Have ever wondered what it looks like to be a Director of Operations or to have one working inside your business? In this episode, I’m sharing a typical week in the life of a Director of Operations so that you can understand what this role entails.
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You might be listening to this episode as the CEO of a business, or you might be someone is a service provider and loves supporting other business owners. Either way, you’ll get something out of this as I share a typical week in the life of a DOO. You’ll find out what a DOO does, what she doesn’t do, and what your next steps are.
What is a Director of Operations?
I give a full description of a Director of Operations in Episode 2, but here’s the basics:
A Director of Operations (or DOO) is someone who comes into your business as a “right-hand” person. They serve in a role similar to an “integrator” (as defined by EOS).
In the corporate setting, this role is often referred to as Chief of Staff. If you are the CEO, having a Director of Operations allows you to ascend into a true leadership role.
Not every business needs a DOO. Part of this depends on where your business is at financially. Often a certified DOO is serving a business with a revenue range of $500K to $2M.
Some DOOs have just one client, but some have more, depending on how much they want to work and the type of clients they work with.
A Week in the Life of a DOO
In this example, I’m sharing what a typical week might look like when a DOO is serving a CEO and managing a team of about 3-10 contractors or employees.
Ways a DOO will spend her time during the week:
- Project management
- Spending time in the project management tool and making sure people know what they should be working on
- Setting goals and targets for the week
- Identify scope creep
- Preparing for a weekly one-on-one with the CEO. I spend time creating an agenda for the meeting so that I know what we need to cover in the meeting.
- Discuss project status
- Discuss team performance
- Before the meeting, I look at whether the team is meeting or missing the milestones
“Is the team meeting or missing their milestones?”
- The base of this meeting comes from the Strategic Mapping™ process
- Get feedback on projects to convey back to the team (if needed)
- Capture new ideas from the CEO
- Look for processes that need to be updated
- Share what the coming week looks like
- Let the CEO know what is realistic in terms of goals and projects
- Make updates to the weekly plans based on the meeting
- Reach out to contractors and make sure they know what is on deck for the week
- Keep lines of communication open
“The best scenarios are going to come from people who are genuinely interested in being an advocate for the leader and an advocate for the employee.”
- Review the Profit & Loss sheet
- Assess where the money is going and whether changes need to be made
- Look at the team and support as needed
- Meet with teammates once per month for 30 minutes
- Connect, get feedback, develop talent
- Deliver 2-3 processes each month
- Crisis management
- Collect information
- Try to protect the CEO from the information
- Hiring & developing talent on the team
- Providing opportunities for team members to grow and test out new projects
- Looking at organizational design and determine new roles that are needed to achieve the vision of the CEO
- Develop the job application for the role & do screening of potential candidates
- Marketing strategy and design
- If a DOO has marketing background, they may support the CEO with creating a marketing plan
- Look at metrics
- Develop the metrics tracking and collect the data needed
- Share report about the week’s work with the CEO
As you can see from what I’ve shared, the DOO does not implement in the business. However, the work a DOO provides is invaluable for a CEO who wants to move away from management and implementation and into leadership and revenue generating activities.
Your Next Steps
If you are someone who is interested in the DOO Certification, the next round is starting soon. Applications are open through January 24th, so be sure to learn more and apply now.
If you are interested in hiring a certified DOO, visit my hiring page and we’ll be in touch.
Previous Episodes Mentioned
Episode 2: What is a Director of Operations?
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