Everyone talks about the first 90 days. We know it takes a full year.
The first-ninety-days framework was imported from general executive onboarding and applied to a role that operates on different terms. A Chief of Staff takes a full year to inhabit well, often closer to eighteen months to hold with real authority, because trust, influence, and standing are built rather than granted.
For the firm, that year is where a placement either holds or quietly comes apart. First-Year Advisory gives the Chief of Staff you placed a structured engagement through it: clear expectations with the executive, a stakeholder map that gives them real standing, and an operating rhythm that lets them lead rather than react.
Structural development, not surface coaching.
- Get the baselineAn honest read on how the new Chief of Staff is actually landing: where they add lift, and where they create drag.
- Build the foundationAuthority, scope, stakeholder map, and operating rhythm, built session by session with Rachael and Suzi directly.
- Protect the placementRegular reads through year one, so small grinds get named and fixed before they become exits.
Six or twelve working sessions of 50 minutes, over three or six months, with direct access to both practitioners between sessions.
Built for this role, this timeline, and the difficulties of the first year.
- CoS archetype identification: how they naturally operate, and where to watch the edges.
- Authority structure and scope negotiation with the executive.
- Stakeholder mapping and relationship sequencing.
- Operating-rhythm design: the week, the meetings, the communication.
- A set of working documents they build and keep: a 12–18 month role roadmap, a meeting operating model, and a personal trust-gap plan.
Every session produces something usable, built around their specific executive and organization rather than adapted from a template. For the firm, it means the person you placed is being read and supported by practitioners who have held the role, through the year that decides whether the hire sticks.
Two configurations.
One intake call and six working sessions over three months. Direct access to Rachael and Suzi between sessions.
One intake call and twelve working sessions over six months. The full first-year arc, with the shift to strategic authority mapped and worked through.
- Fees in USD. The engagement can be arranged as part of the placement or commissioned by the Chief of Staff directly; tell us which on the call.
- Applications are five short questions, read only by Rachael and Suzi, with a reply within two business days.
Read the fit first. Then protect it.
What partners ask before commissioning.
Who commissions it, the firm or the client?
Either, or the Chief of Staff directly. Some firms include it in the placement; some clients fund it as part of onboarding. We scope the arrangement on the first call.
Does the firm or the client receive reports on the Chief of Staff?
No. The advisory relationship is with the Chief of Staff, and what is discussed in sessions stays with them. What the firm gets is a placement that is being actively supported through its first year.
When should it start?
Ideally in the first weeks of the role, when expectations with the executive are still being set. It is also commissioned when a placement is a few months in and starting to grind.
Is this coaching?
No. It is a structured advisory engagement built for this role: authority, scope, stakeholders, operating rhythm, and a set of working documents the Chief of Staff builds and keeps.