The Chief of Staff role: Natasha Hannah @ Lawpath

“We really needed to make sure all department heads were aligned not only on the operational front, but also where we were going as a company”

The Chief of Staff (CoS) role is rapidly gaining momentum in startups. But what is it exactly? And what does it take to be successful? Rather than coming up with our own definition we decided to hear directly from people that are in this role.

This interview is part of a series focused on the role of Chief of Staff. In this post, Natasha Hannah will share the frameworks and processes that are used to build high performing teams at Lawpath.

About Lawpath

Lawpath is Australia's leading legal and compliance platform for small businesses.

Company size: 85

Website: https://lawpath.com 

Summary

About the role

• The Chief of Staff at Lawpath ensures cross-departmental alignment and accountability for projects that don't have clear ownership, supporting company-wide initiatives.
• Weekly tasks include collaborating closely with the CEO, attending leadership meetings, and managing OKRs, strategy, and team-focused projects.
• Quarterly planning is driven by OKRs, with a focus on revenue and customer metrics, using milestones and reviews to track progress and address challenges.

Lessons learned

• Embrace delegation as the company grows, allowing department heads to manage their areas while focusing on strategic priorities as Chief of Staff.
• Clearly define responsibilities not only for the Chief of Staff but also for the entire organisation to ensure smooth communication and ownership.

The interview

Q: How would you describe your role?

At Lawpath, we describe the Chief of Staff as ensuring seamless collaboration across all departments and being the central point of accountability for projects that don't really fall under a single department. The reason why we came up with that description stems from why this role exists in our organisation.

The Chief of Staff role came into existence when we started to grow and had hired different heads of departments. We really needed to make sure all of those department heads were aligned not only on the operational front, but also where we were going as a company.

But there were certain initiatives and projects that would come into place that didn't really have a clear ownership. It wasn't someone that was specifically owning it from a sales perspective or from a product perspective. So, for those types of things, it was really easy for me to step in and to help out.

That's how we describe the CoS role internally, why it came into existence, and then ultimately how I got into it.

Q: What does a typical week look like for you?

I think that it's pretty clear for Chief of Staffs that the role varies quite a bit week to week. But there are some things that stay consistent.

Since I work quite closely with the CEO, I always have a one-on-one catch up with him where he’s able to communicate quite quickly to discuss:

• My key priorities
• If there's anything that changed or that he's heard from a board or investor perspective
• Projects that he needs me to jump on right away

Then I also participate in the senior leadership team meeting, which is a place where we discuss all of the operational updates for each individual department and share any obstacles and challenges that we're encountering. It's also a time where we can have strategic discussions that need to take place for the company.

Other than that, on Mondays I'll have various meetings that are focused on specific projects that I'm working on. Then depending on where we are in the quarter, I might be preparing our company's quarterly OKRs, or gathering any sort of partnership information that we require for external stakeholders, or focusing on strategy, initiatives, and other projects that focus specifically on our team members. For example, how we revamp our company values and a better way to integrate them, or acting on feedback from our ENPS survey.

Q: Do you have a process in place to plan quarters and align the org?

We have a very structured process in place to plan quarters, which specifically revolves around our company OKRs.

At the start of each quarter, we launch our OKRs, typically about the first weekend, where we outline our objectives and the key results or targets that we aim to achieve during that time. We also set a theme for the quarter, which helps focus our efforts. And during that time, we identify specific milestones that we will use to celebrate our progress along the way.

And then in terms of specific metrics or KPIs, we focus on the funnels that are really important to each team. Things like revenue metrics are always a top priority because every department, whether or not they're customer-facing, will have some sort of impact on them. Additionally, as a customer centric company at Lawpath, we emphasise metrics related specifically to our customer experience. We will track things like customer engagement and customer satisfaction scores in response to new product releases or by looking at general use of our product.

Q: What processes and frameworks does your company rely on to help teams perform at their best during the quarter?

The company team and individual OKRs are established at the beginning of the quarter. Those are really important and set the tone to ensure that people are aligned on what we need to do as a company. That's probably the key element that drives things from the very start in terms of planning and for the individual OKRs.

Managers will check in at least once a month to see how people are progressing. And then, we also do a company wide mid-quarter OKR review so people know how we're doing on a company and team level. We'll focus on any obstacles that we've encountered, specific wins or opportunities, and then a goal that we really want to prioritise for the remaining period.

We then have our Monday morning weekly sprint, where we highlight what's achieved or done, as well as what we're going to be doing over the next week. That aligns everyone, from an executional standpoint, on what we need to achieve or where we're at so far.

And then finally, we have an in person, all hands every Friday morning. During this time, we celebrate the wins and then really stress out anything important that needs to be achieved to adjust the sense of urgency. Finally we highlight some great and insightful things learned from our customers.

Q: What’s a lesson that you had to learn the hard way as the company grew?

Ultimately it was embracing the fact that we hired department heads and team leaders for a reason. When the team was small, it was really easy to be involved in every major project, but that's no longer the case with the current size of Lawpath.

And so, it was a bit of an adjustment to let go of certain things that I became really heavily involved with in the previous five years. But, it was necessary in order for me to do my best work in the Chief of Staff role.

I needed to be clear on the things that I would be focusing on, and then leaving others to do their best in their areas.

Q: What’s your advice for an org that is about to introduce the Chief of Staff role?

It's really important to define clear responsibilities for the person entering the role. But, it’s also just as equally important to do the same for the rest of the entire organisation. Everyone should know what their gambit is and have clarity on their ownership.

Knowing this will empower the Chief of Staff in their role, but also help them set up strong communication channels to do their best possible work during this time.