Making the daily life of their executive easier: this is the main mission of a Chief of Staff (CoS), a role close to that of Chiefs of Staff in cabinet-style functions. CoS openings are also becoming increasingly numerous in France—there are 800 of them, i.e., 10 times more than 5 years ago. This evolution reflects the rise of this profession. Far more than a trend, this role is crucial for high-growth companies and for those that aim to become one. For the CEO, it is a way to double their available brain time.

Making the daily life of their executive easier: this is the main mission of a Chief of Staff (CoS), a role close to that of Chiefs of Staff in cabinet-style functions. CoS openings are also becoming increasingly numerous in France—there are 800 of them, i.e., 10 times more than 5 years ago. This evolution reflects the rise of this profession. Far more than a trend, this role is crucial for high-growth companies and for those that aim to become one. For the CEO, it is a way to double their available brain time.

Her role: to support the two co-founders in the “test, learn and deploy” approach they implement through their testing, personalization, search, product recommendation, and feature management platform. At the time of BeCoS 4, she already had strong maturity on the strategic topics of Chiefs of Staff, but above all—and this is the key point—she had a very strong desire to strengthen her ability to lead diverse topics, improve her skills, revisit her working methods, and challenge her organization. We therefore interviewed her to better understand her interest in continuous improvement, her organization during the 10 BeCoS days (as she also had to meet the demands of her CoS role), and the recommendations she took away from the program.

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Keeping your eyes on every part of the company

To be an excellent Chief of Staff, it is essential to know the strategic topics of each team that makes up the company—or at least a large part of them (HR, Accounting, Communications, Tech, Sales, etc.)—and to understand each team’s challenges to facilitate decision-making. A new measure taken in one department can have positive or negative consequences in another. A CoS has the opportunity to benefit from a 360° view of the company, can pass on teams’ best proposals to leadership, and, with their manager’s approval, identify decisions that will be most beneficial both for the team directly concerned and for all those affected directly or indirectly.

Angélique de Taddeo, a participant in BeCoS 4th edition and currently CoS at AB Tasty since August 2021, was able to acquire a complete scope over the company, thanks both to her seniority and her multidisciplinary experience. That says a lot: there were 25 employees when she joined the company in October 2014, and there are more than 300 today.

In 8 years, she held 7 different roles at AB Tasty (a magical number, you might say)! Although she started in the CSM team, she quickly moved into leadership positions where she managed around fifteen, then around thirty employees. She then joined Marketing as Deputy Chief Marketing Officer before going to New York to develop the Marketing function in the US. Back in France, she led Employee Experience and Culture, where she focused on internal communication and on spreading and applying the company’s values. Nearly two years ago, Alix de Sagazan and Rémi Aubert, AB Tasty’s two founders, shared their need for support from a CoS in their strategic missions. Very quickly, Angélique, just like Alix and Rémi, understood she was the best person to take on this role. “Being CoS at AB Tasty made perfect sense,” she told us. Today, her scope of action is divided into 3 parts: working on both internal and external speaking opportunities for her two CEOs - owning cross-functional projects - advising her two CoS, being their eyes, ears, and voice.

Following the BeCoS program while already being a CoS

At first glance, one might wonder what encouraged Angélique to take the BeCoS program when she had already held a Chief of Staff role for more than a year and a half. In fact, this was a question asked by BeCoS speakers, invited Chiefs of Staff, and participants. Yet the answer was obvious: “because we always have something to learn,” a philosophy we fully share at Seven. For us, there is no age for learning, nor for teaching. Always being in a mindset of improvement is the key to success—we are convinced of it.

Angélique told us she took time to reflect before signing up for the BeCoS program. It all started when she joined the Slack group “ Tech CoS in Paris ” on the advice of Victoire Galouzeau de Villepin, CoS at Content Square. Angélique had read the message shared by Hedi Mestiri, CoS at Seven, in which he announced the next BeCoS batch dates, and she took note of it. When she felt ready, she contacted Seven. It was in July 2022, to be precise. She then told us her preference was for the start of 2023, which we took into account.

Her profile is proof that the BeCoS program is not only intended for those who want to learn the CoS role, but also for those who practice it daily and already have several months or years of experience. Even as an experienced professional, it is always possible to learn new methods that will positively impact performance. “From a professional standpoint, BeCoS helped me refine my understanding of certain concepts so I could apply them better day to day, but also discover new tools and explore new dimensions of my role. Surprisingly, I would say BeCoS brought me more personally than professionally, notably because I did significant introspective work. In the end, I came out of it stronger.”

