "on track" looks like
| Checkpoint | On track | Worth a direct conversation |
|---|---|---|
| Day 30 | Mandate written and agreed; every leader met; the time audit shows something the principal did not expect | No written mandate; the chief of staff has become a general fixer for whoever asks first |
| Day 60 | Leadership meetings have pre-reads and a decision log; leaders bring topics to the chief of staff | Agendas still built on the morning of the meeting; leaders go around the chief of staff to the principal |
| Day 90 | Planning cycle delivered; one priority moved; principal's time has shifted measurably | Lots of activity, no single result anyone can point to |
A filled example
Chief of staff: Lena Okafor (invented), first chief of staff to the CEO of a 300-person logistics software company, mainly an operating-rhythm role.
Day 30: Mandate agreed: owns the leadership meeting, the quarterly planning process and board preparation; coordinates the annual pricing review; does not manage any team or approve spend. The time audit showed the CEO spent more hours in recurring internal meetings than with customers, against a stated priority of customer time.
Day 60: Split the weekly leadership meeting into a short update review and a decisions block with pre-reads. Started a decision log; seven stale decisions closed in the first three weeks. Dropped or delegated five of the CEO's recurring meetings.
Day 90: Ran board preparation for the quarter, with materials to directors a week ahead instead of two days. The pricing review reached a decision. The CEO's customer hours rose in the second time audit.
Borrowed authority and how to protect it
A chief of staff has no formal authority over the leaders they coordinate. Their influence comes from the principal's backing and from being useful to the leadership team. Both can be lost quickly. The commonest way is becoming a gatekeeper who filters what reaches the principal, or a messenger who delivers the principal's displeasure. Leaders stop sharing honest information with someone they suspect is reporting on them.
Two habits help. First, the principal says explicitly, in front of the leadership team, what the chief of staff speaks for and what they do not. Second, the chief of staff keeps confidences from the one-to-ones and reports themes, not names, unless someone asks for an issue to be raised.
Questions for the check-ins
- Which leader do you have the weakest working relationship with, and why?
- What have you said no to this month, and was it within the mandate?
- Which decision in the log is overdue, and what is blocking it?
- What am I, the principal, still doing that you could take?
What the principal owes the new chief of staff
- Time: a standing weekly one-to-one of at least an hour, and access to the principal's thinking between meetings.
- An announcement to the leadership team that names the mandate.
- Access to the same information the principal sees: board materials, financials, people issues where the mandate requires it.
- Direct feedback, especially when the chief of staff misreads what the principal wanted.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Result | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No written mandate | The role fills with low-value requests | One-page mandate signed off by day 30 |
| Too many projects at once | Nothing lands; the role looks like overhead | One cross-team priority in the first 90 days |
| Calendar ownership unclear with the assistant | Double-booking and friction between two people who must work closely | Agree the split in week one |
| Acting as the principal's enforcer | Leaders stop being candid | Report themes, keep confidences, let the principal deliver hard messages |
Adapting the plan
- Early-stage companies: the role often absorbs business operations, recruiting coordination or investor relations. Name these in the mandate and pick only one for the first 90 days.
- Chiefs of staff to a functional leader: for example to a head of engineering or sales. The operating rhythm is the function's leadership meeting and planning cycle, and the cross-team priority is often a dependency with another function.
- Public sector and nonprofit roles: add board or committee calendars and any reporting deadlines to the first 30 days, since they set the fixed dates the role works around.
If you are still hiring, the interview guide for executive roles covers how to test judgment and stakeholder handling at this level.
Questions people ask
What should a chief of staff's first deliverable be?
A written mandate the principal has signed off: what the chief of staff owns, what they coordinate but do not own, what they will not do, and which decisions they can make on the principal's behalf. Every later goal depends on it, because a chief of staff without a written mandate gets pulled into whatever is loudest.
How is a chief of staff different from an executive assistant?
An executive assistant manages the principal's time, travel and logistics. A chief of staff manages the principal's priorities and the leadership team's operating rhythm: the agenda, the decisions, the follow-through and the projects that cross team lines. Many principals need both, and the two roles should agree early who owns the calendar.
How do you measure a chief of staff in the first 90 days?
By whether the leadership team's decisions get made and followed through faster, whether the principal's time shifts toward the priorities they named, and whether one cross-team priority moved because the chief of staff drove it. Agree the measures in the mandate so the day-90 review is not a matter of opinion.
Should a chief of staff have direct reports?
Usually not in the first 90 days, even if the role will eventually manage a small team of business operations or communications staff. The early value of the role comes from borrowed authority and trust with the leadership team, and managing a team too early pulls attention away from building that.