How to find and work with the right COO for your company

Executive overview

Most CEOs hire a second-in-command without first mapping what they themselves lack. The result is a mismatched hire who can't fill the actual gaps.

The right COO is not a more-operational CEO — they are a complementary match, covering the CEO's weak functional areas while sharing the same core values and organisational stage.

The COO's job is to make the vision happen; the CEO's job is to protect and communicate it.

The CEO-COO match

• The best COO for one CEO would be the wrong hire for almost every other CEO.
• Common COO strengths: situational leadership, consensus-building, fostering debate, project planning, team building.
• The functional areas that report to the COO differ per company — determined entirely by what the CEO is strong at and wants to keep.
• CEOs must first audit themselves: what energises vs drains them, unique abilities vs weaknesses.
• Hiring a COO is closer to choosing a business spouse than filling a functional role.
• Outward-facing vs inward-facing COOs are both valid — match depends on the CEO's public profile.

What the CEO's role becomes after hiring a COO

• The CEO role shifts to: vision, strategy, culture, people growth, board, compliance.
• CEOs who don't make this mental shift revert to meddling — "seagull management": fly in, dump on everyone, fly away.
• Most entrepreneurial CEOs have never been trained in interviewing, running meetings, situational leadership, delegation, or conflict management.
• A COO installs and runs these operational systems so the CEO can stay in their zone of genius.

Growing people as a leadership discipline

• Every leader's core job is to grow the skills, confidence, and connections of their team.
• Budget minimum: 1% of annual compensation or $1,000 per person (whichever is greater).
• Options: speaker events, book clubs, video programmes, leadership courses.
• Growing people enables delegation, which scales the organisation and buys back the CEO's time.

The four pillars of company culture

• Core values: four or five deeply held values you hire and fire by — no explanation needed, lived by the CEO.
• Core purpose: the why behind the company's existence (Simon Sinek's "Start With Why" framework).
• BHAG: the big, hairy, audacious goal — a long-term stretch target that drives direction.
• People systems: recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and leadership development done with obsessive care.
• Perks (free lunches, massages) are not culture — they are decoration layered on top of these four foundations.
• High employee net promoter scores drive customer engagement, pricing power, and retention.

Lessons from nearly bankrupting 1-800-GOT-JUNK

• As revenue approached $106M, the company ran out of cash despite six consecutive years of 100% growth.
• Root cause: spent $5M in cash on an office renovation, leaving no reserves — and banks won't lend to companies with no cash.
• The finance lead had warned the team for a year; the CEO and COO ignored the signals.
• Lesson: if you won't listen to the people reporting to you, replace them with people you will listen to — or learn to listen.
• The CEO had to borrow $420K from his mother to meet payroll; 20 people were laid off.

On pace, delegation, and perspective

• Taking time off, having hobbies, and saying no builds a stronger company — not a weaker one.
• Delegation to a capable team frees the CEO for higher-leverage work.
• Comparing North American work culture to other countries: no one in Italy or Thailand claims work as their hobby.
• The reminder that life is short is not separate from leadership — it informs why building people-centred organisations matters.