Frequently Asked Questions

A weekly newsletter about the Chief of Staff role — how to design it, hire for it, and stop accidentally sabotaging it. Every issue pairs two voices: Rachael Goldfarb writes from inside the role (White House, Gates Foundation, 150+ CoS interviews). Suzi Coul writes from the blueprints — she architects leaders using a proprietary nine-dimension diagnostic framework. One voice from inside the role. One from the blueprints. No one else is doing both.

CEOs who hired a Chief of Staff and can't figure out why it's not working. Founders who introduced the role wrong and tanked its authority in the first week. Executives who aren't sure where the CoS fits in the org chart. And Chiefs of Staff who are drowning in logistics nobody hired them for while the strategic work sits untouched. If any of that sounds familiar, you're in the right place.

Every week on Tuesday. Rachael writes one week, and Suzi the next. Each two-week period pairs a free post from one of us with a paid post from the other — so you always get both perspectives, and no single month is entirely behind a paywall.

The sharp end. Every issue includes a free post — provocative takes on what's broken in how organizations design, hire for, and accidentally sabotage the Chief of Staff role. These are the posts CEOs forward to their boards and Chiefs of Staff screenshot in private group chats.

The frameworks and diagnostics that sit behind the takes. Paid editions carry the full argument, and paid subscribers get the library that goes with them: field guides, diagnostics, and worksheets built to be applied to a real organization. In the library now are the Leader Signature Field Guide, the Chief of Staff Readiness Assessment, the Chief of Staff Job Description Worksheet, and the Translation Layer Check. We add to it as new frameworks are finished.

You also get the full archive from the day you subscribe.

A take tells you your Chief of Staff role is broken. A framework shows you where the fracture is and gives you something to fix it with. Free editions deliver the diagnosis. Paid editions hand you the instruments.

That’s exactly what we’d recommend. Read three or four editions. If you find yourself wanting the tool behind the take, you’ll know it’s time. You can upgrade anytime.

$15 a month, or $149 a year. That covers every paid edition, the library of frameworks and diagnostics, and the full archive.

Suzi Coul's proprietary diagnostic model reads a leader's operating pattern across nine dimensions. The newsletter introduces the framework. Paid subscribers get the field guides that apply it.

A practitioner's guide to reading a leader's operating pattern across the nine dimensions. It sits in the paid library, available as soon as you subscribe.

Field guides, diagnostics, and worksheets for Chiefs of Staff and the executives who work with them. Decision frameworks and signal guides built to be used rather than filed. Nothing is on a release schedule; a framework goes in when it is ready.

Rachael started her career supporting the Chief of Staff to the President in the Clinton White House. She helped build the CFPB from employee #19, served as Chief of Staff to the President of Global Health at the Gates Foundation, and worked for Raj Shah, now President of the Rockefeller Foundation, at USDA. She's interviewed over 150 Chiefs of Staff. She writes from inside the role — not about it, not adjacent to it, but from having done it at the highest levels.

Suzi spent a career in and around the House of Commons, reading leadership patterns and designing the operating environments that make executives effective. She doesn't just diagnose leadership problems — she architects leaders. Her nine-dimensional diagnostic model maps a leader's operating signature with a precision most executive coaches can't touch, and she has a rare ability to take a leader who's creating chaos and rebuild their operating environment from the foundation up.

Because the Chief of Staff role sits at the intersection of lived experience and leadership architecture. Rachael knows what it's like inside the role. Suzi knows how to build the environment around it. You need both perspectives to get this right. Most publications give you one. We give you both, every issue.

Yes. We read every reply. If you're navigating a hire you're stuck on, a role that isn't working, or a leadership dynamic you can't quite name — reply anytime. You may see your scenario addressed in a future edition.

Every single one. The full archive is yours from the moment you subscribe.

Yes. The newsletter is the front door, not the whole house. We offer CoS Readiness Assessments for organizations considering the hire, Operating Rhythm Resets for leaders whose operating environment needs rebuilding, and executive advisory for the deeper, ongoing work.

Reply to any edition. We'll answer it.