As a leader, if you hired both an EA and a Chief of Staff, you probably want them to partner closely, right? Do these five things to get incredible leverage from your EA / Chief of Staff team.

Respect the incumbent 

Chances are, you have one of these professionals already in place when you hire the second role. Be transparent about your objectives and thought process (i.e. make sure they know it is to get more leverage, not that they have failed at something). Include them in developing the role charter and onboarding strategy. 

Don’t start by putting one person on the defensive. 

Reduce overlap between the roles 

Each role needs its own charter and set of accountabilities. Having two people co-manage one thing doesn’t provide more leverage. 

You could ask them to collaborate on building separate charters and then discuss. Or you could clearly lay out what you see as each position’s responsibilities. Just make sure there are delineations and boundaries. 

Make it okay to push things to the right owner 

Both people want to help you achieve your goals and objectives. At some point, you will ask one of them to do something that falls under the other person’s scope. Make it okay for them to say ‘great, that’s something Maura does so I’ll drop her a note after this meeting’ vs. doing it themselves and violating the boundaries.

Treat each person as an individual 

At times, you all operate as a team and that is great. 

Make sure you also have individual time with each person to talk about career development, challenges, and feedback. This could look like a weekly 1:1 meeting or an open invitation to schedule time when they want to chat about something specific. Prioritize this time.

Know you might have to mediate 

This is one of the few instances where you might have to step in and mediate interpersonal friction on your team. If you see things going off the rails with the EA/CoS partnership, ask some questions and nudge them towards resolution. 

If they can’t work through it together, you might need to hold a ‘clear the air’ session. No one wants to have to do this, but it might be necessary to keep the team working together well.