Leadership – johnny88keys

What is a Fractional COO?

I’m closely investigating the possibility of working with multiple businesses as a fractional COO. This is a new space and many seasoned executives are looking at it, trying to figure out how to make it work. But what is a fractional COO? There seem to be a lot of different answers. Here is my vision and definition.

Just like a full-time COO, a fractional COO (fCOO) acts as a strategic partner with the business owner. The job of the fCOO is to enhance the existing leadership team into a group of people who can run the day-to-day without the the business owner’s constant intervention. The fCOO drives execution of the owner’s vision with the leadership team (and, by extension, the rest of the company).

The fCOO is the leader of the leadership team. This is not an outside consultant; the fCOO is part of the org structure and the leadership team reports to him or her, even in a fractional engagement. The fCOO ensures that all of the various functions and departments of the business are integrated with one another and that everyone is rowing in the same direction.

A VP/Head of Ops/General Manager, on the other hand, is just one member of the leadership team who reports to the fCOO. He or she is responsible for the actual product and/or service that the business provides to its customers or clients.

One reason for confusion between the fCOO and the VP/Head of Ops/GM roles is that in the majority of businesses where the COO is full-time, he or she also serves as the organization’s VP/Head of Ops/GM. 80% of the full-time COO role is managing the business operations day-to-day, and 20% of the role is strategic development of the owner’s vision.

The fCOO focuses on the strategic 20% of the role. That’s why it’s fractional (not full time). The fCOO may perform this service for multiple companies at the same time.

Based on my experience, when it comes to operations many small & medium companies are in a state of chaos. It’s not for lack of effort or desire, it’s because the way an organization works when it’s getting off the ground is chaotic. Everyone wearing multiple hats, people stepping up to pull all-nighters or do heroic acts. It’s awesome to watch and be a part of; however, that bust-down-walls do-whatever-it-takes mindset starts to get in the way as an organization matures.

The operations team knows the business and the clients; they keep the trains running by executing current processes, but they may not know how to scale. The fCOO helps install a scalable operating framework, customized for the business, into which the existing leaders can grow and manage as the business expands.

This is my working definition for a fractional COO role. In future posts, I’ll describe the scope of services and ‘how’ to approach this work on a fractional basis.

Multipliers

I’m about halfway through ‘Multipliers’ from Liz Wiseman. Great read, and I’m appreciating the Multipliers throughout my career who have challenged me to bring out my very best. Also the Diminishers who stifled teams.

The book focuses on LEADERS who are Multipliers or Diminishers, presumably because leaders have such a broad impact. But I think ANY team member can be a Multiplier. It’s the person who supports their mates when they’re having a rough go at the office or at home. It’s the person who holds themself to a high standard ‘just because’ and role models that for their peers. It’s the person who makes others light up when they come in the room. Multipliers are everywhere.

The Bonds Are the Magic

Setting targets is important for teams. Yes, picking attainable yet stretch goals is important. Yet we’ve all heard it’s the journey, not the attainment of the goal, that brings fulfillment. The process itself has power. Why? I think it’s because of the bonds we create with other people in the pursuit of shared goals – those bonds are the magic that connect and fulfill us.

Bad Boss

Employee: “Boss, I don’t understand why you want us to handle this customer issue that way.”

Good Boss: “Great question. It’ll take 10 min for me to explain. Please take notes so you/we can train others after today.”

Good Boss: “Great question. I have a meeting in 10 min that I need to prep for. Let’s schedule time later today or tmrw morning to go over this, because I want to make sure you’ve got it.”

Bad Boss: “I don’t know why this is so hard to understand?” Without another word, turns away from Employee, opens computer and sends a message directly to the customer. Then dismisses Employee saying, “There. Problem solved.”

Later, Bad Boss complains that Employee cannot solve problems on their own. Deeply frustrated, Bad Boss seeks to remove Employee.

—> The impact of such an exchange on Employee, Team, Culture, Company and especially the CUSTOMER feels so black and white to me. Interested in comments or thoughts. <—

Bosses vs Teammates

People will work hard to avoid disappointing their boss, but they will do almost anything to avoid disappointing their teammates.

If you’re a leader, figure out how to help your team trust and hold each other accountable. It’s far more effective and fun.

Something I’ve learned though: I don’t get to have an arms length involvement. As the leader I need to be in the thick of it with the team, too.

