The Right Hand

Conversations with the chiefs of staff of Jacinda Ardern, Kamala Harris, John Howard, Justin Trudeau, Sanna Marin, Nelson Mandela, Michelle Obama, Tony Blair and Julia Gillard.

Imagine a typical day in the office where threats are constant. You are always protecting something; you are always fighting someone; everything is a secret; any delay in responding is dangerous, or even deadly. A political chief of staff is a curious, high-octane role—little-known to those outside the corridors of power, yet enormously influential within.

Chiefs of staff are our political system's ultimate insiders. Prime ministers, presidents, premiers, and other political leaders around the globe rely on their counsel, their discretion, and their ability to manage the backroom business of government. To survive in this role, a person must be a skilled communicator, an excellent multitasker, fiercely loyal, judiciously discreet and, perhaps most importantly, be able to survive on minimal sleep. To thrive is to become part-strategist, part-therapist, part-parent, and even part-psychic for some of the most powerful people in the world.

In The Right Hand, founder of media platform Missing Perspectives Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks surveys recent world-shaping events by profiling the chiefs of staff to some of the world's best-known leaders.

The Right Hand is peppered with never-before-told stories and insights into some of the world's most loved leaders, giving readers new perspectives of significant sociocultural and political events they felt they already knew. It offers a glimpse behind the curtain that so often conceals the machinations of power, as well as presenting a vibrant narrative of the real-world West Wing and profound insight into this oft-mentioned but little-explained role.