“You need a COO.” It may be one of the most expensive assumptions a growing company can make.
Your business is growing, your leadership team is stretched, and too many decisions still land on your desk. You’re spending more time managing day-to-day operations than focusing on where the company needs to go next. Someone suggests hiring a Chief Operating Officer, and the idea makes sense. You need someone who can take ownership, improve accountability, and keep the business moving forward.
But before you start looking for that person, there’s a more important question to answer: What problem are you actually trying to solve?
Hiring another executive can be the right decision, but only when you understand what your organization needs that it isn’t getting today.
Start With the Problem, Not the Position
It’s easy to begin an executive search with a title in mind. You decide you need a COO, write a job description, and start identifying candidates with the right experience.
The problem is that two companies hiring a COO may need completely different kinds of leaders.
One company may need someone who can bring structure to rapidly expanding operations, improve processes, and manage multiple locations. Another may have strong operational systems but a CEO who remains involved in nearly every significant decision. That business might need someone who can develop the existing leadership team, strengthen accountability, and create more independence throughout the organization.
Both companies could benefit from a COO, but the skills and leadership styles required for success would look very different.
The title doesn’t tell you what your business needs. The challenges you’re trying to overcome do.
Ask Better Questions Before You Start Hiring
Consider these questions:
- What isn’t happening today that needs to happen? Are strategic priorities falling behind, or are operational problems preventing growth?
- What are you still doing that someone else should own? Are you holding on to responsibilities because no one has the skills, confidence, or authority to take them over?
- Where are decisions getting stuck? Is your leadership team waiting for direction when they should be moving forward independently?
- What should this executive accomplish in the next 12 to 24 months? What measurable improvements would justify the investment?
- What authority are you prepared to give this person? Will they have the ability to make decisions and hold others accountable?
Your answers may confirm that you need a COO, but they may also reveal that your existing leadership structure, decision-making processes, or accountability expectations need attention.
This is particularly important in founder-led and family-owned businesses, where responsibilities and authority often develop over time without being formally defined.
You can hire an exceptional executive, but if every important decision still requires your approval, you haven’t solved the problem that led you to hire them. You’ve also set that executive up to fail.
Define Success Before You Define Qualifications
When companies begin executive recruiting, they often focus on qualifications first. They want someone with 15 years of experience, a background in their industry, and a track record of leading a similarly sized organization.
Those qualifications may be valuable, but they don’t necessarily tell you whether someone can deliver what your business needs next.
Instead, start by defining what success would look like.
Perhaps you need stronger operational performance, better coordination between departments, or a leadership team capable of making decisions without your constant involvement. Maybe you’re preparing for an acquisition, entering new markets, or transitioning responsibilities from one generation of ownership to the next.
Once you know what needs to happen, you can identify the capabilities and experience required to make it happen.
This also helps you avoid overlooking strong candidates who may not fit a traditional COO profile but have demonstrated the exact leadership skills your organization needs.
The goal of C-suite recruiting shouldn’t be to find someone who looks impressive on paper. It should be to find someone who can help your organization achieve its next set of goals.
What If You Don’t Need Another Executive?
Sometimes the most valuable outcome of evaluating your leadership needs is realizing that hiring someone isn’t the best next step.
You may already have capable leaders who need clearer responsibilities, greater decision-making authority, or additional development. Your organizational structure may need to change, or you may need better systems for setting priorities and holding people accountable.
Adding another executive without addressing those issues could create another layer of management while leaving the original problems unresolved. That’s an expensive way to end up where you started.
Of course, there are times when your company genuinely needs expertise that doesn’t exist internally. Growth, succession, acquisitions, and increasing operational complexity can all create legitimate reasons to bring in experienced executive leadership.
What matters is knowing the difference.
The Right Executive Search Starts Before the Search
At Centennial, every retained executive search begins with understanding the business, not simply filling a position.
Before identifying candidates, we work to understand where your organization is headed, what’s preventing it from getting there, and what kind of leadership will make the greatest difference. That means looking beyond job titles to consider your culture, existing leadership capabilities, decision-making authority, and the outcomes a new executive must deliver.
Sometimes that process confirms the need for a COO. Other times, it points toward a different executive role or an opportunity to strengthen the team already in place.
If you’re considering adding another executive to your leadership team, start by asking yourself one question:
If I hired this person tomorrow, what would I need them to change about our business over the next two years?
If you can’t answer that clearly, you’re probably not ready to write the job description. That’s where we can help.
Schedule a brief, confidential conversation with our team. We’ll help you define what the role needs to accomplish before you commit to a C-suite executive search, so the leader you hire is set up to succeed from day one.