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By: Rio Callans
When vision meets execution, magic happens. But finding the right operational partner? That's where most founders get stuck.
The Chief Operating Officer role has evolved far beyond the traditional "business manager" stereotype. Today's most effective COOs function as true integrators—the steady counterparts who turn ambitious vision into sustainable results. I recently read a Forbes article titled: "The Must-Have Traits Of A Great COO where 11 successful founders reveal what really matters when choosing your operational right-hand.
Here's what I discovered:
The most striking insight? Founders consistently prioritize integrity over impressive resumes.
Rachel Beider of Massage Greenpoint puts it perfectly: "Hire someone who has high integrity, honesty, and is hardworking and willing to learn rather than someone who has a ton of experience."
Why this matters: When you're entrusting someone with your company's operational backbone, trust becomes your most valuable currency. Skills can be taught. Systems can be built. But integrity? That's non-negotiable.
Think about it—your COO will handle sensitive decisions, manage significant budgets, and represent your interests across every stakeholder relationship. Without that foundational trust, delegation becomes impossible and scaling stalls.
Great COOs don't just solve today's problems—they architect tomorrow's solutions.
The most successful founders look for operators who are "lovers of creating systems to make the company operate better as a whole" and who can take big ideas and "break them down into actionable steps."
The reality check: Most founders excel at vision but struggle with the systematic execution needed to scale. Your COO should fill that gap, creating the infrastructure that lets your business run beyond you.
What this looks like in practice:
Here's where many COO hires go wrong—they focus on looking busy instead of driving results.
Smart founders seek COOs who utilize "strategies based on data-driven decisions and actionable metrics" rather than getting caught up in vanity numbers that show activity but not impact.
The distinction matters: 800 signups mean nothing if only three become paying customers. Your COO should obsess over the metrics that actually move the needle—customer lifetime value, operational efficiency, team productivity, and sustainable growth indicators.
The most sophisticated insight from these founders? The best COOs complement rather than duplicate the founder's strengths.
As one founder candidly shared: you need "someone to fill the business needs created by the inescapable fact that you are an imperfect person and the business requires more than you can give."
This requires brutal self-awareness. What are your blind spots? Where do you create bottlenecks? What tasks drain your energy that could energize someone else?
The Visionary-Integrator Dynamic:
There's actually a proven framework for this. In "Rocket Fuel" by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters, successful businesses require both a "visionary" and an "integrator." When these archetypes work together, they create powerful synergy that drives sustainable growth.
The magic happens when:
Here's a perspective that might surprise you—sometimes the right COO doesn't just execute your vision, they help refine it.
John Rampton of Due found that a COO with considerable strategic vision actually "helped to direct where I was headed with my startup and offered new insights." They don't just provide the framework for your vision—they can "put a definition to it along with actionable steps."
This challenges the pure "integrator" model. The most valuable COOs bring strategic experience that complements your entrepreneurial instincts. They've seen patterns you haven't, navigated challenges you're approaching for the first time, and can spot opportunities or risks that aren't obvious from the founder's vantage point.
The key distinction: They're not trying to replace your vision—they're helping you refine and strengthen it through their operational lens.
Here's where theory meets practice. Andrew Schrage from Money Crashers puts it bluntly: "The one major skill you should look for in a COO is that he or she have experience with actually expanding and growing a small business."
This isn't about impressive titles or Fortune 500 experience. It's about someone who has navigated the specific challenges of taking an organization "from its infancy to higher growth, and from medium success to over the top success."
Why this matters more than you think:
The human element remains crucial. Matthew Capala from Search Decoder emphasizes that "COOs are useless if they cannot connect with people." No matter how brilliant their systems thinking, if teams won't follow their lead, operational improvements fail.
Great COOs approach operations as people-first challenges. They understand that sustainable improvements require buy-in from everyone who implements them daily. Communication becomes paramount, and being able to champion solutions that "make a system run smoother with less effort" separates good operators from great ones.
Here's a tactical insight that gets overlooked: the best COOs combine meticulous attention to detail with uncomfortable honesty.
Kevin Conner from BroadbandSearch explains the dynamic: "I need a COO with close attention to detail. If he/she notices all the small issues, it frees me up to focus on the big picture." But here's the crucial addition—they need to "tell it exactly like it is."
This combination is powerful because:
The reality check: If your COO is handling the operational details, you need them coming to you with "total honesty" about what they're seeing. Sugar-coated reports don't help anyone scale successfully.
Before you can find the right operational partner, you need brutal self-awareness about your own limitations.
Matthew Nederlanden from Security Camera Warehouse frames it perfectly: "A COO is an extension of your hands and the person who accomplishes what you cannot." They fill in your deficiencies—whether that's sales, management, or technical execution.
Here's the hard truth: "You are hiring someone to fill the business needs created by the inescapable fact that you are an imperfect person and the business requires more than you can give."
The prerequisite for hiring a great COO? "The one thing you must know when trying to hire a COO is yourself."
This requires honest assessment:
Without this self-knowledge, you'll hire based on what sounds impressive rather than what you actually need.
Here's the bottom line: Hiring a COO isn't about filling a functional role—it's about choosing a strategic partner who can scale your impact.
The evidence suggests starting with these non-negotiables:
✓ Character alignment - Do they share your values and approach?
✓ Complementary strengths - Do they excel where you struggle?
✓ Systems thinking - Can they build for tomorrow, not just today?
✓ People connection - Will teams actually follow their lead?
✓ Data discipline - Do they measure what matters?
The investment in getting this right pays exponential dividends. When you find someone with the right character and mindset, you can build specific skills and systems knowledge together. But when the foundation is wrong, no amount of experience can fix it.
If you're carrying the weight of operations alone, feeling the strain of competing priorities, or watching momentum slip as your team struggles to stay aligned—it might be time for an operational partner.
The question isn't whether you need support. It's what level of support matches your stage.
Sometimes you need tactical relief (Head of Operations). Sometimes you need strategic leverage (Chief of Staff). Sometimes you need organizational infrastructure (COO). The key is matching the right operational leadership to your current reality and growth trajectory.
Because here's the truth: Your vision deserves execution that matches its ambition. And that harmony between vision and execution? That's where sustainable growth lives.
Analysis based on insights from "The Must-Have Traits Of A Great COO, According To 11 Successful Founders" by Young Entrepreneur Council, Forbes, September 2017.