Friday Focus: How a chief of staff can help you

Aug. 19, 2022

— By Nickole Conley, chief of staff

Earlier this week the university announced that my working title would change from University of Alaska Fairbanks executive officer to chief of staff (CoS). This shift has no impact on my role, duties, or direct reports at UAF, but it does make it easier for stakeholders inside and outside the organization to understand what my position does for our UAF community. With the opportunity to write this week's Friday Focus, I want to expand on this shift and provide the campus community with a look inside my role. If stakeholders don’t understand what my position does for the university then they may miss an opportunity to benefit from the services I can provide them.

When I took on this role in 2018, I thought I knew exactly what it entailed and what would be required to fulfill my responsibilities on the core leadership team and to UAF stakeholders. Like many professionals stepping into a new position, I found there’s a difference between what you think you know and reality. Over the course of the first year, I found myself carrying out a variety of duties that touched many different levels of the organization and carried with them varying levels of complexity, risk and reward. However, all of them had the same objective – to support UAF’s mission and emerging vision statement. In previous positions, I also supported UAF’s mission and vision, but this role provides me with an opportunity to directly support or impact more than just one unit or college. I’m able to work across the university and support each department, unit, institute, and/or college. 

Every position in an organization should produce a valuable final product. The CoS valuable final product is an expansion of the high-level executive capacity of the Office of the Chancellor for the advancement of the community. This position means that internal and external stakeholders receive the highest level of support from the chancellor’s office. I accomplish this by overseeing special projects that require project management and coordinating key initiatives involving cabinet members, deans, and senior administrators. The CoS also serves as an advisor to the other members of the chancellor's core cabinet, providing support on complex issues and guidance where needed. The person in this role also works to streamline processes to optimize effectiveness throughout UAF, while understanding the impacts across units at an executive level. In the simplest terms, the CoS role reduces complexity and solves problems. 

One of the greatest challenges in my role is also one of the most rewarding, and that is serving as a principal advisor to the chancellor on project planning and management. As the CoS, I provide a balanced assessment of considerations from across the wide range of views at the university. The CoS role requires me to consider all aspects and perspectives while working on a project and to navigate effectively through uncertainty. I find this aspect of the role challenging and rewarding. The chancellor challenges me to think outside the box, generate new ideas, and think differently as we navigate what lies ahead. This provides me with the reward of professional and personal growth throughout my career.

As I noted above, this role coordinates key initiatives. My first key initiative was UAF’s Strategic Plan. I worked with over 100 different individuals from across our campuses to build teams for each goal and provide support as the goals came to life with the creation of a vision statement and aspirations to guide them. This process began in 2018 but didn’t wrap up until 2021 due to the compact, discussion of one university, and then the pandemic. Nonetheless, we finished with six well-outlined goals that we continue to work toward with the vision of providing excellence through a transformative experience.  

Perhaps not as obviously visible as the strategic plan, but just as important, is the CoS’ role in policy creation, review and approval. This work falls within the scope of oversight in my role. Our campus exists in a complex and changing environment that increasingly requires us to be more nimble than we have been in the past. We can only be as nimble as our policies allow us. The CoS needs to recognize where ineffective policies need to be retired, where efficiency can increase through an update, and where new policies are needed. The CoS can’t do this work alone and I’d like to thank the Compliance Alliance committee for recently reviewing some of UAF’s policies that needed a refresh. I also want to extend an invitation to reach out to me if you see a policy that’s confusing, ineffective or outdated. The work of improving policy is never ending and needs the insights only you can bring. 

The CoS role is complex, but its purpose is clear – make life better for our community and stakeholders by increasing the capacity and capabilities of the Office of the Chancellor. I invite you to connect with me and share your perspectives. A big part of my job is to identify problems and offer solutions to solve the issues. Let’s work together to make UAF a place of belonging and innovation.

Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of UAF's leadership team every week.