When It’s Time To Replace It

A growing organization must evolve. The requirements we followed yesterday may not meet the demands of today. Generation 1.0 can sometimes support our needs by improving to 1.1 and 1.2, but at some point we outgrow our existing (infrastructure, org structure, people, systems, processes); then it’s time to move to 2.0.

I’m learning I have the most fun working with people who work hard and play fair, and also have the humility and awareness to be willing to set aside what we proudly built yesterday and replace it.

The Hard Work of the Leader

The team is perpetually trapped in the whirlwind of activities that are required to keep the business going. Customers must be responded to. Invoices must be paid or sent. Requirements must be written, communications created, broken stuff fixed or replaced. Work has to get done just to hold the business together in its current state.

To move forward, responsibility falls to leaders to help the team focus. The whirlwind is always present, so only a percentage of time is available for the strategic work that advances things. There will always be more good ideas than there is capacity to execute. Pushing forward on too many initiatives means they’ll all be done poorly. To advance, the organization must focus on one or two things and do them very well. That is the hard work of the leader. To choose.

Good leaders choose a direction and communicate clearly with the team, in the midst of the whirlwind, despite uncertainty.

Changing Seasons

Today I accepted a job offer. After four months of what some jealously dubbed my ‘life of leisure’, I’m headed back into the working world. I feel many mixed emotions, in part from agreeing to shoulder a new set of responsibilities. Laying down the burden of responsibility for multiple months created a special space – a space I’ve coveted – for other mental activity and rebuilding emotional resilience. I also grieve the loss of freedom now that my schedule won’t be entirely under my control. These past months I embraced the gift of time. I traveled out of state, completed home projects that required more than an hour or two, trained for and completed a triathlon, hiked a piece of the Colorado Trail, played a lot of music, did some volunteering. I’ve had more quality time with my daughter in four months than perhaps the entire previous year. When my son calls home from college I can pick up and chat with him, even if it’s the middle of a workday. I’ve been able to hike and bike in the beautiful Boulder mountains, avoiding the much more crowded weekends. Perhaps most potently, I’ve had time to simply relax, to sit, to journal, to meditate, to daydream, be bored, be alone, breathe. It’s been a period for my mind to disengage – not to stop or to take a vacation, but to soften and reconnect with the activities that are my unique blend of healthy mindfulness.

I will miss this time, but two truths are buoying my spirits.

First: I’ve observed there are seasons to our lives. As summer flows into autumn and autumn into winter, so do we flow from one chapter to the next. We live in a great river of change, and every day we’re given a choice: we can relax and float in the direction that the water flows, or we can swim hard against it. If we resist the river, we feel rankled and tired as we tread water, stuck in the same place. But if we relax and float with the river, the energy of a thousand mountain streams is with us, filling our hearts with courage and enthusiasm, even when we turn headfirst into the rapids.

Second: with seasons come cycles. I believe this is not the last time I will live a ‘life of leisure’. In fact, I negotiated and built in those expectations with my new employer – that they will get the best of me and I will help them accomplish a very big vision over the next 12-18 months, and once that mission is complete I will likely leave the company.

The world is filled with opportunity, and this particular job is not an opportunity I thought I wanted. I was (and in fact I still am) leaning heavily toward a future in which I serve clients as an independent. Call it consulting or contracting or fractional, but the work of an independent can touch many lives because it isn’t confined to a single company. And it offers the flexibility of lifestyle that I most desire. I am heading that direction.

So why take a full-time job if I want to be independent? Here is where the mystery and magic of the Universe humbles me. To be successful I’ll need a pipeline of potential clients. I don’t have that today and I’m starting from scratch. Building and maintaining pipeline requires investment and time. If I start today, it will take many month to build a client list, and during that time I need to resume an income, so I will inevitably take clients out of desperation that may not be a good fit for me.

Taking a new job, especially one that has a fixed time horizon, is an unbelievable benefit. This season of my professional life will sustain me financially, challenge me intellectually, and perhaps allow me to fill out some skill sets, all while I build a consulting network and pipeline that I can lean into in the future. This next chapter isn’t just about the job, it’s about the collection of activities across my life – within the job and outside the job.

One last thought before I close this post. As I mentioned I wasn’t looking for a job. This one landed in my lap very unexpectedly. The universe presented it, and each step of the process has been surprisingly frictionless. Everything has just flowed, from the interviews to the proposal I presented, to the salary and negotiation process. Where other opportunities in the past four months met resistance or unresponsiveness or other difficulties, this opportunity was like following a route where the lights are all green. I want to trust that. I choose to trust that. I trust that moving in this direction where life just seems to flow, where the green lights lead, is in fact the right direction. Perhaps for reasons I cannot see right now.

