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

Why Your CEO Needs an Umbrella Holder (And It's You)

30 Oct 2024 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:47

Cameron Herold argues that a CEO must be protected from day-to-day operational demands so they can focus on vision, strategy, and culture. The COO (or other organizational supporters) should act as an 'umbrella holder'—removing the CEO from routine meetings, buffering interruptions, and keeping them focused on high-level direction.

Chapters

So the CEO's job is to make sure the CEO can hold the umbrella, right? The strategy umbrella, that culture umbrella. We need to protect the CEO from the day to day so that they can be the one climbing up that tallest mountain, looking around to seeing what's out there. We keep dragging the CEO back into meetings, back into business, back into decision, back into the day to day, back into their open door, having a lineup of people wanting to talk to them. We're not letting them do their job. The COO's role is to protect the CEO, to allow them to stay out there focused on vision. The COO's job is to remove them from the day to day, to help exclude them from meetings, to help buffer them. We have to hold that umbrella up to let them stay out there working on vision, working on strategy, and thinking about culture.