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

The 7 Key Types of COOs

14 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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A short YouTube talk by Cameron Herold summarizing Nate Bennett and Stephen A. Miles' work on the Chief Operating Officer role. Based on interviews with dozens of CEOs and COOs, the authors argue the COO role is highly relational—defined in relation to an individual CEO—and situational, and they identify seven primary COO archetypes: executor, change agent, mentor, other-half/partner, heir apparent, and MVP. The speaker notes that COOs can occupy multiple categories or evolve over time.

Chapters

Nate Bennett and Stephen A. Miles wrote a great book on COO's riding shotgun and also a widely read Harvard Business Review article titled the Second in Command the Misunderstood Role of the Chief Operating Officer. They describe the COO's role as @ once so critical and so situational. They go on While other jobs are primarily defined in relation to the work to be done and the structure of the organization, the COO's role is defined in relation to the CEO as an individual. After interviewing dozens of CEOs and COOs, Bennett and Miles arrived at seven main categories of COO. Depending on the role, the CEO needs the COO to fill executor, change agent, mentor, other half partner, heir apparent, and mvp. Of course, a COO can belong to more than one category at the same time or evolve over.