Inside my mind, I confess feelings of fear, uncertainty and doubt because my personal preferences don’t want to give up the freedom I’ve enjoyed for the past four months, yet I choose to trust this forward motion will continue to lead me on the path toward rapture.

A Timely Reminder

This morning’s daily post from Seth Godin is called Without Reservations. Here’s an excerpt:

“Yes” can mean, “yes, I’m prepared to do the minimum” or it could mean, “yes, this commitment is something I wholeheartedly embrace and will devote myself to exceeding expectations at every turn.”

Life’s way better if we find partnerships that are the second kind.

This message was perfect timing for me. I’m deliberating a lucrative job opportunity that may require a soul-sucking commute. I realized I’ve been evaluating whether I’m “prepared to do the minimum” which of course will only set me up for misery. After reading Godin’s post, I’m reframing to evaluate whether I can commit to this wholeheartedly. If so then the commute won’t even factor in because I’m so excited about the work, the people, the impact, and what we can build together.

The latter will lead to opportunities for rapture: being all-in, being fully present with the people and problems we’re solving, becoming vulnerable to others who are also all-in on the same mission, and living a life wide open.

Being a Winner Is…

They say that winners have mastered good habits like waking up early, reading, exercising, meditating, creating multiple revenue streams, staying disciplined, and blah blah blah. You’ve read these types of lists hundreds of times. However, the real way to be a winner is to decide what you want out of life, how your business or career can contribute towards your overall purpose and goal, and to then march forward. Some of the cliché habits above may end up being part of your keys to success, but just going through the motions doesn’t do anything if you don’t know what you’re going after. Winners know what they want and are living accordingly.

Keep It Light

Keep it light. Whatever is happening, it’s really not that important.

Making it heavy makes it heavy for everyone. Heavy sighs. Heavy words. Heavy thoughts and heavy heart. No question that those emotions are real, and the hardships of life are real; and we need to shoulder them bravely; and we should ask for help when we need it; and help others when they need it. But no need to overdo it. Overdoing it is just a way to get attention for ourselves, or feed our ego subconsciously. Heavy sighs and heavy words put more on the people around us. They have enough already.

In the grand scheme of the Universe, whatever we’re about to complain about just really isn’t that big of a deal. Whether it goes the way we want it to, or not, a hundred years from now it won’t even be a whit of a memory in anyone’s mind.

Keep it light.

Past 7 Days

I recently re-read an old post The Rapture of Being Alive and decided to capture moments of rapture from the past week. For me, experiences of rapture are more than just feel-good moments – they are experiences that open us up, they invite vulnerability, and they make us more freely available to others.

From the past 7 days…

I felt it with Michelle yesterday, as we got deep into conversation about kids and sports and cell phones and growing up.

I felt it Thursday on the Boulder Skyline Traverse hiking with Bart Foster and 40 other amazing business leaders / outdoor adventurists.

I felt it when I texted Dad about the Chaos Walking movie.

I felt it last weekend when Joe and Jack and I were climbing in Boulder Canyon.

I felt it with Quinn at the coffee shop this week, talking about the photography on the walls.

I felt it with Luca this morning, hiking up to the Royal Arch in Boulder, discussing career and friendship and spooky tales of haunted houses.

I felt it last week at lunch with the CFO/COO of the Colorado Mountain Club. Jacob shared some inspiring mountaineering stories, interspersed with business challenges they’re tackling at CMC.

I even felt it playing fetch with the dog, and tug-of-war with a rag.

These are older than 7 days…

I feel it on every exec hike with Geoff.

I feel it every time the Zen Mustache crew takes the stage for a performance. And any time we get together to play music, even if it’s just in the garage.

I felt it riding my bike on paths through the nature preserves south of Chicago.

I felt it camping by myself in the back of the truck, listening to insects chirping and the wind in the forest.

I felt it visiting the Field of Dreams in Iowa.

I felt it laying flooring at my parent’s house, crawling around on my knees, moving appliances, and listening to country music.

Looking at the list above, trying to extract what’s in common. It’s not about the specific activity. Seems that rapture comes from two places:

It’s about who I’m with and the openness of that relationship, or:
It’s about being open to the moment at hand and immersing completely in the experience – not worried about other things – so the focus is completely present.

Those are moments of rapture, and it turns out they are everywhere.