The Second in Command: Unleash the Power of Your COO

by Cameron Herold

There’s an old saying that if the rate of change outside your business is greater than the rate of change inside your business, you’re out of business.

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.”

Being a startup or scaling COO is not about doing stuff; it’s about getting stuff done.

The CEO defines what the culture looks and feels like, and the COO figures out how to make it happen.

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 COO’s job is not to fix the problems or answer all the questions, but rather to grow others so they can fix the problems and they can answer the questions. By focusing on growing people instead of fixing problems directly, the COO can advance the organization strategically rather than becoming just another firefighter.

It’s easy sometimes to forget that the COO isn’t just an execution expert. They’re also a people expert. All COOs possess this unique skill set: processes and people, the nuts and bolts of getting shit done combined with EQ and soft skills that most shitkickers don’t begin to understand.

A good COO—particularly someone from outside a business—can see shortcuts, embrace the new, have the ability to learn quickly, and figure out how to hack the system.

“People don’t fail—systems fail.”

Jack Daly: “If you don’t have an assistant, you are one.”

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