Is it a numbers game?

Your iPhone calculator is about to become your best friend.

Beyond the soft skills: Why numbers matter for Chiefs of Staff

Let's be honest - when people think "Chief of Staff," they often picture someone with exceptional EQ, masterful stakeholder management, and otherworldly diplomacy skills. And yes, those soft skills are crucial. But here's what many don't realise: in every exceptional Chief of Staff is a sharp, numbers-savvy brain that can crunch data as effectively as they can read a room.

Some Chiefs of Staff shy away from the quantitative side of the role, focusing exclusively on relationship building and communication. I think they're doing themselves a disservice. Your CEO lives and breathes by numbers - P&L statements, growth projections, market share analysis - and they need you right there with them, speaking the same language. Financial literacy and quantitative reasoning abilities are non-negotiables for your CEO, and that means they're non-negotiables for you. They're essential for your understanding of your business and mission and your ability to communicate with impact.

The Chiefs of Staff who truly accelerate their careers aren't just great with people - they're equally comfortable with spreadsheets and financial models. They become indispensable because they can translate numerical insights into strategic recommendations - on the spot.

The gap between "great" and "outstanding" in this role often comes down to your command of the numbers that drive your business, whether it's a SaaS startup, a blue-chip corporate, or a non-profit. Numbers can be dollars; they can also be service users.

When the board asks tough questions about performance or your CEO needs to make a fast decision based on financial implications, your quantitative fluency becomes your superpower.

If I was starting from scratch, or brushing up, here's what I'd prioritise:

1. Learn or relearn the basics:

• How to calculate compound growth, percentage changes, net present value, market share, ROI, gross profit, to name a few. Understand the time value of money and discount rates. And the rule of 72* - that's a cool one! ➡️Even if Excel and AI can calculate these things for you, you still need to know what to do with the results they give you!

2. Get comfortable with the key ratios and metrics used in your industry:

• Earnings per share, price/earnings, debt/equity, ARR, customer acquisition cost, NPS - the list goes on ➡️Understanding these ratios lets you see at a glance how your company (or a competitor's) is doing.

3. Familiarise yourself with typical profit margins in your industry (and for bonus points, in a comparable one).

• Get them from annual reports, consulting industry voices ➡️This is a good anchor and a helpful sense-checker when you're trying to diagnose or measure performance.

4. Memorise the big ticket numbers:

• GDP and population for your country, the US, China and the EU, world population, specific city populations, rough average household size ➡️You can do a lot of easy calculations with those stats at your fingertips. Market sizing? Quick impact assessment? Rapid hypothesis testing? You're halfway there with these key figures.

The best news of all is that this is stuff you can just learn. It's totally in your control. To take it to the next level, here's a challenge for you:

Put those numbers into action:

• Create a personal dashboard of the 5-7 metrics that matter most to your boss and your business

• Update it weekly and train yourself to spot trends before anyone asks ➡️This builds your quantitative intuition and positions you as the go-to person who "just knows" when something's off

Master the art of numerical storytelling:

• Numbers without context are just digits on a page

• Practice explaining what the numbers mean in human terms: "This 3% increase means we can hire that new team we've been wanting" ➡️Your CEO doesn't just want numbers; they want the story the numbers are telling

Develop your own "sanity check" formulas:

• Quick mental math that helps you validate claims on the fly

• Like: "If we have X customers paying Y per month, our revenue should be roughly Z" ➡️This superpower will save you from embarrassing mistakes in meetings and catch errors before they become problems

Connect seemingly unrelated metrics:

• Look for correlations between customer satisfaction and retention rates

• Explore how employee engagement impacts productivity metrics ➡️These insights often lead to the most valuable strategic discussions with your CEO

Know when precision matters (and when it doesn't):

• Budget forecasts for the board? Decimal precision matters.

• Quick market sizing in a brainstorm? Round numbers work fine. ➡️This flexibility shows maturity in your quantitative thinking

Exercise your number muscles daily:

• Calculate tips without your phone

• Estimate percentages while waiting for coffee

• Compare year-over-year growth rates when reading news ➡️Like any skill, consistent practice makes perfect

From good to indispensable: The numerical advantage

I've seen it a lot - the Chiefs of Staff who get taken seriously the fastest are those who can walk into any meeting and immediately grasp the financial implications of what's being discussed. They're the ones who can quickly run a back-of-the-envelope calculation that changes the direction of a strategy session.

Your CEO is making dozens of decisions daily, often with incomplete information. Having a right-hand person who can rapidly assess numerical trade-offs and implications isn't just helpful—it's transformative. It's the difference between "Can you take notes on this decision?" and "What do you think we should do here?"

Think about the last major company pivot or strategic initiative you supported. How much more valuable could you have been if you'd been able to instantly estimate the financial impact across different scenarios? That's the level you want to play at. Remember, Chiefs of Staff: in a world drowning in data, the ability to quickly extract meaning from numbers is what separates the good from the exceptional. Your CEO needs you to be their numerical translator - the one who can turn raw data into actionable insights faster than anyone else in the room.

The beauty of this skill is that it compounds over time. As you build your quantitative muscle, you'll find yourself making faster, better decisions across all aspects of your role. The patterns will become familiar, and you'll develop an intuition that feels almost like a sixth sense for when numbers don't add up.

So yes, keep refining those soft skills that got you noticed. But if you want to truly excel as a Chief of Staff, embrace the numbers. Make them your allies. Because in the boardroom and beyond, quantitative fluency isn't just an advantage—it's your ticket to becoming truly indispensable.

Want a fun challenge? Calculate the rule of 72 for your company's growth rate, then work backward and think about what improvements would need to happen to cut that doubling time in half. Your CEO is thinking in these terms - join them on their level!

If you want a partner to help you with this, I'd love to chat. Find a slot that works for you here, or send me a note via my contact page and I'll get in touch.