Three Hats to Wear If You Are a Chief Operating Officer

If you are a newly appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO), congratulations. Responsibility for the daily operations of a company to ensure its success is a deeply satisfying experience.

What has helped me in my role as COO for the Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group is to think of this position as a multi-faceted one.

To fulfill my responsibilities successfully, I must wear three different hats. Sometimes one hat at a time. Sometimes all hats at once.

The First COO Hat – Overall Executor 🧢

The first hat a COO must wear is the Overall Executor hat. An executor is a person who puts something into effect or action, which is a perfect description of a COO’s activity.

Whatever your company wants to do to grow, somebody must successfully implement it into the daily functioning of the business. That’s you, the COO, and your operations team.

An Overall Executor ensures the company strategy lives and breathes in daily operations, deliverables are met on time, and customer expectations are met.

Of course, when you wear the Overall Executor hat (every day!) you must take time to reflect on everything you put into action by asking yourself these questions:

• Are we meeting our revenue objectives?
• Are we growing our profit margins?
• What do our customers think of us?
• Are we incorporating customer feedback into our products and services?

The Second COO Hat – Change Agent 👒

The Change Agent hat is an essential part of a COO’s wardrobe. A Change Agent is someone who inspires their organization to transform from good to great.

In response to (or anticipation of) changing market conditions, a company must constantly improve their systems and processes. This is where the Change Agent comes in. When you wear this hat, you spearhead new initiatives to improve the business and drive that transformation through to completion.

This is what I call the 'transformative side of operations' – the constant striving to be better than the day before. It’s also probably the most exciting part of operations. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of collaborating with your team to introduce something new and useful to the business.

The Third COO Hat – Mentor 🤠

The third and final hat is one people do not associate with a COO, but it is one I feel a responsibility to wear – the Mentor hat.

This hat represents an underappreciated way of thinking in business. An effective mentor will possess more than a passing interest in psychology because they want to understand and motivate people.

I’m convinced psychology classes need to be part of any business education. A mind for strategy and accounting is obviously essential for a COO, but you must also successfully communicate with people. If you're interested in psychology, you're more likely to understand the people on your operations team.

With understanding comes a desire to help others develop their careers. As I write this, there are individuals in your organization whose raw talent should be nurtured through guidance from an experienced leader such as yourself.

By investing time into mentoring, you will populate your operations team with people who:

• will deliver value to the business
• will become the business leaders of tomorrow

People want to feel valued and deliver value. By wearing the Mentor hat, you help your operations team achieve both.

Three Hats Are Better Than One

If you’re a COO or someone with serious operational duties, I recommend you regard your responsibility as three roles in one. By doing so, you will gain a richer understanding of your potential to positively influence operational matters.

The flexibility of the three hats I shared here will enable you to respond to operational challenges, enact change, and motivate your team with agility and flair.

About the Author

Renée Ure is Chief Operating Officer for the Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG). She leads a Global Team responsible for internal operations and efficiency, cost, expense, transformation, supply chain & procurement with a mission to become the most trusted smart infrastructure partner for Lenovo’s customers. Start a conversation with Renée here or on Twitter.