Madeleine Maddy Niebauer is the CEO and Founder of vChief, helping overwhelmed leaders, like you and I, get on top of our to-do list and spend more time where we can have the most impact.
She has more than 20 years of professional experience, including 8 years as a chief of staff, an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree from Stanford University. Her company, vChief, or virtual chief of staff, supports leaders from all sectors and domains, who are looking for high-level strategic support on a part-time basis. Interesting.
And, knowing my background, you will love this. Maddy travelled with her family for 8 months internationally in Central and South America while running her company from the road. She discovered great tips for working remotely internationally, travel with family and “world-schooling” kids.
Episode Summary: Are You Ready to Hire a Chief of Staff with Maddy Madeleine Niebauer
- World schooling for Maddy was just a couple hours a day of books and then using the world as a classroom
- What is a chief of staff? It is different for every leader
- The best chief of staff supports what their leader needs
- The trusted advisor or right hand of the leader
- Takes things off the plate of the leader
- Planning for a board meeting
- Chief of staff connects the dots, with a high-level view of the organization
- It is not an executive assistant
- Chief of staff is more high level and strategic
- How to create demand for your services
- Exposure- getting in front of people
- What do they need- help them to understand.
- By 2020, 10% of the job market will be Gen Z
- Are we moving into a culture of outsourcing, virtual employees?
- Some statistics say that the workforce will be 50% virtual or remote in the next 5 years
- Leaders need to think about their priorities
- Individual, not just corporate or organizational
- What are the things I alone can do?
- Keep the monkeys with your team, not with you
- Take a hard look at what only you can do, and let others do what they can do- delegate
- Delegation
- Have office hours, and time for head’s down focused work
- Expressly communicate with your team
- Set time to focus and think- strategize – planning
- Give your team the tools and training so they can do it themselves
- In the beginning instruction, then coaching
- A coach helps you prioritize, your strengths and weaknesses
- A chief of staff is more technical, operational and strategic
- Map out your time in advance
- At the end of the week, a review of how you did
- A moment to take that time
- Planning daily is important
- What are my big rocks for the day?
- Thing about how you engage with email
- You control your email, don’t let it control you
- Set aside blocks to look at email and only touch it once
- Be confident in yourself- you know where you need to focus
- Confidence is a journey
- We are all on a leadership journey- figuring it out through experience
- Give yourself the freedom and permission to take the time to think strategically
Listen to the Audio
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Learning From Leaders:
Current Book: Chief Of Staff: The Strategic Partner Who Will Revolutionize Your Organization by Tyler Parris
Homegoing: A novel by Yaa Gyasi
Best Movie Ever: Top Gun
Leadership Superpower: Authenticity
Motivational Mantra:
[shareable cite=”Mahatma Gandhi”]Be the change that you wish to see in the world[/shareable]
Leadership Trait to Pass to Next Generation: Confidence, especially in young women
Best Book Ever: The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
Additional Items Mentioned
Special offer for the Modern leadership audience: Virtualchiefofstaff.com/ml
