Operating Leaders Also Deserve Executive Coaches

Operating Leaders (see definition below) are often second in command to a Founder or CEO. While the Founder/CEO focuses on the vision and strategy of an organization, an Operating Leader ensures that all departments and functions are working efficiently and effectively to meet the company's goals and objectives.?

They are one of the most important roles within a company, yet are often too busy and bogged down with high-priority initiatives to prioritize their professional development and overall well-being. This needs to change - hiring an Executive Coach is a great way to make that change possible.?

How Executive Coaches Support Operating Leaders

1. Serves the Servant Leader: Operating Leaders often embody servant leadership - they prioritize the well-being of the staff, the executive team, and the company at large. In doing so, they often neglect themselves in the process. An Executive Coach can help by serving the servant leader, ensuring they are creating time and space for their reflection, awareness building, and development.?
2. Boosts Clarity & Confidence: Operating Leaders are often 1 of 1 within their organizations. No one else is doing their role so understanding if they are doing their jobs well can feel difficult and lonely. CEOs, who often feel this similar unsureness, hire Executive Coaches to find clarity, boost confidence, and get unstuck. Why shouldn’t an Operating Leader seek out the same support?
3. Clarifies North Star: The CEO/Founder is usually the manager of the Operating Leader, yet is often too busy to develop and coach said leaders. This leaves Operating Leaders lost on how to achieve their career goals or even define their career Northstar. Executive Coaches work with leaders to do exactly that - support them in understanding what they truly want and the roadmap for how to get there.
4. Acts as Second Brain: Executive Coaches can serve as “second brain” to Operating Leaders - helping them work through the challenges of their role by offering effective operations techniques and best practices. They are a trusted thought partner to the Operating Leader, ensuring they are not alone in tackling hard problems. NOTE: Not all Executive Coaches offer advice/consulting services to their clients and will stay in “coach mode”.
5. Accountability Partner: Executive coaches assist Operating Leaders in setting clear goals and objectives aligned with organizational and personal priorities. They help leaders create action plans and hold them accountable for achieving their goals, ensuring progress and continuous improvement.

What is an “Operating Leader”?

While “Operating Leaders” can be a broad term, I like to define them as generalists who are business first, function second. They are multidisciplinary and cross-functional leaders who oversee and manage the day-to-day operations of a business or organization. While the Founder/CEO focuses on the vision and strategy of an organization, an Operating Leader ensures that all departments and functions are working efficiently and effectively to meet the company's goals and objectives. Operating leaders often focus on optimizing processes, improving productivity, managing resources, and driving performance to achieve desired outcomes. Operating Leaders have titles like COO / VP of Ops, Chief of Staff, General Manager, and BizOps Lead.

About the Author:

Aarti Bhatnagar is an Executive Coach for Operating Leaders, serving as their second brain and thought partner, as they navigate the challenges of their roles. Her approach is “coachsulting”- a hybrid between coaching and consulting in which she asks powerful questions that guide the client in finding answers themselves while sometimes also providing concrete advice, training, and guidance from her experiences as a Chief of Staff and Operating Leader. Aarti also runs Executive Search for Operating Leader roles, streamlining a team’s search process by clarifying jobs to be done, filtering out the noise, and using her extensive network to find the best candidate.

The clients she typically supports are Chiefs of Staff, Business Operations Leads, COOs, and Heads/VPs of Operations. Her clients come from places like Patreon, Airbnb, AgelessRx, Guild, KPMG, ServiceNow, SandboxAQ, Fullscript, SF AIDS Foundation, Gigs, 50CAN, Waldo, and Kaizen Labs.

Aarti's website: https://www.aartibhatnagar.com/