5 Key Responsibilities Every COO Must Master

A COO or a second in command of a startup company, maybe it's a fast growth startup company, has some very different responsibilities from someone running a more mature organization. The CEO of a startup, and trust me, I've been there a number of times. When I joined 1-800-got-JUNK. I was the 14th employee. I came in as that second in command. We were very much a small organization. We were only doing 2 million in revenue. Took it to 106 million in revenue in six years. My core focus back in those very early days, number one, was to align the focus of the team with the culture and the direction that the CEO wanted to go in. So it was really being clear on the vivid vision of that CEO. So the COO has to ensure that the CEO has crafted a vivid vision, that four or five page document describing what the company looks like in the future and that you are very clear on where you're going. Number two, you have to make sure that you bring the right people into the organization. Jim Collins talks about getting the right people on the bus, the the wrong people off the bus, and everybody in the right seats. Well, in a startup organization, the COO's job is to make sure that you have the right people in the organization working on the right things so that you're actually scaling. Number three is making sure that you're working on the critical few things versus the important many. There are so many projects and so many tasks and so many opportunities facing a startup that you can get distracted on an hour by hour basis, let alone a daily or weekly basis. Your job as the CEO is to make sure the organization is working on the critical few things that will actually scale the company. It's getting focused on the flywheel. What are those one or two core things that if you push on it and you push on it and you push on it, will drive momentum? Because that momentum will create momentum inside of your startup. Yes, I have a group coaching program for CEOs. And the beauty of my group coaching calls is you actually get to ask me questions on every call. You're not just listening to other CEOs. Drop me an email cameronameronherrell.com for more information. Number four is to think about the culture of the organization and what you're building as a company. How can you actually create a cultural magnet to attract people into that organization? Because the culture is by design. If you don't have a culture, that's your culture in the early days. Your job as the COO is to make sure that all the new Employees are are excited about the core values and they already live them. They're excited about that big, hairy, audacious goal. They're excited about the vivid vision. They're aligned with what you're actually building as an organization. And if you have the right people on the bus, aligned and excited about the culture you're building, that culture will create momentum. Those are the core things that I believe every COO in an early stage startup needs to be good at. And then you have better be really good at recruiting. You have to really understand recruiting and interviewing and the onboarding of people. In the early days in a startup, you're not hiring experts. You're often hiring the jack of all trades, master of none. The people that are good at projects, that are good at driving through to success quickly, that are good at saying yes and picking up the pieces and running with it. Your job is to attract and align those people. And then as the company starts to scale, as you start having proof of concept, you're bringing in funding, you're gaining revenue, then you start hiring those experts. But in the early days, you have to be good at bringing in the right people, making sure they're working on the right things. So that recruiting, interviewing and aligning of people is a critical role for a COO inside of a startup.