Speaker (Brett Bruggeman) reflects on operating as a COO: the importance of asking strategic questions rather than pulling every lever, building a network and team, clarifying role description over time, and adapting to external changes (tariffs and regulations). He notes active communication with his boss, Beth Ford, and progress since the first year in the role.
Chapters
One of the things that I learned early on with this role is the fact that if you're used to pulling all the levers, you're never going to be successful. Where I try to add value and spend more time on is asking the strategic questions. If you would have told me before I started this role, like, what is the most critical capability? Lots of times it's making sure that you can ask the questions, connect the dots to the strategies, and then follow through and make sure that the teams are implementing from a day to day basis. But having a network of people that you can ask for help and have a team around you is a big part of this piece of it. So do I get pulled in day to day? Absolutely. My boss, Beth Ford, she's really good about making sure that we're always connecting back and forth. And then my team is saying, hey, I got this. In the first year or so. It was one of those areas we walked through, stumbled through. But I think now we're at a point where we truly understand the role description. And of course, it's put in a whole new twist with what's happening with tariffs and some of the regulatory pieces to assist in that area. So not perfect, but feels so much better than I did the first year into this role.
