Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

How to Manage a Visionary CEO's Ideas

24 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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1:27

In this talk Cameron Herold outlines how a COO or senior leader can effectively manage the flood of ideas that a visionary CEO generates without stalling the organization. He frames the COO’s role as the “brake” to the CEO’s “gas” or the “leash” to the CEO’s “dragon,” emphasizing that the brake must be gentle—not a parking brake that stops the company. The core process involves first affirming the idea, then taking the CEO on a brief walk to ask the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the proposal. During this walk the COO gathers details about the envisioned outcome, best‑case and worst‑case scenarios, required headcount and budget, and then evaluates the idea against three impact dimensions: employee happiness, customer satisfaction, and financial performance (profitability, revenue, gross margin). By systematically questioning and assessing ideas, the COO can either green‑light, defer, or decline them while keeping the CEO engaged and the company moving forward.

Chapters

COO needs to be the brake to the entrepreneur's gas, or we need to be the leash to the entrepreneur's dragon. But here's the key. We can't be the parking brake. We can't screech the company to a halt. So there's an art to saying either no or not now, and I'll walk you through how to do it. There's also an art to take all these great ideas the entrepreneur has and to get them off their plate. And let me walk you through how to actually do that with an entrepreneur. When an entrepreneur comes to you as a COO or as a senior leader, with a new idea, your first response should be, "I love that idea. Let me ask you a few questions so I understand it. Can we just go for a quick walk and let me ask you some questions?" Right away, the entrepreneur's gonna be like, "Yeah, let's go. Let's go talk about this great idea I've got." On that quick little walk, you are going to ask them the who, what, when, where, why, and how of that idea so that you understand it a little bit more. You're gonna ask them what the project looks like when it's completed, what's their best idea of a best result of that project when it's completed, What's the worst result if we don't actually run with that idea? How many people might be involved in the idea? How much money do they want to spend on that idea? After you walk through all of those ideas with the CEO, you can ask them, will this make our employees happier? Will doing this project make our customers happier? Will it drive more profitability or more revenue or more gross margin? Right. What's the underlying core reasons for doing this project? That's all part of you understanding the idea by saying, yes, I love it. Let me ask you some questions.