As a chief of staff, your sole job on any given day is to figure out what needs to be done immediately, what can be done tomorrow, and what can wait another day. It’s managing the clock for your member and staff. Just like football, you must know what plays stop the clock, and which ones keep it running.
Every phone call, every email, and every meeting eats away at the one depleting resource in a legislative office — time. Looking back at my time in the state legislature, I wish I would have emphasized this principle more, not only to the legislators I supported, but to my entire team .
This is why prioritization and empowering your staff is so important. Your member cannot possibly meet with every lobbyist, department staffer, or interest group that requests a meeting. And neither can you.
This is where your local knowledge of the legislative landscape becomes critical. Ask critical questions such as:
- Who is best positioned in your office to handle the issue at hand?
- Must it happen today? Or can it wait until tomorrow or another day?
- Who actually needs to be in the meeting?
You’ll notice I didn’t ask who do these individuals or groups want in the meeting? That’s a secondary question.
If a policy director is best positioned to handle the meeting due to their knowledge set, they should be the one driving it. And this should be communicated to the individual or group requesting the meeting, so the staffer involved understands the importance of the role they are playing and the individual or individuals they are meeting with grasp the importance of the staffer they are meeting with.
I used to tell lobbyists and other special interest groups that the person they would be meeting with was our in-house expert in their area, and that the Senate president and I relied on their feedback in pursuit for or against policy. To put it simply, to get the buy-in of the Senate president, you need this policy staffer’s endorsement of your proposal first.
This will create a stronger, more well-connected staff to the office’s priorities and allow your team as a whole to be more impactful. Scarcity mindset is the downfall of many legislative and executive offices. While it may seem uncomfortable at first to concede “power” to so many people in the office, it will ultimately make you stronger and more successful.
The easiest solution to managing time is to empower your team to take on important tasks on behalf of the office. There are only so many hours in a day. And there are only so many days in a legislative session. As a chief of staff, it is on you to run an efficient, effective operation by maximizing every minute you are given.