Why a Growth-Minded Plaintiffs' Firm Needs a Real COO

I dusted off this oldie-but-goodie from the annals of Harvard Business Review. For a growth-oriented plaintiffs’ firm, a COO is not a nice-to-have it is a core ingredient to sustained growth and success. The challenges can be multi-faceted, from COOs-in-name-only to a quality COO being cost-prohibitive for growing firms. Here are few high-level points from this piece that I think are spot-on: - There are almost no constants – various backgrounds have proven successful in the role. - Similarly, environments for success also vary. - Some COOs exist solely to make a CEO’s vision a reality, while others serve to check and challenge the CEO – with the goal of making the company better. - The article cites several types of COO: 1. The Executor – just what you would think…execute the strategies. 2. The Change Agent – a blend of the Executor + wisdom/experience to change what is necessary. 3. The mentor - someone to mentor an inexperienced CEO 4. The Other Half - to complement the CEO. 5. The partner - a “co-leadership” Robin-to-Batman 6. The heir apparent – the next-in-line approach. 7. The MVP – the person too good to lose. Personally, I found the role, and roles similar, to be organic and, at-times, require elements of each role above. If your firm is considering a COO, or has issues with a present COO, the article below is a great read. The authors do an excellent job delineating what the COO owes the CEO and vice versa. At Maestro, we offer fractional COO roles, mentoring, coaching, training, and even a high-level “help desk” for skilled operators who need to ask an “outside” for an unbiased, no-agenda opinion. If you would like to learn more about our services, check us out at: leadership coaching lawfirmleadership

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