A short conversation (Cameron Herold + another speaker) advising COOs on building a new relationship with a CEO using a 90-day framework: first 30 days—observe, take detailed notes, and build human connections with team members; second 30 days—revisit those notes to test and stress-test hypotheses before changing things; third 30 days—implement low-hanging, high-impact 'small wins' (avoid large hairy projects initially). Also recommends cultivating an off‑stage friendship/commonalities with the CEO (offsites, shared activities) to build trust.
Chapters
Now what, what is the top three things to keep in mind when you're building a new relationship with a CEO or frankly taking over for her and handling the rest of the teams?
I think you have to go in, in your first 30 days with a.
Notebook and a pen and walk around writing down notes, writing down ideas, writing.
Down all the things you want to.
Change and don't change anything. Like, I want to fire Bob. Great. Why write down the notes but don't do it.
I think we should integrate this.
Cool.
Why do you think that?
Write it down. We should. Cool.
Why do you think that?
Write it down.
For 30 days, observe and write down.
All of your hypotheses or all of.
Your things that you think you need.
To do in the second and in.
That first 30 days as well.
Go for lunch, for breakfast, for dinner.
Over zoom meetings, whatever you can do to really get to know the other people. Not just their dog's name and their.
Their kid, you know, their birthday. But who are they? What rocks their world? What's their bucket list?
What are they?
What are their passions, their insecurities, their fears?
What are they really struggling with at home?
Is it a parent relationship or a.
Relationship with their spouse or money?
Or let them know where you struggle. Like really build the human connection in the first 30 days with everybody. In the second 30 days, it's all.
About going back to your notebook and all of the ideas that you had.
And really probing around those ideas to see if you would change any of them. Like, would I still fire Bob based on what I know now? Would I really do that integration based on what I know now and kind of test all of your own hypotheses to stress test those to see if you would make any of those changes. And then in the last 30 days of the first 90 day program, that's when you can start to execute.
But I would do the very easy.
To do things that are going to get you the small wins quickly so that the people can see, oh, we did something, we made that change and.
We got a win. Resist anything that is the big hairy.
Integrations, like erps, like all just like firing a negative person is a big win. Hiring a cool person is a good win.
Making some change that makes life easier.
Is a big win.
Training some people on some stuff that helps them become faster is a big win. So anything that is low hanging fruit, easy to do and will pay dividends over time, I would do those in.
That third month and that usually sets you up for good success.
The second part of this is how.
Do you build a strong relationship and trust with the CEO?
And that's behind the scenes. You guys becoming friends behind the scenes.
You guys building some commonalities behind the scenes.
Going off site and working, having date.
Night, like really doing stuff together, getting to know each other is really important as well.
