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March 21, 2020
On bad days, you may suffer a crisis of confidence, or even imposter syndrome.
On tough days, get up early, exercise, and think about the positive sides of your role. Remember that it’s an utter privilege to do your job, then grab a coffee and get back in there.
“Second in Command: The Misunderstood role of the Chief Operating Officer.” Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review article “Why Strategy Execution Unravels – and What to Do About It,” the authors bust five myths about the execution of strategy:
Something in the interconnectivity between functions can break down and undermine execution.
The strategy has to be simple, and has to be repeated often, for everyone to be on the same page.
However, when you push execution from the top without engaging middle management, it can create a dependency culture where middle management doesn’t feel confident in handling matters. This can cause major problems with succession when a leader moves on.
“distributed management’ where the strategy is owned, and driven, by a cohort across the organisation.
This, in essence, is the recipe for strategy. If you know “Why” the organisation does what it does, “What” it needs to do to succeed, and “How” it’s going to do it, then you have strong building blocks for success. All you need now is an excellent c...
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“an organisation without a strategy is willing to try anything.”
Ten questions to ask about strategy:
Strategy design
Kim, W.C., Mauborgne, R.: “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant”
McKeown, M.: “The Strategy Book”
as a COO you’re almost always accountable for leading a change agenda.
Whether it’s in response to a crisis, industry movements, or disruption, you almost always have the frequently unpopular task of initiating and leading transformation.
Changes
are often about finding efficiency. As COO you are uniquely placed to spot these opportunities.
You have the unique perspective on what parts of the ecosystem light up when certain processes take place, where the bottlenecks are, where
investment is needed, and what areas aren’t pulling their weight.
Finally, you need patience – change is hard and takes time.
A popular operating model is the McKinsey (Peters, Athos and Waterman) “7S” operating model18:
It portrays the different elements of an organisation that must be working together for the change to take effect.
Are they suffering change fatigue?
Ask people about the major changes they’ve observed over the past 2-3 years, how they think those changes have landed, and whether they’re feeling confident about the current changes.
If you want to leave your organisation in a better state than how you found it, you have to drive a balance between the quick wins that garner support and the big, fundamental improvements from which future generations will benefit.
If you get people engaged in the “Why”, everything else becomes easier. Don’t unnecessarily deplete your personal reserves of goodwill and influence by pushing a project. People should be engaging in the project because they see its inherent benefits, not because the COO says so.
There will be times when you’ll just have to muscle a project through using your political capital. However, it’s draining for you and will d...
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If it’s unglamorous and diffic...
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Build a cohort at all levels.
Don’t make the mistake of focusing only on top management. Find the subject matter experts and the culture carriers, and keep the channels open with them. The culture carriers will give you the word on the street and will carry a lot more people in the middle ranks with them than you ever will.
Ensure that projects end properly.
I truly believe that the single most important skill for a Chief of Staff (and, to almost the same extent, for a COO), is knowing how to get things done in an organisation. This entails knowing whom to call and for what, but more importantly, it requires deep relationships with people whom you can call on in times of need.
not wavering.
Organisations that pursue a small number of changes with relentless focus, tenacity and dogged determination while avoiding distractions along the way, will always be more successful than those who waver.
