Have you decided to hire a Fractional COO to help scale your business? Bringing one on board can be transformative, but simply hiring them isn’t enough. You need a clear plan to set your Fractional COO up for success by giving them the support and resources they need from day one. The steps below will help you and your COO focus on operational improvements, efficiency, and growth—ensuring you achieve tangible results.
Define Clear Objectives from the Start
One of the biggest reasons COOs, fractional or full-time, fail is because their role isn’t well-defined. Vague expectations lead to inefficiency and misalignment.
Steps to Define Clear Objectives:
- Set priorities. What’s the immediate focus—process optimization, team structure, or scaling operations? Be specific.
- Clarify success metrics. What specific metrics will measure the COO’s success? Examples could include increasing EBITDA, improving operational efficiency, or cutting costs to reduce cash burn. Be clear on which metrics matter most, so your COO can focus on driving those numbers.
- Boosting operational efficiency. Focus on streamlining processes to save time, reduce waste, and cut costs. This could involve automating repetitive tasks, eliminating bottlenecks, or optimizing resource allocation to get more done with the same or fewer resources.
- Clarify the timeline. Fractional roles are short-term, so outline when milestones need to be met (e.g., 90-day goals, 6-month targets).
When you clarify these objectives, your COO can focus on what matters, and you’ll both be aligned on how to measure success.
Give Access to Critical Information Immediately
Your COO needs the full picture. Limiting their access to data or key people within the company will slow down progress. Don’t expect them to function effectively in the dark.
What to Provide Right Away:
- Financials. Profit and loss statements, cash flow reports, and revenue forecasts.
- Operations documentation. Anything that outlines current processes and systems—whether in use or broken—should be on their radar.
- Access to the leadership team. Introduce your COO to everyone in the leadership team. They need to understand the dynamics and have direct access to department heads for quicker decision-making.
Ensuring access to key resources early is a foundational step in how to set your Fractional COO up for success.
Establish a Strong Communication Cadence
One of the biggest pain points for founders and CEOs is feeling out of the loop. To prevent this, set up a regular communication cadence that ensures transparency without micromanaging.
Key Steps for Effective Communication:
- Weekly or bi-weekly check-ins. Discuss progress, roadblocks, and priority shifts.
- Dashboard updates. Give your COO access to dashboards that track key operational metrics, so they don’t have to chase down data.
- Quick daily standups (if needed). For fast-moving businesses, a 10-minute daily touchpoint can keep you aligned on fast decisions or bottlenecks.
The goal here is balance—stay informed without creating unnecessary meetings.
Empower Decision-Making, but Set Boundaries
Your Fractional COO was hired for their expertise. If you micromanage or hesitate to give them decision-making authority, you’re just wasting time and money. On the flip side, giving them free rein without clear boundaries can lead to misaligned priorities.
Steps to Empower and Set Boundaries:
- Define decision-making authority. Can they make staffing decisions, budgetary adjustments, or strategic pivots without your input? Make these boundaries clear.
- Create escalation protocols. What kind of issues should they handle autonomously, and when should they involve you? Set expectations upfront to avoid miscommunication.
- Support them publicly. If you’ve hired a COO, the rest of your team needs to know that they have your full backing. Any second-guessing from the team will undermine their efforts.
Empowering your COO while setting clear boundaries ensures they can act decisively without overstepping.
Prioritize Collaboration Between Your COO and Department Leaders
Fractional COOs need to get buy-in from your leadership team fast. Friction between a COO and department heads can sink progress. Prioritize collaboration to build trust early.
Actions to Ensure Collaboration:
- Facilitate introductions. As the founder or CEO, personally introduce your COO to each department leader and clarify how their role will complement—not replace—existing leadership.
- Set joint goals. Have department leaders work directly with the COO to set shared goals. This creates alignment and a sense of joint ownership over the results.
- Encourage open feedback loops. Create a system where department heads can provide constructive feedback to the COO, and vice versa. This removes communication bottlenecks and fosters a culture of mutual respect.
Manage Expectations Around Time and Scope
Fractional COOs have limited hours compared to full-time roles, so you need to be realistic about what can be accomplished within the given time. Overloading them with too many responsibilities will dilute their impact.
Best Practices for Managing Time and Scope:
- Focus on high-impact areas. Identify 2-3 critical areas where your COO’s work will have the most immediate and significant effect. Don’t spread them too thin.
- Agree on deliverables upfront. Whether it’s optimizing operational processes, scaling teams, or improving supply chain efficiency, define deliverables and make sure they are feasible given the time commitment.
- Avoid scope creep. It’s easy to keep piling on tasks, but this leads to burnout and reduced effectiveness. Review scope regularly to ensure they aren’t bogged down by low-value work.
Managing expectations will help ensure both you and your COO remain focused on the tasks that drive the most value.
Give Them Quick Wins to Build Momentum
Your COO should not only have long-term goals but also be positioned to deliver quick wins. This builds trust across the organization and gives the COO confidence to tackle bigger challenges.
Ideas for Quick Wins:
- Optimize one broken process. Have them identify one process in operations or sales that is underperforming and fix it fast.
- Deliver a clear assessment. Within their first 30 days, your COO should provide a detailed assessment of operational bottlenecks or inefficiencies. Even if no immediate fixes are made, showing they understand the landscape builds credibility.
- Improve communication flows. A COO can often quickly improve cross-department communication, which leads to faster decision-making and fewer bottlenecks.
These early wins establish the COO as a valuable team member and help secure buy-in from the broader organization.
Setting your Fractional COO up for success doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a thoughtful approach from the very beginning. By clearly defining their role, providing critical resources, fostering collaboration, and managing expectations, you can ensure they deliver the operational improvements and efficiencies your business needs.
Remember, a Fractional COO is there to help drive the business forward. Give them the tools and support to make a meaningful impact, and the results will speak for themselves.
