Department: Kellogg Dean's Office
Salary/Grade: EXS/17

Job Summary:

The Chief of Staff (CoS) for Kellogg School of Management is an important executive leadership role that is accountable for supporting all aspects of the school’s strategic agenda from inception to execution—both globally and domestically. This facilitative role requires a combination of focus, flexibility, agility, as well as a willingness to play an active, behind the scenes role—thus serving as a leader and a disciplined operator.

The CoS for the dean of Kellogg serves an instrumental support role for the dean in effectively managing key relationships across Kellogg—including the senior leadership team, faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors, press and other stakeholders.

The CoS acts as both a spokesperson and advisor to the dean. Working with the senior leadership team, the CoS develops strategic communication plans and crafts communications covering complex topics in a variety of internal and external forums to effectively influence the targeted audience. This consultative role serves as the dean’s ‘trusted counsel’, and therefore requires a highly resourceful individual with strong emotional intelligence, empathy, self-motivation, diligence and resourceful skills to keep multiple streams of work moving forward and hitting deadlines, and strong analytical skills.

As the Dean’s CoS, they work closely with counterparts on the leadership team and across the Northwestern community to facilitate the Dean’s strategic direction for the school and to support execution of key initiatives. The CoS also partners with leaders across NU units to ensure alignment in matters and initiatives of importance to the entire NU community.

Specific Responsibilities:

Strategic support/implementation.

• Collaborates with the dean and senior team to prioritize opportunities.
• Drives inclusive decision-making processes focused on short, medium and long-term strategies.
• Facilitates key interdisciplinary strategic initiatives through the inception phase and translates strategies into actionable, measurable, and achievable project plans.
• Mobilizes project teams charged with executing initiatives.
• Manages the development of the comprehensive Kellogg annual strategic plan and monitors the execution of same.

Relationship management.  

• Assists and supports the dean in relationship management with key Kellogg and NU internal and external stakeholders.
• Serves as a key partner to faculty, staff, and stakeholders to ensure the smooth implementation of the dean’s key initiatives. 
• Focuses on the underlying interests of the parties working with the dean, understands their intentions, and creatively identifies cohesive and balanced approaches to pressing issues.
• Supports the needs of the executive staff in their ability to raise critical issues with the dean and receive needed responses, guidance and decisions.
• Acts as a resource across Kellogg to increase broad cohesion for strategic plans.

Dean’s Communications.

• Manages all aspects of communications from the Dean’s Office.
• Working with the senior leadership team, drafts and tailors key messages on behalf of the dean and conducts research in support of these communications. Communications range from the dean’s updates at board meetings, to follow-up correspondence related to the dean’s various engagements with potential donors, staff or faculty to crafting talking points for the dean at various speaking engagements.
• Accurately reflects and communicates the dean’s position in internal and external meetings to help drive understanding of her views.
• Proactively identifies and engages the dean on critical issues that need attention across the school

Miscellaneous

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 10 years of executive experience
• Demonstrated ability to effectively navigate within senior team while also track strategic initiatives at the executive level in an organization
• Ability to anticipate, interpret and respond to both people and issues with a minimum amount of direction and the highest level of discretion.

Minimum Competencies: (Skills, knowledge, and abilities.)

• Highly developed communication skills (written/personal) and interpersonal savvy
• Results/action orientation; project management skills
• Organizational and political agility; developed negotiation skills
• Unquestionable personal code of ethics, integrity, respect for diversity and trust
• Able to successfully navigate within varying degrees of ambiguity in an often fast-paced environment
• Consistently exercises considerable discretion, confidentiality and sound judgment.
• Strong strategic / financial analysis skills

Preferred Qualifications:

This role provides privileged access to the inner workings of Kellogg School of Management and to highly sensitive information. The successful candidate will be discrete, high energy, agile-minded, strategic, proactive, a direct communicator, highly organized and committed to the vision and values of Kellogg. In addition, the following standards will generally define the successful candidate:

• Mission driven; passionate about Kellogg and related constituencies
• Good sense of self and strong personal presence
• Strong verbal and written communication skills and experience
• Management experience and skill, including the ability to thrive in a complex and fast-paced environment
• Ability to work collaboratively, and to lead; organize and prioritize in a complex and dynamic setting.
• Ability to manage multiple simultaneous deadlines while maintaining attention to detail.
• Maturity, self-awareness, and humility

Preferred Competencies: (Skills, knowledge, and abilities)

• Comfort with occasional travel with or on behalf of the dean, as the CoS may accompany the dean to selected meetings and occasionally, work with her at her home.

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Benefits:
At Northwestern, we are proud to provide meaningful, competitive, high-quality health care plans, retirement benefits, tuition discounts and more! Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/index.html to learn more.

Work-Life and Wellness:
Northwestern offers comprehensive programs and services to help you and your family navigate life’s challenges and opportunities, and adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles.
We support flexible work arrangements where possible and programs to help you locate and pay for quality, affordable childcare and senior/adult care. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/work-life/index.html to learn more.

Professional Growth & Development:
Northwestern supports employee career development in all circumstances whether your workspace is on campus or at home. If you’re interested in developing your professional potential or continuing your formal education, we offer a variety of tools and resources. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/learning/index.html to learn more.

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