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How the Board Can Get the COO Position Right
Key Points
- The CEO's emotional readiness to delegate authority—not candidate credentials—is one of the single most predictive factors for COO success, and boards rarely assess it.
- Directors can monitor five failure patterns, including structural and cultural failures, to ensure the COO's success after appointment.
- Boards and CEOs should evaluate COO candidates across three dimensions of fit, rather than credentials alone, and reassess each dimension as organizational conditions evolve.
This AI-generated summary, based on content on this page, was reviewed by NACD editors for accuracy.
Chief operating officer (COO) appointments fail at an alarming rate—not because companies hire the wrong people, but because boards treat the role as a hiring decision rather than a design decision. With average S&P 500 COO tenures of fewer than four years, the pattern points to systemic governance gaps in role design, power-sharing readiness, and succession planning.
Discover the five failure points boards should monitor and a framework for evaluating COO candidates. Also, learn why boards should ask whether the CEO is genuinely ready to share power, and how a well-designed COO role remains the most reliable succession pipeline a company has.
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Nathan Bennett is a professor of management at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business. He is coauthor of the book Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO.
Stephen A. Miles is the founder and CEO of The Miles Group, a leadership advisory firm. He is coauthor of the book Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO.
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