The difference Between COO and Operations Manager

So here's a great question. What's the difference between a COO and an Operations manager? So this is really, really critically important and it also plays out for lots of different types of roles inside of your company. It could be the same as controller and CFO or a marketing manager and a Chief Marketing officer. But let's stick to an operations manager and coo, because that's the question. An Operations manager tends to work on projects, work on tasks, work in the operations side of the business, and they tend to report to a director or a VP or a C level person, maybe even the entrepreneur or CEO themselves. The Operations manager doesn't come into the company with a level of strategy where they're sitting down and helping to direct the organization and where they're going. They might have some good random ideas once in a while, but they're not sitting down at the leadership team table and planning out strategy, deciding on the goals of the organization and really picking a lot of the projects and initiatives to drive the company forward. Usually the Operations manager is being handed their plate of tasks and core projects and they're executing those. Usually that operations manager needs some level of oversight and management from senior management inside of the organization. The difference now with the COO is the Chief Operating Officer can come into your company. They know how to build it. They've built companies before the they're actually sitting at the leadership team level and deciding the strategy with the rest of the leadership team and often architecting the strategy and the plans to make the visions come true. The COO tends to come in with a level of financial acumen as well, where they maybe understand the P and L and cash flow and budgeting. They understand the balance sheet and how to leverage the financials. They're also sitting down and often looking for other leaders and trying to grow the organization and the people as well versus working on the day to day. More often than not as well, the COO is sitting down with a huge to do list of things to get done and they're figuring out who can do them right, who they can delegate them to, what could be automated. But they're often not doing the work as much as they're delegating and leading others in doing the work. Those are some of the core differences between an operations manager and a coo. Now if you like this content, check out the advanced leadership lessons below. You'll love that as well.