Great Partnership Lessons
Have you ever been lucky enough to have that boss who has an incredible vision and big, ambitious ideas, but needs (at times, a lot of) help turning those ideas into action? Enter the COO, who not only makes those dreams happen, but can do it in a way that the team enjoys working on it, your customers feel the love, and it’s the most productive path to get there. In my experience that’s in large measure the result of a solid partnership between the CEO and the COO, and this post will focus on the secret sauce of that partnership.
Blow up the pedestals. Okay, that sounds dramatic, but in this world of the Founder CEO idolized as a hero with all its landmines, the COO can be a hugely grounding force by providing objectivity. If I don’t see the CEO as an imperfect human, I’m not going to be very effective in helping with this. I remember when I first started working for a very senior leader years ago who I didn’t know well and who I was a little (okay a lot) intimidated by. For the first month, I was quiet, polite and super nervous. I found it hard to know what he was thinking, and he was wondering when the high energy, fun Jennie he had heard so much about was going to show up. We were working together without really connecting and taking risks. Soon enough, we had a big project to do, we sat in a room together for 6 hours and created something bigger and better than either of us thought possible, and then we talked about the metaphorical walls we had up and then I shared some straight talk on his blind spots. That feedback was foundational for his success in leading our division. It was critical for us to be on the same level, for us to roll up our sleeves and divide the work based on who was best suited to get it done. And for me to be real about what his weaknesses were so I could effectively help him successfully navigate through.
Visualize the Priorities. One of the tricks from my COO playbook is to make the programmatic list of prioritized to-dos (aka the backlog) organized, easy to find, and accessible to everyone who needs it. When I am on vacation no one needs to call me about where to find the work in progress, or anything really because it’s super easy to find and understand. It’s all there in an indexed dashboard. One system I put in place is on SharePoint, where I created a customized list to track and organize (and link to) the details. There are plenty of tools out there to use. Experiment and find something that works for you! But find something and stick to it, and refine it as needed. The point is to have one shared, transparent place that becomes the anchor to the partnership. And whatever you choose, don’t manage your work through email. Use Slack or Symphony, or whatever communications tools which allows for searchable archiving for collaboration.
Feedback should be as routine as saying thank you. What do I mean by this? The culture of your partnership should be based on constant candor, feedback, retrospectives and learning. I say thank you to people all the time, and feel good and at ease expressing my gratitude. Your partnership should have that same ease and comfort in reflecting on what can be improved. In fact, my best partnerships combine gratitude and feedback! Reflect on your working relationship with your boss. Would you share with your boss that they missed the mark at meeting? Would you share if your boss ticked you off and work through the conflict openly with respect and a feeling of safety? Would you tell him or her that you’re ready to move on? That is the level of partnership I work to build and nurture through regular feedback. The benefits are endless—you are able to push farther, course correct thanks to candor, and learn and improve as a leadership team.
Don’t be a gatekeeper. The downside to having an amazing partnership with your CEO is others might feel excluded which is decidedly not a good thing. Be aware of this pitfall and put thought into how to counteract this. Avoid having people feeling they “have to” go through you to get to the CEO. Again, from my point of view, this does not create an open, inclusive and innovative working culture. For that reason it’s important to be supportive, to mentor, to shine a light on people and their accomplishments, and to let individuals have their own connections to you, the CEO and others. It’s not an exclusive club. It’s an open space where people can collaborate. Make a point of NOT sitting with the CEO, and seeking out different members of the team during an all hands meeting or whenever you’re out and about. Have team events which are open to everyone—coffees, happy hours, volunteer events, not just a “lunch with” a single person. Invite other team members to share at catch ups, or better yet, co-lead an agenda item with the CEO. Give individuals outside the regular management structure the chance to share what they’re working on. Remove the barriers, seen and unseen, for people to not only get information, but to be able to share and lead.
A CEO leads us towards a big vision. It’s not easy. Today’s constant pace of change, the pressures of competition, the need to be connected to our customers’ and teams’ dynamic needs all mean that leaders need to listen and respond with authenticity and agility. And for a CEO, it’s a competitive advantage to have an executive operations partner to help shoulder the load. How that partnership works can not only accelerate the success of the mission, but create a positive culture for the team.
