The Elephant in the Room: How a Chief of Staff Can Unite Your Organization
Just before founding OneTwo Growth Studio, I had a conversation with a Founder from my Techstars days. We discussed how the leadership journey shifts dramatically from startup to scaleup. Initially, it’s all about survival, but as the company grows, new complexities arise. The biggest challenge for a founder-turned-CEO is moving from nurturing a vision to leading an entire organization and its leadership team.
He summarized this perfectly with the parable of the blind men and the elephant. The TL;DR is - a group of blind men come across something, but since they can’t see it, they each use their intuition to grab a different part and try to figure out what it is. One says it’s a snake (the trunk), another insists it’s a tree (the leg), and so on. None of them have the full picture.
While a classic tale, I had never considered it in the context of what so many founders turned CEOs encounter as they scale. Different teams and departments - marketing, sales, product, finance, etc. - all have their own perception, resources, goals, and challenges. And just like those blind men, without any direction or proper oversight, they end up arguing and going in circles because they’re missing the bigger picture.
You may expect the CEO to take charge here, but in reality, their own challenges require them to focus on putting their teams in the next best position, whether that’s fundraising or product strategy for 12 months from now. C-level leadership reports to a CEO, but there is significant opportunity cost if the CEO is also in charge of coordinating a leadership team.
That's where a Chief of Staff comes in. This person has the superpower of being able to see the whole elephant. They work closely with the leadership team, bridging the gaps between all the various functions. That gives them a 360-degree view of the organization - the challenges, the goals, the moving parts. They use that insight to get everyone aligned and rowing in the same direction.
I've seen it work wonders. At Quantive, we scaled up everything from marketing, sales, and product teams. Divergence and silo-creation began as expected, with each focusing on their own priorities and metrics. This is a natural occurrence for any scaling organization, but it posed a risk to growth and customer experience.
By regularly convening cross-functional meetings, I focused entirely on helping surface the underlying issues and align the leadership around a shared vision. We identified areas of redundancy, flagged emerging bottlenecks, and recommended solutions to make the whole business run as one, not just individual departments.
The results? Smoother global operations, better-coordinated initiatives, and a nice uptick in revenue - all without having to bring on a ton of overhead.
In a fast-moving, high-pressure environment, it can be tough to step back and get that 30,000-foot view. But having that comprehensive perspective combined with an operator skillset is a game-changer. It allows you to make smarter decisions, anticipate problems before they arise, and ensure everyone is marching to the same drumbeat.
So if you're a founder, CEO, or executive grappling with silos, misalignment, or just general growing pains, I'd encourage you to seriously consider bringing on a Chief of Staff. Even if it’s for a period of time, such as post-fundraise, or in a fractional capacity it might just be the missing puzzle piece that transforms your organization from a scattered jumble of mixed perspectives into a well-oiled, high-performing machine.
Interested in learning more? Reach out today to discuss how a fractional Chief of Staff engagement with OneTwo Growth Studio can help align your teams and resources
