The Value of an Interim Chief Operating Officer
In moments of change, an interim COO can be exactly the thinking partner or operational leader a CEO needs. Here’s how.
Skillfully drawing from a deep reservoir of experience is an interim executive hallmark. So too is a well-developed habit of probing, which enables insight to inform the right organizational moves. For a CEO leading strategic change, remaking operations, or even re-engineering staff structure, engaging an interim chief operating officer with those skills offers immense advantage.
Suzanne Berry, MBA, CAE, a strategic advisor at Bloch Reed, a Vetted Solutions Company, underscores that thought, emphasizing that solid association management, financial, listening, and assessment acumen are among the skills that enable excellent interim executives as trusted staff partners and advisors to association boards and CEOs. She has worked extensively as an interim CEO, and Vetted Solutions previously placed her in two c-suite roles between 2015 and 2017: as COO with the American Society of Interior Designers for six months and as senior strategic advisor to the CEO at the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards for a year. As COO, “you are there to be a support and a thinking and listening partner for the CEO,” adding that good chemistry and close communication between the two are vital.
Berry began each assignment as she begins every interim engagement: with OneNote and a listening tour.
Insights and Outcomes
Berry began each assignment as she begins every interim engagement: with OneNote and a listening tour. She records everything that proves helpful to her: key committee meeting dates, staff lists, bylaws, budget information, board and staff updates, notes from meetings with the CEO or board chair, onboarding information for the permanent successor, ideas, and other important information.
On her listening tour, Berry probes. “I say to the staff, ‘you see things that the CEO and I don’t see. What are they?’ ” Not only does this action enable insight, but it demonstrates to the staff that she is not starting with preordained conclusions.
She also conducts an assessment, which with other inputs, supports development of a 90- or 100-day plan. At ASID, while communicating closely with the externally focused CEO, Berry became the internal leader. “Your past experiences enable you to see opportunities and to adapt effective practices from other organizations you have served,” points out Berry. At ASID, three such opportunities were:
Trimming the meetings portfolio. Staff raised her awareness of an overload of meetings. A subsequent strategic program analysis revealed that the team was too stretched to deliver value across so many meetings. She was able to cost-effectively reduce the number of meetings.
Reducing a deficit. Berry reviewed every programmatic area and built a budget to trim the projected deficit.
Improving financial reporting. ASID changed its financial accounting system for improved reporting. When the CFO left, Berry assumed that role to save money but brought in a contracted controller, which proved invaluable.
Digging deep comes with the territory, according to Berry. “It’s nice to be at 30,000 feet, but you can’t be at 30,000 feet if you don’t understand what’s happening at 30 feet.”
At the CFP Board, the CEO and Berry dug into functions, organizing and reorganizing them until they were satisfied that an improved structure could deliver on their strategic direction and operational excellence aims. Their discipline in focusing on objectivity, challenging one another’s thinking, and considering functions rather than people enabled a better outcome.
One outcome of the restructuring initiative was the creation of a COO position, with most operations reporting to that position to reduce direct reports to the CEO. Berry assumed the role while a COO search got under way. “My job was to oversee operations and work on filling positions we’d identified for the organization,” says Berry. She also focused on energizing culture, building a “we make the organization go” spirit and increased responsiveness among the certification operations staff. The effort got results, such as greater staff insight into overcoming barriers. For example, staff identified an operational change that allowed the team to process more certificant applications per period. “You don’t get suggestions like that unless you build an environment in which staff feel empowered to offer solutions,” notes Berry.
Supporting Transition
Berry provided both ASID and the CFP Board a preview of the COO role in action, thereby improving the CEOs’ ability to recruit and hire for the skills they valued. She also supported the transition from her leadership to that of the full-time COO. The recipient of her notebook repository was the incoming COO at each association. Further, at the CFP Board, Berry designed the orientation and onboarding of the COO and two other senior positions—and spent a month of overlap with them.
Most organizations want some overlap, explains Berry, which “I do when the successor wants me to be there. I feel there is something I can learn from my successor, and I hope there is something the next person can learn from me.”
