Most COOs are excellent operators. Fewer feel their strategic and commercial contributions are at the levels they'd like them to be.
The COO role is one of the most complex and least defined at senior level. There's no standard qualification, agreed professional pathway or consistent definition of what excellent looks like. The role varies widely depending on the business and the leader to whom you report.
Most COOs figure it out by doing. This takes time, is often challenging and can leave important areas overlooked.
Here are some thoughts.
As a COO the six areas below are a practical high level lens for thinking about the business you are helping to run and the environment you are operating within.
'When we're looking to improve our B2B business, I think a good place to start is to consider and, where necessary, take action in these six areas:
-- Firstly, the clarity and appropriateness of our offer in the context of the markets we serve and the resources, both operational and financial, available to us. We don't want to be stretched too thin or applying our efforts in areas that don't suit us or our configuration well.
-- Secondly, the quality of our customer base, paying particular attention to their ability and willingness to pay for what it is we have to offer. The better the quality of our customer base the stronger our business.
-- Thirdly, the environment we have designed, consciously or otherwise, for our people. A good question to ask and to listen carefully and take positive steps in response to is "are we as a team, are we as an individual, easy to work with and easy to work for?"
-- Fourthly, the business and people acumen of each member of our management team. The more adept our leaders are in these areas the likelier they'll set a positive, collaborative and commercial tone for their respective teams and make good decisions.
-- Fifthly, the confidence, consciousness and capability of our sales professionals to engage on a business level with business leaders and other budget holders. The more of an asset our people are to our customers the likelier we succeed.
-- Sixthly, the confidence, consciousness and capability of our non-sales customer facing professionals in building strong productive relationships both externally and internally. The closer we collaborate the stronger our bonds.'
- Rob Evans, Founder Of Outperformance Highway, Based On 35+ Years Working Inside 150+ Businesses Worldwide
Consciously or otherwise, we're always making choices.
And not all choices are equal.
We never have endless reserves of cash, time, energy and attention.
We have many ways to allocate the assets we do have.
Some steps hardly move us forward.
Perfection burns resource.
Bad choices destroy progress.
Sometimes we catch sight of a good outcome with reasonable certainty and modest cost.
We need to really go for it when we do.
How proactive and deliberate are we in finding those big leaps forward for modest investments and risk?
Are we actually drowning in too much volume or choosing to have no breathing room because we haven't found a more strategic way forward?
Is getting each task done, each report out, each fire extinguished and each request attended to really a way of rationalising our distance from a state that we feel we ought to be at but which we haven't yet figured out how to reach?
If that's the case it's very understandable as I don't think the leap is taught very well.
Too much of our career destiny comes down to how fortunate or not we are to find a senior colleague that helps show us a way that could work for us.
And finding that individual is a particular challenge because many senior colleagues themselves haven't yet found a way to be more strategic.
The big picture is so easily lost in a sea of operational volume.
It takes determination to shift our state, and it begins with the reality of where are we today.
Are we clear headed enough about where we are, or are we too deep in the operational to see it?
The answers to human questions matter as much as strategic ones.
Feelings drive behaviours.
What would they say?
About us.
Are we as an individual, are we as a team, are we as an organisation, both energising to work with and energising to work for?
If all the answers are yes, we're in a great place.
If any of the answers are no, why and what are we going to do about it?
Your Short Free Programme
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Introduction
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Prescience
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Boiling It Down
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No Pudding Thanks
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What A Joy It Was
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The Several Elements
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Thinking Holistically About Our Environment
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A Final Word
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About This Programme
- Free
'I'm part way through the training course on business leadership with Rob Evans and loving it. The old brain synapses are firing off left, right and centre! Rob spends time upfront getting you to understand where you operate today, how does the business and the team operate? Is the business designed to win? Is our culture right for us and is it working? And several other relevant questions. The great thing about this approach is before he has taught me any new capability, he has taught me to really understand where my challenges are in leadership. It has my brain identifying linkages between aspects of business and leadership I hadn't thought of. This is a far more effective way of learning in my view.'
- Mark Graham, The Counselling Foundation
All of the above is drawn from 35+ years working inside 150+ businesses worldwide. It's not theory, it's what I discovered and observed working and where I saw people come unstuck.
'Luck may play a part but outperformance is never a fluke.'
- Rob Evans, Founder, Outperformance Highway