Webinar: Your guide to chief of party success

The chief of party can play a critical role in winning contract bids and, just as importantly, in ensuring the delivery and success of their projects. Responsible for overseeing every aspect of a project — from hiring to coordinating with donors — chief of party is a demanding and high-pressure role and one that many global development professionals aspire to reach in their career. While the term chief of party is most commonly used by the United States Agency for International Development, it has been adopted by other funders and organizations. Jane Kellum, a gender, education, and protection specialist who served as chief of party for CARE USA in Haiti, and Kristi Ragan, four-time chief of party with DAI, join Devex to share their advice for succeeding in COP roles. Having moved from technical consultancy gigs to overseeing an education project in Haiti, Kellum reflects on her first experience in this leadership role. She discusses the importance of buy-in from local staff and stakeholders and shares advice for building these all-important relationships. Kellum also talks about the additional challenges of managing teams in low-income countries. Ragan offers the slightly different perspective of a COP, based on her experience mobilizing and overseeing projects from Washington, D.C. Overall success is dependent on bringing together the right team, explains Ragan, adding that “you can be a great COP, but if you don’t have a great team, you are not going to go anywhere.” She advises hiring “for team dynamics” and not just technical skills, and prioritizing team management over client demands. Having recently worked with a team made up entirely of women professionals, Ragan says that women are bringing real value to global development projects and encourages chiefs of party to be flexible and open to hiring more women and working mothers. “They are adept at nipping problems in the bud, and they over-communicate,” says Ragan. “And that over-communication is a huge asset, because usually when you over-communicate you are just hitting the right level.” Women are also adept at multitasking because they are doing it in their own lives, she adds.