Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO by Nate Bennett and Stephen Miles

During my last company, my cofounder had given me the book Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO by Nate Bennett and Stephen Miles. I finally finished it and learned a lot from it. The book featured stories from many different COOs and how they navigated their role. Most of the examples came from Fortune 500 companies, not startups. However, many of their lessons are still useful and provide a good framework for thinking about how the COO can work most effectively as part of the broader leadership team. It was also interesting to hear about different ways the role has been structured across various companies.

My biggest notes and takeaways are below.

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My top highlights/quotes:

• an overriding goal is to provide sufficient high-level support to the CEO.
• As CEOs are expected to spend more and more time outside their organizations, the COO has taken on more and more responsibility for the oversight of daily organizational operations
• One is clearly oriented with its “head up” to understand success in the future, whereas the other is oriented “head down” into the operational details necessary for success today
• The primary role is to complement the CEO by making the results, helping set the plan, and executing
• you have to be able to check your ego at the front desk. You have to get real comfortable with someone else getting a lot of the limelight as a result of work that you have done
• the number two has to provide a good balance with the number one guy. In other words, if the CEO is a great strategist then you better be, as the number two, a real good executor. If the CEO is a great executor, then you better be a pretty good strategist
• they have to be able to lead collaboratively, not hierarchically.
• the COO has to be the consummate plate spinner. Those plates include the day-to-day operations, achieving basic profit-and-revenue goals, dealing with personnel and operational details, etc. Equally important in the mix are spinning some larger plates, which make a strategic difference to the company
• a key feature of the COO role is the notion of having to simultaneously be a loyal follower to the CEO while also serving as a strong leader to others in the organization
• Low ego need is a big deal in the COO role. You have to lead while serving
• the importance of (1) being comfortable outside the spotlight, (2) being results-oriented, (3) establishing a trusting relationship with the CEO, and (4) being skilled interpersonally so that relationships with other members of top management
• If you really want to lead something, there are no time outs
• The job of COO is an around-the-clock job.
• The most critical skill for a COO is the ability to fully understand the company’s strategy and then translate it into executable plans
• Overcommunicating on a wide variety of things is also important
• the CEO is largely going to be the face of the company externally and you are going to be the face of the company internally
• serving as COO is a 24x7x365 job