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CEO vs COO: roles, responsibilities, and how to work together
Executive overview
Most companies muddle the CEO and COO roles. The CEO sets direction — vision, culture, strategy. The COO makes it real — execution, alignment, results.
The CEO is the gas; the COO is the brakes.
Core role split
- CEO owns vision, culture, strategy, and key hire decisions
- COO translates that vision into operational reality
- COO answers: how do we build the culture, hit the goals, grow the people?
- Together they form a "two-in-a-box" or yin-and-yang pairing
Before hiring a COO, hire an EA first
- Ask: do you have an executive assistant? If not, you are one
- Hire an EA first to remove admin, junior tasks, and minimum-wage work from your plate
- Freeing that capacity buys 6–12 months to find the right second-in-command
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