Alternating CoS responsibilities with intensive BeCoS participation was a challenge for Angélique. Over the 10 days (because the program runs over this period), she managed to handle her activity while staying fully engaged in the training. Her secrets: dedicating January to deep work topics, feeding her taste for challenge, and seeing every moment of her day as enriching. Being able to organize herself, step out of her comfort zone, and adopt an opportunity-oriented mindset—these are what allowed her to fully enjoy BeCoS. At Seven, we share a theory to define different ways of seeing the world: de Bono’s hats. This concept associates a color hat with a worldview; there are supposedly 6 of them. When Angélique decided to join BeCoS, she mainly wore 3 hats: blue (organization), green (novelty and creativity), and yellow (opportunities).

1 day, 1 company

Our conversations with Angélique allowed us to validate the format we had carefully chosen. During BeCoS, each day takes place in a different location. For example, from January 9 to 20, 2023, participants were able to go to LLH, Vitalliance, Accor, Le Collectionist, Reveal, Alma, Trace, and AB Tasty. A way to change scenery, find inspiration, and also make memorization easier, as Angélique told us. “The one day / one place format was, in my view, one of the great strengths of this program. It allowed me to associate each notion with a place and better retain the concepts and advice shared.”

Beyond the unique venues, the variety of guests enriched the BeCoS program content. In total, participants were able to meet 27 active CoS professionals. “As a bonus, the unique nature of each day was reinforced by the speakers, who were all so different from one another. It was fascinating to see that their viewpoints were sometimes similar and at other times complementary.”

BeCos: training to challenge yourself

At the end of each BeCoS day, for 10 days, Angélique got into the habit of writing on her "To Do List" everything she committed to implementing the day after BeCoS. Curious, we wanted to know her good resolutions; here are a few:

• Analyze her two CEOs’ calendars in detail and question whether all scheduled meetings are necessary
  The objective being to see whether the meetings in their calendars are aligned with current priorities. If yes, items are kept. If not, Angélique challenges her CEOs to postpone the topic, delegate it to someone else, or remove it entirely. This is the Eisenhower matrix concept, a principle Angélique already knew very well, and which, at the time of BeCoS, gave her the idea to use it for managing her leaders’ schedules.

• 
  
  

• State the objective of COMEX meetings
  Discussions with other professionals made her realize she could engage COMEX members even more by explaining the meeting objective from the start. Is it to get their feedback on a specific proposal? to decide together on an action to take? to announce new information? to ask them to communicate information to their respective teams?

• 
  
  

• Have very precise knowledge of all company roles
  Although Angélique already had an excellent view of each team’s scope, BeCoS reportedly encouraged her to engage even more with what new hires experience. She plans to register soon for onboarding sessions intended for newcomers, because having been at AB Tasty for 8 years, the onboarding process she experienced has evolved.

Through this approach of always going further and overperforming, Angélique proved what she had told us earlier: "I’m here to challenge myself and keep learning more about my profession, even though I already know it very well. You can constantly learn—I’m convinced of it. On my side, I will never stop wanting to explore and implement new methods to optimize my day-to-day, and that is what I was able to do. The training offered by Seven delivered what I came for, namely professional acceleration, but also what I was not initially looking for: personal and human acceleration."

BeCoS: training to grow your network

Taking part in BeCoS means living a real human experience, first through the bonds formed between participants and strengthened day after day. Indeed, it is natural for their trust-based relationship to deepen because they follow the same program together for 10 days, share about their daily lives, desires, and projects, and exchange advice. "We were 4 different profiles, all very complementary, and we quickly appreciated one another. I even think our diversity of profiles was a strength for our learning." All of them will become great CoS afterward—that is certain.

On the other hand, the human experience is also visible through the 27 speakers who came to share their day-to-day realities. Because they are practitioners, they have a lot to offer participants. Staying in touch with them, following their news, and checking in with them can help you later on. When asked who she would recommend BeCoS to, Angélique answered that it is for everyone who wants to develop their network, and she added that the program is aimed at Chiefs of Staff who have been in role for one/two years, as was her case.

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Angélique de Taddeo, CoS at AB Tasty, came out of the 4th BeCoS edition (from January 9 to 20, 2023) with new working methods, a sharp sense of observation, a desire to challenge the two CEOs she supports, an ability to step back, an expanded network, better self-knowledge, and potentially other things she didn’t get a chance to share with us! Because the CoS function requires a 360° presence across all company topics, as well as the ability to act and make decisions on all business issues, there are always skills and interpersonal qualities to strengthen, even when you already have solid CoS experience, as was the case for Angélique de Taddeo. Guided by her strong desire to learn more and her insatiable taste for challenges, she was not disappointed by BeCoS. The substance was there, she explained, but the format also left a strong impression on her. The 1 day, 1 company, 1 concrete case format, with new guests, allowed her to experience very different days and more easily retain shared concepts and advice because she had associated them with places. Through her profile and her year-and-a-half knowledge of the CoS role, Angélique proves that BeCoS is intended for future and junior CoS, but also for more experienced ones. We can’t wait to welcome new talent with unique profiles for our upcoming batches. Find the dates of our upcoming sessions here.