Co-Founder and CEO at Y Scouts. Y Scouts is the world's first purposed based leadership search firm.
getty
A COO role can be one of the trickiest positions to hire given the variety of leadership competencies needed. Yet, it is of the utmost importance to find the right COO (or second in command by any other title) for your unique situation.
Even before you launch the search, it’s particularly important to nail down the success outcomes of the role for the first 12 months and how they are going to be measured. My favorite exercise to define success outcome is to put yourself 12 months into the future: Imagine for a moment the person you’ve hired has absolutely crushed it. What has the company accomplished? What are the key three to five measurable results? And then work backward to the present day.
The key to the role visioning process is to simplify what this person needs to accomplish in terms of success outcomes and how you are going to measure it. I believe the ideal number of success outcomes is three. Three success outcomes versus more allows the interviewer to focus on what’s most important. Having more than three can overcomplicate the interview process by having to focus on too many variables. The emphasis for the COO is on how the company creates value through execution for employees, shareholders and customers every day.
Almost every company’s situation and ideal COO is different. The most important success outcomes can vary depending on what the most important objectives are for the company at the time their new COO onboards. Even still, the five following characteristics of high-performing COOs are consistent among our firm’s dozens of successful recent searches.
1. They build trust with the CEO.
The best COOs are effective at building trust with their CEO. This trust allows them to be brutally honest with the leader of their company and gives the endless ideas created by the CEO a filter. This is not No. 1 by accident. The foundation of any great CEO and COO relationship is trust, and all the successful COO I’ve seen have a track record of building genuine trust with their CEOs and with prior teammates before climbing the ranks to second in command. This allows the CEO to confidently pass anything off of his/her plate to the COO so they can focus on the tasks that are the highest and best use of the CEO’s time.
2. They have a proven track record of hiring and developing high performers.
One of the most common key responsibilities of the COO is to attract, hire and retain high performers. The COO is basically the hub of the organization and it’s critical they have their finger on the talent pulse. The best-in-class COOs are always hiring. They understand that hiring top talent is one of the most important functions of the company. In addition to hiring high performers, they also spend significant time developing their highest performers. It can be so easy to focus your time and attention on only the lowest performers, but the most effective COOs take the time to continue developing the top 20% in addition to the rest of the team.
3. They are extremely effective at holding their people accountable.
Another very common trait of successful COOs is that they are good at leading, managing and holding people accountable. Consistently holding people truly accountable takes the right type of COO and leader. Holding people accountable is not always a natural strength for visionary CEOs, making it extremely critical for the COO to have a proven track record in this area. In fact, I would be so bold as to say that most visionary CEO’s strengths are not holding people accountable. They need freedom from this responsibility to tap into their gift of clarifying the vision of the company instead of worrying about the details of how it’s getting executed. Execution is the middle name of all great COOs.
4. They drive the company forward through simplified metrics.
The best COOs measure performance through simplifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and data. It’s easy to overcomplicate KPIs and scorecards leading to poor profit-and-loss performance. P&L performance is a lag metric. The most confident COOs have a proven ability to identify the leading indicators of consistent performance. P&L responsibility is best driven by identifying and measuring the most important lead indicators. Great COOs relentlessly simplify these lead indicators into bite-size chunks weekly and in some situations daily. As soon as they get off-track, they can identify the issue and change their course of action in time so it doesn’t negatively impact the organization.
5. They draw the map and keep the organization on course.
Effective COOs concern themselves with who is doing what by when. They are ultimately accountable for translating the vision and goals set by the leadership team into easily understood and actionable initiatives. They have the ability to jump in wherever they are needed to keep things on track. They understand how to get the best from their team through impeccable execution.
In addition to identifying these most desirable habits, the most effective COOs align with the company’s purpose, values and culture (often referred to as a company’s DNA). Our firm refers to the leader with this combination as being purpose-aligned and performance-proven. This alignment with the company’s DNA is just as important as the competencies in hiring — not only for a COO, but for any role in your company.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
