More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
July 29 - July 30, 2023
The COO has to be great at whatever the CEO sucks at. Again, it’s yin and yang.
“While other jobs are primarily defined in relation to the work to be done and the structure of the organization, the COO’s role is defined in relation to the CEO as an individual.”
The CEO defines what the culture looks and feels like, and the COO figures out how to make it happen.
In very small businesses, the second-in-command is often more of a right hand to the CEO rather than a true COO. A startup might aspire to get big enough to need a COO but not get there for a while. When the CEO gets to a point where they realize they can’t do it all or don’t know how to do it all, they need a partner or mentor to assist them. The first second-in-command is often an MVP from within the business.
COO should be the person who enables real discussion to take place in the organization by getting people to say what they mean to avoid miscommunication and passive-aggression. They don’t take sides;
In smaller companies without accountable management teams, a COO might need to enforce accountability, but not in a larger company. As a company scales to medium or enterprise level, the leadership team should be able to hold themselves accountable. Rather than holding people accountable, the COO hires accountable people. As we’ve seen,
COOs have to be chameleons who understand everyone. They don’t have to be experts; they just need to know how to hire experts.
The only disciplines the COO is likely the smartest person in are communications, people skills, and leadership. They need the competence to ask the right questions from a leadership perspective: which systems are missing or broken, and how can the company change to collaborate better or to remove obstacles?
The Art of War. In it, he said: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
Part of the COO’s role, as I saw it, was to say what everybody else was thinking but didn’t have the confidence to say.
If the COO becomes the referee in a business, they will constantly find themselves involved in conflict, which sets them up for failure.
a rule of thumb, you should be looking for every employee to return a minimum of 2X—and preferably 4X—on their pay because you’ll need that increase in gross margin the company makes to pay for them and break even.
There are four main reasons to bring in a COO: to increase efficiency to make employees or customers happier to grow the economic value of the company to grow profitability
Those COO roles tend to be for a jack of all trades, someone who can handle a wide variety of work, project manage, and stay on top of all the moving parts as the company scales. At this size, the COO is telling everyone what to do.
The CEO rolls out the good news. The COO rolls out the bad news and owns the tough decisions.
The CEO is the lifeblood of the organization, and the COO is the heart that keeps blood coursing through the organization’s body.
“To shine the spotlight on the CEO, the COO should always consider ways in which the CEO can be recognized for being the leader that they are. For instance, in enterprise-wide conferences, the COO could present the CEO prior to their keynote.
“Believe in people, believe in the power of people, believe in developing people, and believe in providing a vision.” —Erik Church, COO, O2E Brands
