The Chief of Staff Association

What is our purpose?

The Chief of Staff Association exists because the demands on today's leaders have never been greater. Organisations are navigating complexity at pace, and the chiefs of staff who sit at the centre of that complexity need more than experience; they need a professional home.

We were founded on a simple but consequential idea: that the chief of staff role deserves the same institutional recognition, rigour, and community that other senior professions take for granted. For too long, chiefs of staff have operated without a shared standard, a credible certification, or a global peer network. We set out to change that.

Today we operate across 75 countries, with executive education partnerships at Harvard Business School, the University of Oxford, and SDA Bocconi. Our research shapes how organisations understand the role. Our Certified Chief of Staff® certification sets the bar for professional practice. And our Global Dialogue series brings together the chiefs of staff and principals shaping some of the world's most consequential organisations.

The work began with a recognition that organisational complexity is not a temporary condition; it is the defining feature of modern leadership. As principals face greater demands on their time, attention, and judgement, the chief of staff has moved from a supporting role to a strategic one. We have built an institution that reflects that shift.

The Certified Chief of Staff®

The Certified Chief of Staff® is the only globally recognised certification for the chief of staff profession, and we are the only membership body able to issue it. It rests on the Chief of Staff Impact Framework™: our model of the 24 competencies, six domains and three modes of contribution that define the role at its best.

The framework is synthesised from our corpus of journals, commissioned reports, Oxford and Harvard executive education research and practitioner insight, refined through more than 1,000 data points from research, diagnostics and coaching. Progress toward the certification standard is measured with the Chief of Staff Impact Profile™, the same instrument used across everything we do.

For the individuals who hold it, the Certified Chief of Staff® signals professional credibility and a commitment to continuous development. For the organisations that employ them, it provides confidence that the person sitting in one of their most sensitive and influential roles has been assessed against the same standard the Chief of Staff Operating System™ installs at organisational level.

The Chief of Staff Operating System™

Getting the chief of staff role right takes two things: a capable individual and an organisation designed to make full use of them. We serve both. Where the certification develops the individual, the Chief of Staff Operating System™ builds the function inside an organisation: a defined programme of four components covering diagnostic, playbook, community of practice and education.

The two offers are symbiotic yet independent. An individual can certify without their employer engaging us; an organisation can install the operating system with an uncertified cohort. Because both rest on the same framework and are measured with the same instrument, each strengthens the other wherever they meet.

The Global Dialogue

The Chief of Staff Global Dialogue is our flagship annual event, bringing together chiefs of staff and their principals from across business, government, and civil society to examine the forces shaping leadership today.

The series has grown each year in scale, ambition, and reach, taking place at some of the world's most significant venues and institutions. It is not a conference in the conventional sense. It is a working session for the people who sit closest to power in their organisations, designed to generate the kind of honest, high-level conversation that rarely happens in larger or more public settings. Each year the programme is shaped around a central question about leadership and the evolving role of the chief of staff within it.

The Global Dialogue has become a marker in the professional calendar for chiefs of staff who take their development seriously, and for the principals who understand what it means to invest in the person they rely on most.

A growing institution

The Chief of Staff Association has grown steadily because the need it serves is real and growing. Our membership spans every sector, from global corporations and governments to universities, hospitals, and international bodies. Our academic partnerships produce original research and post-graduate level programmes that treat the chief of staff role with the intellectual seriousness it warrants.

In 2025 we brought specialist talent placement in-house as Chief of Staff Association Talent LLC, extending our ability to serve chiefs of staff across the full arc of their careers. Our team of more than 50 operates from four offices in London, New York, Denver and Melbourne, and our global community numbers more than 30,000 chiefs of staff.

Looking forward

The chief of staff role is becoming one of the defining leadership roles of our time. We intend to build the institution that role deserves: one grounded in research, shaped by practitioners, and committed to raising the quality of leadership in every organisation we touch.

The five values below were drawn from both organisations and agreed together as we came together as one. They reflect how we work, what we stand for, and what our members, clients, and partners can expect from us.

Our Values

We Lead with Authenticity. We are authentic in all we do. We lead with integrity, showing up with honesty, transparency, and consistency. We say what we mean and follow through on what we say. By being clear and genuine in our interactions, we build trust that underpins every relationship with our members, our clients, and each other.

We Advance What's Possible. We challenge the status quo and push thinking forward. We ask better questions, seek new approaches, and continuously look for ways to improve. By combining curiosity with action, we drive meaningful progress for the organisations and leaders we serve.

We Tailor with Expertise. We take the time to understand context, nuance, and individual needs, then apply our expertise and strategic insight to shape solutions that fit. Our work is both personalised and precise, grounded in experience and designed to deliver impact.

We Align for Impact. We work in partnership, with respect and a shared commitment to outcomes. We listen first, bring others along, and align around what matters most. By combining perspectives and working as one team, we achieve stronger results and more meaningful, lasting impact.

We Own the Outcome. We take full ownership of our work and its results. We follow through, hold ourselves to a high standard, and do what it takes to deliver. We are accountable for outcomes, and we are committed to excellence in everything we do.

Join our team

The Chief of Staff Association is growing, and we are looking for people who want to help build the institution the chief of staff profession deserves. Our team works from four offices, in Denver, New York, London and Melbourne, across research, education, membership and events.

We look for people who bring rigour to their work, take ownership of outcomes, and want a hand in shaping a profession that is still defining itself. In return, you will work alongside colleagues with deep experience across every sector we serve, with real input into how the profession develops.

Meet the people who make up our team on our Meet the Team page, or view our current open roles to see where you might fit.