Why You Need to Connect With Other COOs
Everyone focuses on CEOs, who’s helping COOs? As a COO you’re a true partner to your CEO. That puts you in a different and, sometimes, unusual place than any other C-level executive at your company.
Being a vital partner to your CEO means you have to be at your best. To do that, it’s important to connect with other COOs, but why? What can that do for you? This blog is here to answer that question for you.
To Share
You probably feel like you’re operating in a vacuum. Meeting other COOs is so beneficial to you because they’re truly the best people to bounce ideas off of—and you won’t be boring them or confusing them! They’re the people that are going to actually want to hear your ideas, and you’ll benefit when they share theirs.
“When we listen, we’re forced to think about our own ideas and fine tune those. If we listen, we’re better equipped for the discussion with others to develop better ideas together.” – Technkl
To Learn
The best people to learn from are your peers. If you’re facing a challenge, it’s very likely that another COO has faced and gotten through the exact same situation, or at least a similar one. By connecting with other COOs you’ll be able to learn and develop as a leader.
“In terms of anything that anyone would do, it’s always having that insatiable desire to keep learning and growing personally with an organization. That was definitely instilled. We’re always trying to solve meaningful problems. That’s what we do every day.” – COO Terri Mock on Second in Command Podcast
If you aren’t connected with that many COOs right now, but you still want to learn, blogs such as this one and podcasts like Second in Command are useful resources to start.
To Feel Empowered
As a COO, at times you might feel like you have too much information to process, too many tasks, and too many projects. Maybe you feel like you’re in over your head. You’re not the only one. Other COOs feel like that all the time. By connecting with them, you’ll realize this feeling is normal and that it doesn’t mean you’re not a good COO.
“To empower yourself, collaborate don’t compete. Success is never a one man job. One of the smartest ways to move your mission forward is to network. Gather a team of people who have strengths to fill in where you have weaknesses.” – Entrepreneur
When work gets tough it can be easy to feel isolated and as if you aren’t suited for the job. Well, you wouldn’t have gotten it if you didn’t come qualified. Other COOs are going through or have gone through the same feelings. Once you realize that, you’ll realize that work being difficult doesn’t mean you’re not good at it.
Other COOs can help you move past challenges and face your fears, as long as you make those connections. Find people that you connect with and that understand you. You’ll never regret it.
If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please leave a comment below and my team will get in touch with you.
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Cameron Herold grew up in a small town in Northern Canada. When his father, an entrepreneur, figured out that Cameron wasn’t going to fit into what they were teaching in school—because of his severe ADD—he taught him to hate working traditional ‘jobs’ and to love creating companies that employed others.
By 18, Cameron already had 14 different little businesses and he knew he loved money, entrepreneuring and business. And by 20 years old, he owned a franchise business painting houses and had twelve employees. He spent his twenties and early 30’s heading up 3 large businesses and coaching over 120 entrepreneurs. He was also the COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, and during his 6.5 years he took the company from 2 million to 106 million.
Knowing that every CEO needs a strong COO then led Cameron to start the COO Alliance in 2016. He noticed that there were no peer groups for one of the most crucial roles in the company—the Chief Operating Officer/2nd in command.
Business Development & Program Management | US Army Veteran
4 年Well stated, “The best people to learn from are your peers.”
PE Transformation Exec / McKinsey / Veteran
4 年I believe that in the current era this will be more and more critical. Of course new product development and go to market will always be important but I really believe Ops items like how supply chain is managed to balance cost and service levels will be more critical to growth than they ever have especially as consumers get less and less concerned about brand and more used to 2-day delivery. I think we will unfortunately see a lot of mid-market companies led by commercial and finance folks that do not understand this crumble in the years to come.
Chief Operating Officer at iDS, Inc.
4 年Absolutely, Cameron. I think we can all benefit from different perspectives and experiences. In one conversation you may be the one challenging an idea or offering advice, while in another you are the beneficiary. Sometimes, it's the value of talking through an issue/opportunity. Either way, you need to connect.
Co-Founder at WeShape
4 年Connecting with other COO's (especially across various industries) is one of the best ways I've been able to have a touch point on my own efforts. It's given me the chance to make sure I'm heading in the right direction and asking the best questions as it pertains our company goals.
VP of OPERATIONS at Glen Raven
4 年To be absolutely candid, some of the best initiatives I have launched within my organization were ideas that were harvested from professionals that I have encountered on various boards, trade organizations and yes......through my involvement with the COO Alliance. Bottom line, you must connect to grow!!!! Here is a great example.....60 percent of our risk mitigation plan for Covid was not my idea and did not come from one of my direct reports. My staff and I engaged MANY people around the world in search of best practices and shamelessly robbed ideas for our risk mitigation implementation. Heres the best part the story, the remaining 40 percent.....those were unique enhancements to ideas that we harvested and are now considered best practices for other organizations.